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thingthatoncewastruee · 1 month ago

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i'll leave (a light on) ch.4

ch.1 ch.2 ch.3

"No."

Sirius comes back into the diner with the biggest Cheshire grin and Minerva immediately knew she wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.

Sirius, in all his too early energy, word-vomits all over Minnie's morning mud brain. "Sirius it is yet 10 in the morning. I haven't had my," she mutters then yawns, "pancakes yet."

One thing everyone should know about Minnie is that she's the furthest thing from a coffee person. In fact she pledged to herself at 15 years old that she would never drink 'The Mud Water' as she calls it. Why? Well, it happened after a very poor encounter with the very dreaded 'coffee breath' which has apparently scarred her for life.

No, Minnie is something else entirely. She is a pancake girl which means no pancakes = no happy. All to say, she's a fair bit less tolerable in the morning without the pancakes. "Well I thought it was best I run it by you, instead of having Mary pop up on stage at the end of the concert without rehearsals." Minerva hums to herself and that's when the waiter shows up with her and Mary's stack of gorgeously fluffy pancakes and Minnie's eyes light up.

Sirius sighs, "I wish I were a bit more like you, Minnie. Oh, to wake up and be excited about pancakes."

"Life's simplicities, Sirius." Mary chimes in cutting into her pancakes.

"So," Minnie starts, peppier than a minute ago, "Your bright idea is to have Mary perform an 'outro' song at the concerts in LA?" Sirius hums in confirmation. Minnie rolls her eyes 'cause it's entirely on brand for him to be so spontaneous and spring this on her. They both watch her face as the clogs turn in her mind.

"I'm not all so concerned with the explicitness of the song as I am with whether or not Mary's prepared to perform. You two might also have to accept the very real possibility that the music won't be live. The backup band might not be able to nail the song in the 3 days before the last concert so the music might end up playing from the speakers.” It's a pretty short notice so while it's not the best it could be, they still nod along in agreement. "Before all of that there's the most important question: Can you perform, Mary?"

"I've done the same training Sirius does for the tour. I can handle it, my leg shouldn’t and won’t cause any issues. I might not be fit right now to run the 2 hour show Sirius does but I'm capable, Minnie. I can do this."

Minnie drops her fork and smirks. "No doubt, but I meant whether or not you'll impress. Me, that is. It's going to be a lot of organising but it could work." Mary and Sirius playfully smack each other's arms in excitement and a little disbelief.

Minnie then poses the next important question, "Your costume?" Sirius' eyes widen 'cause he genuinely, kind of, completely forgot about that. He curses under his breath but Mary is all smiles and aces up her sleeves.

"I've got that one covered."

"Well, then," Mary, Peter, Sirius, Marlene and Dorcas all raise a bit off their seats in the booth crowded around Minnie. "I will see you at soundcheck."

Screeches fill the diner and the waitress walks up hips swinging with their breakfast, "Well, y'all rowdy this morning. Something good happen?"

"Something great," Marlene purrs from the end of the booth. She takes the plates from Jolene's hands and places them on the table. "Mavis, our little songbird here, is going to perform for us at our concert." Jolene spins around to the counter to pick up another tray filled with their breakfast and comes right back. "Oh, ain't that wonderful?" Marls replies back in her near-perfect southern accent, "Ain't it just?"

"Speaking of, Jolene, love, do you serve piña coladas here?" Marls asks with a big smile. "Just might." Marlene winks at her before she turns to head back to the kitchen.

"Virgins, please." Minnie calls out and Jolene nods.

Kingsley reaches over from his singular booth, because he likes mornings to himself, and smacks Marlene on the back of her head. "Stop flirting with the waitress before she sues you for harassment." He says while leaning over into their booth.

"Why on earth would she? I'm so charming." She grins up at him. Kingsley takes barely a glance at her before clearing his throat, "Pest control," he smiles sweetly gesturing at Minnie and Dorcas. "If you wouldn't mind collecting your drooling toddler in aisle 1." Marlene mutters something that sounds like 'bitch' and starts munching.

"Look," Marlene starts waving her fork around pointing at her friends around the table. "I'm twenty-three. Age is just a number." Her eyebrows drop instantly and Marls whips her head back when she hears Kingsley scoff from his booth behind her. When she turns back Minnie's holding a hand up for a pause so she can finish chewing. "And homicide is just a dare then." Marlene locks eyes with her for a long minute before concluding with, "Maybe." Mary grunts in agreement.

"Seconded." Sirius chokes out through his mouth full of pancakes. Marlene sticks her neck out over the table to get a good angle at Sirius' face. Everyone is looking at Sirius now and he's frozen like he's been caught red-handed. "What?" Marls tucks her lips in to keep from laughing at his stuffed chipmunk cheeks. "You lot are missing my point. Which is, that flirting is a harmless ego booster and in my heart of hearts, I see nothing wr-"

"What heart?" Marlene reaches an arm past Mary to hit the back of Sirius' head. He rubs the back of his head but stays steady nailing in his coffin.

"I'm just saying." He puts his palm up. "You're no hagfish."

"I'm not, but you're surely looking the part and," she opens Mary's pocket watch necklace to check the time, "Half past 10 is no hour of morning," she drops the posh accent, "to be pushing my buttons."

"Got a mute?" Peter and Mary say at the same time with a string of bubbly laughter following.

"It's not a button but I'm sure they'll plug your mouths just fine," Marls pulls out her best cheshire grin as Jolene walks up with their virgin piña coladas. She serves the drinks and Marlene asks, "Do you want a wand or a rabbit?"

Minnie's laugh is big and genuine. Sirius and Mary are choking, Peter's wearing a look somewhere between shocked and impressed. Dorcas has her head down but is grinning nonetheless. Everything halts though and all eyes are locked on Jolene when she chimes in with, "I say both." She locks eyes with Dorcas and eyes her from head to toe but doesn't look up again before walking off.

The entire table is silent until Jolene closes the kitchen door behind her. They all exchange looks but the first one to speak is Kingsley who, once again, leans over the edge between the two booths and whispers, "Might I interest you in a sarcastic comment?"

"Oh, piss off, Kingsley. Don't you have a morning appointment with misery?"

"Harsh world being mediocre, is it?"

"Not nearly as much as your morning rank. Honestly." Marls mutters and covers Kingsley's face with the spread of her hand and pushes him back into his own booth.

Peter hums for a minute. "Ironic or iconic – what do we think?"

"Both." Sirius chimes in. "Both is good."

Marlene licks the syrup off her fork and stabs it in the air at the two of them. "Do not make me stab you." She keeps eating and mutters under her breath, "I'd have to get up."

Dorcas squeezes Marlene's legs between her own. They've been entangled under the table the entire time. Marls gets up from her seat at the end of the booth and leans down to plant a sticky sweet kiss on Cas' lips then sits right back down.

They finish up, pay the bill and leave Jolene a big fat tip. Peter carries Mary out to the bus this time, her prosthetic still inside. Sirius trails behind his closest friends and chosen family, most of them at least. He watches their happiness and feels for a second that it's not absent from him.

For the next couple hours between board games and entertainment, snack stops, reminiscing memories and making new ones, just being with his friends makes Sirius feel that there's still a light on somewhere. It seems small in his despair but it's there, and that's all that really matters.

★

After 17 hours filled with highways and concrete jungles, food stops, naps and 'Are we there yet?’s Kingsley pulls the tour bus up to the hotel entrance with a limousine stop. It's nearly 7am and they're filing out the bus with their go-bags, yawning and trailing Minnie like a brood of ducklings. Dorcas walks three-legged with Mary and they're half asleep on their feet. Marlene collapses in a lounge chair next to Sirius and Peter is a yawning, sleepy mess hugging Minnie's arm.

Minnie gets the keycards and herds her bundle of kids, plus Kingsley into the lift. When they exit, they all trail behind her as she walks the hall looking for their rooms and hands Kingsley the key for their double room. Then turns to open the door directly across from the two of them and holds it open for her little ones still mindlessly following behind in their pajamas.

"Wait," she says as she closes the door to the room. Effectively stopping Marlene seconds from face planting into one of the queen beds with Peter on her heels. "We leave for sound check in four hours, lunch after, then you're all free to go sightseeing if you want to. Or most likely, come back here and knock out, but if you're interested we can go to a sneak preview tonight."

They all look at her confused and it might be the collective drowsiness in the room. "What's that?" Sirius murmurs looking up at Minnie with squinted eyes from where he's wrapped himself around her.

"It's a special showcasing, in our case a movie, where you can watch it before it's available to the public. You never know what you might end up seeing though." They yawn out okay’s and Minnie walks Sirius over to the queen bed with Mary already bundled up and slides him in. They might all be 20-somethings, but they're really just kids so she makes sure to kiss them each on the crowns of their heads before she walks out. It's not as if they'll ever know – they're all dead to the world anyway.

Before she forgets, Minnie takes a second to dig into her shiny, red handbag and pulls out her speaker. Then she tells Alexa to wake her up in four hours to You Give Love A Bad Name by Bon Jovi. She waits for confirmation, sets the speaker to max volume, puts it on the coffee table and walks out of the room.

Minerva spends the next two lovingly child free hours in the spa which turns into a bit of a nap on the massage table. When spa time's over, she drowsily walks back to her hotel room for a power nap. An hour and a half later, rested and relaxed, feeling better than she has in a while, after some me-time – she takes her very sweet time. Gently massages face wash onto her face, rinses it off, rubs in day cream in nice slow circles. Finds the softest navy sweater and pulls it on because it's cold and rainy outside; perfect sweater weather. Minnie pulls and twists her curls to pin them with her cherry claw clip, then goes to sit and watch whatever Kingsley has on the TV. She sits there eating his room service ice cream and watches Adventure Time.

After a little while she taps Kingsley to tell him she's leaving. Minnie steps into the hallway and calls a car before sliding on her navy blue headphones. She holds the keycard over the scanner and pushes the door open. When she walks into the batcave, she can't see shit. Regardless, she gets comfy on the sofa in the corner of the room and waits.

Then the alarm goes off shatteringly loud, not that she really hears it. They all jump out of their skin like they've shed their skeletons. Sirius actually knocks his head on the dresser on his way to the floor and Marlene is already halfway there with the way she sleeps. Mary and Peter immediately launch out of the bed straight to their feet and jump straight into a loop of I'm up!

Dorcas is still and unsurprisingly fast asleep but that must be conditioning. Minnie cuts the alarm and the music stops. She sets Mary and Peter to sit down as she passes by to check if Sirius' victorian skull is bleeding and he has a concussion. Once she sees he's fine and dramatic as usual she sits him next to Mary and Peter. Then she scoops up Marlene with the ease of a former athlete and sits her down to complete her little row of drowsy ducklings.

Dorcas is still asleep so she reaches into her shiny, cherry red purse and pulls out a little vial. Minnie reaches over and sprays Dorcas in the face which is when she finally jumps out of bed, scared out of her skin like the rest of them. She swipes a hand over her cheek and shakes it out like there's something disgusting on her face.

"I am no hippo."

"Could never be, exhibit A: that wonderful articulation."

Minnie then pulls her off the bed and sits her next to Marlene. Then sprays the rest of them with very icy water and rubs it into their skin to wake them up. She fixes their hair and then is off to soundcheck with a trail of little guys in front of her. It's still a challenge to herd them all off the bed, to the elevator and through the lobby and it does not go without bumps and bruises. Minnie holds the car door open and they file in one by one. Only then, she shuts it and hops in the shotgun. And only sometimes does she feel like an alternate version of Sir Reginald Hargreeves.

On the drive to the stadium Minerva stares out the window trying to come up with something to ease her vague sadness. It’s not necessarily storming but it's still overcast and set to rain for the rest of the day. She thinks about how a wet show tomorrow night would be epic for Mary's new single then worries if she'll be nursing a sick Sirius after. Speaking of, she looks in the rearview only to see him and Mary passed out again.

She thinks of Poppy.

idk if any of you were expecting my mysterious minnie x poppy agenda. yeah. theres a lot going on there actually. i might never unpack it & just leave you to your imaginations. ALSO IM SO SORRY?? i did NOT notice it's been 2 weeks. anyway, munch up and please tell me if you want to be added/removed from the taglist

@moonyswarmsweaters @sspadfoot @thingthatoncewastruee @probs-reading @cheekyboybeth

@starving-marauder-lover @yourlocalbadgerscales @taleofapart-timepoet @mirrs-ball @tea-blankets-andstars

@where-is-vivian @amberlink @wastingawayinmyroom @ashes-to-ashesxx @percabeth-trash

@equippedtolove @moon-girl88 @jamespotterbbg @drunktayloratthevmas @labyrinthhofmymind

@s0ggyguts @nyx-taylors-version @will-vs-the-homo-sapiens-adgenda

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