Mischievous Function

Partners in Crime

Honey and Turbine nodded to each other before heading toward the door. "Yeah, thanks."

"No problem!" he beamed. He then peeked back over his shoulder and called out to someone behind him, "Hey, you good?"

Just as the two of them were about to reach the door, however, they froze and stared with wide eyes at the next person to walk out the door. She was carrying two to-go bags with boxes and nodded gratefully at the man holding the door before turning her gaze forward. Almost immediately, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she nearly dropped her bags.

The man holding the door looked between the three of them with a slightly concerned, awkward chuckle. "You, uh...you guys know each other?" he asked.

"Do we know each other?" Honey laughed and held her hand out to the girl while Turbine grinned and crossed his arms, nodding to the stranger.

Teardrop immediately dropped her to-go bags and grabbed Honey's hand before they both pulled each other into a hug and beat each other's backs a couple of times. Once they pulled away from the hug, Teardrop immediately started signing. "What are you doing here?" she asked, though she continued to smile. "I thought you were dead!"

"My death was...greatly exaggerated," Honey signed back. "So...you're the punk I've heard about. Knocking me out in one punch, beating up our captain—"

"And I'd do it again in a heartbeat just for the fun of it," Teardrop smirked.

They shared another fist bump as Gelatin looked on with a confused expression. "Uh...so, you're friends of Teardrop, I assume?" he asked Turbine.

Turbine shrugged. "Well, she beat me up and left my associate here to either die or rot in a cell for the rest of her life," he responded. "So, yeah, we're pretty buddy-buddy."

Honey scoffed and nodded. "Yeah, good thing he found me when he did. That would have sucked."

"Hey, you guys shot my ex in the freaking shoulder and tried to rob us!" she thought aggressively as she pointed at Turbine. "I'm pretty sure I had the right to be kinda pissed!"

"Your...ex?" Honey signed back curiously. "Wow. You know, you two had some pretty good synergy on that train for a couple of exes."

Teardrop's eyes widened slightly before she let out an inaudible sigh and rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh...actually, on the train, he wasn't my ex," she confessed with a downturned gaze. "He was my boyfriend."

"Oh...oh, shit." Honey's mouth tightened into a frown as she then signed, "Damn. What happened?"

Teardrop's hand rose to flick Honey in the face as she silently scoffed. "You guys happened. It was because you all tried to rob that train that we had a disagreement over whether to stop you or call the cops. Then when I persuaded him to help me stop you, he got shot in the shoulder and beat up a few more times. That was the last straw for him, I guess, so he broke up with me once the cops saved us and treated him. And I've been single and depressed ever since."

"Oh, shit..." she repeated out loud. When Turbine gave her a questioning look, she turned to tell him, "Yeah, you know that kid on the train she was with? The one who got shot?"

"What about him?"

"That was her boyfriend, dude. They broke up because of us."

Turbine seemed surprised at first, but hsoon nodded with a sigh. "I had a feeling," he muttered. "I saw how you two looked at each other. He was definitely annoyed with you, sure, but it seemed more like a protective kind of annoyed than true irritation. Felt like he just wanted what was best for you, even if it wasn't what you wanted."