Chapter thirteen:
As the three of them move continue their time at the place Mello slowly forgot about the woman. They are enjoying their time looking at the reptiles and swapping facts that they know about each one.
Going between dangerous to non-dangerous reptiles.
Mello and Near even got a chance to hold a growing Pancake tortoise.
Cindy stepped away to put the turtle back after this.
Hueso smiles as he watches the two enjoy their time in this place. He turns as he is approached by someone finding it to be a woman.
Mello turns as he spots the woman from before approaching Hueso. He keeps an eye on it as he knows that this can only mean trouble.
"Excuse me but do you actually know these kids?" The woman questions and it makes Mellos blood boil.
"In fact I do." Hueso remains calm as he responds to her. "There is nothing going on I can assure you. These boys deserve a nice time out. So I decided to give it to them."
The woman turns to Mello and Near, with Near having turned as he realized what was going on, as she meets Mellos blue eyes. "How do you know this man?"
"He unofficially adopted us at our own request. Our orphanage is so picky that it doesn't allow official adoptions. We wouldn't have asked him to do that if we saw any kind of red flags. We know his name and have hung out enough that we fully trust him." Mello snorts with a glare at the woman.
"What else have you all been doing?"
"Miranda!" Cindy's voice makes the woman jump then turn. She has a disapproving look on her face. "While I know your heart is in the right place this time you're incorrect. Hueso here is a good man. He wouldn't harm these kids. I know him personally. You can take a small break to calm down if you need. Otherwise go back to your job."
The woman, Miranda, doesn't argue and instead hurries off disappearing through an employees only section.
Cindy sighs and turns to them. "I am very sorry about that. She's been a little extra paranoid ever since an incident last week. We actually had a man come here and almost lure a kid out of here. Miranda was the one to catch it and keep the man there for police to come. So she's been jumpy because of it. I've suggested she go to some therapy or talk to someone about all of this. Though she just says she'll see. She is actually a good employee other than this new development."
"It is alright. I understand. It is nice that she is trying to look out for the kids. Even if she is being a little excessive about it." Hueso assures Cindy who blinks as if an idea comes to her.
"Come with me." Cindy leads them to another spot where they find that there is a snakes encloser. "This is a poor snake who was mistreated by a group of teens after the mother gifted him to her son. She surrendered the snake to us no longer wanting the poor thing to be tormented by her son and his friends. We didn't press charges as she was clearly so guilty over it. The poor thing did lose his eyes due to what happened though. Hence the sign on his enclosure." She points to the sign that only explains that due to an injury this snake is blind. "So we now have this Eastern Rat Snake clicker trained so he knows when food is here. We don't often feed him in front of people. Though I can make an exception this time. Watch him." She goes around back and the three keep an eye on the enclosure.
The snake moves around carefully as if following a scent trail to move around. It has scars and no signs of eyes remaining.
The back opens then Cindy brings a grabber tongs holding a mouse into the enclosure. She clicks a dog training clicker into the enclosure clicking it.
The dark grey, closer to black, snake stops and uses his tongue to sniff around before easily finding the mouse with Cindy's assistance. He then strikes out and grabs the mouse from the grabber tongs as Cindy lets it go when he does so. He moves to be ready to eat it while Cindy moves everything she brought into the enclosure out; save for the mouse of course.
The three watch the snake eat the mouse while Cindy closes the enclosure then puts everything away before coming around to join the group of three again.
Cindy smiles as she is glad that they are indeed enjoying their time here.
The rest of the time there is indeed enjoyable as they see so many reptiles.
After they finish they say a goodbye and thanks to Cindy then head off.
Mello and Near talk about the different reptiles while Hueso drives them back towards the orphanage, they gave the address, so the two can sneak back in. They thank him deeply before they sneak back inside the orphanage making sure to not be seen.
The next day…
The two once again are at Hueso's after classes and this time Hueso keeps things simple for them. They are brought to a farmers market inside a huge warehouse. They help Hueso find various items that he needs from each stand. They have just found the stalks of green onion that he asked them to find. They also help in making sure that ones they pick to buy look good, to be on the safer side to not get a bad one since theres no refunds at a place like this, before Hueso gives the chosen stalks to the vendor to buy them.
Roger is wandering the farmers market to grab some fresh ingredients for the orphanage. He pauses as he notices the three and realizes that he hasn't been spotted by them yet. He carefully watches them while pretending to look at other things. He blinks as he sees Mello and Near work together as if they don't even think twice about it. He is a little confused since L and himself had tried so hard to be able to get them to do this only to have no success especially with Mello. He also notices how happy the two look to be. He decides that he will question the two about it when they return to the orphanage. He watches the group for a little longer before finishing his own shopping since the two orphans do look happy, plus the man they are with is treating them with lots of kindness, so he thinks that he can let it slide for now. He'll worry more about whatever is going on later when he talks to them about it.
That night…
Mello is about to get ready for bed when a knock comes to the door of his room. He turns and calls for whoever it is to come in.
A male teacher opens the door looking at him. "Mello. Roger wants to see you at his office."
Mello blinks in confusion at this though he goes to satiate his curiosity. He is further confused when he finds that Near is also waiting there. He can tell that Near isn't fully sure what this could be… Though as they share a glance they get a feeling that this might be about Hueso.
They turn to the door and head inside to see what Roger wants to discuss with them.
AN:
Half of this was written on my phone before I went to sleep. So hopefully I caught any autocorrects.
I hope that you are enjoying this story!
Mello.