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I was pulling the ice cream out of the freezer when I heard the scream and realized that it was Isabel's friend, the client. I hobbled outside, cursing my bruised side, and watched, paralyzed, as Walter was taken down by possibly the shortest man I'd ever seen.
The tall, brown haired man accompanying the short one held the gun to the client's head. "You get over here and no funny business." I glance at Walter's form on the ground and nod when I see his chest rise and fall before heading over to where the client was.
"Lookie, lookie who I got here," the short man brags as he pulls Willa over to where we are standing. She has her hands attacking his wrist where it holds her hair and I bite back a grin when he curses her sharp nails. "Feisty little thing. Might take her with us." He throws her the rest of the way and I barely manage to grasp her shoulders and hold us both up.
Ignoring the deep ache in my side, I push her behind me. "The hell you will," I growl at the pair. "What the hell do you want?"
The short man, Wenig I've decided to call him, turns from the taller man, Riese I've also decided, and attempts to stalk his way over in front of me. "What was that, little girl? You should learn how to speak to your betters."
I feel Willa shoulders tremble and I know it's not out of fear. "First of all," I begin, "if anyone's little here, it's you." His hands form fists at his sides and I bite back a grin. "And secondly, you are not my betters nor will you ever be. And finally," I pause for effect, "You never answered my question. What. The. Hell. Do. You. Want?" I glare at the man and hope he would refuse to answer again just so I could justify hitting him.
He opens his mouth, but is cut off. "Nikki?" I hear echo through the back door meaning Leo just got back. "Walter? Willa?" I hold back a wince when Willa clutches my side a bit too roughly. They were really close and now he could be in danger and I understood that, but damn, did it hurt. I know the second Leo steps through the back door because of three reasons: his gasp, Willa's ever-tightening grip, and the sound of a bullet loading into a barrel.
"Over here with the others, big guy," Wenig announces as Riese aims the gun at the unconscious Walter instead of at Leo. "Or we'll shoot your little pal in the head." Leo moves slowly, but obediently walks in our direction. He makes eye contact with me and I subtly shake my head. While fighting back would make me feel better, they had a gun, Walter was out cold though coming to if the groan I heard was anything to go by, and I was injured. He nodded and we waited as the bad guys turned in time to catch Walter opening his eyes.
"If he dies," Riese states. "We never find the money." I looked on with veiled confusion. Didn't they just see his eyes flutter open? I did and I'm all the way across the room.
"Well, for a big guy, he went down pretty easy," Wenig quips. I grin when whatever he was going to say next is cut of by a groan. "See? He's fine." Riese points the gun at Walter and I move so that I'm standing between Willa and the client instead of in front of Willa.
Walter glances around the room, but from what I can see, he's still pretty dazed by whatever Wenig knocked him out with. He starts to sit up a bit and looks over to Leo curiously.
"Welcome back," Leo drones as though this happened every day, which, with Walter's luck, it kinda does.
Eyes darting from Leo to Wenig and Riese, he tries to sit up more. "What'd I miss?"
The client, bless her heart, points at the two and is almost chipper when she announces, "Bad guys are back."
I tense when Willa speaks up for the first time. "They know about the betting slip."
I roll my eyes at her bland summary of what's going on. "They're kind of new at the whole being bad guys thing though. Might want to go easy on them." I grin when Wenig's head whips around at me and Willa snorts from beside me. Even the client and Leo have to disguise their laughter with coughs.
More composed, Leo reiterates. "You're pretty much caught up."
"Yeah, so if you give us the betting slip, we'll be on our way," Riese chimes in, effectively drawing attention back to them.
Walter groans, getting up with the help of the table. "This," he points at the two, "is why I don't find murderers," he rasps out with a raised eyebrow and a harsh glance at Leo who had convinced him to take the job.
"C'mon," Wenig demands. "The betting slip or he," he gestures to Riese, "starts shooting people in the kneecaps."
I refrain from grimacing when Willa takes in a breath to talk. "Good. Then you'll have a nice, eye-level view." I roll my eyes at her reckless taunting. The girl just did not value her own life sometimes.
"Willa," Leo reprimands, but Wenig has already had his wittle feelings hurt.
"Ya know," Wenig decides, walking closer. "You're gonna be the first one shot." I snarl and pull her behind me, glaring at the short man and praying he decides to try and act on his threat. Willa's throat bobs as she finally understands that they have every intention of hurting her if they don't get what they want. I pull her more closely to me and reach for the gun tucked into the back of my pants subtly. If this escalates, I always did wonder if shooting out someone's kneecaps actually makes them shorter. Them being the two baddies, obviously.
"Ah, so you know," Riese mutters as he bends at the waist to tell Wenig, "I'm not going to shoot a girl." I try to hold onto my anger, but a small bark of laughter escapes as Wenig turns on Riese.
"Can you at least pretend to be tough at this phase of the operation?" He's wagging his finger and the whole nine yards and I just barely manage to keep my grin to a minimum. From Walter's amused look, I can tell that I'm failing miserably.
Turning to the two baddies, Walter attempts to salvage the situation. "Relax," he says, "Joyce already said she feels like she already found her inheritance." He gestures to the client, Joyce, and I frown at him for drawing their attention to her.
"I do," she stammers. "I do totally think that." She's nervous and is rolling her hands in a way that makes me feel bad that I never bothered to learn her name before now.
"Good, now hand over the betting slip," Riese demands walking closer and closer to her. Joyce's eyes dart from Riese to Waler and back again before Walter speaks up.
"Ya know, it's been right here under our noses the whole time." I quirk me head at him, but pay more attention to how he stands and breathes than his words. "He's getting ready to do something, I can tell.
Riese spins on him, but Willa's indignant protest stops whatever he was going to say. "No way," she demands lightly. "I looked through everything." I push her back behind me and watch amused as Riese falls for whatever Walter has planned.
Everyone is staring at Walter when he holds up some old snuff container with a quirked brow. "Well, did you look in here?"
I barely resist a snort when Willa scrunches her nose in disgust. "Ew. Gross. No."
Riese walks up to Walter and the snuff. "Bring it here." Walter attempts to hand the container to him and I roll my eyes at where this is going. "Open it."
Walter does that thing he does with his head. "Jeez." I slips the cap off. Right when Riese looks into the jar-thing, Walter blows the powder right into his face and drops the thing when Riese steps back and narrowly avoids a massive sneeze.
Riese spits some power out. "Pfft, really funny." Walter just waits, but I move Willa and the client behind me just in case the gun goes off at any time. Right when he's about to say something, Riese has the mother of all sneezes and when his arm flails out, Walter grabs the gun and punches him. His body spins and he collapses, unconscious.
Wenig is obviously annoyed at his partners incompetence and I laugh at how nonchalant we all are. "Now that wouldn't have happened if I had the gun," he comments as he waves his arms around to make his point.
I roll my eyes. "If you had the gun, you'd have shot yourself in the foot by now." He turns on me, but I just shrug with a close eyed grin. He glances back to Walter and Walter just kind of stares at him with his brows raised. I can see Leo doing some kind of congratulatory finger pointing thing and try not to laugh as Wenig's head whips around at us.
"Thank god it's over," Joyce says, all too calm in her first captive situation.
"Oh, it ain't over," Wenig persists, looking right at Leo whose grin begins to fade ever-so-slightly. "It's me and you, pal," he says untucking his shirt. "Now. Hand to hand. Winner takes all." He starts cracking his knuckles and Walter sends Leo a panicked look despite having the gun aimed at Wenig.
Leo just looks flat out amazed. "What?"
"Want me to shoot him?" Walter offers and I'm sadly not surprised when Leo say no.
"It's over," he insists, his gaze going Walter to Wenig and back again.
"Evidently not, Leo," I chime in, unable to disguise my mirth as concern. Before anything else can be said, Wenig rushes at Leo and just starts throwing fists at his midsection, which sadly was at Wenig's eye level. He backs away and Walter offers again, but this time, he's laughing.
"You want me to take him, Leo?" Willa offers and my grin dies at the prospect of her being in danger.
"I enjoy fighting bigger guys," Wenig says from a few feet away. "I go nothing to lose. Now defend yourself!"
"Against what?" Leo sounds so confused that I almost feel bad for the guys.
"Against this!" Wenig starts beating Leo's stomach again and any sympathy fades as Leo seems unaffected. Walter just sits down in one of the chairs and props his feet up as Wenig attempts to beat Leo's abs into submission.
That went on until he reached up to punch Leo's face. Willa and Joyce gasped. I desperately try not to laugh, but when Leo just holds up and hand and bops Wenig solidly on the nose, my shoulders are shaking so hard and I have tears gathering in the corners of my eyes. Through my tears I can see Leo pick Wenig up by his shirt and throw him across the patio where he slides across a table before hitting the floor.
"No viper so little, but half it's poison," Leo quips, quoting some old book as Wenig jumps up. Wenig runs at Leo, but Leo just backhands him away and when Wenig hits the floor, he's unconscious and Joyce, Willa, and Walter all look amazed that Leo could be so brutal. I step cautiously over the fallen threat and collapse into a chair beside Walter haphazardly. "I'm not proud of that," Leo insists, pointing at Walter's look.
Setting the gun on the table, Walter mock-serious condemn Leo for his actions against the man-child. "He's no bigger than a child." I solemnly shake my head when Leo glances at me in confusion.
"He gave you no choice," Joyce adds.
"Shoulda just stepped on him," Willa chides. All the while, Leo is just looking around with a confused look. I try not to laugh and ruin the whole thing, but it's really, really hard.
"I never thought I would see the day that you," Walter says as he points at Leo, "were a bully." He gets up and leaves the patio, but I can see the repressed laughter in his trembling shoulders. Leo just watches him leave looking so confused that when I walk past, I lay a hand on his shoulder and just shake my head at him.
After we've been inside a few minutes, I call the cops and report a break in and we just sit around waiting for them to arrive. Before they do though, Timo walks in from the back.
"What's with the two guys out cold on the patio?" He asks. I look up at him from my spot on the floor where I'm laying with my head in Willa's lap. "Why are you on the floor?" He directs at me.
I just shrug and point to the ice taped to my side. Yawning, I swat at Willa's hands where they play with my hair and sigh when she gives a sharp tug in return. "The two guys attacked us, but now they're no longer an issue." He nods and I let my eyes drift shut only for them to shoot open when the front door bursts open. Isabel leads the way with a crew of medics and police officers behind her. Walter and Leo lead them out back while Timo and Willa force me to sit up. "What?" I demand grouchily. "I was comfortable."
"Well, my legs were going numb," Willa complained. "You should lay off the hair product, your head weighs a ton." I know she's kidding, but I stick my tongue out at her anyway. Timo carefully pulls me to my feet and leads me over to a chair as Willa gets drinks for us.
"You and I both know that I don't use any product except shampoo and conditioner," I sass as she sets the drinks on the table. "Thanks." I take a sip out of mine and grimace at the taste, instantly trading it for the one in Timo's hand. "Limeade," I say holding my tongue out of my mouth and squeezing my eyes shut. "Yuck." My eyes open and widen when I feel and hind pinch my tongue. "Et oh," I demand, though ineffectively as Willa continues to hold the muscle.
"Nope," she snarks with a smirk. I glance over at Timo who is just staring at his drink and I have an idea. Biting her thumb, I shout in triumph when she releases my tongue and holds her hand to her chest.
Not interested in a repeat performance, I decide to pose a question. "Hogwarts or Wonderland?"
Timo is the first to answer and Willa gets up to go write the topic on the board. "Wonderland."
I smirk, knowing that's what my answer was too. "Defend."
*AN: Wenig means little/short in German and Riese means giant/big one in German. Also, the episode this is from is Episode 11: The Inheritance. Thanks for reading.