Arc 2 - Chapter III: Plan & Execute
"What are you doing?"
Kairi looked over from where he had been watching an unconscious man for about five minutes to see George with a few uniformed officers. "I'm keeping an eye on the guy," he replied.
"I thought he was in the apartment," George frowned, glancing over at the open doorway that lacked a door. All of them were currently in the hallway where Kairi was standing, leaning back on one of the walls while Jack Benton was lying face down on the floor near the opposite wall.
"He was," Kairi shrugged. "But then I figured it'd be good for Andi if this prick," he nodded to the unconscious man, "was away from her as much as possible. To be honest, I'd rather just dump the guy in a dumpster or something."
Or throw him into another dimension. Maybe one where my symbiote parent is still on a murderous rampage and eating people's brains for fun.
Tempting...
"Right," George shook his head, unaware of Sleeper's comment. "Ramirez, Kowalski," he gestured to Andi's unconscious father, "if you would please, gentlemen." He turned back to Kairi, "How are they?"
"They're fine, Gwen's with Andi," Kairi replied as they took Jack Benton away. "But Andi got hungry but wouldn't let go of Gwen, so Gwen had to grab the food while carrying her. Which is why I moved that guy," he gestured to Jack Benton while the two officers took him away, "to the hall."
"Hmm," George frowned.
"You off your shift?" Kairi asked, glancing at his own watch. "Gwen and I made burritos for lunch."
"Yeah, I can eat," George nodded at the thought of food. "Didn't have time to eat lunch."
"Cool," the teen grinned before he frowned, noticing the bag in the police captain's hand. "What's with the bag?"
George looked down at the bag and gave a light shrug, "Well, Andi was pretty scared of me earlier and I thought a gift would get me in her good graces." Reaching into the bag he pulled out a teddybear, that had a red ribbon wrapped around its neck. "I got it from the same store I got Gwen's first teddy bear."
"It's cute," Kairi smiled at the toy. "She'll love it."
"God, I hope so," George sighed as they entered the apartment. "I… dunno, felt guilty, I guess for making her react that way. I mean, I know it wasn't me she was specifically reacting to, but still…"
"It never feels good making a little girl cry," Kairi nodded.
The police captain frowned at her daughter's boyfriend, "Did you make a little girl cry?"
"I volunteer for a Big Brother program," Kairi shrugged, "and we were having an event where we all went camping with our little siblings and one girl fell down a hill while some of us went hiking, broke her arm, and I was the only one in our group who had First Aid training. I had to splint the break and it was already bent at an angle but unfortunately, I didn't have any painkillers in my kit. The girl cried the whole time."
"Oh," George blinked. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," Kairi waved off, "we got her to the hospital and she got her arm in cast. She enjoyed being the center of attention for both her class and our Big Sibling group since everyone wanted to sign her cast from what her parents told me." Walking over to where the door lay, he placed it on the doorway to at least give some sort of notion of having privacy in the apartment.
Even if that notion could be shattered just by pushing against the door.
Kairi then walked over to Gwen's room and knocked on the door, "Hey, Gwen, Andi? Everything's all right now."
A moment passed before Gwen opened the door and Andi shot out and immediately latched onto Kairi's leg. "Hey, Andi," Kairi crouched down on one knee and gave the little girl a hug. "You're all right, you're all right."
You know, I can't help but wonder, how did her father know where she was?
A good question, Sleeper…
Picking Andi up, the little girl immediately latched on as he stood up. "How was she?" he asked his girlfriend.
"Scared," Gwen sighed, placing a hand on Andi's shoulder. "But who can blame her?" She then gave her boyfriend a peeved look. "Didn't help when you practically foisted her onto me and she began crying even harder. Pretty sure she thought you'd get hurt."
Though with Sleeper, that was nearly impossible.
Kairi rubbed Andi's back apologetically, "Sorry about that, Andi." He then smiled sheepishly at Gwen, "And sorry, Gwen, I just reacted. Didn't help that someone else was in full agreement with me at the time." He gave her a meaningful look.
Hold up a sec, are you using me as an excuse?!
Am I wrong?
Well… no, but it's the principle of it! Bros before hoes!
I thought you were genderless.
Still! Same thing still applies!
Gwen frowned, but accepted his reason with a sigh. "Fine, but next time, I get to punch him out," she said with a smirk.
"Fair enough," he shrugged, chuckling.
To be fair, he'd pay good money to see his girlfriend decking Jack Benton, especially with her Spider-strength.
That makes two of us…
Walking back into the living area, Gwen smiled when she saw her father. "Dad!" she went over to him and gave him a hug.
"Hey, Gwen," George reciprocated the hug.
Kairi looked down at Andi, who still had her face buried in his shirt, "Hey, Andi? There's someone here wants to give you a gift."
Andi lifted her head, frowning, "What's a… gift?"
Everyone in the room blinked.
I should've eaten that bastard…
"A gift…" Kairi struggled to precisely define the concept of a gift to a five-year-old. "A gift is something someone gives to someone else. And, I think that you'll like this gift."
Andi frowned, "Why?"
Kairi tilted so that Andi could see George, "Andi, this is George, Gwen's dad."
"Hi, Andi," George smiled, keeping his distance. Reaching into the plastic bag in his hand, he pulled out the teddybear. "This is for you."
Andi's mouth worked as she considered the man, almost suspiciously as she huddled against Kairi.
"It's okay, Andi," assured Gwen.
Andi tentatively reached out for the stuffed bear that George held out towards her. And the man easily let go of it when the little girl grasped the bear by one of its arms and pulled it towards her. "Um, thank you," she stammered, holding the bear to herself.
"Aww, that's so adorable," Gwen grinned as she all but stole Andi from Kairi. "You know your manners! You're such a good girl, Andi!"
Kairi blinked as he realized he was holding nothing but air before he and George watched as Gwen doted over the embarrassed Andi who still took the praise with a shy smile as the blonde walked into the kitchen and over to the dining table. "You think Gwen's trying to compete with me to be Andi's favorite person?" he couldn't help but ask to George.
George opened his mouth to refute the question but hesitated. His little girl could be a bit competitive when she wanted to be. When she first started doing ballet, Gwen hadn't been into it at first until she found out there was going to be competition six for her division and the winner would get a mountain bike. He had never seen her work so hard before that unless it was music-related or science class.
"No?" the man replied.
Kairi frowned, "Um, no offense, but why did that sound like a question?"
"It wasn't," George dismissed with a shake of his head, giving the teen a significant look before glancing over in his daughter's direction.
"O…kay…" Kairi didn't argue further as he still didn't understand the look the police captain was giving him, but he did change the subject. "But, uh, someone's been wondering. How did Andi's dad find out where we are?"
"Must've been his lawyer," George sighed, internally grateful for the change in subject. "Jack Benton still has rights as a parent, such as the right to see his kid, though he still should've filed a request through his lawyer. This stunt will just add to CPS's argument that he isn't a fit parent."
"That's good," Kairi nodded. "What happens after that?"
George frowned, looking back over to where Gwen was doting on Andi. "Let's worry about that later," he said, patting Kairi's shoulder. "For now, let's get some food, huh?"
Kairi raised a brow, "Yeah, sure."
…Brooklyn…
…Baccarat Hotel…
A man was sitting in a comfortable chair in a luxury suite, a glass of wine in one hand while his other was slowly running along a page in a brail book. Periodically, he would take a sip of his wine, that is until he suddenly turned his head.
"If you're trying to be sneaky, I'd suggest using lighter footwear," he said before taking another sip. "Even if I didn't have a better sense of hearing compared to everyone else, I could hear you coming through the window and your heavy-duty boots on the hardwood floor even with noise-canceling headphones on."
A man walked into the room, wearing high-tech gauntlets on his arms and a red and yellow mask over his head. "Ain't one of your ninjas, Murdock," he scoffed as he walked over to the minibar, perusing the various alcoholic beverages. "Wasn't trying to be sneaky in the first place."
Matt Murdock rolled his eyes, a notion that was wasted given both his blindness and the ever-present red sunglasses he always wore. "A shame, Mister Schultz," he sighed before he placed his wine glass on the table beside his chair. "Given your intellect and your tools, you would've made quite the Hand operative."
"Freelance pays better," Schultz shrugged. "Your email said you have a job?"
"What do you know of Jack Benton?" Murdock asked.
"Some big wig engineer who used to work for Stark before he got fired when he nearly killed his science team working on arc reactor tech, right?" Schultz replied, turning around when he didn't find any liquor he liked. "Guy was considered a nutbar by the rest of the science community. What do you want with him?"
"It's not him I'm after, Mister Schultz," the blind man replied as he closed his book and set it next to his wine glass. "It's what he's working on that interests me. Recently his apartment building caught up in flames and now he'll be facing a custody lawsuit over his daughter. Which means his workshop…"
"Is pretty much open for the taking," Schultz surmised. "So you want me to break in? Ain't that a job for one of your ninjas?"
"Normally, yes," Murdock nodded. "However, the police have already beaten me to Benton's workshop. So I want you to… relieve the police of Benton's research by raiding their evidence lockup and destroying whatever they have on you whilst taking the research. Luckily both are being kept in the same precinct."
"Subtle," Schultz chuckled. "What was he working on anyway?"
Murdock smirked, "Now that, Mister Schultz is worth being sneaky for…"
…A few days later…
…Stacy Apartment…
Kairi was sound asleep, face first into his pillow as he lay on the bed in the Stacy apartment guestroom. And lying on her back atop his own, Andi also slumbered, grasping her teddy bear in one hand while her hand gripped the blanket that lay over them both. Light began to filter through the blinds of the room, but the two remained ignorant that the day had started as they continued sleeping.
Watching the two from the doorway, Gwen stood with her arms crossed as she leaned back against the doorframe.
"You know, your mother said it was creepy when I would just stand and stare watching you when you slept just like how you're doing right now," said George as he walked over to his daughter, a mug of coffee in his hand while Sleeper, in its cat form laid itself over his shoulders. "So I guess creepiness is hereditary."
"Morning, Dad, Sleeper," Gwen smiled at the two.
"Good morning!"
"Morning, Gwen," George returned the smile before he glanced into the guest bedroom. "So were you just going to stand there watching them or were you gonna wake them up for breakfast?"
"Yeah," she replied sheepishly. "It's just that…"
"It's nice to see Andi looking like a kid her age instead of the scared little girl Kairi found in that closet, right?" he chuckled.
She was still a shy, little thing. That part of her probably won't go away anytime soon, but the three of them were slowly but surely coaxing Andi out of her metaphorical shell. The toddler was starting to get used to George's presence even, though Gwen was sure that it was because of the bear her dad had bought for the little girl. She was starting to never go anywhere without it.
"Yeah," she nodded before she grimaced. "But also, I can't help but think… how many times I passed by her apartment, not knowing that she was locked in there…"
"Don't do that to yourself, Gwen, you can't prevent evil."
"Sleeper's right, Gwenie-bug," George nodded. "If you're guilty of that, then so is everyone else, the police more so."
"Yeah, but you guys don't have powers, Dad," Gwen shook her head. "If I just…"
"No, we don't have powers," George reluctantly agreed, placing his free hand on her shoulder. "But whatever Andi has been through, that's something the police swore to prevent, to protect protect everyone. Just… just be glad Kairi was here and rescued Andi from the fire, took her from her father. Working yourself up over the maybes and what-ifs is only going to hurt you. And that's the last thing I want."
She shook her head, closing her eyes, still feeling guilty. "Yeah, I guess," Gwen eventually sighed.
"And if you really want to help Andi, maybe you can head over to the corner store?" George suggested with a grin. "Andi has already eaten us out of all the pancake mix yesterday and I'm pretty sure I can guess what she'll want for breakfast yet again."
"That girl eats pancakes more quickly than I can eat anything with phenylethylamine in it," Sleeper chuckled before it leaped off of George's shoulder and bounded into the guest room, leaping up onto the dresser.
"Alien cat, he was on my shoulder a second ago and I still have a little trouble processing that he exists sometimes," George shook his head.
Gwen shook her own head as she went over to her room to go and grab her backpack which had her Ghost-Spider suit, just in case. Just because most petty criminals took the holidays off during the winter, didn't mean the supervillains wouldn't make some noise. In fact, it was a staple that at least one supervillain did something on Christmas.
"I'll be back, Dad!" she called out
"See you later, pumpkin!" he called back.
Closing the door behind her, Gwen went over to the apartment elevator to leave the building. Going down the street to the convenience store, she waved hello to the cashier on the way in before she went over to the cooking aisle. Finding a box of pancake mix, she grabbed it and a bag of chocolate chips so that they could make chocolate chip pancakes. The past week they had introduced Andi to blueberry pancakes, strawberry pancakes, banana pancakes, and chocolate mix pancakes. The little girl couldn't even decide which had been her favorite. And it was sweet, seeing the look of wonder and awe on that little girl's face every morning.
As she passed by the magazine and newspaper section, a front page of a newspaper, the Daily Bugle, caught her eye.
BYRON PHARRIS CHARGED WITH MURDER, FEDERAL BRIBERY, AND OTHER FEDERAL CHARGES. SET TO SERVE MULTIPLE LIFE SENTENCES.
Byron Pharris was the illegitimate son of the Wilson Fisk of this universe and Pharris was someone who had enough daddy issues to fill a psychology book on the subject. While in Kai's universe, Fisk was the Kingpin, Byron was the Kingpin in hers. Her Dad was the one who made the arrest, using info that was anonymously donated by a concerned citizen. Which was her as Ghost-Spider, having infiltrated Pharris' base of operations and downloaded a copy of all of Pharris' databases. The guy really should've invested in offsite data storage.
But Pharris was arrogant, believed no one could touch him in New York.
Unfortunately for her, she got caught mid-download by a random thug and she had to fight her way out. Still got the data though.
Breathing out a sigh, Gwen walked over to the cashier, bought the pancake mix, chocolate chips, and a bottle of orange juice for good measure, and stuffed them into her her backpack before she headed back outside. Pulling her coat hood over her head, she plugged her ears with her earbuds and pulled up a playlist on her smartphone. Returning her phone back into her jeans pocket, she stuffed her hands into her coat pockets as she walked back over to the apartment.
Breathing in the crisp, cold New York winter air, Gwen took her time heading back. It had been an… odd few days. Finding Andi in that burning apartment and trying everything to make her feel as comfortable as possible, it was surreal. Especially considering the fact that the toddler followed Kai like a little duckling everywhere.
It was cute, really.
Chuckling under her breath, unable to even bother to hide the smile as she remembered Kai's exasperated face when Andi tried to follow him into the bathroom so that he could use the toilet. Kai would be a good big brother and… maybe a good dad too, one day.
Arriving at the apartment building, she wiped her shoes on the welcome mat when she arrived in the apartment lobby. Heading for the elevator, she gave a nod in greeting to some of the other tenants that she knew. Eventually, she found herself back in front of the apartment and after pulling out her key, she unlocked the door as she tugged her earbuds out from her ears. Pocketing both the key and the earbuds, she opened the door and smiled when she found Kai and Andi sitting on the couch watching Christmas specials from the looks of it.
Andi watched the Christmas-themed TV show with wide eyes as she sat next to Kai. While he himself was drinking from a mug, hot chocolate most likely. And from the smell of bacon and eggs, her dad was in the kitchen.
"Hey, guys," she said to Kai and Andi, taking off her backpack so that she could take off her coat and put it in the coat closet.
"Hey, Gwen," Kairi nodded, turning his head to her. "Got the pancake stuff? Someone's been a little impatient here."
Gwen rolled her eyes, "Oh, sure she was." Even if Andi was indeed impatient, she was too shy to actually voice it. Though hopefully, that would change in time. Passing by them, she chuckled when she saw that Andi's attention from the television hadn't been broken "Hey, Dad," she greeted her father as she set her backpack on the counter.
"Hey, sweetie," George looked over his shoulder with a smile. "Got everything?"
"Sure did," she nodded as she took out the items she bought, placing them on the counter for her father. "Pancake mix, blueberries, even got orange juice. Need some help with breakfast?"
"Nah, I'll be fine," the police captain shook his head with a smile. "But if you can set the table before you join the other two, I'd appreciate it."
"Yeah, no prob," Gwen nodded before she went over to the cabinet where they kept their dishes and took out the appropriate number of plates. After setting the table, she joined Kairi and Andi over at the TV. "You enjoying yourself, Andi?" she asked the little girl as she sat right next to Kairi, taking his mug from him and took a sip for herself. She smirked when her boyfriend's response was a roll of his eyes as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
Though Andi remained silent as her eyes remained glued to the TV screen.
"Putting a kid in front of a TV screen, yeah, should've seen that one coming," Gwen chuckled, eyeing Andi in amusement.
"Mm," Kairi hummed in agreement, an amused smirk curling at the corner of his lips. "Let her enjoy herself though, she deserves it." Well, the little girl deserved the world but, unfortunately, he couldn't give it to her.
That, she couldn't argue. So instead, she took a cursory glance around, "Where's Sleeper?" She hadn't
"Playing games on my phone," he replied. "I swear, that guy is absolutely bloodthirsty when it comes to online games." The little bugger downloaded Call of Duty on his smartphone and the dude went ham on everyone willing to take it on.
She chuckled, shaking her head as she got comfortable.
…NYPD 23rd precinct…
It was a quiet night at the station, just endless report writing…
That is, until a wall exploded, sending debris, office supplies, and people flying.
As the smoke settled, a figure wearing a yellow and crimson insulated suit stepped into the station. Whistling a Christmas tune, the criminal known as Shocker strolled through the precinct, firing blasts of high-pressure air at any of the police officers who got in his way, sending them flying.
"Shit, it's the Shocker!"
"Aim for his arms!"
Beneath his mask, Sherman smirked. At least these cops had the right idea, unfortunately for them, they had the wrong weapons to do it with. And the only person who could fight him without guns, Ghost-Spider, wasn't around to fight him. Still whistling a jaunty Christmas tune, Shocker went to the precinct's basement where the evidence lockup was located.
"Stop!" the officer in charge of overseeing the evidence lockup unholstered his weapon and fired twice.
Unfortunately for him, Shocker ducked behind a corner to avoid the bullets before he raised an arm and fired a blast of air at the cop, sending him flying into the wall behind him. Aiming that same arm at the door to the evidence room itself, Shocker watched as the door flew off its hinges and into one of the shelves. Looking through the shelves, he began to look for Jack Benton's research as well as the evidence.
Upon finding the evidence box in question, he found a thumb drive and several binders. Grabbing the box, he dumped its contents into his backpack. Tossing the box aside, he walked over to the doorway before he turned around and primed his gauntlets. Firing high-pressure air, he slowly panned his arms over to completely destroy the room, ruining all the evidence stored in it.
And once the evidence room was reduced to near smithereens, Shocker left, intent on leaving the precinct through the same way he came through.
…Stacy Apartment…
Hearing his phone ring from where it lay on the counter, George frowned. Andi blinked from where she was sitting, her mouth covered in syrup and sugar powder while Kairi and Gwen had looked over with frowns of their own. Sleeper, who was still in its cat form eating his breakfast of tater tots and chocolate, didn't even bother looking up.
"Excuse me, I'll get that," George said before he got up from where he was sitting at the table. His frown deepened when he saw it was the precinct on the caller I.D. "Hello?" he answered the call.
…
"What? Did anyone get hurt?"
…
"Wait, what do you mean?"
…
"Dammit… Yeah, send everyone we can spare."
When George set his phone down, Gwen leaned forward in her seat. "Dad, is everything okay?" she asked, worried.
"No," the police captain shook his head, setting his phone down. "Herman Schultz attacked the 23rd police precinct, destroyed the evidence lockup there."
"So you guys have a Shocker in this universe too," Kairi mumbled to himself. Now he was starting of thinking of making a whole database of the people across the universes he had visited. It would certainly make keeping track of who was a supervillain and/or a superhero a lot easier.
"What? Why?" asked Gwen, ignoring her boyfriend.
"That's where we keeping his physical file," George answered. "Every piece of evidence we've collected on him in past cases, even gear we confiscated from when he was arrested previous times."
"You'd think he'd take it rather than destroy it," Kairi mused.
"His new gauntlets have been updated, they carry sound as well as releasing high-pressure air. His old gear is basically obsolete, nothing there but memories of his past crimes," George replied. "And he probably doesn't want anyone else having his tech, he's got the ego for it."
"Do you need to go help?" Gwen asked. Though there a silent 'we' instead of 'you' hinted in her question, given her tone.
"No," George shook his head as he retook his seat at the table. "Captain Elliot is already on the scene and they have almost half the city's EMTs and other first responders out there helping. Me going there would just create confusion over who's in charge. But I'm effectively on call in case anything else happens."
"Making more confusion kinda makes sense though," Kairi nodded. "A smart villain would use the confusion to get away with something without anyone knowing."
The two Stacys paused before they looked over at the young man who operated as the Ronin with mildly perturbed looks.
Kairi could only offer a helpless shrug, "My mom taught me how to think like a criminal the first month I started up as Ronin. Said the best way to get them before they do the most damage is to think like one of them."
George blinked before he palmed his face with a sigh. He wanted to argue, but from a point of view, the kid had a point. Best way to stop a criminal was to get into their mindset, make one of their own moves before they could do it themselves so that the police could be lying in wait with a pair of handcuffs instead of chasing cold leads and staying a step or two behind.
"My boyfriend's turning into an anti-hero, didn't see that coming," Gwen quipped with a laugh and a shake of her head.
Meanwhile, Andi watched the others with wide eyes while Sleeper continued ignoring everyone around it as it kept its focus on its meal. Though that didn't mean the symbiote wasn't not listening. In fact, something felt… off to the symbiote.
When breakfast was over, Andi had wandered over back to the TV and resumed watching her Christmas specials with George as a way for her to get used to him. Though Kairi was careful to keep himself within Andi's eyesight as he and Gwen took care of the dishes.
"I have to wonder, why now?" asked Sleeper, sitting on the window sill in front of the sink.
"What do you mean, Sleep?" asked Kairi, haven taken a freshly washed plate from Gwen and used a dish towel to rub it dry.
"Why would Shocker go for his old gear now of all times?" the symbiote rephrased its question. "If I were him, I would've attacked during Christmas or New Year, when there's less of a police presence since enough of them would have either of the holidays off. Less people, less chances of getting seen."
"Schultz was never one for stealth, at least the one in this dimension anyway," Gwen said. "He probably wanted to get it done before he went on holiday vacation himself. I wouldn't think too hard about it, Sleeper. I'm just gonna have to do some more patrols just in case he has other plans though."
"I can help out," Kairi frowned at her.
"No," she shook her head as she turned off the sink. "No, Andi needs you. She's barely getting used to my dad and I'm afraid she might stay up all night and have a panic attack or something if you go out on patrol. I might have superstrength and a sixth sense but I don't think that's anything compared to a scared kid who has nothing and is afraid of losing the first good thing that happened to her."
Kairi was silent for a moment, having paused in drying the dish in his hand as a frown marred his face. "That's not fair," he sighed before he resumed drying the cup. It really wasn't, and he hated that she had a really good point.
"I'm still right though," she shrugged with a chuckle, drying her hands on a spare dish towel. "And I'll be fine, Kai. This isn't the first time I fought the Shocker and this isn't the first time I've had to add a few more hours to my patrols." Though the exhaustion was gonna suck, she was gonna have to stark drinking espresso again.
"All right, all right," Kairi surrendered. "But if you do need the backup, I'll send out Sleeper to help you."
"Sounds fair," Gwen shrugged before she looked over at the symbiote, "That okay with you?" However, said symbiote still had a pensive look on its four-eyed cat face as all four of its eyes had narrowed into a frown. "Sleeper?"
"Hmm? What?" the cat-shaped symbiote looked up.
Gwen and Kairi traded a concerned look.
"You okay, buddy?" Kairi asked.
"Hmm, yeah, just thinking. Kairi, I'm gonna borrow your phone again."
The symbiote's host pulled a face, "Okay, come on dude, I get you like video games, I do too, but now you're worst than a teenager who hasn't seen the light of day in a month." Plus, the dude was running up his mobile data plan.
"Oh, I'm not that bad," Sleeper scoffed. "I see the sky, I touch grass."
"Because you're attached to me only when I go out!" Kairi retorted with an annoyed look.
"At least it's something," Sleeper shrugged before it leaped off the window sill and padded its way to the TV room. As it did, the symbiote's thoughts went back to the off feeling it had when it learned the Shocker went to destroy an evidence lockup. It just couldn't shake the feeling that the Shocker did it for a reason besides the obvious, that such a reason was just too easy.
Kairi palmed his face more with a tired sigh.
"Aw, don't look like that, Kai," Gwen chuckled, stepping close to his front as she wound her arms around his neck. "That's how you get wrinkles at an early age. And I don't know how I would feel if you start getting old, real fast."
Kairi lowered his hand, giving her an affronted look, "Rude."
"You love me anyway," she grinned impishly.
"Meh," he smirked.
"Rude," she narrowed her gaze, bringing an arm down from his neck to poke his side.
"Turnabout's a bi…" Kairi frowned before he looked over her shoulder at Andi, sitting on the sofa with a blanket wrapped around her as she watched cartoons. "Fair play. Turnabout's fair play," he amended. No need for Andi to develop a mouth, especially not from him.
Gwen chuckled as she leaned against him.
AN:
What's up, people! Sorry that I haven't updated this story for a while. Work has been killer and I'm in a hiring process that I hope will turn out well. Between those and just trying to relax on actual downtime, I haven't had much time to write these days. Well, that and I haven't been able to watch the new Spider-verse movie yet. Hoping to go later this week, so no spoilers from any of you! Once I do though, I may or may not change some variables in my story, depending on how things go.
Anyway, as usual, stay safe, stay healthy, and you all have a good day.