Tag smiled as he walked with Ginny, the tall Jerboa holding her hand as they strode through the park. "Y'know, this was nice."
The black rat smiled, an actually friendly one for a change. "Yeah, it was a good to get out for a while. No cases, no tracking anyone down, just getting out and walking around for a while."
"Well, I think you earned it." He moved his hand up to put it around her shoulders and pull her close. "Dinner was really good, too. I'm surprised you can cook so well."
She tilted her head, glancing up at him. "Oh?" She squinted her red eyes at him, and there was a note of suspicion in her voice.
He quickly explained. "I just mean, you don't really need to eat, right? Being all undead and whatnot. I thought you'd be at least rusty at it."
She huffed, her thick, furless tail swishing. "Hey, just because I don't need to doesn't mean I don't like to!" She looked away a bit, but he saw the blush on her cheeks. "Besides... it's nice to cook for someone else..."
Tag laughed a little. "I suppose so. I do appreciate it, too. Was lovely. But I'm easy to please with food." He grinned wide. "You know what they say: The key to a man's heart is his stomach."
She shook her head. "Ah, that's not the true key to a guy's heart!"
"Then what is?"
She reached into the pocket and pulled out an old fashioned iron key, holding it up for him to see. "This is. Here, lemme show you." She stepped around in front of him, pushing the key into his chest. There was no pain, but there was a click as she turned it. She opened his chest like a set of cabinet doors. "See?"
Looking down, he saw his heart sitting there by is lonesome, beating away. "Oh. Would you look at that."
His heart started to beat a little faster as she smiled up at him sweetly. She reached into her pocket again, this time pulling out a long, pink ribbon of silk. "Here." She wrapped it around the beating muscle, tying it into an ornate and pretty bow with deft fingers. "There you go! Now your heart is mine."
He laughed, reaching down to brush his fingers against her long face. "You didn't need to do that." She tilted her head up to look at him. "My heart was already yours." He leaned down, moving to kiss her. Then pain struck him, feeling her fingers around his heart as it beat even more wildly in her grip.
The undead rodent gave him a malicious yet somehow loving smile. "I meant I'm taking it." She pulled his heart out, holding it out to show it thumping in her hand. "Now you're undead, too."
He stared at the muscle, still beating as she held it. "Is that really how that works?"
Ginny nodded. "Yup!" She chucked the thing over her shoulder. "Now c'mere!" She grabbed his chest and dragged him close, pressing her lips to his, one leg going up to wrap around his waist and press herself as close as she could.
Tag gasped as he sat up, flinging covers off of himself in the process. He panted as he sat in the dark. His hands went up to his bare chest, feeling it was all where it should be. He blinked several times and looked around, though could not see much in the darkness. Reaching over, he flicked on the light beside him. He was in the bedroom at the back of his office, and very much alone. He looked over at the clock. 4:03am. He groaned, flopping back onto the bed. "What the hell was that...?" Unusual dreams were not uncommon to him, considering the kinds of psychic visions he was often thrust into. But this one was a new kind of messed up.
The P.I. sighed heavily, turning the light back off again to just lay in the dark. The image of Ginny holding his heart came back to his mind, though it quickly shifted to her leaning up to kiss him. Like he would ever date the psychotic partner of his. "I wonder of there's a therapist on staff at HQ..." He'll ask Dr. Sarah about that... tomorrow. After he gets to sleep. Hopefully, without the insane dreams this time...
Another quick and kind of silly story for thursdayprompt over on FA. Their prompt today was 'Key' and I thought of this. It's a quick crackfic featuring Tag and Ginny from my Noxumbra series. Despite being a crackfic, it might be canon... It slots nicely into a spot in Case 3... which is coming this Monday. ^_^
- - - - -
A massive thank you to my top tier subscribers: booleangemini352 | smeshnoymem | user: Anon | Sedyna | Jaffer Roshak
If you would like early access to stories, monthly commission raffles, and other bonus content, please consider subscribing to my SubscribeStar