Thief and the Hero

Chapter Eight

Splendont was chilling on the couch, channel surfing through the tv. Splendid had suggested a family tv night where they could relax for once. He made Splendont's favorite, caramel brownies and Flippy's favorite, Fruity Pebble rice crispes treats. Splendont chowed down on one as soon as Splendid brought it over to him. He was really lucky to have him around because Splendont couldn't cook for shit, let alone bake. None of the bakeries in town came close to Splendid's skill.

"Oh, hey," he glanced over at Flippy, who pointed, "Go back."

Since he was in a good mood, he did as Flippy asked and flipped back to the channel news. The camera was focused on a stand that had outragous amounts of signs around it and immediately Splendont knew who it belonged to. A walrus man, typical salesman attire with a friendly, fat face that screamed coorperate greed, Freddy. Splendont met him a few weeks back when the man came asking for a deal, one he couldn't refuse because his bank account was looking fat right now with royalty checks.

Splendont smirked at all of the fans raving around him because he had a monopoly on merchandise rights for Splendid and their crew. While Splendid was content to just agree with selling his likeliness for free, Splendont was an expensive man with a taste for luxury. He wasn't too interested, but Splendid seemed happy to see the figures.

"Oh, wow! Those look great!" Splendid gaped, pointing at the figurines.

"Well, if I had known those would be coming in to town today I would've had you fly me in to get one." Flippy said, a loving smile on his face.

Splendid blushed and Splendont held back the scoff he wanted to do at their corny display. What seemed to get Flippy out of the house now was buying merchandise of Splendid. Apparently, he was in contact with Sniffles who always got his hands on anything related to Splendid. Looks like Flippy was steadily making his way to claiming the number one fan of Splendid.

God, that's ssssoooo cornyyyy...

He wanted to say something, but he held his tongue to avoid ruining their moment. Instead, he took another brownie and continued to listen to the white noise of the news reporter. He almost changed the channel when suddenly, Lifty was pulled into the frame. His body jerked forward in surprise, in the process startling Flippy and Splendid who looked at him confused. His blood began to boil when he watched the fat man put his hands on Lifty and the sudden anger startled him.

What am I getting so upset about?"

Because the camera was a bit far and the reporter was pushed away, he couldn't catch what was being said to Lifty.

"Huh, surprised to see him without Shifty around. That's been more frequent recently." Splendid said, taking a bite of a rice crispee treat.

"Yeah, aren't they glued to the hip?" Flippy asked, cuddling up to Splendid.

Splendont glared at them a bit watching the event unfold. The reporter managed to get closer and he could hear the conversation now. The man was asking Lifty which figurine he liked the most it seemed.

"So, I can guess that means you like them all? What a true fan! Can't like one without the others right?"

"We-well, not-not really?"

"Not really? Is there something wrong with my products?"

"N-no, no! I-I-It's just— um... the-the one I-I would-would have li-liked do-doesn't seem-seem to be h-here."