Out of all the things I would forget to take into account, it was the replica of the bloody smiley pin on my vest used to commemorate one of our fallen comrades, Kristoff. It had been there ever since I put it on and as unbelievable as that would sound, I fucking forgot about it.
But yeah, Kuzma seeing it on me was like an activation codeword for a secret spy of sorts because he lunged at me and demanded an answer right this instant.
Jesus wanted us to be a little discreet with my connection to him from Jonathan but I guess that plan went out the shitter.
And the man himself, Jonathan, who surprisingly had some say in his actions tried to wave him down, "Kuzma! That's our dear guest! Get off him!"
Kuzma let go of me but kept staring me down as he replied to Jonathan, "B-But that pin—"
"What's a bloody pin good for?! Huh?! A pin's a pin! Unless—"
Allie cut in, "Daddy! I think K-Kuzma recognized it from somewhere!"
Jonathan rubbed his chin as he stared at me, "Curious... Well, I don't want to beat around the bush anymore because I'm curious so can either of you enlighten us?"
"..."
"..."
The two of us didn't say a word while our eyes were still in a deadlock but Jonathan ran out of patience as he slammed on the table.
"KUZMA! YOU OWE ME YOUR FUCKING LIFE SO 'FESS UP! WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE STUPID FUCKING PIN?!"
It took everything for Kuzma to turn his head to Jonathan but then he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down before speaking in a respectful manner, "I-I'm sorry... sir. That pin—no, I'm not even sure if that's the exact one but I have a friend—"
Then Jonathan's eyes lit up for the wrong reasons, "Another Russian friend, perhaps?! That's amazing! That's— Kuzma, stop confusing me! Does that kid even look a semblance of your heritage to you—"
I cut in before I jumped over this overlook, "It's a complicated but long story short, we have a... mutual... friend that wears a smiley pin just like this on his vest—"
Then Kuzma turned back to me with a totally opposite expression from earlier, "I FUCKING KNEW IT! T-Then... Are they here?! K-Kristoff and the rest... a-are they here?!"
At this point, I decided to carefully choose my words because the smallest of details about his comrade prompted such a reaction, what more could have happened if I told him that the specific person he was looking for was already dead?
But yeah, I figured that it would be better to show him instead of telling him so I led him along with the father and daughter over to my group who were either in the process of eating lunch or just chilling inside their vehicles.
Surprisingly enough, Tatiana who I thought would be neck-deep in food was actually sleeping and it was probably one of the reasons she wasn't able to hear the chants of Kuzma's name earlier.
Everyone else was just looking over the three people I brought over but I took it upon myself to knock on the window to wake up Tatiana.
*knock* *knock* *knock*
"Hey! Sin of Gluttony, wake up!"
No response.
*knock* *knock* *knock*
"I know you're not a deep sleeper, come on outside!"
There was no response once again, but I did see her move slightly.
*knock* *knock* *knock*
"TATIANA! KUZMA'S HERE—"
"As I said, I'm gonna mediate between you two and Mr. Cuervo—granted you sincerely apologize for what you did—and I'll give you twice—no, thrice the gifts I had on the duffel bag—except for the empty pill case and pet rock, of course—and I'll talk to him about incorporating what we just witnessed earlier to one of his event nights."
"..."
"Jonathan?"
"Oh. You're done?"
I chuckled dryly, "You actually want more?"
"Well, yeah? Of course, I want more! Incorporating the sport I created into his event will be nice but how are you gonna replace my fighter? Honestly speaking, he's the best one I got, and if I give him away, I'll only have one of the games to my name but I don't have a participant! That doesn't seem fair, don't you think? A life's a life but he's worth more than one, no?
Realistically speaking."
"..."
"Kid? Are you still there?"
I scratched the back of my head before I tried to dig for more info, "How did he owe you his life anyway?"
"Hah! Wouldn't you like to know?"
"I do, actually. If you'd like to do so, kindly—"
"HAH! KINDLY, HE SAYS!" Jonathan roared in laughter before smacking me by my shoulder a few times, "Kid, listen. I'm just playin' with you and you're earlier offer's enough."
"What? Seriously?"
"I just wanted a shot and for the first time since the world fucking ended, a young boy such as you could bend Cuervo's will and change his mind on things. Fuck it, you were even crowned the new head, right?! You see, that's my dream right there but those fucking bastards wouldn't even take a second look at me because... b-because of plenty of fucking reasons but anyway! How about this?
I know you'll be back to Cuervo Heights soon enough so could you let Kuzma enter the games under me a few times or until he snags a win so I could make that bastard's silly mustache quiver for just a little bit?"
I chuckled as I held out my hand, "Shake on it?"
"FUCK YEAH! Ah— Wait a sec—"
"What is it now?!"
Jonathan couldn't look me straight in the eye, "U-Umm... It's about D-Dave's car... S-Shit... H-He's gonna fucking kill me if he knew what h-happened to it..."
Allie cut in, "Ooh~ We totally forgot about that, Daddy! It's gonna be worse compared to me pegging you!"
'Wut???'
But Jonathan nodded seriously, "I agree... What—"
"W-What did you do to it anyway?" I leaned in because he was trying to make himself smaller and smaller.
Jonathan looked at me like he was about to tell me he ran over my dog but his mouth opened when he placed his hand over my shoulder, "W-We... I... I cut it in half and turned it into a sofa—"
"YOU DID WHAT?! JONATHAN! DAVE'S GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU KNOW THAT, RIGHT?! D-DID YOU SAVE THE ENGINE AT LEAST?!" Jesus roared in shock as he was about to have a heart attack.
Jonathan shook his head, "I-I have no more u-use for it so I threw it away—"
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Quinn suddenly popped out of nowhere ready to commit bloody fucking murder.