Restart

12

Quackitys eyes scanned over the ready meals in front of him, the hum of the low quality cheap lighting of the supermarket filling the empty sound. His tie dangling as he leant over, still in work attire, a navy blue suit with a matching tie. His hair tied back into a messy man bun that had fallen looser and looser as the day went on.

He reached out to a plastic package containing microwavable macaroni, stopping as he felt a tug on his shirt.

"Uh- excuse me." A small voice spoke, he looked down, the macaroni still in hand raising a brow at the sight beside him.

A young girl, no older than eight, long brown hair tied into space buns, dark blue overalls and a white shirt beneath it with a small panda pin on the front, she looked upset, scared with puffy red eyes.

"Sir, can you help me, please?" Her voice was quiet, she hesitantly looked around the store. Quackity placed the macaroni back into the refrigerator and got down on one knee. She let go of his shirt, stepping back cautiously.

"Are you okay? Where's your parents?" His voice was a little raspy from the fact he'd been in court all day, eight hours, one of the longest periods of time he'd had to be within the courtroom. He cleared his throat, pushing back a few stray hairs that dangled over his eyes back behind his ear.

"Well- daddy is at work, Karl took me to get ice cream- but I can't- I can't find him."

"Who's Karl? Is he your daddy's friend sweetheart?"

"nono, it's daddy's boyfriend, they're getting married." She mumbled, glancing behind her once again through the terribly lit store.

"Oh right, what's he wearing, let's try find him, yeah?"

"uhhhhh, blue!"

Blue, right, that's a lot to work on.

The little girl latched to his arm as they walked through the store, in-between aisles as his eyes scanned looking for someone wearing blue. Considering how empty the store seemed to be it was almost like there was nobody that fit the little girls description, he stopped with a sigh, getting down on a knee.

"Sweetheart, i might need to call someone to help find your daddy, okay?"

"Uh," she rubbed at her arm, looking around once again with teary eyes "okay."

He took his phone out, just as he typed the first two numbers of 911 in, a shaken man appeared from an aisle, messy brown hair bouncing over his eyes and a bright blue sweater.

"NELLY!" he yelled as he stumbled over, grabbing the little girl.

"Karl, I'll assume?" Alex chuckled, sliding his phone away.

"Yes- hello- my god, thank you so much for finding her." he continued to hold onto the little girl, before pulling away to scold her. "Nell's you can't walk off like that sweetheart, there's bad people around, you're lucky this nice man found you." he finally looked away from Nelly, his face dropping upon looking up at Quackity.

"Alex?"

"Karl?" They maintained an unbroken eye contact for an unknown amount of time, as Karl stood, wrapping his arms around the youngers shoulders, "Holy- Karl!"

Karl pulled away a big smile across his face, Nelly grabbed onto his leg, handing behind him slightly.

"You're shopping in a suit? Weirdo" Karl teased, ruffling Nellys hair, causing Quackity to chuckle.