My Brave Warrior

A Lost Queen

It had been about two weeks since Dabi had found Christopher hiding in Maddie's home. Nothing had really changed after that point besides Dabi growing a little more alert. He hadn't sensed anything hiding inside the apartment, however, so he was willing to put it in the back of his mind to save for a later time. Maddie was already a little on edge due to almost dying twice, so he was trying to get her mind off of it. The day was Tuesday, and Maddie was off at work like usual with Charley. There was still about two hours left of the day and they were stocking the candy isle together.

"I wonder if Dabi would like candy." Maddie mumbled while looking at a bag of sweet mint candles.

"Probably." Charley shrugged. "You should bring him some."

"I don't really know how much he likes sweet things, though." Maddie shrugged.

"He seems to like you a lot, so he'll definitely like the candy." Charley shrugged.

Maddie blushed a little and giggled shyly. "I just don't know which one I should get him. What do you think he'd like?"

"I don't know. You know him better than anyone." Charley shoved some caramel candies into the shelf.

"Oh!" Maddie slowly pulled out some strawberry candies out of the box. "Maybe he'll like these! They're my favorite!"

"Hey, Scrawny and Freckles." Derek came stomping over to them, clearly in a bad mood.

"What do you want, Derek?" Charley glared after seeing Maddie freeze up.

"You two need to leave early today." Derek sighed. "There's an infestation in the walls and they need to fumigate the place."

"What are they?! Roaches?!" Maddie shivered with fear.

"Are we still getting paid for the two hours we're going to miss because of your carelessness?" Charley smirked and crossed her arms.

"What?! Who said this was my fault?!" Derek growled at her.

Charley pointed behind the counter. "Go look and see all the empty chip bags and candy wrappers you've left out over there."

There was silence for a moment and Derek realized he was going to be defeated in this argument. "Fine. You'll get your pay." He glared at Maddie while she clutched the bag of her strawberry candies.

"Her too, Derek." Charley pointed. "And those strawberry candies."

"Fine! Just get the hell out of here!" Derek huffed and stomped away. "Stupid girls... So annoying."

Maddie and Charley grinned at each other and happily left the store. Not only were they getting paid to not work those last two hours, but Maddie also got her candy for free. In her financial situation, that bag of candy was quite a lot of money, but she wanted to get it anyway for Dabi. When they got outside, both were excited to see the sun setting and not the deep night sky like they always had. Finally, Maddie had time to actually relax. Dabi would certainly be excited to see her as well. Her giggles at the thought caught Charley's attention.

"Hey, Maddie?" Charley turned around to face her.

"Yes?" Maddie stopped her giggling, but her smile remained.

Charley thought for a moment before she spoke. "What do you think of Dabi?"

"Dabi? I think he's wonderful." Maddie began to turn a little red. "I'm really happy that I met him. He's so sweet and he seems to always want to be around me. It's kind of nice."

"I see." Charley nodded. "And uh... how close are you guys?"

Maddie began to catch on to her questioning. "What do you mean?"