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It was an average day at the orphanage; Some of the more explosive imps were setting off fireworks and various amounts of dynamite, some of the Girl Scouts keep others out of the kitchen as they baked their twelfth batch of cookies for the day, some imps just played around and explored every crook and nanny around the orphanage, and some stayed close to the Nanny as they all huddled to watch the latest episode of a popular kids TV show titled: Hero Adventures!
Though, the imps on the couch and gathered around Nanny– one wore a jacket and tight pants, she was called Slick Imp, one wore a teal dress and skirt, called Teal Imp, one wore a simple red and white striped sweater and matching pants, named Striped Imp, and the last one wore a button vest with trousers, named Causal Imp– were less focused on the show and more interested in Nannys relaxed, almost cat-like smile. She wore that smile for more than a few months now, and if they were all being honest, it kinda scared them. While Nanny wasn't one for cheery smiles or genuine laughter –not any that the imps knew about anyway– it was always a nice thing to see Nanny smiling down at them or hanging out with Rustbolt from time to time, a way to tell the imps that somewhere, deep down, The Nanny truly did experience joy and happiness that was usually buried deep by stress, money problems, and problems with being overworked.
The Nanny never wanted them to catch on to how much stress she was under, and how expensive the supplies for taking care of hundreds and hundreds of imps were, but they caught on anyway. They heard her cry to someone –someone that sounded like the lady on the news station from ZCorp, the one who always had a navy blue suit on– about the situation while on the phone months ago, and suddenly she was happier when she got more toys, food, drinks, and gifts for the imps. But the joy of it didn't last long, something had happened, the money and gifts stopped coming in after a while, Nanny was more quiet, constantly trying to wipe something off her cheek that the imps couldn't see, constantly looking herself in the mirror with a glare the imps were used to getting in the past and always trying to make sure her robe was secure, so that her chest and thighs weren't visible or easy to access. The imps weren't stupid, they knew something had happened, something bad, but they never found out what that was.
It didn't really matter though, Nanny was happy again, but the four imps gathered near Nanny grew worried. Worried that it would repeat again; Nanny was sad about something, someone helps, something bad happens, Nanny acts differently and strange, repeat. They didn't want it to happen again, it was already scary to see that happen once. The four imps glanced at each other warily before gazing up at The Nanny, all zipping their eyes to the TV when Nanny glanced down at them with a raised eyebrow. Nanny continued to stare at them before letting out a deep sigh, standing up straight and crossing her arms, the cigarette in her mouth having been burned out already.
"Alright, what's the deal with you kids?" She asked pointedly, voice raspy yet still somehow.. gentle? Slick Imp squirmed in her seat for a minute, all of them did, actually. Afraid to either anger The Nanny or possibly learn she was going through something like her last 'relationship' again. Nanny continued to stare at them before shrugging, accepting the fact that she may not get an answer from the imps, which was odd since they usually loved to talk and ask her questions. The Nanny took the cigarette out of her mouth and blew the smoke out in quick puffs, stretching and standing up from the couch, patting the dust out of her fluffy, grayish pink robe.
"Where are you going?" Slick Imp asked before any of the other imps could ask first. Nanny blinked, turning her head towards the imp while putting the cigarette back into her mouth. Her face grew slightly nervous, glancing off to the side for a second before focusing on the space above Slick Imp.
"Just going to see a, friend. Nothing you little devils need to worry about," She said quickly before taking to cigarette out of her mouth –puffing out a smoke while grabbing the side of her bathrobe with one hand– and speed-walked out of the living room, walking up the multiple stairs towards her room and shutting the door loudly. The imps on the couch stared up at the silver staircase before all staring at each other in pure confusion. The others imps around the TV also looked confused at The Nannys behavior, the last time she seemed that happy she– Oh no..
"Are we, gonna check if she's okay or..?" Teal Imp asked, drawing out the 'or' as she gazed at the other imps.
"I don't know, she's so.. happy right now, but it feels weird that she's being so, weird about it!" Causal Imp commented, throwing his hands in the air and letting them flop down as the other imps, including the ones around the TV, nodded in agreement.
"Yeah.. It's so strange! What if she gets hurt again like last time?!" Striped Imp yelled before they were shoved to the side by Slick Imp. "We have to follow her! Who knows what the person she's seeing is gonna do to her!"
There was an ear-piercing chorus of agreement as most, if not all, of the orphanage imps wanted to watch The Nanny go about the day to see if she was actual seeing someone again. They all froze when Nanny walked out of her room and stared down at them with a raised eyebrow, her curly burgundy hair also looked more.. cleaner? What was she– No, who was she going to meet that needed her to pat her hair down?
The Nanny just stared at them with a confused expression before shaking her head and walking downstairs, muttering something along the lines of, "What is it with kids these days?" She slammed the double doors that belonged to the orphanage and said nothing but a curt "Stay safe and don't do anything stupid," to the imps. The imps just stayed silent and still for a few moments before the four imps that were previously on the couch with Nanny awkwardly opened the door.
They all waited until Nanny seemed far away enough to not see them coming before they all ran out of the orphanage like a wild bull stampede. They were determined to figure out who it was that Nanny was seeing, and if they had good intentions with her, they would not let anything bad happen to her ever again!
A few dozen imps carefully watched for the familiar grayish-pink robe that belonged to their Nanny. They were in a large grocery stores, specifically Zom-Mart, one of the biggest grocery stores to ever exist! One Sneaky Imp called for the others to come to them as they had spotted Nanny walking up and down the meat section, looking for a specific type of meat, eyeing each and every single variety carefully.
"Since when did she ever like meat? I thought she only ate cigarettes!" One of the imps whispered, all of them trying not to fall and ruin their cover. The other imps looked at Adventure Imp with an eyebrow raised, before they all shrugged and agreed.
"Shhh!! She's saying something!" A Yeti Imp hissed, pointing at The Nanny as she held up several packages of meat, inspecting each one carefully while mumbling something under her breathe. The imps lean closer, almost falling off the top of the shelf and onto Nanny in process.
”No, she doesn’t this kind, I think..? I think she would like this.. maybe, hmm,” She kept saying stuff like this under her breathe before shrugging and throwing every package of meat back into the freezer, except for the one that looked like a steak, "Yeah, she'd like this, especially Wolfy, cute little wolf," Nanny muttered, a small blush appearing on her face as if she was remembering something– or thinking of someone. The imps looked at each other with raised eyebrows. The person she was seeing owned a wolf?! She was definitely going to hurt at this rate!
All the imps ontop of the shelf shuffled or ran to keep with the Nanny's surprisingly fast yet calm pace. As she was entering another aisle–It was called Fruits & Vegatables– The Nanny suddenly paused, which made all the imps ontop of the Freezer Aisle and the other imps ontop of the other aisles, freeze in place. The Nanny looked behind her, before glancing up at the top of the shelves, eyes widening at first before quickly returning to their usual half-lidded expression. The Nanny just pinched the bridge of her nose with a groan of clear disappointment, her magenta eyes flicking from the ground to the imps as she removed her hand from her place and just began staring blankly at everything in front of her.
"Go home. Now," She demanded bluntly, squeezing the package of meat tightly in her hand. All the imps looked at each other again, and slowly began to climb down the shelves and back away from The Nanny, who seemed much more interested in staring blankly ahead of her. Okay, so they didn't get very far with following her to the grocery store, but they'll surely learn who it is she's seeing in a few minutes, right?
Of all the places the imps could've guess she was going next, not a single one of them would've guessed that she was going to an art store. They didn't even bother reading the sign that said the name of the place, they all just rushed in there and hide in random places whenever she went into the aisles. She was searching for something specific, a Zom-Mart bag on her arm, none of them had any idea what kind of toy she was looking for, just that she was looking for a very specific one.
"Hey, mis– Uh, sir..? I– Hey, can you help me with something?" Her rapsy voice rang out as she walked towards the store owner. The store owner, named Oscar, who was a deep forest green color and had two-toned green lips, was wearing a virbant, very clearly 90s-inspirsed alt outfit–A short, purple (with both light pinkish-purple and dark indigo stripes and matching ruffles) sleeveless crop top was their top layer, which was connected at the center via a clip-on that looked like a bolt, while she wore a dark blue turtle neck underneath, Oscar also had a few small purple pearls that surrounded a blue gem in the middle. He also had a virbrant, striped orange, brown, and dark orange long-sleeve top, connected with a clip-on that looked like a bolt. They had baggy, blue denim jeans with purple star patterns on the bottom, and a dark fabric waistband, quite literally underneath the waistband was a purple section that ended at his thighs. She also wore dark purple boots, and had messy divine damson colored hair with copper brown, cocoa brown, and faded terracotta color all around, his hair tied up in a similar fashion to braids or locs.
"Yeah?" Oscar asked, putting a hand on his hip as their dark olive eyes kept flickering from her to the couple of imps hiding in her products. Oscar just blinked before rolling his eyes, as long as those imps didn't destroy any of the products they worked so hard on –to the point that she was staying up multiple nights to make, so set on making each of them perfect in their own way that Violin, their roommate, and Sushi, the cat that kept following Violin and sneaking in to Violins house, which was basically Oscar's house too, to the point that they just adopted the feral cat, it was cute anyway) started to force them to go to bed and sleep.
"Is there any, like, wolf craving or whatever the fuck they're called nowadays, in this place? Can't really find any. Oh, and can I smoke inside of here? I'm itching to smoke right now," Nanny asked, almost letting out a deep cough but thankfully covering her mouth before she did so. Oscar cocked her head to side for a minute, eyeing the pack of cigarettes in her hand before glancing towards the air vents close by. Eventually they just shrugged, adjusting his necklace a bit as his eyes went from wide to a half-circle, her mouth in a similar shape to an upside V.
"Yeah, you can smoke here, just stay by the air vents while I look for the thing you're looking for," They began walking to an aisle before something made them pause and turn her hesd towards The Nanny, making the imps freeze in place, "I'll get candles too so all that smoke doesn't seep into this place, some cigarettes are very strong in that regard," They also murmered, "God fucking damn, everyone can tell when cigarettes seep into something," before heading into the last aisle.
Nanny shrugged and calmy walked towards the air vent, leaning against the wall and gingerly lit up her cigarette, her eyes narrowing a bit due to the heat coming from the lighter. The Nanny shoved the lighter back into her robe, she inhaled the first drag of the cigarette, her cheeks hallowing slightly, before calmly exhaling the grey, ashy smoke, her shoulders dropping slightly. The Nanny leaned her head back slightly, staring up at the metal vents that were connected to almost every single piece of metal inside the the shop.
She eventually leaned her head back down to gaze at the checkered floor, her eyes flicking from the floor to her cigarette constantly. The imps simply watched as she took another drag from her cigarette and blew out smoke, tapping her foot against the floor as she continued to wait for the shop owner to come back. Some of the imps wriggled out of their hiding spots to see what was taking that store owner so long! One of them spotted a loose vent and tried to quietly tear out the vent with the help of some other imps, but all froze when the vent cover flew into the air and embedded itself into the wall right next to Nanny, earning a terrified scream from her.
"What the fuck?!" She screeched, turning her entire body away from the vent cover and making the other customers in the far back of the store jump. Oscar almost immediately slammed their office door open, almost crushing a few of the imps, while holding a bunch of candles and a gray wolf figurine in his other hand. Oscar glanced at the imps gathered near the vent for a second, his eyes half-lidded in a visible tired and bored expression before rolling her eyes and speed-walking towards The Nanny. The two of them bumped into each other, as Nanny began walking towards the last aisle to see if the store owner was still there. Oscar jumped a little before letting out a small sigh of relief and giving the grey wolf figurine to The Nanny.
"Saw this little guy next to candles when I went into my office to get candles, hehe," They chuckled, a cat-like friendly smile on her lips. Nanny smiled at him, giving him a warm "Thank you," and looked down at the wolf figurine with a small, almost teary glimmer in her eyes. Oscar turned their head towards the imps and then turned their head back towards The Nanny at the same time Nanny glanced back at him and had one eyebrow cocked and the other tilted downwards.
"Wait, is your office door nearby the last aisle or something–"
"Are those your imps?" Nanny was interrupted by Oscar pointing towards the imps behind him with her thumb, making The Nanny's eyes go wide for a second and shove Osca off to the side to glare directly at the imps, who just stood still nervously as some waved at her. Nanny let out a bewildered stammer, waving her hands around wildly –Oscar flinched back and turned his body away from the waving cigarette– before glaring straight at the imps and pointing towards the door, her arm shaking violently.
"Home. Now!" The imps immediately ran towards the door, leaving little clouds in place of what they used to be. Oscar blinked and shrugged, walking to her desk and lighting up the candles, humming a random classic tune. Nanny let out a deep sigh and placed money atop Oscar's desk before walking out, putting the figurine in her bathrobe and walking back towards the orphanage. The imps followed her close behind, disappearing from sight when Nanny glanced behind her.
Nanny just sighed, crossing her arms and tapping the lit cigarette on her arm, the ash leaving a small, invisible trail behind her. She wondered why the imps were suddenly so, protective over her all of the sudden! She couldn't wrap her head around it, sure she got hurt before and the imps had to bare witness to the aftermath, but she was an adult! She could handle herself, and she was already seeing someone better than that fucking news reporter..
The Nanny rolled her eyes, taking another drag from her cigarette and blowing out the smoke carelessly. One of the imps almost coughed but their mouth was covered quickly. Nanny stopped when she spotted a flower shop, burned out her cigarette on her robe, placed it in her mouth, chewed it and swallowed, and walked inside with a small smile. The imps all looked at each other, extremely confused. Since when did Nanny like flowers? The imps stayed near the side of the shop, not daring to go in there in fear that The Nanny will explode upon seeing them not at home again. So, all they did was wait for a bit as Nanny inspected the flowers inside.
Nanny hummed as she ran her fingers through the leaves on the pink roses, humming gently as she gazed at all the flowers. Her gaze fell on some blue roses nearby, her shoulders shook slightly at the sight of them. She felt.. trapped, like they were hands reaching for her when the color blue caught her attention. She felt someone clawing at her thighs, felt an icy cold kiss on cheek that she couldn't wipe off, felt someone kissing and biting at her neck, someone touching every single part of–
Her gaze fell on the brown wildflowers behind the blue roses, and her breathe calmed a little. She stood up slightly and released her grip on her bathrobe,–she didn't even realize she was holding her bathrobe so tightly– walking to caress the wildflowers gingerly. She hummed a bit, a small smile forming on her lips as she carefully plucked the wildflowers from their place and did the same to the pink roses. Gathering an armful amount of each and taking them to the shop owner. The shop owner gave her the receipt and handed her a bouquet of the two flowers. Humming a small, gentle tune, she picked up the bouquet and walked out of the shop and towards the orphanage, the imps following close behind.
The imps all groaned as they arrived at the orphanage. Nanny just rolled her eyes and walked towards the garden outside, the bag in her arm shaking gently. The imps that were on the couch at the beginning all laid down in their respective spots with a frown.
"Ugh! We followed her everywhere and we still don't know who's she's seeing!" Causal Imp exclaimed, waving his hand in the air. The other imps just shouted out their own complains, all worried that Nanny might get hurt because they didn't do a good enough job at trying to guess who's she's seeing. Teal imp just covered her ears and walked out of the orphanage, stomping her feet of the ground in annoyance. When she was out the door, she slammed it shut and began picking at the small weeds that were growing in the small garden they had.
She hummed quietly as she picked up a dandelion and blew it, wishing that Nanny would be safe with whoever she was seeing. Teal Imp smiled and placed the dandelion down, letting the breeze take the stem away. Her gaze locked on Nanny walking into the forest. Teal Imp tilted her head and ran after Nanny, holding her dress up. She followed as Nanny carefully walked a trail and slide down any rocks that were in her way.
Eventually, Nanny stopped as a spot which had a picnic cloth over the grass, sat down, threw the bag down, and just sat there patiently for a while, all while Teal Imp waited as well. The bushes around the Nanny rustled a bit, causing both zombies to perk up and look towards the sound. Teal Imp covered her mouth to prevent a scream from escaping her as she saw a wolf jump at The Nanny followed by someone else –someone who looked like they had much more muscles, was bigger, had so many scars on her, and had big, messy dark burgundy hair– who made Teal Imp let out a small shriek before running back towards the orphanage to warn all the others and help Nanny before it was too late.
Nanny laughed as Wolfy licked her face repeatedly, her tail wagging happily as she also nuzzled Nannys face repeatedly. Hunterria let out a chuckle and sat down on the picnic cloth, placing her makeshift axe down, “Wolfy! Hunterria knows you are excited to see Annabelle again, but please get off of her.” Wolfy whined at that, stopped licking, and got off of Nanny. Nanny sat up and let out a chuckle as she wiped off Wolfys saliva, and just patted the fluffy gray wolf on her head, causing her tail to wag wildly around.
Nanny chuckled, let go and walked towards the bag, pulling out the steak and throwing it towards the wolf, accidentally throwing it into a few bushes nearby, causing Wolfy to jump up and down, and nuzzle the ground for a second before running and tearing into the piece of meat. Both Hunterria & Nanny laughed at that before Nanny sat down next to Hunterria, kissing her cheek and causing the general to blush.
"Aww, you're such a nervous wreck whenever I kiss you," Nanny commented, gently squeezing Hunterrias cheeks and tilting the general's head here and there. Hunterria whined a little and smiled down at The Nanny, placing a hand on her thigh, and pulled back slightly when Nanny flinched. Nanny let go of Hunterria and simply leaned on Hunterria's shoulder, smiling as Hunterria leaned her head down ontop of Nannys head, tangling both their own hair a bit.
Nanny chuckled as she removed the towel from her head, letting her long, curly burgundy hair flow freely, and threw it atop of the shopping bag, eyes going wide as she realized something, "Oh! I almost forgot, like a fucking dumbass.. Aha! Here ya go, I got it for you."
Nanny gave Hunterria a cat-like smile as she held up the wold figurine with both hands, pulling it from her bathrobe. Hunterrias eyes went wide and she took the figurine gently, gazing at it with wide, dark maroon pupils, gently grazing her fingers over it. Nanny felt some sweat flow down her face as she awaited Hunterrias verbal response to the gift, hoping that she didn't hate it. Hunterria gingerly placed the figurine down and turned to face The Nanny, a blush covering her face.
"Do.. you like it?" Nannys gazs flicked to the floor for a second. Hunterria leaned closer to The Nanny, causing Nanny to nearly flinch back for a second, she hated that, she knew Hunterria wouldn't hurt her like.. that fucking news reporter did..
"Hunterria loves it!" Hunterria yelled, hugging Nanny tightly. Nanny let out a wheeze and blushed, "Annabelle is very sweet and kind! Hunterria will always love Annabelle!"
"Stop!" Nanny yelled, causing Hunterria to let her go, blushing over her real name being used.
Hunterria chuckled, "What? Annabelle is such a cute and wonderful name for you," her smile turned into a grin when Nnany whined, "Annabelle is so cute and smart, and pretty, and.."
Nanny cocked an eyebrow at Hunterria when she stopped suddenly, and looked as if the sun itself was in her face by the way she was blushing, "What? Why'd ya– Oh." Nanny looked down at herself and realized that because Hunterria had let go of her and had been lightly holding Nanny a few inches of the ground, when she had been let go it caused her bathrobe to loosen up a little. Which meant both her breats and folds were exposed, due to one of her legs being flat down while the other was slight raised up, to the general in front of her. Hunterria yelped and turned her body away from The Nanny, covering her eyes quickly while rapidly apologizing to her.
"Hunterrias s–so sorry! Hunterria didn't mean to do that, I swear! Hunt– Hunterria didn't realize that I was holding you up that high!" Hunterria continued to ramble until she heard The Nanny chuckle loudly.
"Don't– Don't be worried about that! It's fine, promise!" Nanny continued to chuckle as she moved to lay on her side, not bothering to pull her bathrobe up. Hunterria removed her hand from her eyes and looked down at Nanny with an awkward smile, lightly laughing along with her. Hunterria moved to sit down beside the laughing Nanny and waited until The Nanny was done laughing to finish apologizing.
"Hunterria is truly sorry, didn't mean to accidentally open Annabelles bathrobe like that," Nanny waved her hand dismissively at he general, smirking at her as she put her hand down and sat up.
"It's fine, nothing to worry about.. come here," Nanny gently pulled Hunterrias mask off, revealing a slightly scarred face and a blushing general gazing down at her. Nanny blushed, cupped Hunterrias cheeks and pulled her down, kissing her gently. Hunterria flinched back slightly before putting her hands on Nannys back and kissing her as well, both of their eyes closed. Hunterrias leaned back, causing the two to fall and have Nanny ontop of Hunterria, cutting their kiss abruptly. Both chuckled at that, both gazing at each other softly.
"Do.. does Nanny want to–"
"Sure. Why not?" Hunterrias face was completely red, as Nanny smiled down at her and began to slowly take her bathrobe off–
"I knew it! You are seeing someone!" Nanny and Hunterria snapped their heads towards the noise and saw multiple imps looking at them. Nanny yelped and fell over, covering her breasts with her arm and holding her bathrobe down with her other hand, groaning as she hit the ground. Hunterria sat up quickly, cocking an eyebrow at the imps. Nanny stood up behind her, her bathrobe secure tight, her face on the verge of yelling. Wolfy came running out of the bushes and skiddled to a halt next to Nanny, her head cocked to the side as she observed the imps. All the imps jumped back slightly as the arrival of Wolfy, but leaned forward to observe the wolf.
"What are you all doing here?!" Nanny yelled, helping Hunterria up and pushing the general behind her. The imps all flinched back, making Nannys face fall a bit and sigh, shaking her head slightly.
"Well.. We wanted to know if you were safe and if you were seeing someone.. that's all..," Teal Imp spoke up, fumbling with her dress as the imps all agreed and fumbled with their own things. Nanny just let out another deep sigh, as Hunterria waved at the imps and Wolfys sat down and let her tail wag behind her. Both Nanny & Hunterria smiled when the imps all went 'awww!' when Wolfy stood up again and nuzzled herself against both Nanny and Hunterria.
"Thanks for being worried about me, but I'm the adult, I'll be fine," Nanny paused, "I'll always be fine."
The imps all looked at each other and looked at Hunterria and Wolfy suspiciously, they all seen the two around the orphanage before, but they were still suspicious about the two being near Nanny. Nanny smiled, her kids just wanted her to be safe.
"Well, since you've found out, this is Hunterria and this is Wolfy, my girlfriend and her beloved wolf."
"Girlfriend?" "Pet wolf?!" "You like girls?" "Awwwh!! Does the wolf have pups?"
Nanny and Hunterria chuckled at the questions.
"Yes, I have a girlfriend, yes I like girls. Thought that was obvious, to be honest.." Nanny answered. Hunterria moved to stand next to Nanny.
"Hunterria does have a 'pet' wolf. Wolfy does have pups, Wolfy is taking good care of them." All the imps gave 'awww's at that and ran over to Wolfy, who barked and let the imps climb, ride, and chase after her when she ran with the imps away from Nanny and Hunterria, and straight towards the orphanage.
Nanny and Hunterria both laughed as the imps chased after Wolfy. Nanny blushed when Hunterria leaned down and gave her a kiss on the peck, whining a little when Hunterria commented how cute she looked.
"Does Annabelle want to go back to the orphanage?"
".. Sure why not? I love you, y'know that?"
Hunterria blushed at that, leaning down to nuzzle Nanny, purring as they both nuzzled each other, "Hunterria loves Annabelle too."
With that, they ran after the imps, chuckling all the way. It felt nice to be open about her new relationship to her kids, it really did.