Monster tricks 7 (Apology Doughnuts)
Cautiously, Josh peaked into the lounge area of the housing facility, a sigh of relief exiting him when he saw that it was empty.
"coast's clear" he muttered as he made his way, cautiously, to one of the nearby tables.
Behind him, Spike rolled her eyes and sat down, folding her arms as she watched on.
"Josh, not that your display of truly terrible stealth isn't hilarious but don't you think you should just bite the bullet and sort things out between you and that girl?"
"Yeah, no" Josh replied as he drummed his fingers on the table. "I'd rather not get reduced to a charred husk".
Spike couldn't help but sigh at her friend's distressed hyperbole, sure that girl was pretty mad at him for what he said and their had been two or three verbal threats on his life during the rest of that altercation but by the end of the day, they had both been cleared by the exchange and no charges were pressed (though his parents were not to pleased to find a pair of guys in suits at their door with a very guilty looking Josh).
"anyway" he continued "where is everyone else".
"Rat said he went scrounging for stuff to make something skateable, Tana's finishing her workout and Elmia texted me she's in the pool"
"meaning we wont see her for a while" Josh finished as he leaned back before suddenly darting under the table.
"What are you doing?"
"I think I saw her" he replied, pointing his shaking finger to the doorway, Spike looked across to see a tall red scaled man with an ashen colored crew cut wearing a modified tank top that would fit the impressive wingspan that came out from his arms.
"Easy dumb-ass, your safe"
"Why is he hiding?" the Wyvern asked in a monotone voice.
"Sorry pal, he thought you were someone else" Spike explain as she got up from her seat. "I'm spike by the way".
"Vraye" the man responded, the smallest hint of a smile on his lips as Josh lifted his head from his hiding spot. "Would you like me to keep an eye out for your adversary".
"Honestly, yes" Josh stated, "salamander girl, about yay big, mother of all resting bitch faces".
"Duly noted".
"Look, Josh" Spike said as she went back to her chair, resting her feet on the table. "Why don't you just try and apologise?"
"Because she'd convert me to a pile of ash in an instant"
"All I'm saying is that it's been a few days, she has to have cooled off a little by now"
"maybe" Josh mumbled before grabbing his board and slinging his backpack over one shoulder.
"Now, where are you going?" Spike asked.
"If I'm going to try and appease someone who's last interaction with me left them looking like an angry bonfire, I'm getting a peace offering first".
Tana let out a long breath as she finished her last bench press and placed the large bar bell weight back into its resting place.
"Damn, this place rocks" she thought to herself as she sat up and took a swig of her water bottle. "If this is what all human gyms were like, they needed to build one back home asap"
As she made her way to the lockers, a loud clanging noise caught her ears before they were barraged by a string of insults and curses.
"Stupid fucking Jackass, loud mouth little twerp"
With a small exhausted sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle, Tana walked back to see that Salamander girl currently trying to pulverize a punching bag, her strikes becoming more and more brutal and sending it higher and higher in the air.
If it could talk, Tana was pretty sure it would be begging for mercy.
With one last cacophonous yell, the girl swung her fist into the bag, only for it to slice in half and its contents to pour on the floor.
"You think that counts as a knock out?" Tana asked as she walked towards her, arms on her hips.
Quickly, the salamanders head whipped round in panic. "I didn't mean to tear it, I swear".
"Easy half pint, I'm messing you ya. You want a hand with clearing that up"
"Sure, and my name's Fyri"
With a quick nod the pair cleared away the mess and dumped the now empty halves of the bag next to the bin to be thrown away.
"So, I'm guessing you're the girl who had that little incident with Josh a couple of days ago" Tana asked as they made their way out of the gym
"who"
"Hispanic guy, Blue hair, doesn't seem to own a jacket that isn't loose fitting".
"Oh, him" She replied with a Growl.
"Easy there" Tana replied with a chuckle, "he's actually a good guy"
"he's a loud mouth who can't handle conflict"
"By that would you mean the conflict you instigated"
At that Fyri paused, a small flame of anger beginning to burn in her. "he's the one who decided to make comments on my appearance".
"True but that doesn't negate the fact you started it"
"Like I told him, if he didn't know how to do what he was doing then he shouldn't have been doing it" she replies through gritted teeth.
"The fact that you don't seem to know the name of what he was doing isn't helping your argument" she counters her civil tone now having a bit more of an edge to it.
"Even if I started it, he escalated it and was too cowardly to even be able to finish it" she bit back as the flames from her body grew bright.
"And right now, you are escalating it" Tana snapped as she turned to face Fyri, towering over her. "And we both know I can very much finish it"
The pair stared each other down for a bit before Fyri's nerves eventually got the better of her.
"look" Tana stated, her tone softening slightly, "what's done is done and I doubt your some wrathful person who looks for excuses to pick fights but right now, that's all folks round here think when they see you and were all supposed to be representing our species, not just to humans but to each other so if your not going to forgive for his sake, do it for your own".
And with that, Tana walked off.
it had gotten dark by now but Fyri hadn't bothered to put the lights on as she lay on the couch in her apartment. Her tail and horns gave of enough of a glow to be able to see her surroundings and if she was being completely honest, she had been too wrapped up in her thoughts to notice. That minotaur's words had been rolling around in her head for hours.
Salamanders weren't known for being particularly personable or diplomatic, they were born of fire and that fire was supposed to fuel the glory in their conquests but in modern times this hot bloodedness was more likely to shoot them in the foot than anything else. Granted she knew that the literal fire coming from her body would be more likely to cause her problems and other species had bigger problems with their abilities (that one story she heard about a gazer who accidentally petrified her prospective host came to mind) but she was still way stronger than most humans.
A knock on her door caused a break in her train of thought. With a groan she rolled off of her couch and made her way to the door, opening it to reveal an empty hallway.
"What the?"
Her nose twitched, and twitched again. She smelled something at her feet. Looking down she saw a white cardboard box with a clear sheet of plastic molded into the top, displaying the several seemingly baked rings contained inside it. Reaching down, she picked it up and opened the lid to examine each of differently decorated rings.
"all right, you can come out"
A moment passed before a voice from round the corner shakily replied, "no thanks, I'm good"
"Oh, come on, I can't have scared you that bad?"
The silence that followed her question was more than enough of an answer.
"Look I'm sorry I lost my temper, I'm sorry for scaring you and I'm sorry for insulting you"
Slowly, Josh creeped around the corner to look at her. She had to give him credit for attempting to keep eye contact.
"for what its worth" he responded, "I'm sorry I mouthed off about you"
"We both have something we need to work on, after all were both supposed to be representing our species here"
"Fair enough" Josh replied with a smile that Fyri returned
"By the way" she continued "what are these?"
"Doughnuts, figured a present would help with the whole, you not blasting me thing"
"And you left them by my door without a card or anything because?"
"I lost my nerve and chickened out at the last minute" he sheepishly admitted.
"Wimp"
"Maniac"
"Whatever, want some of these? She offered.
"Now you're speaking my language"
With a quick brush of his hand, Rat cleared the dust away from the ramp he had just finished putting together. It was a simple process really, put together a frame from metal pipes, drill holes in the frame, affix panels of wood to it via the holes to make a flat surface and sand it down smooth. He sat down on the ground next to his latest work and was just about to take the cable out of his drill when his phone rang.
"weird" he thought as he picked it up, "don't recognise the number"
"hello" he asked.
"Oh good, found the right number, your Rat, correct"
"yes"
"I'm agent Brian Whitman, we met briefly when I was dealing with the situation between your friend and miss Al-Fayed"
"Come on man, Josh already apologised what more do you want?"
"I'm not calling about that"
"Oh, so what's up"
"well, I saw that your currently between jobs at this current moment and I thought I could rectify that"
"Wait, you want me to work for the exchange"
"yes"
"Look I'm flattered and all but I ain't cut out to be a host"
"That wasn't what I was offering"
"Then what are your offering?"
"how does working at the apartment complex sound?"