Best Served Cold

In The Week After

Note: Overwhelming votes say Mystery’s speech should be limited by form, makes sense and I’ll go with that. Merry Christmas to you all! Also small shoutout to EctoImp, I wanted to work in the idea I saw in that comic forever and I managed it…

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            “Arthur, she hasn’t been by in a week.”

            “I know Lew.”

            “Why hasn’t she been by in a week?”

            “She’s working things out, Lew.”

            “According to you she didn’t leave you alone hardly at all even though she had things to work out.”

            “Yeah, cause she was w-worried I was going to waste away. Now that I’m fine she’s dealing with the backlog. You’ve been focused on k-killing me for a year, you’ve probably forgotten a few things.” Arthur tightened a screw carefully. “Like how Vivi needs time to sort things out when she gets big news, or something major happens. These last couple weeks probably turned her upside down. Sh-she’ll be around soon.”

            He could feel Lewis’ eyes on the back of his head, and sighed. He’d already had it out with Vivi over Skype while Lewis was out and about on his not-so-secret-secret-mission. Of course it didn’t feel good what she had to say, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever find someone else of Vivi’s caliber, but he understood. For all that, he was grateful she wasn’t ditching him as a friend after everything that had happened.

            But that didn’t mean Lewis knew. If Vivi’s texts were any indication though, he’d know soon enough. She was on her way to pull together “a Christmas dinner of epic proportions!”

            Arthur set the device down and opened a desk drawer, removing a small green box. He turned, tossing it at the skeleton’s head. “Think fast!"

            Lewis caught it, curious.

            “Merry Christmas F-flame-brain.”

            Lewis shot him an exasperated look, unhappy with the new nickname, and opened up the box. He blinked, pulling out a lush sprig of mistletoe. “Uhhh, Arthur?”

            Arthur threw a screw, pinging it off the side of Lewis’ skull. “No, dummy, not f-for me.”

            Lewis inspected the sprig again. “Oh.” His eyes widened. “Oh.” He looked up again, slowly replacing it in the box.

            “Yeah. Might want to plant it over the main doorway in the next five minutes or so. I think she’s on her wa-ay. Think she got your flowers?” Arthur grinned. He’d floated Lewis a loan to buy Vivi several rounds of Forget-me-nots, which the specter had been dispensing a small bunch at a time each morning and evening on her welcome mat.

            “They were gone every time I went over, so I guess so. I’ll be back.” He headed out of the workshop toward the front door.

            Arthur picked up the device, turning around to face the other supernatural entity in the room. “Okay bud, ready to give it a try?”

            Mystery barked, scuttling over. Arthur picked him up, setting him on the workdesk. “K stand still, it’s g-gonna hurt some.” He paused. “A lot. I’m s-sorry.” The dog turned his head, licking Arthur’s hand. “K, here goes.” He picked up the prosthetic, holding it against the stub of Mystery’s hind leg, and pressed a button. The dog winced, growling lowly as wires sprang out of the device, piercing skin, locking onto bone, and fusing into his nervous system.