"Well now," One of the men grunted, grinning with amusement. "Isn't this a cute sight?"
"Fuckin' annoying in my opinion." Another one huffed, his tone lacking any form of teasing that the previous man had. His glare was scathing, violent even. The same man that had originally been the one to tease JJ upon first meeting him, now the complete opposite. "First they waste our time trying to benefit off of our plan, this brown-haired one had the audacity to threaten and attack me last time we met, and now they're trying to snoop around in our room and steal our shit? We ain't letting you fuckers get away with this. Buttercup!"
While the two men waited for the third one to arrive, JJ and Alfred silently waited alongside them, petrified, threatened into place by hammers being held out in front of them. After a tense few seconds, someone else arrived.
"Well now, that's no way to greet our visitors, it is now? Come on, put those weapons down."
The two men rolled their eyes, but obeyed the third, tossing them to the side. The man who'd arrived was slightly larger than them, but his voice was way less threatening. He had a smooth, Mexican accent, and wore a pendant-less gold necklace. However, his sly expression gave away that he was likely up to no good. "What brings you here? We don't mind visits, but a knock would've been appreciated."
Alfred was ready to come up with a good excuse, and turned to JJ to see if he was on the same page. But he quickly found that JJ wasn't even aknowledging him - his wide eyes were glued to the person talking, and beads of sweat started rolling down his face. Alfred knew JJ was never scared of anyone, especially someone who hadn't even tried to hurt them yet or revealed his intentions. It made him wonder if they'd met each other before, under different circumstances, that caused JJ to fear him like this.
"We were just- uh-" Alfred was still caught off-guard by JJ's fear, which wasn't helping his case, but he tried to make something up anyway. "Trying to get away from the crowd?"
"Oh, I understand that." Buttercup adjusted his sleeve, his gaze eventually resting solely on JJ. "I know you in particular liked to keep to yourself and stay away from others. Still like to be alone, I see? Or are you reunited with that Mikey person you used to talk about?"
JJ's let out a disturbed, shaky gasp, flinching away under his watchful eye. More sweat trailed down his now trembling skin, his eyes narrowed in both terror and disgust at him mentioning Mikey. By now, Alfred knew for sure that they had an interaction in the past that was provoking this reaction from JJ.
"We're just doing whatever." Alfred decided to do the talking on his own. "But we're quite busy, so we need to get going now-"
"Leaving so soon?" Buttercup pretended to look hurt. "But you just got here. I figured that you both coming here meant you wanted to spend some quality time with us, and in all honesty, I think that'd be in all of our best interests."
He kneeled down in front of them, but now, his little act had faded, instead replaced by contempt.
"Really though, you both deserve a punishment for thinking you can wander wherever you please. We don't tolerate people who bother us, and we don't make exceptions for anyone, regardless of what their reasons are for disrupting our space. After all, what's the point of a reputation if there's nobody upholding it? Me and my friends will go and talk about which weapons would be best to use on you. I won't spoil the fun just yet, but I'll give you a hint - it might get a little messy. But that's no issue for us."
The three men then retreated through a different door, leaving JJ and Alfred alone. While Alfred was still processing the whole situation, JJ was already up and at the exit, tugging desperately at the door. It had been locked from the inside though, and the key was god knows where. While JJ continued racing around and trying to find places to escape, Alfred noticed something in the piles of clothes stacked in the corner of the room - not only where there, well, clothes- but there were masks as well.
