Crazy trouble with love part 4
Veronica and Jake
Series: American Dragon Jake Long
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Jake sighed as he walked down a street in Magus Bazaar. He had been planning to spend this saturday at the skate park, but instead he was running an errand for his grandpa who had him head here with a list of stuff to get for some potion. That included: troll slime, ogre piss, dog fur with a hint of cat, a magical self replicating diamond, and two sticks that looked like George Washington. The last one took two hours to find.
"Just one more thing and then I'll be cruising down the street showing off my moves." he spoke trying to stay confident. He looked at the list. "Arachnid silk? That's simple." He then looked again and saw the length. "Only one hundred feet?! No spider can make that much silk!"
As he groaned and facepalmed, a lightbulb went off in his head.
"I know! I'll go and ask Veronica! She's half spider so she must make a lot of silk!" he smiled before rushing to find her stand.
(After much searching)
"Ok, how hard is it to find a spider girl in a place like this?!" He groaned while still looking for her.
"Jake? What are you doing?" Asked said girl while looking from her stand.
He turned and sighed in relief. "Oh man, you don't know how long I've been looking for you Veronica. I need a big favor from you, but….it's kinda….awkward to ask."
"Well ask away, I'm fine with whatever you ask for, as long as it's not making a pair of silk pants. I'm not acquainted with them."
"Well it involves silk. More precise, yours. My gramps send me here to get supplies and the last thing is a long strand of silk."
Veronica chuckled a little. "Well I could give you some but it doesn't come cheap. It's worth about ten gold coins per foot."
"Say what? I don't got that kinda cash on me, I spent most of it on all this." he spoke pointing to the bags he was carrying.
"Then I can't sell any to you." She said before thinking of something. "Unless…"
"What?"
"You work for me for the next few hours. If you can do that I'll give you the silk for free."
"Really? You just need an extra pair of hands and I get it just like that?"
"Yep. Just for a few hours, but be warned. Customers during this time of day can be quite...unruly." Veronica said while thinking about the customers. 'And deadly.'
"Psh, ain't nothin' the AmDrag can't handle." he waved off. "You got yourself a deal."
She moved aside to let Jake into the stand. "First things first. Don't call me Veronica during my shift, but miss Vero. Got it?"
"Why's that?"
She shrugged. "Thought it would be cool."
"Alright, if you say so, miss Vero."
She chuckled at that as a very small goblin with a green hat walked up. "Welcome, what seems to be the matter?"
"Nothing, but I am looking for some," he looked around before whispering. "Ogre snot if you have any that is?"
"Of course, we just got a fresh shipment in. Jake, go in the back and fetch this customer some ogre snot."
'That's nasty.' "Sure thing." He said before walking towards the back as he opened the door and saw a room covered in cobwebs and various shelves of odd assortments.
And in the center of the room was a large box of jarred ogre snot. A very big one at that.
"Dragon up." he spoke transforming and walked over before grabbing it and grunted as he hefted it off the ground and lugged it out of the room.
"Finally...ah!" The goblin screamed before running away at the sight of the dragon. 'I'm not going to do this again!'
"Oops." spoke Jake. "Um, sorry about that miss Vero."
"That's fine, but next time. Try not to 'Dragon Up' in front of the customers. Some of them are a bit skittish with dragons, especially ones that you faced before."
"Well this thing was way too heavy to use my human arms. How much is in this thing anyway?"
"Ten gallons. But you could have taken one of the bottles out."
"Oh...right." he spoke in embarrassment before changing back.
That was when an Ogre walked by. "Excuse me, but do you sell pickled cat tails?"
"Yes, but not right away."
"Oh…." He said before walking away.
"This doesn't seem so hard." remarked Jake.
"Excuse me." Spoke a harpy with a long black dress and black hair. "Do you have any naga venom in stock?"
"Why yes we do." She said taking out a bottle of orange liquid. "And it's fresh too."
"Ah finally, now I can get that pesky nest of squirrels out of my apartment." She smiled. "How much?"
"Fifty gold coins."
"What?! That's too expensive!"
"Well it wasn't easy getting this, so I have to rack the price up a little."
She frowned before giving her the money and leaving with the bottle muttering 'Stupid economy.' under her breath.
"Yikes, she looked ready to jump you." remarked Jake.
Veronica looked at Jake and sighed. "True but if something like that did happen I would have tied her up and left her hanging on a lamppost."
"Is that allowed? I mean I'm not that...well smart on laws around here."
"Not really, but no one here follows the rules." She said seriously. "Especially the competition."
"Excuse me." Spoke a giant. "But can you direct me to central square? I'm kind of lost."
"Oh just head north until you see a large dragon with a orb on it and take a left."
"Thanks." The giant said before walking away.
'Huh, this isn't so bad.' thought Jake leaning on the counter. Only to see a red cloaked figure walk up towards the stand.
"Good day." He said under his cloak. "I'm here for some dragon scales, do you have any in stock?"
"Sorry, we don't sell them."
"Oh well any yeti hands?"
"No."
"Any human hearts?"
"No."
"Human brains?"
"No."
"...human ass cheeks?"
"No." she replied while Jake was getting creeped out.
"Then anything with human stomachs or lungs?" He asked while getting annoyed.
"No we don't sell human body parts."
The figure sighed. "Then what good is a magic shop without any human parts?" He looked at Jake. "Is he for sale?"
"Sir I'm going to have to ask you to leave, now."
"Fine," he said turning around. "But I'll be back!" and with that he vanished into the crowd.
"Um, do you get weirdos like that a lot?" asked Jake.
"Big time though this is the first time having a customer come up and ask for human body parts. It's illegal in the magical world to even profit off them."
"Really? Cause no offense or nothing, but..I kinda had this weird idea that they'd sell anything on the blackmarket." he admitted. "Not trying to sound like a jerk or nothing! Just...well I'll just shut up now."
"Well Jake I'm not going to let anyone take you." Veronica smiled. "You're my assistant and it's my job to keep an eye on you."
"That's a relief." he smiled with relief. "Cause that's gotta be a big rule, you know owning someone, right?"
"Yep, can't own anyone." She said before adding in. "Unless you're married but that's the wife's job."
"..."
"It was a joke Jake." she chuckled. "You're perfectly safe, especially since you can beat up most of the people here."
"That's true." He grinned confidently as a familiar talking dog walked by.
"Hey kid? What are you doing?"
"Well I'm trying to get spider silk, but I didn't have the cash for it, so miss Vero here said if I helped her she'd give it to me for free."
"Oh...so you have the other ingredients then?"
"Oh right-"
Veronica interrupted Jake while sporting a dark grin. "Yes he does, but since he's my assistant, the bags are now shelf brand products of my stand."
Fu Dog frowned at that. "Fine, how much?"
"Mmm...normally all of this is about ten gold coins but since the economy is tanking I had to increase the price to about….one hundred gold coins."
"What?!" he cried out while Jake looked at Veronica with wide eyes.
"And with the tax it's about one hundred and eighty gold coins." She smiled. "So either take it or leave."
"Hold up." spoke Jake. "How does that make any-"
Veronica looked at him with a wink before seeing Fu getting the money. "Paper or plastic?"
"Plastic."
She took a plastic bag out and put the ingredients into the bag before handing it to him. "Have a nice day."
Fu grumbled as he walked off with the bags.
"And Jake." She said while moving over. "You can man the station while I check the inventory."
"Um, miss Vero? You just swindled Fu out of all that, right?"
"Yep. It's all part of the Magus Bazaar lifestyle." She smirked. "Oh and count the coins too, it's yours anyway." She then headed to the back.
'Hmm, on one hand Fu might be annoyed later at me, on the other, that WAS pretty funny.' thought Jake with a chuckle.
"Excuse me." Spoke a rat man with a spandex outfit. "Do you sell cheese?"
"Hang on, let me check." he ducked under and started looking around the counter for any of the kind. But all he found was stinky cheese with worms in it.
"I'm waiting." The rat man frowned tapping his foot on the ground.
"Um, we're all out." replied Jake. "Might wanna come back tomorrow."
"NO! I. Need. CHEESE!" He yelled while looking ready to explode.
Jake gulped and held his hands up. "If you come back tomorrow, we're bound to have plenty of it."
"IWANTITNOW!" He screamed before gasping and fainted on the table.
"...what the?!" he went wide eyed before poking the rat. "Um, dude? You alright?"
No response.
"...that's not go-"
"I NEED CHEESE!" He woke up and grabbing Jake by the shoulder. "AND I NEED IT NOW!"
"Woah dude!" he spoke trying to pry him off. "We don't have any!"
"CHEESE!" He screamed before fainting again and fell back on the stone cobble.
'Ok what is with this dude? Is he obsessed with cheese? Does he need it to live?'
"Cheese….." he groaned as another customer stepped on him.
"Um….got any milk?" Asked a cow man.
"Hang on." Jake ran to the back where Veronica was. "Miss Vero, I might need a hand out here."
"With what?" She asked turning around.
"A crazy cheese loving customer nearly attacked me."
"Well did you sell him any cheese?"
"No. We just had worm covered stinky cheese."
"Just give him it. It might make him leave faster."
"You sure? I mean that thing is nasty." grimaced Jake.
"So? If he wants cheese then give it to him. And who knows he might like it."
"Well what about milk? I doubt you keep some just near the counter instead of in a fridge."
"We don't sell milk. We sell cheese but we aren't a super market."
"On it." Jake ran back out. "Sorry sir, we don't have milk."
"Ok." He said while walking away as the rat man got up and yelled.
"CHEESE!"
"Alright alright! I'll get you some cheese!" He said before giving him the worm cheese.
He smiled before eating it. "Ah, much better." He then gave him two hundred gold coins and a frog. "Keep the change."
Jake looked at the coins in surprise while the frog made a sound and hopped off just as Veronica came back out.
"So did he like the cheese?"
"Surprisingly yes."
"Then we don't have a problem then." She smiled before seeing the coins. "That's a lot for a two gold coin piece of cheese."
"Dude was so eager I don't think he cared."
"That's how it is here." She said before seeing the clock chiming six o clock. "Well Jake, my shift is over and nothing bad happened." 'That's a first.'
"Hey!" Yelled the same red cloaked man from before. "I need something!"
"I said we don't sell human body parts." she frowned while crossing her arms.
"I'm not here for body parts." He frowned. "I'm here to ask if you take pictures on request?" He took out a camera. "If not can I interest you two with a picture for only one gold coin?"
"You wanna take a picture of us?" asked Jake with a raised eyebrow. "You tried to buy me less than an hour ago."
"I was bored." He shrugged. "And it's a limited time offer so try it now or," he pulled out a banana. "Get fruitatized!"
"..."
"..."
"It's a joke."
"Boo."
"Just pay me for the picture and I'll leave ok?" He said with a sigh. "I promise on my demon tail."
"You're a demon?"
"No, I sell demon tails." He deadpanned. "I'm a Kappa."
"Well one photo couldn't hurt." spoke Veronica.
Jake sighed. "Alright but no funny business."
The man nodded while getting ready. "Ok now I want you to move closer to each other."
The two of them scooted closer together.
"A little more."
They did so.
"More."
'How much closer can we get?'
"A little more….perfect. Now hold hands and smile." He said getting the timer on. "Say lovebirds!"
"Wait what?"
FLASH!
"All done." He said taking the picture out. "And it's perfect! A masterpiece that will outshine the Mona Lisa!"
"Thank you, now leave." spoke Veronica while tossing him a gold coin.
"Pleasure doing business." He smiled while walking away. "Oh and you two look sooo like lovebirds."
Jake blushed while Veronica picked a potion up and chucked it at the figure.
"...huh?" He said before turning into a mermaid with large breasts. "AAHHH!"
"Don't worry, it'll wear off, but I'd run if you don't want a few ogres copping a feel." laughed Veronica.
"I'll get you for this!" She yelled before a red portal appeared under her. "I PROMISE YOU THAT MUCH YOU BITCH!"
"Have a nice day." she waved while Jake was laughing. "Let this be a little tip Jake, sometimes pesky customers need a little reminder to behave."
Jake nodded before shivering. "Um, so you won't do that to me right?"
"Maybe, but you might be a very funny looking mermaid." she teased while patting him on the back. "Thanks again for your help Jake. And for our agreement, you'll get my silk completely free."
"Thanks."
"Anytime. But how long is this silk going to be?"
"One hundred feet."
"...that might take a few hours." She blushed. "Sorry."
"Aw man."
"But you can stay with me until then. Besides it's nice having company over." She smiled before taking a look at the picture.
The picture was them holding hands with a shocked expression, on the bottom was the words Lovebirds, so to be married~ with a heart at the end.
'Next time I might go with the extra strength potion.'
"Vero? Are you ok?"
"Oh I'm fine but you can call me Veronica now." she smiled putting the photo away.
"Ok." He said with a smile. "But are you sure I can stay with you for the night?"
"It's cool, after all I make a mean pasta dinner." She grinned. "Plus I can bring you home before your family wakes up."
"Sounds good to me." Jake grinned before Veronica put him on her back.
"Hold on tight!" She said before running through the crowd.
"Woah!" he wrapped his arms around her waist at the sudden speed while she jumped over several magical beings.
She laughed at this before jumping through a window as she finally stopped. "Welcome to my apartment. Make yourself at home Jake."
He carefully got off her and saw it was a normal house, but with numerous webbing everywhere.
She moved towards the kitchen and started to get started with cooking. "Jake, you can take a seat anywhere without any webs. And no I don't have any other spider guests here."
"I didn't say anything."
"I know." She chuckled.
(Much later)
"And it's done." Veronica said while putting some pasta into Jake's bowl. "Enjoy."
Jake took a sniff of the food and smiled. "Smells great."
"And it tastes good too." She smiled while already taking a bite of her food. "Especially with the extra ingredient."
"What's that?" he asked while digging into it.
"Mermaid scales." She joked.
"..."
"Joking, it's just some tofu."
He swallowed his bite and tried smiling. 'Nearly got me with that one.'
Veronica chuckled at that. "So Jake, besides the cheese guy, anything else happened?"
"Not really." He admitted.
"That's good, because when I'm out there a lot of people just stare at me or my spider half."
"Sounds like you got some crushes." he teased back.
"Meh, not really interested." She waved off. "I'm more into my work then finding a boyfriend. Especially when most just think I'm freaky because of my body."
"Well I was pretty surprised when we first met, but I got over it."
"That's good, but I couldn't come with you to that dance because," she pointed to her legs. "You know, crazy eight left feet."
"I don't know, you did dance nicely that one time."
"The one where I broke my leg and couldn't work for a month."
"Ok you got me there."
She chuckled at that. "You know, you should become a part timer at my shop. It pays well and it might help you after your school days end."
"But what do I tell my folks? I can't just say I work at a magical market stand, my dad doesn't even know I'm a dragon."
"Then lie." She shrugged. "With my potions you could make him think it's a dream."
"..."
"Or not." She sweatdropped before taking a bite of her meal. "Maybe I can find something else that might help you. Like being a delivery boy?"
"Well I am pretty fast with these bad boys." he boasted while bringing his wings out.
"Not at the table." She said sternly.
"My bad." He said putting the wings away.
"And I'll give you a trial period of about a week. Like maybe next week. If that's fine with you?"
"Sounds good to me."
Veronica nodded before finishing her meal. "Jake, want any dessert?"
He nodded before she grabbed a large cake in the shape of….himself.
"Made it myself. Its chocolate mixed with strawberry whip cream."
"Oh, but why is it in the shape of...me?" he asked curious.
"Because I was experimenting. That and you inspired me the last time we met into creating a cake version of you, even if it took me a few hours yesterday to make the cake we are about to eat." She admitted with a light blush.
"Woah, I inspired you?"
She nodded before cutting a piece of Jake's arm and gave it to Jake. "Try some."
He nodded before taking a bite. "Damn! It's so good!"
"Thanks that means a lot Jake." She smiled before taking a bite of 'Jake's' leg.
'Still a little weird me in a way, but I'm not complaining.'
"Oh and you can sleep on either the couch or in my bedroom if you choose." She said with a teasing tone at the last part.
Jake blushed at that. "Um, I'll take the couch."
"I'll get you a blanket and pillow." She said with a chuckle. "Unless you want me to be your blanket that is?"
"I-I'm good!" He blushed while finishing his cake.
'Good thing I still know how to mess with them.' She thought before finishing her slice.
(Later)
Jake sighed as he rested on the couch while trying not to sneeze from a cobweb to the nose. He turned while noting how his body felt constricted. 'Maybe I should have just slept in the bed.' He thought before going to sleep as a shadow slowly moved towards him.
(Morning)
"Zzzz."
"Zzzz." Snored Jake before slowly opening his eyes, only to see a purple pj shirt with two mounds in front of his line of sight. 'Huh?' He looked around and saw he was trapped in a mess of webs that made him look like he was a cotton ball, and he was being hugged by Veronica in her bed.
"Zzzzz." She snored while hugging Jake tighter. "Teddy…."
'Holy crap!' He thought in shock.
"Teddy...zzzz." She muttered before nuzzling Jake's head.
'This….is so nice…' he thought while feeling tired again. 'I'll deal with this later.'
Both continued to sleep with each other while the morning sun continued to rise in the sky.