Chapter Text
Have you ever wondered about what your final moments would look like? Maybe it would be dramatic, maybe it would be peaceful, or maybe it would be just another day. No one knows until it happens.
This thought process briefly passes through Cleo's mind as she stares into the mirror as she applied her mascara. She furrowed her eyebrows at the thought. What a grim thing to come to mind so suddenly. Almost enough to convince her that maybe staying in for the night would be a good idea.
Almost.
Bdubs pushes her lightly to the side and nearly makes her smeer the makeup across her face, earning a shout from her as he does, "Bdubs! Watch it!"
"You watch it!" He laughs a bit and leans close to the mirror, "You're hogging the mirror! You're not the only one who wants to be pretty for date night, you know!"
"Oh, but Bdubs, you’re always pretty!”
“You got that right!” He grinned as he started to apply eyeliner, “It’s a little unfortunate though, we’re getting all dolled up and there’s no Etho to come with us tonight.”
“He’s got work to do tonight, so it’s not like we can actually blame him.” She paused for a moment and grinned, “However, we can blame him for working at a temp agency that refuses to give him any consistency. Seriously, he’s gotta find something else.”
Bdubs paused, just for a second, as he thought about it. Slowly, he nodded a bit before starting to work on his other eye, “Right, I almost forgot it was a…temp agency? Is that really what they call it? Could’ve sworn he said it was freelancing.”
“He says a lot of things.” Cleo stood up straight and batted her eyelashes at the mirror, grinning at the work she did. She turned to look at Bdubs as the man stuck out his tongue, focused on getting his wing absolutely perfect. “We’ll just have to get all dolled up for him tomorrow too, then he can see how pretty we are.”
“Oh, he better. He’s lucky to have us, you know.” He laughed a bit, “There’s always tomorrow.”
Cleo nodded, “But hey, you know what Etho not coming with us on date night means, don’t you?”
Bdubs finished with his eyeliner and set the pencil down, squinting a bit as he turned to look at Cleo, “Do I…?” He stared at her grin for a few moments before his eyes widened and his own grin started to form. “You mean-”
“That’s right, Bdubs.” She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. “We can do whatever stupid things come to mind.”
~~~
Now, most people usually go somewhere nice for a date night. Maybe a lovely restaurant, sometimes even a movie, not to mention trips to the beach. Most people do something very romantic, and altogether rather cliche. Cleo and Bdubs, however, are not most people.
The two of them were laughing loudly as they walked together, arm in arm as they strolled around the gas station parking lot. It was nearly one in the morning, and they had been there for a good twenty minutes already. There was only one car in the lot, and it was most certainly not theirs.
It would be irresponsible to have driven to the gas station after having spent a few good hours at a bar, and then trying to steal a motorcycle before getting chased off by the owner of said motorcycle. So, instead they’d walked halfway across town to get really terrible deli food from the gas station, and now it was nearly one in the morning and they were walking around and goofing off in a parking lot.
Cleo laughed as she spun Bdubs, dipping him and nearly stumbling forward as she did. In her defense, it was a bit hard to dance with only one shoe. He laughed as well, almost letting himself go limp before she suddenly stood him back up. It was a nice night and there was no way they could go home for a few hours without risking Etho figuring out that they’d definitely tried to commit theft of a motor vehicle.
“Stop spinning me around, you’re gonna make me dizzy!” Bdubs shoved her a bit, “I’m sobering up, I can’t lose my dinner now!”
“It would probably be better if you lost your dinner, honestly. That corn dog looked like it had gone off.” Cleo laughed, “You might get food poisoning from it.”
“That’s a tomorrow problem, isn’t it? Right now, my stomach is full and that’s what matters.” He paused for a moment, “So is my bladder. Can we go to the bathroom?”
“You’re a grown man, you can go to the bathroom yourself.” She laughed as she sat on one of the parking blocks, “I don’t need to hold your hand.”
“What if I want you to hold my hand?” He batted his eyelashes at her, only to get an eyeroll in response. He threw his arms into the air, “Fine! I’ll be right back, don’t go wandering off into the woods while I’m gone!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it!” Cleo shouted after him as he walked towards the gas station entrance, quickly disappearing into it. She grinned to herself and propped her elbow on her knee, then her chin on her hand. She looked up at the sky as she hummed to herself.
It was a lovely night out, wasn’t it? The sky was mostly clear, only a few clouds, so the stars shone brightly with the moon. She tilted her head a bit, the night sky was always so pretty in this town, somehow light pollution was never enough to make those twinkling lights fade away. Maybe they were just lucky. The cool breeze felt nice on a warm night like this, though Cleo found herself briefly wondering if she should’ve brought a jacket with her.
She watched as a cloud slowly made its way in front of the moon. It really was a shame that Etho was working tonight, even if he probably would’ve protested to being dragged around aimlessly the whole time. He’d probably have asked to go to the movies. They should go to the movies tomorrow, that sounds nice.
The moon was completely covered by the cloud by the time she heard the door open again. As she started to turn to look, suddenly shouting voices spilled out into the night. That wasn’t good. She was up and onto her feet as she registered the sight of Bdubs shouting at a stranger. The other man was shouting back at him with just as much anger. This was very not good.
“Woah, woah!” Cleo ran over as the pair stepped off of the sidewalk and into the parking lot, next to the only car around, “What’s going on?”
“This IDIOT decided it was a good idea to spill his drink on me, Cleo!” Bdubs shoved a finger into the chest of the other man and grit his teeth, “Don’t you have any MANNERS?”
“MANNERS?!” He shouted back and got up close to Bdubs, “Maybe YOU should’ve watched where you were walking, buddy! It’s not my fault you came barreling out of the bathroom!”
“I HAVE PLACES TO BE!”
“The least you could do is pay for my fucking drink!”
“WHY SHOULD I DO THAT, WHEN IT’S BUSY STAINING MY SHIRT?!”
“Hey!” Cleo grabbed Bdubs by the shoulder and pulled him away a bit, “I think you two are getting a little heated up over nothing right now,” She laughed a bit, “I mean, it’s just a drink, isn’t it?”
“IT’S NOT JUST A-”
“Who are you to even get involved in this, huh?” The man jabbed at Cleo now, “You his owner, huh? Your little dog ran off his leash for a bit there, so why don’t you just pay-”
“HEY!” Bdubs shouted and grabbed the man’s wrist, “DO NOT TOUCH HER LIKE THAT! YOU-”
“Guys-”
The other man was trying to pry his hand out of Bdubs’ grasp, “You disrespectful-” He stumbled as he was shoved, “Alright, that’s it!”
“You wanna go, punk?!” Bdubs started to roll up his sleeves, “I’ll teach you a lesson about disrespecting me AND my partner!”
“Bdubs, this is ridiculous. Both of you are being ridiculous!” Cleo groaned, “You do not need to fight! He’s drunk, sir-”
“I’ll teach you a lesson,” The man practically snarled as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a pocket knife as he stepped forward.
Now, several things happened all at once, and frankly Cleo wasn’t entirely sure they were happening until they’d stopped. In one moment, there was suddenly a knife in play, followed by Bdubs shouting more and the hand holding the knife moving very quickly. Then, Cleo thinks she’d tried getting Bdubs out of the way and felt a very painful sensation dig deep into somewhere between two ribs.
There was more shouting from Bdubs, and the man was gone. Then, Cleo realized that the side of her face hurt. When had she started laying on cement? Everything was blurry, and the way Bdubs was shaking her was not helping her vision clear. She stared past him as he panicked, through the glass door.
Huh. There wasn’t anyone at the counter. Weird, that seems like an easy way to risk someone committing a crime, seems very inconvenient. Everything seems slower now that she’s on the ground. Her mouth tastes of metal as Bdubs cups her cheeks and she thinks, vaguely, that he’s shouting something about how they needed to look pretty for Etho tomorrow. She’s thought about that word a lot tonight, hasn’t she?
As Bdubs’ face blurs too, Cleo furrows her eyebrows just a bit. This isn’t how she thought her final moments would be. Honestly, she always expected to be the one getting into a dramatic fight and losing in a blaze of glory. Instead, she was laying in a parking lot at nearly one in the morning, and it was just another day.
Then, everything fades away.