#internecine

Johnny sighed internally, remembering how he barely even tried to tell her no. As soon as the water works started, he just couldn’t do anything about it. So he reluctantly agreed, letting Ari go to the adoption fair with you.

Now he couldn’t think of anything else. At first Johnny thought this would be the perfect time for him to update the organisation about his mission but instead of listening to the new intel he was supposed to receive, he only thought about you and Ari instead.

Ari had already been the target of some thugs before and other bad guys had seen your face when you two met for that date. 

A small smile spread over his lips, remembering how he mixed up missions and introduced himself as your husband instead of your boyfriend. You had played along so easily, making the scene a whole lot less awkward. 

Even though Johnny knew you were able to defend yourself it was something totally different with a six year old in tow. He remembered how limited his own movements got when he had to rescue Ari once.

“Midnight! I am talking to you!”

Johnny’s eyes widened, surprised he drifted off with his thoughts yet again. This wasn’t like him. What was it about you that made him lose his mind on an almost daily basis? 

Sure, he and the success of his mission most importantly were dependent on you two. Without you his mission would fail but more often than not Johnny had started to wonder whether his thoughts were more than just because of the success.  He caught himself doing things for Ari or you that had nothing to do with the mission. Things that wouldn’t even work towards the success of it and yet he still did them.

Like carrying Ari to bed, covering your sleeping form with a blanket. Johnny stopped trying to carry you as well after he learned you were a light sleeper and always tried to attack him whenever he picked you up. Unless you had something to drink. You quickly got tipsy, which was quite adorable in his opinion, and got even slightly dangerous when drunk, but as soon as you got knocked out from the alcohol you slept like a baby.

His supervisor was about to yell at him again when his phone started to ring loudly.

Johnny lurched forward and grabbed his phone, accepting the call as soon as he saw your ID on the screen. “Y/N? Hey!” Without even noticing Johnny clutched the edge of the table until his knuckles turned white, staring off into the distance with wide eyes as he impatiently waited for you to say something. Adrenaline rushed through his system from the building worry inside his stomach. Which made it even harder for him to hear anything besides his own rapid heartbeat.

“I’m so sorry”,  you hiccuped, “we were looking at some snakes together but when I turned around Ari was suddenly gone. I can’t find her.”

“I’m on my way!” Johnny snatched his stuff from the table and rushed out of the room, ignoring the calls behind him and the weird stares he received. All he could focus on was getting to you as fast as possible.

You heard the shouts on the other end of the call, followed by the echo of quick steps and Johnny trying to talk to you while breathing heavily. You then heard the beep of an unlocking car and the slam of a door, before the soft rumble of the engine filled your ear. 

“What if she ran outside?” 

Johnny barely heard your mumbling between your sniffling. “If that’s the case we’ll look for her together. I’ll be there in five minutes, okay? Wait for me!”

You ran out of the fair, still clutching the phone to your ear as you paced the street up and down. Your gaze skipped around the area, hoping to see that familiar mop of hair.

The second Johnny turned into the street of the fair his eyes landed on your wandering form. He parked the car and jumped out, rushing over to you. Johnny grabbed both your shoulders and quickly scanned you from head to toe, making sure you were unharmed, before he pulled you into a bone crushing hug. 

You wrapped your arms around his middle and hid your face in his chest, apologising over and over again for losing Ari.

Johnny patted your head reassuringly, slowly calming you down with his soothing aura and deep voice. “It’s going to be alright. We’re going to find Ari. Don’t worry, love.” He held you for a moment longer, waiting until you felt ready to let go of him.

With new determination you stepped back and nodded. “She must still be at the fair. I guess I wasn’t as thorough as I thought in my panic.”

Before you could apologise again, Johnny interrupted you: “It’s alright. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, so let us go and check again.” He grabbed your hand and pulled you towards the large building of the fair.

Though when he wanted to push the door open, it didn’t budge. A frown appeared on his face as he tried pulling the door and it still didn’t move a bit. 

“Could they have closed this quickly?” You wondered out loud, your gaze wandering along the glass front that was now covered up. “I could have sworn ten minutes ago I was still able to see all the different puppies and kitties through the windows.”

“Something isn’t right”, Johnny grumbled and pulled you along the building. “Did you notice anything odd when you first arrived at the fair today?” 

You frowned in thought, eyes skipping from side to side as you recounted your memories. “Not really” - you shook your head - “Ari met a lot of her classmates and their parents but that’s it.”

“How many?”

“Maybe ten? I don’t know, I got nervous introducing myself to their parents.” You bit on your lower lip and tried your hardest to remember every encounter you had. A deep sigh escaped your mouth once you realised you couldn’t pinpoint the exact number. “I’m sorry. I’m sure it is around ten classmates but it could be like eight or twelve too.”

“Even eight classmates with their parents are quite a lot. If someone knew of that they would have the perfect opportunity to strike.”

“What do you mean?” Dread settled in your stomach as you listened to Johnny, fearing the worst already.

“A pet fair doesn’t have the same security level as our prestigious academy. If they have any security at all.” Johnny stopped in front of a vent. He had no time to explain how he, as a supposed psychiatrist, knew how to sneak into a building but he would worry about an excuse after they got Ari again.

You stood next to him, watching him silently as he pulled a pocket screwdriver out of his wallet and skillfully loosened the screws of the vent. Personally, you would have chosen a much rougher version of getting inside but you couldn’t let Johnny see that version of yourself. You were supposed to be a doting housewife after all.

Johnny crawled into the vent first and helped you inside afterwards. He silently navigated the way through the narrow space. After a while Johnny stopped. He pointed at his ear and then ahead of himself, hoping you’d understand his message before he continued to move ahead.

Both of you stopped at an opening, seeing the pet fair in front of you - except the people were missing. The only thing they heard were the various amounts of pets playing, whining, yipping or squeaking.

“Where’s everyone?” You whispered under your breath, fearing even that volume would be too much and reveal your position.

Johnny shrugged with his shoulders and started unscrewing the opening. Once he stepped outside he helped you too and placed the opening back to hide their tracks. 

Now that you two stood upright you were able to oversee the whole fair. There was a double door leading to the private rooms, which didn’t seem guarded.

You pulled at Johnny’s sleeve and pointed towards the seated crowd at one corner of the fair. The people anxiously looked towards the both of you but didn’t dare to make a move or a sound. 

The moment of confusion vanished the second you two heard a threatening growl behind you. “Trained dogs”, Johnny mumbled and pulled you behind him. He slowly backed away from the dogs while his gaze roamed around the area, hoping to find something useful.

Alerted from the growls, two more large dogs showed up baring their teeth. They pushed you towards the group of hostages, where a fourth guard dog was waiting.

“What are we going to do?” Your eyes darted over the crowd, noticing how none of the children were there. Anger and worry flared up inside of you, picturing the worst happening to Ari. Without hesitation you grabbed the strap of your purse and slapped it across the nuzzle of one of the dogs. “Bad dog!”

Johnny stared at you for a moment, stunned you moved out of the hiding spot behind him and actively attacked trained guard dogs.

You swiftly moved out of the way as one dog jumped forward and slammed the back of your hand on the back of the dog’s head, knocking it out in the process. “You will not keep me away from my little Ari!”

Johnny followed suit and helped you knock out the remaining dogs. As soon as he deemed the threat being taken care of he turned to the crowd. After a few questions to gather a little more intel Johnny guided the group to the exit, letting them go and asking them to notify the police.

You on the other hand couldn’t care less about these people. You simply walked towards the double doors, pushing them open and finding yourself in a long hallway that spread out to both sides with several more rooms.

“My papa and mama will be coming and saving all of us!” 

Your head snapped towards the direction of Ari’s voice. You hurried towards it but Johnny grabbed your arm and pulled you back again, placing one finger over his lips. 

Both of you listened to the conversation. The booming voice of a male sent chills down your spine. “Your parents are paying a hefty sum to buy your freedom, let alone their own freedom. Don’t be so cocky about having rich parents!”

“They will come here and hit you like kawoom!”

“That’s enough from you!”

You flinched upon hearing the slap. Before Johnny could hold you back, you slammed the door open. Your eyes quickly scanned the room, seeing all the children huddled in one corner and Ari crouching at the front.

As she looked up with teary eyes, holding her stinging cheek, you could only see red. You threw your purse at the back of the head from the man, getting his attention immediately.

“What the-” He growled threateningly and stormed towards you. His large hands were about to grab you when you dropped down and punched him in the gut, making him double over. You stepped back and watched him go down on his knees before you roundhouse kicked him in the face.

Johnny stared at you with wide eyes. He knew you could be dangerous but he never expected to witness something like this. He actually questioned himself when you snapped out of this rage mode and hurried over to Ari, being back to the sniffling and crying mess he had encountered first.

“What is going on here?”

You quickly pushed Ari behind you and turned around, ready to charge at the new threat at any given moment. 

Though when you turned around you saw Johnny already dodging the first punch. His fighting style contradicted yours in any possible way. While you went straight for the target and created the most damage while doing that, Johnny played with his target - taunting and teasing his opponent until they made a mistake. 

You were most destructive on a physical level but Johnny included mind games, making him most destructive on a psychological level.

Johnny hit his opponent on the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious. With an amused exhale Johnny turned back to you and Ari. He crouched down next to you, his eyes locked with yours until Ari pushed herself between you two.

“Are you hurt?” He asked and cupped her cheek softly, frowning as he still saw the imprint from the slap Ari received earlier. Yet she still shook her head and gleamed up at him.

“I knew you were coming! I told everyone my mama and papa would save us!”

“You were so brave”, you whispered and wrapped your arms around Ari, holding her tightly, “so, so brave.”

Ari grabbed Johnny’s hand and pulled him into the embrace as well, giggling in satisfaction when he hugged both of you. 

“I’m proud of you”, he added as he leaned down and kissed Ari’s forehead.

“Of mama too!”

You were about to protest when Johnny grabbed your chin and turned your face towards his. “I’m proud of you too”, he said firmly and pecked your cheek, smirking upon your flustered state.

Ari turned to look at you with a knowing glint in her eyes. “Of papa too”, she simply stated and waited for you to act on it.

You swallowed nervously and your gaze dropped to his lips for a split second. “Of course we’re proud of you too”, you said, trying to sound as firmly as Johnny did before but failing miserably once you giggled nervously.

“They’re here!”

Both you and Johnny spun around highly alert again, only to relax when several police officers came into the room. You pulled Ari into your arms, carrying her as Johnny guided you out of the way, still shielding the both of you protectively. 

As the police officers arrested the criminals and guided the children back to their parents, the three of you stayed back.

“We still haven’t found a pet for you”, you remembered out loud with a hint of regret, “and I don’t think the fair will continue today.”

Ari snickered in your hold and carefully opened the jacket she wore. “I found a pet, mama.” A white ball of fur peaked its head out from the jacket, the black nose curiously wiggling around as it sniffed the air. “Can I keep it?”

“We still need to officially adopt it”, Johnny told her, patting her head with a soft smile. “Lead the way to where you got it from and then all of us can go back home.”

You let Ari back down onto her own two feet, watching her skipping happily towards the door. Your focus on the small child only wavered when Johnny grabbed your hand again and pulled you to his side.

“I think you forgot something.”

You stared at him with wide eyes, feeling the panic rise inside of you again while your mind frantically rummaged through your memories. 

“You were proud of me”, Johnny teased you with an expectant look. He watched realisation hit you before it got replaced with your nervousness again. “Can you say it again?”

You inhaled deeply, trying to calm your pounding heart. “I am proud of you”, you said and looked into Johnny’s eyes.

A smirk played over his features as he cupped your face and pulled you in for a kiss, sealing his emotions for you and for Ari with it.

“Mama, papa! Hurry up!”

Reluctantly Johnny broke the kiss again, his eyes searching yours. “We should go before Ari disappears again.”

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