„And we’ll be all alone?“, Spy asked while leaning against the door of the telephone booth.
„Yes, just the two of us.“
Spy closed his eyes, a soft smile on his lips. From all the mistakes he had made in the past this one was probably the only one he still didn’t regret. Or, at least not as much. Hearing her voice again, seeing her face and holding her in his arms was worth waiting for, no matter how long they had been separated again. It was worth dealing with her numerous sons, the long distance, all the fights they had fought in the past. Sometimes he asked himself how she had managed to deal with him for so long.
„What about…?“
„Oh, he’s here too, but he’s awaiting someone. I doubt the two of them will stay for long.“
Spy took a deep drag from his cigarette. Of course he’d be there, where else would he be? They still hadn’t talked about it, and Spy actually hoped the day would never come, but his mother still wanted for the two of them to get along.
“Alright, I’ll be there by four. À bientôt, mon chéri.”
–
“I am sure she’ll be here any minute now”, Scout’s mother said with a soothing voice. She barely managed to suppress a chuckle when her son once more failed at fixing his bow-tie. For some lighthearted fun, even if she knew Spy would probably hate it, they had decided to dress up for the annual Christmas photo. It was one of the very few family traditions she insisted on and the only time the three of them actually felt like a family. This year though Scout had invited someone over. She was curious to see who the woman was that made her usually so confident son nervously stutter on the phone.
She walked up to Scout and helped him with the bow-tie.
“Will he come too?”, Scout asked while she gently fixed his stuck on elf-ears.
“Of course.”
Scout groaned, why did it have to be Spy of all people who dated his mother? He loved his mother, but her questionable taste in men was something that was hard to accept.
“Please don’t fight again”, she now said with a low voice and Scout nodded.
For her he’d deal with the arrogant frog eater.
–
Miss Pauling rushed down the motorway on her scooter, skillfully looping between the other drivers and their cars. She cursed.
It was Christmas Eve, why where there even still so many cars on the road? Didn’t they had families to be with, friends, wherever people spent those days if they weren’t busy with work?
She still heard Scout’s voice echo in her head, urging her to quickly come by his home.
“Scout, I cannot stress this enough, is this really an emergency?”, she remembered telling him over the phone.
The last time he had called her she had been forced to fight against a gigantic piece of mutated bread. And just because it was Christmas it didn’t mean that she had nothing to do, there was still so much work that needed to be done before the year got to an end.
Just as she crossed the city limit it started to snow. By the time she had arrived at the location Scout had given her a thin layer of snow already covered the top of her helmet.
“Hopefully I’m not too late…”, she muttered to herself while dragging the scooter into a secluded alley.
She checked her gun one last time, after all anything could expect her up there, and afterwards walked up to the apartment complex in which Scout was waiting for her.
She pushed open the front door, nothing suspicious could be seen so far in the hallways, and ran up the stairs.
“Alright, you got that…”, Pauling said before she knocked at the apartment door next to a small sign with Scout’s last name.
She heard a high-pitched scream, followed by some cursing and rumbling steps walking towards the door and already prepared herself for the worst.
Seeing Scout in a dorky hat, elf-ears and bow-tie was not what she had expected but pretty close to the worst thing that could have happened.
“Scout, please tell me there is an emergency”, she said while already being pulled in by a woman Pauling was pretty sure was his mother.
“Uh, yeah, kinda?”, Scout replied while closing the door behind her.
“You are just in time for the picture, dear”, his mother said while guiding her towards the living room.
“Wait, what picture? Scout?!”
To her surprise Scout wasn’t the only familiar face waiting for her.
Spy was standing near a richly decorated Christmas tree, a camera on a tripod already positioned in front of him.
“Spy?”, she said while someone, probably Scout’s mother, took off her jacket.
“Miss Pauling? Mon dieu, you invited ‘er, Scout?!”
Behind the back of his mother Scout flipped Spy off before he quickly turned back to Pauling. Immediately Scout dropped his cocky self and turned back into a nervous mess.
“Sorry about that Miss Pauling, I swear there was an emergency but…”, he started to stammer while Pauling got shoved next to Spy by his mother.
“But, uh, since you are here already, I guess you can be on the picture too?”
Pauling took off her helmet, revealing her messy hair that now hang into her tired face.
“Scout…”, she started but was immediately interrupted by his mother, who by now had set-up the camera and hurried to Spy.
“Alright, timer is set, smile everyone!”
Scout quickly leaned closer to Pauling, his hand hovering ever so slightly over her shoulder, while she and Spy exchanged equally exhausted looks.
No wonder Spy smoked so much.
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