Fluff

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Sam and Trinity

"You almost got caught," Big Sister Emily said.

Trinity felt her ears drooping a bit, and she glanced away so that she wasn't meeting the Boss's eyes. Not that Big Sister Emily was glaring or anything, but she looked disappointed in Trinity, and that was a heap worse. "Sorry," she said in stereo.

(Stereo was a cool word she'd discovered recently that was a fancy smart-person way of saying 'two.')

Emily sighed, and Trinity squeezed all of her hands into little fists. "It's fine. I don't think you were caught. But you went too close. They might have seen you," she said. "If that had happened, we might have had to fight all of the HRF and a few heroes besides, which I don't think I need to explain would be very hard and dangerous for us."

Trinity nodded. "Sorry," she said again.

Big Sister Emily reached over and gave Trinity's head--just the nearest--a pat-pat. It was a good sort of pat, the sort that said that she was forgiven. "Don't get so distracted next time. I don't care how good the snack food you found is... or where you even found it."

"Okay!" Trinity said.

They were more or less on their way back to their temporary base. There was still a long ways to go, but that was okay!

They'd been very productive today, which was probably why Teddy was complaining so much. They'd gone a long ways around the big building that all the HRF and hero people were parked around and stared at it from a few different directions.

That had involved circling around the centre of the city, and maybe Trinity got a smidge distracted and one of her bodies had ended up closer than she was supposed to. Big Sister Emily had sisterported her back, which was really neat, but it meant that Trinity had almost blown their cover.

She did feel bad about that.

If they had been discovered, then they'd need to fight, and while she was sure that she was stronger than the average stupid hero, she wasn't sure if she was stronger than a whole heapful of them.

Trinity got a stuck-out tongue from Teddy and a sad look from Aurora. Athena gave her the cold shoulder, because the owlgirl was just like that to anyone who'd messed up even a little. Maple, though, came up to one of Trinity's bodies and asked her if she was okay in a small voice.

Trinity gave her a nice smile and said that she was fine.

Being punished a little sucked real bad. It made her tummy feel squeezy and not good, and she didn't like it at all, but it wasn't the end of the world or anything.

"Hey, you alright?" Sam asked.

Trinity blinked, and refocused on the her that wasn't with her sisters.

She was in Sam's dorm room, way back in Eauclair.

Originally, she'd been staying in the base, but Sam decided that leaving her there alone all day wasn't nice, so she'd moved in with Sam. It was weird to move in with a minion, but Sam was Head Minion, so it was probably okay.

"I think I'm okay," Trinity said.

"You think?" Sam asked.

The bigger girl was sitting at her desk, laptop open before her and a pair of big books crowding the desk for space. She was apparently studying, even though she didn't have classes for a while. Apparently it was important to get ahead and stuff like that. And Sam, being a bit of a villain too, had bought some notes from a student that had taken the same classes as her the previous year.

Now she was working through the old tests and writing up reports in case the teachers were lazy and gave the same ones two years in a row.

She was mostly copying from the stuff people wrote the year before. She said that it was against the rules, but that 'plagiarism accusations don't happen if you put enough effort into it.'

Trinity wasn't sure what that meant, but she assumed it was very smart and villainous.

"I'm okay," she said with a little shrug.

"You sure? Because one minute I glance over and you're having fun with my old tablet, playing that infernal noise, and the next you look like someone made puppies illegal."

"Someone made puppies illegal?" Trinity asked. That was awful! Who would pay for dog parks where she could walk her vacuum if all the puppies at the park were made illegal.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"It's an expression," Sam said. "One I just made up. Sorta. Maybe. Anyway, you look sad, is my point. Did you finally realize how annoying the music you're listening to is?"

Trinity blinked and glanced down at the tablet she'd been playing with. There were games on Sam's tablet. Fun ones, with colourful characters doing stuff, and with music that was high-pitched and nice.

"I like it? And I'm sad because... uh, I messed up a little?"

"What did you do?" Sam asked. "It's not the you that's here that messed up, right?"

"Huh? Yeah, it was me," Trinity said. She shook her head though. Sam, like a lot of people that weren't her sisters, didn't always understand that Trinity was Trinity, no matter where her bodies were. "Big sister was doing some sneaky things in that one town, Saint Arie. And I got a bit distracted and was almost noticed by some heroes, even though Big Sister Emily told me not to be distracted."

"Oh," Sam said. "And everything is okay?"

"Yup! We didn't get caught, which is half the battle."

"I'm not sure about that," Sam said. "But yeah, not getting caught is good. And I can see why Emily would be annoyed with you. Did she give you an earful?'

"No, but she was disappointed."

"Ouch," Sam said.

Trinity nodded. Sam understood. "I said sorry, and it's okay. I got pat-patted, but I still feel a bit sad."

Sam blinked a couple of times, then leaned back into her seat before spinning it around to better face Trinity. It looked like she was done studying for the moment. "That sucks," she said. "But hey, no one was hurt, so it's not that big of a deal. You didn't mean to mess up, right?"

"I didn't mean to, no," Trinity said.

"Cool. Look, you've been here a couple of days, and I figure that you're not... you're not dumb. A bit flighty, sure, but like, no more than would be expected by a... ten to thirteen-ish year old."

"Thanks?"

"Yeah," Sam said with a nod. "Not gonna moralize at you, kid. Everyone messes up. Sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's not so awful. This seems like one of those not so awful ones. Don't make a habit out of it."

Trinity nodded, then she slid to the side of the bed, and finally dropped off to amble over. Sam watched, curious, until Trinity leaned in and gave her a hug. "Thanks," she said.

"Uh, yeah, you're welcome," Sam said.

She didn't do pat-pats like Big Sister Emily did, and she wasn't that good at hugging, but she was an ally, so it was okay.

"Aw, crap, you keep on being this cute and cuddly and I might take a liking to you," Sam said.

Trinity laughed as she backed up. "Big Sister said that we're all very cute."

"Uh-huh," Sam said. "Just don't weaponize that against allies."

Trinity looked at Sam with wide, wet eyes, and then she put on her most hopeful and happy expression. Her ears wiggled, and she made her tail wag a bit.

"Yeah, like that," Sam said flatly. "So, what do you think would make you feel better? We could use that pocket teleport of yours to deliver something to the others to make them happy with you again."

"Candy!" Trinity said.

"Figures," Sam said. She stood up, stretching for a moment until her back popped. "Okay. Well, I guess I shouldn't have you locked in here for too long. Come on. With just the one of you, you shouldn't be recognized. Put on one of my hoodies to cover those ears of yours, and tuck your tail away. We'll see if we can't find a snack or two to send to the others. Gotta keep my boss fed, right?"

Trinity grinned. "You're a good minion," she said.

Sam sighed. "I'll try not to let that get to my head."

Trinity was bouncing already, here and back in SAint Arie, where they were making good time getting back to base. She grabbed a hoodie, tossed it on, then found her 'I'm a normal girl' skirt, which did a good job of hiding her tail until she got excited and it started to twitch. "I'm ready!" she said.

"Yup," Sam said. "You look like a gremlin who's about to rob a candy store."

"I'm not!" Trinity said.

But she was.

***