THE BADDEST || Twisted Wonderland x Reader

《 47. How It's Done 》

━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━

I'm never gonna let this go
I'm ready, living life I love

━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━

"IT'S CLOSED!?"

"Hey, hey... this is too unlucky." Holding his head, Jack grumbled in dismay. He was staring at the sign with a look of disbelief. They've got to be kidding.

They came all this way to the Coral Sea, only for the museum to be closed today. This must've been why Azul set the time limit to three days. Chances are he knew the schedule and set you guys up. He planned this all along.

In fact, that would explain why the trip to get here was nothing but smooth sailings. "Is that why the Leech brothers haven't harassed us at all today? Because they knew?" Deuce wondered aloud. He figured that was the case of their absence.

"Man~... I dunno..." Ace uttered, crossing his arms with a pout. He was still skeptical. There's no way they wouldn't come after your group, on the final day no less.

Jack narrowed his eyes. Their seemingly defeated moods were noticeable. Unlike them though, he wasn't convinced. "Are we really turning tail and going back empty-handed after coming all this way?"

After all that talk about being confident in the plan, there's no way he wanted to give up, especially over a measly closed sign. Everything was riding on this, and they need to fight till the very end.

There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to come up with an answer. Suddenly, Ace had a light-bulb moment.

"...Wait a second, I've got an idea." He shot up, getting the group's attention.

The terracotta haired student walked over to the gates of the museum, and everyone followed after him. They watched him curiously. What was he going to do?

At the gates, there were two mermen standing guard. Grim was shocked to see them again.

"Ffgna! In the world of merfolk, even the security guards are merfolk." He pointed out.

Deuce furrowed his brows at that. His face twisted in confusion. "Why are you stating the obvious........."

Ace spun around to face the group. "Okay. I'm gonna distract the guard. You guys sneak around the back to nab that picture." He instructed.

"Are you sure you can handle this by yourself?" Jack inquisitively asked him.

Ace responded by pointing at the male wolf. "Jack, you're too honest for your own good, Deuce would get tripped up part way through, and our only decent liar is a mute. Leave this to me." He explained bluntly. After he pleaded his case, he walked over to the entrance.

"Uuhwaaaahh, you serious!?" With wide eyes of shock, Ace suddenly shouted in disbelief. With his volume, it was like he was trying to be as loud and obnoxious as possible.

Hearing the loud noise, the two guards look over at him. He definitely had gotten their attention.

The first guard swam over to him. A confused look was on the guard's face. "...Hm? What's wrong with you?" He asked, studying the distraught human.

Ace sighed defeatedly in response. "Is the museum closed today? I can't believe this. I was looking forward to coming here so much..." His shoulders dropped as he stared at the floor. As he spoke, his voice was wavering, like he was about to start bawling.

Ace's acting skills were tremendous. He really sounded like he had gotten his hopes up... only to have his heart crushed.

The merman studied him curiously. "Oh my... you've got a strange tail fin. Are you a human from the surface? Did you come here alone?" He asked. In all his years, he rarely saw humans come by.