Filler

Winston Charles and the Eastern Kingdom

Part 2

Dad

Everyone left while I was busy with paperwork. Out somewhere. Wesley out showing the Undead doctor Jaeques around town. The girls left sometime after cleaning the house (except the restrooms), and hadn't left a note on where they were going.

"Oh, well," I said to myself aloud. It was me alone here, with nothing really to do. What to do… Maybe they left the restrooms to me? Yeah, let's at least do that.

I lumbered into the storeroom where all the cleaning supplies were and was about to pick up a bottle of Soft Scrub when a knock on the doors sounded. Hesitantly picking the bottle up, I walked over to the door, and, placing the bottle on a side table near the door, opened said door.

"I have a message to Jaeques Mytklr," the man said, holding a slightly aged letter. He wore an old fashioned mailman outfit, and had a slight hunch, but looked otherwise in good form.

"I'm sorry but he's out. I'll give it to him when he gets back," I said. He handed over the letter and when I took hold of it, he kept his grip up. I looked at him with a surprised glance. I know this happens in the movies, but…

"Don't," The mailman said.

"I understand," I said. What kind of person did my son meet?

The man seemed to sulk back as I gently closed the door. No rushed movements, no suspicious actions and I might live.

I walked back into the living room and placed the letter on the table. I then waked back to get the bottle and, with a deep breath, picked up the phone.

Wesley

Duhn-duhn-duhn-duhn-duhn-DAAAH!

I tried my best to answer the phone while paying the stable keep for holding Brax.

"You guys have a great Christmas!" the cheerful man called as we exited the stables. Apparently Jaeques' demon horse emits heat waves to keep its body warm during chilly areas, and having it in the stables kept the heat around, so the other horses were kept warm and the guy didn't have to use the heater, and the horses were also happy. All that Brax complained about was the book we got Ash had got more attention than it.

"You too," I called back. Duhn-duhn-

"Hello," I greeted.

"Hey, is Jaeques with you?" my father asked, slightly hesitant.

"Yeah, he's right here. Did you need to ask him something?"

"Not really, just that he's got a letter waiting for him."

"Okay, I'll let him know. See you when we get home." And with that, I hung up. "You've received a letter via Undead Express, Jaeq."

"Right," he said, not skipping a beat.

Ashlian

The person following us on the roofs had gone off somewhere, probably thinking we weren't entertaining enough. However, there was another person I had to worry about dealing with.

"Ash, are you paying attention?" Mrs. Charles said, ready to sing the same rant over again.

"Yes. I wonder how your husband is doing?" I said, trying to get her off our case. Granted she acted like a mother when her son was around, but when he wasn't…

"Why on earth would you worry about my husband when we're talking about yours? Maybe you see the light and-"

I nearly grabbed her by the collar and made her take all her ranting about Jaeques instinctively when she mentioned that last bit, but Sai's training on human mannerisms kept me from doing so. I'd have to thank him for the meaningful torture he put some of us through. I composed myself and turned toward her.

"I'm sorry, but could you refrain from saying stuff like this? It's the holidays. And I'm a bit religious, so… yeah," I told her.

Somewhat frightened by my sudden action, Mrs. Charles relaxed. "No, no, sweetie. It's my fault, but it seems the elven and undead race are a bit different than we think," she said.

"No, actually. All the races I've known all behave in a slight variation of each other, but not as different or similar that it actually matters. So what I may think of an undead may not be as different as what they might think of the elves. But humans take the cake. You can't put a truly accurate label on the whole race without finding several exceptions. But that's something different."

"So the elves are mostly religious and as big as their egos?" she joked.

"More like magic-devout and, yeah, as big as their egos, but as we continue to live on, we end up with just another civilization that has only the difference in physical form, but for some people that's enough," I said, paraphrasing what Sai had said once.

Wait. Damn you, Sai! You cynical bastard. I cursed him in my head. With a fist gesture on the outside.

"Umm…" Mrs. Charles said, confused.

"Eh…" I said. Again, if it wasn't for Cress slipping, we'd be stuck there. Are you doing it on purpose?

Wesley

I don't know if I should thank Jaeques or strangle him.

I didn't have an idea on a gift for Cress yet when we passed by a liquor store. Jaeques stopped his horse and dropped to the ground, telling me to look after it for a moment, for he found a way for the one-gift to be a two-gift deal for me. He entered the store and before I knew it was back with three bottles, two cider and one he wouldn't tell me.

Before the man could mount the horse, I told him no. "If that's what you have in mind, no. I want her trust. Well, I want her. But getting her drunk and then… you know, would be considered rape."

"I wasn't thinking that," Jaeques said teasingly. "But I know that Ash is a happy drunk, and if you time it right…" He trailed off. I didn't take much to fill in the rest.

You would be able to do both or have both of them doing each other or all three of us—"No! Cut it out!" I said flustered at the thought. Jaeques gave a healthy laugh.

"So you're a gentlemen pervert," He joked.

"No! It's just wrong." I said, covering my face with the book.

"Yeah, yeah. Say what you will. You're just as normal as the rest of us," he said, finally getting on the horse. Once again, my load got heavier as I added the three bottles to it. "I think that covers it. Want to head back and hopefully wrap this stuff before the girls get back?"

"You also think they left?"

"Well, I didn't think they'd have a reason to stay except cleaning, which I guess they've either already done or will do later." And with that, we walked back to the house.

Opening the door, I noticed that the letter that Dad had mentioned was on the living room table. "We're home!" I called.

"In here!" Dad called back, from the downstairs somewhere. Instead of going there immediately, I led Jaeques to the family room and dropped off what we had and went downstairs.

Ashlian

Since we left, Cress had said very little, so we piled the gifts for the guys on her, and now me and Mrs. Cress were teasing her, trying to get her to talk. However, all she was doing was either not responding or blushing, all the while smiling.

So me and Mrs. Charles had decided to split up somewhere and see which one of us she would choose to follow.

"…" she said, still looking forward.

"We should have brought Winston with us. She might have spoke."

"Yeah, that might have been it. Her boyfriend should be able to make her talk."

"Quick question. How old is Winston?" Four way intersection coming up in ten, nine, eight…

"He's seventeen right now, since his birthday was last month," she said. Suddenly, I turned right and she turned left. I walked straight for a little bit then turned around. Cress, however, did not turn to follow either of us.

Nor could we even see her. I hastily walked back and looked down the other path that neither of us went down. Then back up the one we just went down. The streets were not empty, but there wasn't a large enough crowd to hide in.

"You see her?" I asked.

"No," Mrs. Charles responded. This was not good. Not good at all.

Wesley

"I'm going to be out for a little bit, so don't wait for me if Ash and them come back," Jaeques told us, after reading the letter.

"Why should we wait for your old bones?" I joked.

"Hey, I got a good few years still left in these bones. Take care now," the old man said, riding off on the hell horse.

"That's a nice horse the man got. Any chance he'd sell it?" Dad said, trying to follow along.

"Over his dead body, I guess." Walking back in, I noticed my dad was wearing a dusty apron. "That's a becoming look for a man."

"It runs in the family. Someday you'll be wearing one."

"Oh, ha ha."

Reentering our half cleaned restrooms, we hurried so that the girls didn't catch either of us doing some last minute cleaning. With a quick check of the clock, I knew for that moment it was about half-after five. Stores should be closing in about an hour and a half.

Ashlian

Walking and holding a conversation while trying to look calm was difficult when there's something you're worrying about. Quiet, we're trying our best.

"Let's assume that either she ran off and we thought she was there or she was there, but got distracted and entered a store at the last possible moment and we just missed her. In either case we'd still are in trouble." For some reason, it seemed more like she was trying to pin the blame on me, but that's really not worth focusing on.

"But lets just find her before it gets too dark," I said, looking around for the hundredth time. "Where the hell did you go?" I muttered.

Something tugged on my scarf and I looked down to find a young child looking up at me with innocent, sweet eyes. I couldn't care at the moment. "Excuse me, miss, but are you one of Santa's elves?" she said.

"Umm.." I said, barely audible. Santa?

A woman that could be her mother grabbed the girl's arm. "Sorry about this," said the woman, pulling the girl away. "Come on, sweetie."

"It's alright," I said, turning away. In less than a minute, I nearly ran into a young man that could be Winston's older brother. They looked so alike it was almost frightening

"My bad," he said and turned away, but I didn't want him to go. I grabbed his arm and he turned around with a different look in his eyes. They were like Sai's only…

"Yeah? What'cha want?" he asked. Confident, bitter, yet mature.

"What's your name?" I asked trying to match his tone. It really wasn't hard.

"Damien, why's it matter? Do ya want to take me on a date?"

"Damien, sounds like 'demon'. No reason. Just look familiar."

"Were you one of the girls that pleased me? Or one that will? You look in fine shape. Let's see how far you can go."

"Sorry, Already got me a man. A nice man too. Not that you'll ever compare."

He flinched. It was surprisingly easy to get what this guy was after. Suddenly he looked like he was going to do something, but then he composed himself.

"You know, you must be one of the city girls to talk so mighty. Maybe you'd like to demonstrate a real hit for me." So I did. I punched him but he dodged with a smile on his face. So I quickly twisted my body and knocked his feet off the ground. I was almost glad to watch him hit the cold gravel.

"Any more you'd like to see?"

"Yeah," He said, smiling as he rose from the ground. "You naked in bed with me." I punched him square in the chest, with enough power behind it to knock out a young dragon whelp. But he didn't drop. He just continued smiling. "You have much skill, padiwan. If you continue honing your skills you might make a great master."

"Ashlian!" Mrs. Charles called, running from a distance to my side.

"Get out of my sights," I told him. He chuckled, then moved on.

"Ash, who was that?" she said.

"Just some kid. Damien, I believed his name was."

"Damien? Let's get out of here. I found some one who might have seen Cress."

"Okay," I said, looking back. I saw him looking also, his eyes like smoldering amber. He turned and walked on, his body unnaturally solid. I shook my head and followed Mrs. Charles.

We found the person who spotted Cress, who happened to be [Surprise!] the woman whose child mistook me for a Santa elf. "I really sorry she bothered you," she said for the fourth time already. Her name was Reita Newman.

"So where did you see the girl again?" Mrs. Charles asked.

"She was moving northeast toward the bookstore through the alleys. If you hurry, you might catch up to her." Yeah, we gathered that.

"Thanks for the information, Miss Newman." And with that we were on our way. For a moment, I wondered if Sai's views were accurate or not.

We found the bookstore, but Cress wasn't here. Instead, we had found yet another girl looking for her, for a different reason.

"You guys know Cress?" a girl asked, who had strawberry-blonde hair and was complaining about there being no 'yaoi' in the store. "I haven't asked if she likes yaoi or yuri… but if you know where she's been, could you give her this for me?" she continued, handing a wrapped gift that was about the size of a book, then spun around and walked out of the store.

"Sure," I said. "Umm…"

Mrs. Charles tapped me on my shoulder. "I guess we should move on."

"Yeah," I responded.

We couldn't bear to see Winston's face when he saw that we lost Cress, so we continued to look for her. At about six, the stores began to close. We met up around the west border of town and finally found Cress. Who was still smiling and holding the neatly wrapped gifts and more with both arms.

"Cress, where on earth were you?" asked Mrs. Charles with a pained sigh.

"Going around getting some snacks for the party," Cress said happily.

"No, we mean why did you leave our company?" I clarified.

"Umm… Well, when you two split up, I wasn't paying attention and lost sight of you and wandered around for a bit hoping to find one of you, but…"

"Right. Well, now that we caught up with each other, lets head home. The boys will be waiting for us," I said, trying to not further showered with her deceptive smile.

Yeah, Filler again. To be fairly honest, they're kind of spoilerish, and I actually don't care, because this is going to probably be retro'd as I'm not too worried about spoiling events that aren't going to happen. So yeah, fillers are filled with red herrings. Except some glaring stuff, like Winston's real name being Wesley and a mild shout out to one of my other stories. But for those paying attention, I think I played Cress' out of character moment really well.