What's The News? • Lemoxie

Chapter Four

My eyes widened. "What?! Why would he do that?" I asked.

Lemony frowned at the vial. "It's a non-lethal L pill, I guess. Not a good one at that since we could simply interrogate him when he wakes up. Mind if we stay a while, Ornette? It doesn't seem like he ingested that much laundanum, so he should be up and ready to sing like a canary in forty minutes or so..."

Ornette nodded unsurely. "Why my brother? Is this VFD work? Is the world in trouble? Do I get to help?"

"It's strictly need to know." I said.
"And you don't need to know." Lemony added. Ornette smirked at us.
"So this is a Lemoxie project? I guess I really shouldn't be surprised... I'll leave you two alone then. Kyra needs help writing some dumb essay anyway." She said before walking away.

I rolled my eyes and continued to inspect the area. Maybe Stew stashed the sample here since we'd come looking for him, I thought to myself. I looked over and Lemony wasn't looking around. He was staring at me.

"Ya know I wasn't joking when I asked you about the drive-in, Mox." He told me with a smile plastered on his face.
"Oh really?" I entertained, throwing a flirtatious smile his way. This wouldn't be too bad of a time for a little flirting, right?

"Of course. You, me, alone under the stars, a madman with some poisonous fungus in a eight mile radius; I couldn't think of anything better."

I stepped towards him with a smirk and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "You, Lemony Snicket, just described my dream date." I replied, placing a kiss on his lips. I felt his hands dart up to behind my head, holding me there. I didn't mind, of course...

"Ahem..." We heard after several moments. Lemony and I pulled apart; I was blushing terribly but the interruption didn't seem to phase Lemony. Kyra was standing in the doorway of the living room. "I came to grab a drink and I see my sister's friends making out. She'll get a kick out of that." She said, skipping away.

Lemony pointed to where Ornette's little sister stood a couple moments ago. "She's fun." He joked.
" She's also a mischievous troublemaker. " I said, lowering his arm. "Now, where were we?"

"Well, I think my hands were here." Lemony smirked, setting his hands on my waist, knowing full well that was not where they were before.
"You're wrong, Snicket." I teased, wriggling out of his grasp.

He rolled his eyes playfully and walked over to a bookshelf. "There's no way Ornette would allow this garbage in her house," he mumbled as he pulled one out.
"What is it?"
" Edgar Guest's poetry. So tedious, right? "
"I recall her complaining about how horrible her brother's taste in poetry is. It's probably Ethan's... But yes I do agree with you on the tedious part."

Lemony shrugged and put the book back on the shelf. " So there is a showing of some classic horror films playing tomorrow night. If you're really serious about this drive in date, we should go see that. " I informed him. Although I don't think we'd be paying much attention to the movies, I internally added.

Lemony happily agreed and we let the time roll by as we caught up on the last four years of our lives. Every time he mentioned a girl from the VFD that he seemed particularly fond of, I did feel a little pang of jealously, if I'm being honest. After a while it stopped since I reasoned with myself that if he wouldn't have kissed me if he was with anyone else. He may be secretive but he's good with the truth if you ask the right questions.

After maybe thirty five minutes, Ethan Lost finally woke up from the laundanum. "Oh hey, Moxie. What'r you doing here? Who's this?" He asked sleepily.

"What do you know about the Medusiod Mycelium, Lost?" I cut straight to the point. Ethan scowled at me.

"How do you know about that? Stew said nobody saw him leave the lab!"

"But many, many people heard him thanks to that dumb siren noise he does," Lemony countered, "A really bad time for his last three brain cells to work on perfecting the impression, don't you think?" I nodded in agreement. Heh... Last three brain cells; that's funny.

Ethan rolled his eyes. "You don't seriously think I'll tell you what I know." He growled.

"Ethan, stop trying to act like a badass; I once saw you cry because Ornette stole your cookie." I said in a monotone voice. Lemony snickered a bit at that, which made me a bit smiley. "Tell us what you know." I added.

"Make me." He said with an evil grin.

I was about to say something before Lemony stopped me. "So, Moxie, in my organization, there's a number one rule for interrogations." He said, waiting for me to nod before continuing. "We never get physical unless it's necessary. For example, O. was put on probation when he slapped somebody for no good reason. It was pretty embarrassing for those that were close to him, including my siblings and me."

I nodded and made a mental note of that. Ethan wouldn't crack no matter how frustratedly we questioned him. It surprised me when Lemony ended up slapping him across the face. "Screw the rules; I'm Lemony Snicket." He said with a smug smirk. I chuckled a bit and looked back at Ornette's brother. A red mark in the shape of a hand showed on his cheek and his eyes had gone a bit misty.

"This is getting boring. Stew's hiding a sample at Wade Academy. Bye now!" He said, trying to manage a smile.

We took that as a clue, although I realized something: "a sample" implies there's more than one...