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“Neal,” Peter asked, still shell shocked. “What the hell just happened?”
Neal just ignores him and continues with his muttering of increasingly disturbing death threats.
“What?” comes from a member of the bomb squad, “I thought Vivie was joking about Gothem.”
Another member broke into hysterical laughter “Never doubting her stories about her time there again. ‘Gothem has the weirdest bombs ever’ indeed.”
Neal sighed and walked out the door, purple glitter trailing behind him.
It was the glitter that jerked Peter out of his frozen shock. “What just happened? And what do you have to do with the Malones?”
Neal just sped up. Peter thought he was going to have a heart attack when Neal reached the stairs and started going down 3 at a time.
“Neal!” He called out as he sprinted to the staircase, “You aren’t getting out of this!” and a thought crossed his mind, “How do you know the Malones?”
Neal stepped down past the last couple of steps to the next floor. He paused, declaring over his shoulder, “I’m only going to have this conversation once,” before continuing at a slower rate.
“Fine.” Peter was just glad that Neal wasn’t going to break his neck going down the stairs.
When they got to the parking lot however, Peter was shocked to see that the remaining agents were setting up a decontamination shower. “What is with all this?”
The officer shrugged. “The Malones are from Gotham. The rules state that any contact with a gotham based substance necessitates a decontamination shower.”
Peter held back a groan, “It was a glitter bomb.” He couldn’t help his bristling as the other man raised a brow at him.
“That’s what the rules say.” the man repeats, “Besides, there could be something in the glitter.”
“You don’t believe that do you?”
The man shrugged, “Not really. Not worth the risk though.”
It was not worth the risk, but that doesn’t mean that Peter was happy about it. He also wasn’t happy about the wet glitter that was soaking into his car.
“I have no idea how much it’ll cost to get all this glitter out of here,” He complained to Neal as they headed back to the office, “And that’s if they will even take it because I know that some places refuse to deal with glitter.”
“Peter,” Neal said, “It’ll be fine, El will know a place. I can guarantee that she has dealt with this before.”
El would know. Event planning was awful, and someone was bound to make the mistake of covering everything in glitter. She would probably like to know about Neal’s kidnapping as well. Maybe she could help him make sense of it.
As soon as the two of them had gotten back to the office, they were led into the conference room where everyone else was waiting for them.
“Is there food?” Neal asked when he and Peter walked in, “Because I’m starving. Oh, thanks Di.”
“Not a problem.” Diana said as she settled back into her seat next to the pizza. “Now what happened with the bomb.”
“And is there glitter in your hair?” Jones asked, horror in his eyes, “Is that purple glitter?” he turned to Peter before jerking back, “Why do both of you have purple glitter in your hair?”
Neal calmly said, “It was a glitter bomb,” before taking a bite of his pizza.
Peter ignored Jones’s spluttering as he settled into a seat, “Now will you explain how you know the Malones?”
“And why Glitter?” Jones asked with a shiver. Peter quietly agreed that the word deserved the demonic undertone.
“Minnie,” Neal said, “is a big fan of glitter. Especially the purple kind.”
This perked Diana’s interest, “Minnie? Who is Minnie?”
“And what does this Minnie have to do with the Malones?” Peter’s eyes bore into Neal.
Who just shrugged it off like always. “First, you must know that it was years ago, and I never had any proof of anything.” Neal looked Peter in the eyes, “Now or then.”
Peter raised his brow, “This is not an encouraging start.” What was Neal leading them into now?
“I met Minnie while we were both in school.” Neal said, “We were into similar things and one thing after another, we started dating.”
Peter closed his eyes. Of course, this Minnie would be another thief like Kate or Alex. Was Neal attracted to anyone on the right side of the law?
He opened them as Neal continued, “We weren’t in quite the same crowd, she was more into the physical aspect than me, but it was close enough that it didn’t matter.” Neal took a breath, “But then the gangs started acting up.”
There was a flinch through the room. Peter opened his mouth to ask if this was where the Malones came in.
“Come on Peter. Minnie was involved with the gangs, not me.” Neal rolled his eyes, misinterpreting Peter’s question. “Anyways, I needed to skip town for a bit, so I wasn’t there for this but when I came back, I learned that Minnie had led a full-scale Gang War between all the gangs in the city.”
Peter had to hold himself back from gaping like Jones did.
“Right? So that’s not the kind of thing I want to deal with, and it startled Minnie too.” Neal looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing, “I don’t think she was expecting it to get so large. So, she went off to “Find herself” or something of that nature and we decided that we were better as friends. We still keep in touch.”
Peter waited for something to make it all make sense, but Neal refused to say more. He raised a hand to his temple, Peter said “While your relationship history is very interesting, what does it have to do with the Malones?”
Neal blinked, “Did I forget to say? She is Matches Malone’s niece.”
The entire room stared at him. Neal had the gall take another bite of his pizza.
Peter knew he had all the pieces, he just needed to put them together. There was Minnie Malone, Neal’s ex girlfriend; a kidnapping made to be as obvious as possible; the threat of a glitter bomb; and the color purple.
“Get some sleep,” Peter mumbled to himself. That was what the flag that had popped up said. What was it that Neal had said before getting up? Only emotional damage? “and you knew that it was safe.”
“Has Minnie done this before?” Peter asked Neal.
“Well, not this in particular, she’s not one to repeat herself.” At Peter’s glare Neal conceded, “But she has done similar things before.”
“Why does your ex feel the need to force you to get some sleep?”
Diana and Jones blinked. Their eyes went between Peter to where Neal was trying to hide his face in his hands.
“I might have had a problem with insomnia for a time when we were together. I was a teenager! It was fine, and I don’t do that anymore, so there was no need to do it this time.”
“Wait!” Jones said incredulously, “Are you saying that your ex kidnapped you and tied you to a bomb just to make you sleep?”
“It was a glitter bomb,” Neal protested, “but yes?”
“What was your sleep cycle like? That makes this seem like a rational response?” Diana asked.
Neal paused for a moment, “I don’t think you want the answer to that. And I’ve gotten better since I was a teenager!”
Peter was going to be more careful about the hours Neal put in. He was not going through this again just because Minnie thinks that Neal isn’t sleeping enough.
After that it was pretty much just paperwork for the rest of the day. There were a few idiots that tried to joke about Neal about needing to be kidnapped to get some sleep but they quieted with a glare or two directed at them.
Every now and then, Peter remembered Neal’s face as he said that he had dated a Mob Boss’s niece and got away with it. Got away with it was the wrong word, because as Peter dug deeper into the Malones the more it was clear that they would not let anyone get away with anything, but that he was close enough to them that they didn’t go after him. That they stayed in contact with him through it all.
Peter didn’t relax until it was time to go home. El would help him make sense of this.
Neal didn’t say anything while Peter told El about the kidnapping, just scratched Satchmo behind the ears.
“And then Neal says that his ex-girlfriend was Minnie Malone all along!” Peter finished, quietly wondering if he had pushed for this too soon.
And Peter knows that he left this in good hands because El set her cup down and turned to their friend, “So Neal,”
“Yes?” Neal gave her a weak smile.
It took Peter a moment to remember that he needed to give El a moment to work her magic. He returned to his drink, long forgotten with his story.
“Peter went on about how you had a history with the Malones, but I want to know your side.” El said, “What is Minnie like?”
Neal hummed for a moment, “Like a glitter bomb to the face.”
Peter choked.
El thumped him on the back until he could breathe again, “How so?”
“She comes out of nowhere, disrupts any plans you had, and” Neal let out a soft chuckle, “you can never get rid of her.”
El’s laughter joined Neal’s. She took a breath, wiping a tear from her eye, “Is that how the two of you met?”
“Close enough. It was a brick though.”
“A Brick!” Peter spluttered. Why would Neal date someone that hit him with a brick?
Neal just laughed like this wasn’t a perfectly reasonable question.