Roses & Ferns (An OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Love Story)

Chapter 34: Wedding Preparations

By Jen Joyce

*Darrell*

   Darrell had arrived at the back entrance of Gar's Bodega just in time to catch K.O. putting a bag of trash in the dumpster, his back turned towards him. "Psst!" K.O. whipped his head around, seeing Darrell coming out of the trees of the forest behind the Plaza.

   "Darrell?" K.O. tilted his head, confused. "What are you doing here?"

   "I can explain," Darrell began, sitting on the edge of the small cliff that separated the forest from the Plaza. "But if you don't wanna get caught, you better follow me." Darrell then slid down the cliff and to the ground, the heroic child following right after.

   "What's going on?" K.O. asked once he was facing the red robot, who was kneeling on the ground.

   "Well..." Darrell started, motioning for K.O. to come closer. Once he was closer, Darrell whispered to K.O. the short version of the events that have happened and that they need his and his mother's help for the wedding.

   "What does "preg-ant" mean?" K.O. asked, now even more confused than before.

   Darrell tried not to slap himself in the face at that. 'Why didn't I see that coming?...' Out loud, he responded with, "It means that Fern's gonna have a kid, Raymond's kid."

   After a few seconds, K.O.'s eyes widened. "Oh..." K.O. then gasped, holding the sides of his face as his eyes became twice the size they were before.

   "Yeah," Darrell said, rolling his eye while trying to hold back an amused smile at K.O.'s reaction. "That's the exact look on my face when Ray told us."

   K.O. shook his head, clearing himself of the shock. "What can I do to help, Darrell?!" Darrell slapped a red, clawed hand over the small cinnamon roll's mouth, extending his neck to look over the walls of dirt that surrounded them on their sides.

   Once he saw that no one was around, Darrell retracted his neck and faced his frienemy again. "For one, you can not yell about it!" Darrell said between his sharp fangs. K.O. flinched at the sudden darkness of Darrell's words, but he managed to keep himself together. "Also, we're gonna need your mom to help out. She's got, like, the most experience of weddings after all, right?"

   "Indeed I do." K.O. and Darrell jumped at the sudden voice, whipping their heads up, it was just Carol. "Though, you could've just come to the dojo instead of coming to my child."

   "Ms. K.O.'s mom?!" Darrell exclaimed, forgetting about the whole "secret" thing he just told K.O. not even a minute ago. "H-How long have you been there?!"

   Carol shrugged. "Eh, just long enough to hear about Fern's pregnancy and that ya'll are plannin' a wedding for those two lovebirds." Carol then got down to where her son and enemy were in the tunnel-shaped ditch. "But, don't worry, I'm the only out here. The girls are havin' a spa day, so I decided to go jogging for about twenty or so times around the Plaza."

   Darrell breathed out a sigh of relief that he didn't know he was holding. 'Oh, thank Cob.'

   "So," Carol said, determined. "What's the plan, Bag o' Bolts?"

*Ernesto & Raymond*

   Raymond and Ernesto were in the ring store a good few miles from both the Plaza and Boxmore near the Battleburg 3K area. Ernesto had done some research about wedding ring stopping while he was checking the Boxmore security cameras and came across a store called "Jarad" that sells all kinds of jewelry; he did a little research and found a lot of great reviews on rings at that store before spotting Raymond in the gym, bouncing a basketball.