MC/Milo/Mal undercover shenanigans

A/N This is a part of the commissioned stories for the month of Feb.

“I’m telling you, he’s buying us something.”

“And you’re going to ruin it if you continue to talk loud enough for him to hear us,” I hissed. 

Milo and I hid behind a new shipment of fabric. There, between the deep midnight blue silks and the creamy, bright cotton, there was a small gap. It was this that we used in order to spy on Malcolm. He had left early this morning, claiming he had ‘errands’. Something that wasn’t unusual for the man, except that he had now claimed to have errands three days in a row. So Milo and I followed him, leading us both here in the early hours, when we should have been snuggled down in bed.

“We should have gotten kafe before coming here,” Milo bemoaned. “I can barely keep my eyes open.”

Silently, I handed him a flask. He took it with a raised expression, unscrewing it and taking a small sniff.  Immediately, he sighed in pleasure at the contents, taking a deep drink.

“You angel,” he said.

I laughed. “I grabbed it this morning before leaving. Figured you’d eventually start to get twitchy.”

“This,” he said, taking another long pull of the kafe from the flask. “This is why I love you.” Leaning forward, he captured my lips with his own. He tasted like cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg.  I was beginning to wonder why we had even gotten out of bed this morning. “Shit,” Milo muttered as he pulled away. “Mal’s on the move.”

My eyes widened as I clung to the silks, peering through the little window we had created. Sure enough, he was moving down to yet another stall. “This is the third one he has been to this morning. He hasn’t bought anything. Is he just browsing?”

“For three days?”

“We don’t know that he was here yesterday. Maybe he’s been going out to other districts. Getting out of the house.” I gnawed at my lower lip. “You don’t think he’s regretting us being at the apartment so much, do you? I mean, you know how Malcolm is with his quiet time. Maybe he doesn’t have the heart to tell us that we are around too much.”

“Luke,” Milo laughed. “Calm it down. Mal is great at boundaries and if he didn’t want us there, he’d boot my ass out and then gently guide you to your own place. So, unless he is buying a gift to let us down easy, I don’t think we have to worry.”

A pair of marionettes ambled by Malcolm, there smiled bright, the fabric hanging from them in jeweled waves. Malcolm paused, admiring them for a moment, but ultimately, didn’t seem to find what he was looking for.

“He’s getting too far away,” Milo muttered.

I looked around the district. We were in the longer stretch of the fashion district where the runway met the perusers. It allowed the clothes to come to the marketeers, advertising the latest designs in practice.  

“There,” I said. “We can hide behind them.”

A group of individuals were sauntering by. They wore long, flowing coats of velvet and large feathered hats. If Milo and I ducked, I thought we might be able to hide behind them.

“If they shift wrong, we’ll be seen,” Milo said. “Neither of us dress like that. No one should dress like that, in fact.”

“It’s our only chance. Come on.” I grabbed Milo by the wrist, running towards the group. We elbowed our way inside, most of the models smiling at us with wide grins as we pretended to admire their clothes. Meanwhile, we kept trying to catch glimpses of Malcolm. Making sure we didn’t lose him too far ahead.

“There,” Milo said, pointing to a nearby stand. “Jewelry. That’s got to be for us.”

“Neither of us wear a ton of jewelry,” I commented. 

“Maybe it’s a new kink for him.”

I ducked down just as one of the models tried to fit me with a large peacock colored hat. Milo already had scarves draped around his neck and middle and somehow, I had a skirt on. How, I was unable to even say.

“If we run now, we can hide behind the belt shop. I know the owner. They’ll keep us safe.” I nodded towards Milo, not questioning him, as we broke free from the group, a puff of feathers in our wake. We wove through the crowed, keeping ourselves ducked fully down, before we came to lean behind the belt shop, the two of us panting. Our shoulders were pressed together, the market roaring in our ears, and despite the circumstances being the lowest stakes we had ever partaken in, we clung to each other's hand.

“We did it,” I breathed. 

“You gonna look out, or am I?”

“I can do it. Just give it a minute. He was pretty close to this one.”

“Belts,” Milo said with clarity. “He’s probably buying a belt. His broke last week. That really nice one he sometimes wears?”

I shook my head. “I repaired it for him.”

“Then what the fuck is he even here for!”

I shushed Milo quickly, reminding him that Malcolm’s hearing was far better than either of ours. The man was a bat.  “I’m going to look, okay. If he’s not too far ahead, we can stay here. If he’s moved on, I think I see another stall we can hide behind.”

Milo nodded his head once, letting go of my hand. With a deep breath, I took a step to the right, pivoting on my foot to peer out from the other side of the stall. I screamed loudly as I ran straight into Malcolm.

Milo was behind me in an instant, knife drawn and ready to fight. Meanwhile, I was trying to get my heart rate back under control. Malcolm just looked at the two of us, in our newly acquired garbs, covered in feathers. He didn’t look amused.

“Mal, hey,” Milo said, flipping the knife and putting it away. “Wow, fancy seeing you here. Luke and I were just out for a stroll.”

He looked between the two of us. “Behind the stalls?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You know us. We like the behind the scene's thing.” I stopped, my face falling. “No, that’s a lie. Sorry. We were following you.”

“Luke!”

“We’ve been really curious about what you’ve been doing in the morning, and so we decided to get up and follow you and honestly it's been a bit weird because you haven’t bought anything, and now I feel kind of like an ass because we were spying, and I’m really sorry, and I love you.”

Malcolm blinked at the two of us, his eyes then slowly dragging up to Milo for confirmation.

Milo sighed. “What he said.”

With a shake of his head, Malcolm stepped forward, pulling me into his embrace. He kissed the top of my head, looking down at me with a soft smile. “Why didn’t you two just ask what I was doing?”

I glanced over at Milo. Why didn’t we ask? Milo seemed just as perplexed by the knowledge.

“I was running deliveries for Hazel,” he told us. “She’s gotten a lot of orders lately and she cannot keep up. So I offered to do the early morning ones, since you two sleep most of that morning.”

“Oh,” I said. Milo just shuffled sheepishly by our side.

“Though, don’t get me wrong. It’s been amusing watching you two try to be secretive.”

I blinked up at him. “You knew we were here?”

“Kind of hard to miss you two. Like the skirt, by the way.”

I batted at the thing, trying to get it off. Though, I suppose it did feel soft.

“Uh, as penance, you want us to help with the rest of the deliveries?” Milo asked.

“I’m done,” Malcolm said, keeping his arm slung around me. “But I wouldn’t mind walking for a bit with you two.”

As we exited from behind the stalls, Milo gave a wave to the shop owner, getting drawn into a conversation. Malcolm and I stood back as he waved his hands animatedly at the man, no doubt telling another tall tale.

“I’m sorry,” I told Malcolm.

He placed a kiss on the crown of my head, holding me close. “It kept the morning interesting. No need to apologize, Lamplight. Just ask next time.”

“I will.” Though, as I looked at Milo, I wondered if I truly would. Because despite how it ended, it was one of the better mornings we had had in a long while.