Soup and Sandwich

Synopsis: A fluff fanfic featuring Giovanni Potage and a young woman by the name of Samantha ‘Sam’ Marmalade who bears the epithet ‘sandwich’. Giovanni meets Sam at her day job at the local Burger Shack. Later on in the day, he accidentally bumps into her and discovers that she too, has an epithet as well as a terribly tragic backstory.

Chapter 1—Zing Go His Heart Strings

Even though the Arsene Amulet was long since gone out of the hands of the Banzai Blasters, Giovanni had found himself on the lamb and looking for a place to crash. He missed his old bed, and he especially missed his mom. Sure, she yelled at him but she didn’t have any idea what he had been up to. She just chalked it all up to his obsession for video games, cosplay, anime and comics. Giovanni remembered Molly.

‘I really hope that Bear Trap is alright.’, he thought to himself. He hadn’t seen her in such a long time, but he always kept an optimistic thought. Somehow, he knew they would see each other again. He really cared about her well-being and liked being her surrogate dad. It made him feel important and the fact that he could talk to her as an equal made him feel happy. He was his first real friend, other than Car Crash, or his own mom.

Giovanni’s stomach began to growl voraciously.

‘Shut up ! I know I haven’t fed you in days, but, I have to limit my paper trail...’, he thought to himself, patting his belly to stifle it. Luckily, there was a Burger Shack not too far from where he was.

‘Thank God. Salvation.’, he muttered. It took all his strength to keep himself from passing out but he managed to enter the fast food restaurant looking cool, composed, cocky and assured.

At the counter, there was a spellbinding blonde with violet eyes. She had cerulean streaks in her hair and neon yellow star earrings to match her bright attire. She loved to accessorize with rainbow colors and preferred cheery hues. He heard ‘Three Times a Lady’ resounding in his mind when he saw Samantha. She went by ‘Sam’ or ‘Sammy’. Her heart shaped birthmark was the piece de resistance in her artfully crafted frame. Each angle, each curve, to Gio, was absolutely perfect. As the song Judy Garland once sang that catapulted her to fame went, ‘zing went my heartstrings’.

Chapter 2—Play it Cool, Gio

Giovanni hadn’t been in love before, so he found himself tongue tied. In spite of that, he managed to introduce himself and hoped he would see Sam again. She managed to give him her number on a napkin Giovanni transferred to his cell phone. Luckily, his service plan was still working. He was working from a burner using an unknown name but he kept the mobile device charged and could call anyone just in case of emergency.

Giovanni felt his self confidence swelling. For the first time in his life, he actually had a girl’s number in his phone. The ladies had always liked him but due to being in the Banzai Blasters, he hadn’t really had much time for dating. Which brought him around to the whole idea of telling Sam about who he really was. In his plain clothes, there was no way she’d know who he truly was. Granted, Giovanni was a tremendous judge of character and he could sense she was trustworthy.

After eating, Giovanni freshened up and left to find a place where he could sleep for the night. Fortunately, he had located a trailer park and there were fires to cook on and a lake to bathe in. He would bathe later that night, but for now, he would find whatever scraps of food he could for his dinner and ‘borrow’ some bottled water to drink. Tonight, like most nights, he’d be sleeping under the stars. Luckily, it wasn’t raining and it wasn’t terribly cold or sleeping would become more of a chore than a gift and blessing.

Chapter 3—A Fellow Inscribed

The next day Giovanni could hear police radio and became suspicious. He was well aware that the cops didn’t know who he truly was. It was obvious that he didn’t have the Arsene Amulet, but Giovanni wanted to take it for himself and the Blasters. In the wrong hands, like those of Zora, the amulet was destructive on so many levels it made him shiver just thinking about it.

Running away, he bumped into an unknown lady and she had shot a sandwich at him. At first, he thought she had thrown it but she had manifested it into being.

‘An inscribed...’, he thought. He knew that Sam had this ability. He wasn’t certain how but a hunch had lead him to believe this all along. He chuckled at his intuition.

‘I’m sorry. I thought you were my dad for a moment.’, she said. Her oceanic eyes were brimming somewhat with tears. Giovanni found a safe place for them to sit down. He would be able to hail a bus and skip town while the cops were skulking about the campground.

‘My dad tended to abuse me. He changed once mom got cancer. Dad had always been so kind, gentle and gregarious but after mom died, he changed.’, Sam began, some heaviness in her tone. Gio felt bold enough to hold her hand and caress it between his thumb and forefinger. It was incredible that Sam could even trust men anymore, but it was overt that Sam had empathy and intuition in her corner.

Giovanni told Sam about his past and how he was on the lam. Sam knew that she would be aiding and abetting a fugitive, but she knew that Giovanni was trustworthy. Besides, every moment she was near him, she felt a sense of serenity and love embedded into her heart.

Chapter 4—Bonnie and Clyde

Sam was a super intelligent ‘deviant’. She earned side income on Ebay as well as Etsy. She crocheted her own anime characters as well as mascots, jerseys and her own original characters. On YouTube, she wore a mask as ‘Striker’ and did a number of miscellanious videos. Her main topic was animation and playthroughs as well as how to crochet keychains and bookmarks. Her income was more than enough to keep Gio and herself fairly well fed. Since she was housing a fugitive, she could no longer rely upon normal outlets of income, so she had to lay low. She didn’t miss it though, since she had been working as a peon at the local Shop Rite. It wasn’t commiserate with her level of intellect, that was certain.

Giovanni and Sam were a well oiled machine when it came to making a living doing odd jobs. They didn’t have to do many but it was a good practice for them in doing good deeds to those who truly needed the help. At some time, Giovanni knew he would have to depart from Sam since he didn’t want to put her in anymore danger. She, most likely, would run into him in one way or another, but for now, Giovanni would write letters to any forwarding address where the sweet gypsy inscribed decided to lay her head.

Epilogue

Giovanni boasts about his girlfriend in the right circles, but never mentions her by name. Only Molly believes him when he speaks of her. She sees a sparkle in his eyes hears laughter in his timbre whenever he mentions her. It is clearly obvious his tales are true.

‘I do hope you see her again someday.’, Molly said as the two of them sleep apart in sleeping bags in the Banzai Blasters’ latest compound. Somewhere nearby, Sam adjusts to her new life in the Blasters, a couple of levels below Giovanni’s status. Someday she’ll reach his status, but for now, she is simply a faceless grunt among other grunts. Love compels her and one day the two of them will have an elaborate ‘villain wedding’. For the time being, the two love each other from afar and dream of the day when ‘soup and sandwich’ combine deliciously once more.

The End