"I like winter, actually." Although I missed the sun, this time of the year always brought back great memories. Lots of different dolls' finding days. Celebrations for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and something called New Year's Day. Ice hockey tournaments with Loki, Magneto, and the nutcracker brothers. A first and last date I would not forget... sigh. I'll be there soon, Elsa. Just a couple more months in here and then I'm free.
The change of the seasons gave me hope, too. Pretty soon the Christmas decorations would need to be put up, then we'd be out of here. But Zayn did not seem to share my contentment. He stood behind my shoulder with his head down, arms in and knees apart, one of the first fighting poses I'd taught him. Since the humans had mended their roof recently, our spying hole was now gone, so it was getting harder to see, especially now that the days were darker and shorter. But I could still make out Zayn, the steam of his breath wavering like a white beacon in the chilly air. In his hand was one of the cocktail swords, and by his side was a shield-shaped piece of bark that I recognized as the bark he was whittling when we first met.
"Hey, what's gotten into you?" I asked.
"You may like winter because you've lived it outside, and all you know are Christmas carols and snowball fights and flickering candles. But in here, in this attic-" Zayn tapped the ground with his foot to prove a point that we were basically in a wooden box up here. "It's not a good view of the season. This is when we start preparing for war."
"War?" I whispered. The word almost triggered me. Immediately my nerves spiked, my brain hit the ground running with battle strategies, and my hands starting searching for something to grab before I reminded them we were without Liberty. Sometimes it was scary to be a soldier. Even if I was just a doll.
"Yeah. Like I told you before, rodents come up to nest this time of year. I've never had to fight any of them myself thanks to Benny, but now that you're here-" Zayn's eyes flicked over to me. "And you're a newbie at this, so I'll likely be having to defend myself."
Then I felt something I didn't normally feel. Pride, hot and forceful pride, told me that Zayn thought I was inferior. Inexperienced. Not capable of handling the responsibility for my own life and someone else's. I secretly hoped the mice would come. Then I could get to prove Zayn wrong.
"Right," I said. "But I can still help out. I was your mentor for the Super Soldier training, right?"
"Why do you think I asked for that in the first place? It wasn't just to pass the time, Captain, I needed it for this moment now."
"Ah." I agreed, but my eyes still narrowed.
Zayn must have noticed. "I never thought to ask you before, but do you always wear that mask?"
"Have to. I can't really take it off."
"Ah," Zayn echoed, his eyes lingering on my face a little too long, but when his reading of me was unsuccessful, he turned away. "Alright, Cap, if you want to be a hero, you gotta work on that now."
"Fine, then, I will." I turned away from Zayn and worked on getting supplies that might terrorize a mouse. I certainly wasn't going to kill it. Not because I had a morale against that, maybe, but more of not wanting to smell a dead mouse until Christmas.
Or maybe I would just have to deal with whatever came my way. Maybe I would even kill a mouse to prove to Zayn I deserved my title. Maybe... maybe I was going a bit crazy with how much time I was being kept up here. I didn't know. All I knew that I was blindly searching and preparing for a battle, even there was no known enemy yet to fight. It struck me that this was actually the first time Zayn and I had gotten into a squabble. It wasn't even a big one at that, but his attitude wasn't agreeing with me, so who knew what the future held for strains on my patience? And who knew if the future held hungry, aggressive, mice? At least I knew I could handle one of those things now. Though I still missed my shield, I found a small, discarded saucer that would work just as well, and of course I still had the cocktail swords from before. Bring it on, rodents. I was ready.
Little did I know, I was a huge liar. I liked to pride myself in being humble and honest, but I guess pride and honesty don't mix, and even though I was honest to all the other dolls, I found that I was lying to myself the whole time. Because Zayn, unfortunately for me, was right. And I was not ready.
It became the last day of the month, and even though tensions had mostly died down between Zayn and I, they were still there. He still thought I was experienced, and I still thought he was too worried about something that was never going to happen. Now our smiles were a little too twitchy, our conversations too fast and short. I was starting to wonder when it was going to end. Even our jokes seemed tense.
"I think it's Halloween." I commented. Our window to the outside may have been patched up, but we could still hear better than any human, and right now Zayn and I heard squeals of scared and delighted children from outside, all making their way up to She's house to get "trick or treats". I didn't understand Halloween, but that's what everyone was saying, along with "nice costume!" and "wanna trade two chocolates for my candy corn?" Why would anyone want to eat sugary vegetables?
"Ooh, spooky!" Zayn grinned, the light of the setting sun checkering his face and making his smile look devilish.
"Not like it matters to us, though."
"No, I guess not."
"Have you ever had a Halloween?"
Zayn shook his head. "No. I lived three months in the daylight and then I was tossed into the basement, and then up here to the attic."
"That's sad." I said.
And that's where our conversation ended, which was another truly sad thing. Zayn was heading off to bed, where his makeshift shield and weapons lay on the insulation there. He was paranoid about the mice. I couldn't care less... until I heard a scratching nearby.
I started, pressing my ear to the ground, trying to make out if it was the costumed candy-craving kids below or something else. It certainly wasn't Zayn. He was already laying stiff as a board in bed, with his defenses pressed against his stomach.
I tried not to worry, though. Remember the last time I told you a story about being in the attic, the humans had set out mousetraps? Yeah. So we still had that. I had forgotten at that moment that we had already kind of taken all the peanut butter. So there would be nothing left to catch the mice.
"Um, Zayn..." I started, before he jammed a finger against his lips.
"Shh." he whispered. I thought he was going to say he heard them, too, but Zayn only replied with, "I'm trying to sleep. I'm going to need all the rest I can get if there's going to be mice around soon."
"Yeah, about that..." I tried again, but I was only shot down with a glare.
I did the same and turned my back on him. The noise was probably nothing if Zayn wasn't worried. And even if it was something dangerous, he seemed pretty set on saving himself. So why should I, a qualified hero, save him?
I started off in search of the traps. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there was still some peanut butter left for the mice. And if not, there was probably still some more back at our base. I could re-bait the traps then if need be, just to save ungrateful Zayn's sorry...
A scream cut into my thoughts, and the mousetrap's hammer I had been holding up almost snapped down on my hand as I jerked it away. As much as I was feeling scattered and surprised, my body seemed to know what to do on its own, like a sort of focus and motivation I didn't know I had, especially not after Zayn had dissed me so many times earlier.
My legs didn't seem to care how I felt. They ran away, leaping over and dodging around strewn boxes and crates. My arms swung out and grabbed the cocktail swords I'd abandoned earlier, and I burst into the scene, just in time to see a red-eyed rodent skulking around Zayn as he was pressed, quivering, into a corner.
I yelled before I could stop myself. "Hey!"
The mouse didn't turn his head immediately. "Hey!" I said again, this time its glassy red eyes finding me in the darkness. I felt like a stake had just been driven through me, but at least I had the mouse's attention now. My cocktail sword out and ready to strike, I hopped up onto a box to make myself appear taller and slashed at the air, trying to keep the mouse's eyes on me.
"Stay away from my friend!" I cried. "You wanna fight, don't you? Come and fight me!"
Without even having a second to think, I leapt from the box and drove my sword downwards, intentionally hitting a few centimeters away from the mouse. It shrieked and backed up by a little, but it's little pink nose still sniffed at the air around me. To it, I was just a new prey.
Since I had expected the mouse to dash away at my first strike, I'd have to try something else to throw it off. My gaze flicked to Zayn for a split second, still cowering, but staring at me in awe now. Perhaps I could use his position to my advantage.
My battle-strategy brain agreed, pushing my legs into motion as a sprinted from the scene. I heard a gasp escape Zayn's mouth. He thought I was leaving him for dead, but I was doing quite the opposite.
Once the mouse noticed I was gone, it settled for Zayn again, creeping ever closer to him. Meanwhile, I scrambled onto a box behind the creature, then waited for the right moment.
Five...four...three...twoone! I had the mouse right where I wanted it, the perfect distance for me to make a nasty slash down the way of its spine. Since the cocktail swords were only made of dull plastic, it wouldn't leave more than a scratch, but it sure scared the mouse. It shrieked out in surprise and scuttled away. I could tell he wasn't too keen on coming back again. Now it was time to check on the victim.
"Hey, you alright there-" I started to say to Zayn, but was stopped midway when all the air was pressed out of me from a thankful hug.
"You saved me," Zayn gasped, pressing against me for comfort and security.
"As if I wouldn't."
"I don't know, you seemed pretty mad at me earlier."
"Maybe I had good reason to be."
Zayn blinked in recollection. "Oh yeah... maybe that was partially my fault."
"Maybe? Partially?" I asked with a smirk.
"Sorry about that. I guess I just underestimated you. But I couldn't handle myself in reality."
"No, you probably could have without me. I'm just an overprotective parent is all."
"I'm still alive, so that's fine by me."
"Me too," I agreed. Zayn still held fast to me with both his arms and his eyes, which were digging dark chocolate trenches into mine. "You can let go of me now, though."
"Oh. Right," Zayn stood quickly, slightly pink, and began to brush the grime from his clothes. He was ready to move forward. "I have an idea though. To ensure that the mice never come back, we should find out where they came from and block the entrance."
I beamed. "Now you're thinking like a soldier."
Zayn beamed back, and then we got to work, patching up cracks for the rest of the day.
Mending a relationship,
Steve Rodgers
