Mimi's Demons

Chapter 100: Minion Care 101

Thus, Mimi found herself leading her grand total of two minions into her favorite courtyard with a box of chocolate Teddygrahams under her arm. Omen trailed behind them in a particularly shiny, satin pink turban and tie.

"What kind of exercise do you get, Bilo?" she asked as she eyed the perfectly manicured grass for a spot to sit. Just as she paused, Juli rushed forward with a blanket she didn't remember him holding. He'd been getting noticeably better at this 'minion' thing lately.

"I get regular training in martial arts that include strength and cardio conditioning." He said it as though repeating a memorized line.

She eyed the bony wrists peeking through the cuffs of his button up again.

"Well, obviously you aren't eating enough." She pushed the box of Teddygrahams to his chest.

Bilo stiffened as though the box were the barrel of a gun.

"What! No way, you never share those no matter how much I beg, and now you're giving it to the spoiled noob?" Juli squawked, a corner of the checkered quilt still in hand.

"Sugar is bad for you skin," she said.

"Like you care! You're just stingy!"

"Juli," she turned her head just right to give the to-the-side, nose-up glare she'd been practicing that had worked a charm in getting him to clean up dead birds. "Sit down and shut up."

He did so. Promptly. Scowling.

Bilo had yet to take the Teddygrahams. She nudged them into his chest again.

"Take. Eat. It's not what you obviously need, but any calories are good right now. You look like a skeleton."

He took the box. But he didn't open it until she'd had him sit down on the blanket too and stared at him until he did.

The first chocolate teddy touched his tongue. His eyes widened. Then he melted.

It made Mimi's chest hurt.

Without thinking about it, she reached out to the much taller Bilo and patted his black hair. He flinched at her touch.

"I'm sorry," she said, quietly.

He didn't ask what for. But his chin dimpled up and his eyes watered. As though it could stop him from crying, he took a fistful of teddies and stuffed them in his mouth.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," said Juli churlishly. "Even I had to get training. Dad made me practice shooting till my shoulders would cramp up and one time he took me to a meeting that ended up in a shoot out just to give me 'real world experience.'" The bitterness in his voice could have peeled someone's skin. "The boss is doing him a favor, and he isn't like you, Mimi."

"What's that suppose to mean?" she pulled her hand from patting Bilo's head to look at him.

"Ranks. Duh. You're a princess. He's just some loser scum, lower than even me. I'm the right hand man, I'm useful to you. All he's good for is being some bodyguard grunt."

"Not true," said Bilo through a mouthful of teddies. "I—I can do more."

"You don't have to do more," said Mimi with a roll of her eyes. "You're a kid."

"Mimi," Juli's exasperation was practically a shout. "You're just making it worse."

She threw down her hands in frustration. "Fine! For right now he can be just a kid, okay? At least give me that!"

Juli matched her glare, only for his expression to fall into a sigh.

"I'm just telling you for your own good," he said, almost looking hurt. "You know my whole purpose in life is looking out for you, right? Boss?"