"Boss needs to have at least five hundred."
The boss as he was knew that he didn't even need one. Merely a distraction from the true goal that had long concerned his every waking moment. "I think I'll pass once again."
Delta lunged, her entire body arching as her legs wrapped around his body and she stared deep into his eyes, a pout on her face as she spoke once again. "Boss is strong so he needs at least five hundred kids, Delta will make it so."
She had resolve, she had strength but in this battle there was no hope for her victory.
For Delta had weaknesses like everyone else, and so all he had to do was divert her path for a brief moment and she'd forget all about it. "Do you even know how babies are made Delta?"
"When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much…" Delta eyed him for a moment as though waiting for him to finish her line of thinking for her.
So he provided an answer. "They pray to the stork to bring them a baby."
Delta nodded along happily with his words. "When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much they pray to the stork to bring them a baby."
The time to strike was now. "And look there are no storks nearby, nevermind the five hundred you would need to carry out such a plan. I guess we'll just have to move on with our lives."
It was flawless.
"Boss are there really no storks nearby?" Delta was looking this way and that down the street. "Delta can get one."
"Delta you don't even know what a stork is do you?" She shook her head. "You see the stork is a kind of bird, and as far as birds go they stay faraway from civilisation out in the wilderness. That is the first part of the great secret behind the birds and the bees."
Delta nodded her head firmly in lack of understanding. "So only a good hunter can bring a stork back to the tribe and thus make a baby. That is why the strong have many kids and the weak have none."
Sure we'll go with it. "But Delta you see I am too powerful. So even if I were to enter the wilderness every stork in a hundred miles of my presence would cower and hide knowing they have no chance against me. It is a curse but one you will have to accept."
Delta leapt off to crouch on the ground across from him, wagging her tail even as her brow furrowed as her mind languished in the shallow end of the pool. "Delta can hunt for you Boss, bring back more storks than ever before."
"And the bees? For while the stork may bring the baby the bees are needed to provide honey for it to thrive." He nodded as though imparting some sage wisdom.
She rose up and saluted a serious expression on her face. "Two things is a lot, but Delta can still remember it."
"Very well." He let the shadows dance around his form. "Delta as the head of Shadow Garden I command you to quest for the birds and the bees."
It was fine when she came back he'd just tell her the bird in her hand wasn't really a stork and send her back out until she got bored and forgot.
"Alpha, Alpha." The call came from the distance even as it interrupted her meeting with Gamma. The two of them sharing a sigh even as Delta barrelled her way through the door, the fragile thing splintering. "Delta is going to have a kid."
That was nice as she let the exuberance flow past her. And then it was terrible as the true meaning hit her with her guard lowered and her eyes narrowed as she stared at her friend. Why Delta when she was right here and closer than she would ever be? "Delta are you sure?"
Her friend nodded happily and beamed at them both. "Delta learnt it from boss, all about the birds and the bees and now Delta will have a child of her own." The girl looked so happy for the moment.
Even as Gamma shrunk into her chair with a look of absolute despair. Hollowed eyes and even what little strength she normally had failing to keep her spirits up. There was no one else to turn to and so she needed to handle this herself.
"Oh really." Even as the tea in her cup spilled out, the scalding liquid splattering harmlessly off her slime suit as she remained calm and in control. The perfect picture of order amidst a disaster that no one could ever hope to understand. "Cid picked you in the end did he?"
Perhaps she wasn't first in his heart at all.
Even after everything they'd been through together and her unwavering devotion to the cause she was not enough. It couldn't be skill or strength for she had both in spades, it couldn't be intelligence since he'd picked Delta. Couldn't everyone see that she was the best choice and yet still…
"Alpha don't worry Delta will help you join the harem plan too." A hand crashed down on her shoulder even as the girl who had taken everything she ever wanted smiled down at her.
She stared back up with dead eyes. "What do you have that I don't?"
Delta grinned back smug as ever knowing what a crime she'd committed. A laugh made only to mock her emanating from the one who had taken everything from her. "A stork."
It was a duck. The little bird struggling in her hands even as she looked at it again. Confusion overtaking the despair as she locked eyes with the bird in her arms, its struggles futile as she held it in place. The beak unable to break the surface of her slime suit. "What?"
Delta grinned and raised a single finger into the air swirling it around. "When a Mommy and a Daddy love each other very much they pray to the stork and it brings them a child." A firm nod punctuated her words even as Delta patted her on the head. "Boss told me."
Silence crashed down around her. The words not coming as the pit in her heart stopped growing and she stared at the childlike wonder on Delta's face. But even as she found herself unable to speak Gamma did so instead. "That isn't how babies are made Delta."
The girl raised her head. "Then how does Gamma explain the birds and the bees?"
"It's a euphemism." Gamma rose from her seat with renewed strength, "But it doesn't actually mean you can just grab a bird out of the forest and make a child with it." Logic and reason were an effective weapon in her mind.
Delta nodded. "A u fee mism, Delta doesn't know what that is." But no match for ignorance.
"And Gamma Delta knows a bird isn't enough to make a baby Delta isn't that stupid." The girl walked back to the doorway even as Gamma stood transfixed, unsure of what to do. "Delta also brought bees."
It was over in a moment, the beehive slammed down on Gamma's head without a second thought as her only ally was annihilated. The muffled screams as the air filled with the sound of buzzing as the hive awoke.
But this was fine for it was only chaos. Delta hadn't actually won and so all was right with the world.
The swarm above continued to grow.
All would be right with the world once she was done at least. The suit responding to her will even as she felt her sword grow in her hand and she stepped forward. Because even if Delta was stupid that just meant that she had to beat the answer into her head. "Delta come here."
The room before him was his own. Though he rarely used it for during the night he had better things to do. Things worthy of an aspiring eminence in shadow to be who pondered the important things that went bump in the night.
Yet sometimes he still had to do things at home. Like bathe, change clothes and so for a brief moment he opened the door.
It was foul. It was fowl.
Every surface of his room filled with birds fluttering around, even as his room itself was covered in bird shit. At the centre of it all a single stork stood watching him. Expectantly as though it existed for the sole purpose of mocking him.
But that was fine he could steal someone else's shower, and someone else's clothes and never come back here ever again. The door closing on a scene he wouldn't acknowledge.
AN: A quick short one although I have another possible Delta one also being written that is slightly more serious. If Hamlet is truly considered serious.
A Rose one got plotted as well. But that might wait until after I get a real chapter of TRWP out as well.