Chapter Text
Her brother seemed to be enjoying prison life. Happy, making friends with the other prisoners and socializing despite having to spend most of his time locked up. Velvet, on the other hand, could do nothing but just stand there, back to the wall on the other side of their shared prison cell, arms folded as she watched Veneer socializing as usual in annoyance. A brief silence and Velvet’s attention snapped to the floor.
He liked it. She hated it.
Oh how she wished she wasn’t in prison.
“Sis?” Her brother’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked up. “Is everything—”
“When are we getting out of here?” Velvet growled softly, cutting Veneer off before he could even finish speaking. Her attention drifted away from Veneer and towards the ceiling.
Veneer stopped and turned. “Out of here? It’s only been a month, sis.”
“A long, boring month!” Velvet softly growled out, her eyes snapping closed, her voice low. “I. Just. Want. Out.”
“At least give it another month, Vel. Maybe two.”
Velvet elected to ignore him. “At least you’re used to it. All I can do is stand here and watch you socialize.”
“Well, you could socialize too, you know. At least make one friend.”
“Well, I don’t want to, you know,” Velvet spat out in a similar tone to earlier. “Not when I’ve been trying to find a way out of here the entire time….”
Veneer realized what his sister meant before she could explain. Shock appeared on his face as he turned to look at her. “You’re not thinking of breaking yourself out of here, are you?”
“No,” she told him. “Both of us."
“What?! Why?! We’re going to get caught!” Veneer whisper-shouted, panicked.
Velvet glared in her brother’s direction, thinking of a response. “I’d much rather we be free from this dump than having to spend more than a decade in here.”
“We’re still going to be caught regardless.”
Velvet slammed a fist against the wall behind her. “So you’d rather stay in here by yourself?”
Veneer opened his mouth to reply, closing it when he couldn’t think of anything to say. Staying silent, his attention slowly shifted from Velvet to the bars of the cell that she was still standing by and back.
“Veneer?!”
“I was planning on spending our entire prison sentence practicing to better my own singing. Don’t you want that too?” Velvet remained standing there, glaring coldly at him. She said nothing. “I’ll just take that as a no, then, I guess.”
Velvet leaned up against the same wall she hit moments earlier. She folded her arms. “Fine. You can go back to socializing if you want. I’m going through several different methods of our escape in my mind. I’ll tell you when I find the best one.”
“Well, alright then.” Veneer shrugged, going back to his socializing. Or trying to socialize at least. During his talk with his sister, all the inmates surrounding them had lost interest in talking to him.
Velvet had gone to sitting on the floor of their shared cell, looking down and starting to think.
Going through method after method.
Trying to find the right one.
Yet it didn’t take her long. Every single one of her thoughts of differing methods of escape seemed to start the same way. Convincing Veneer to help being the first step. A silence hit, only briefly, then she looked up at her brother. Her plan of their escape was set.
“If we’re going to break ourselves out of here,” Velvet said softly, immediately grabbing her brother’s attention. “I’m going to need your help.”
“And the plan was what?” Floyd asked incredulously, stood on a branch high enough to look up at Velvet and Veneer.
“Hang on,” Veneer said. “Vel’s getting to it.”
“No, you’re the one who has to tell him.”
“It was your plan. Not mine.”
“You were needed for the—”
“It doesn’t matter which one of you tells me what your plan was.” Floyd glanced between the siblings. “Just get to it!”
Veneer looked at Velvet, confusedly. “My help with what?”
“I want you to convince the next guard that comes our way to unlock our cell for us,” Velvet said.
Veneer’s confusion shifted to worry. “Are you sure about this? I’m not sure it’s going to—”
“Yes,” Velvet cut him off. “All you need to do is wait for a guard.”
“Velvet—” Veneer tried.
“Do you want out of here or not?” the older of the two asked, cutting him off.
Veneer sighed to himself, turning his back to the cell door and glancing out. “If you want me to want out of here.”
“And how long did that take?” Floyd questioned.
Veneer laughed. “We’ll be getting to that, but you’ll be surprised.”
“See anyone yet?” Velvet asked, standing up again.
“Vel, it’s only been thirty seconds.” Veneer rolled his eyes. “Give it time.”
One minute. Two minutes. Five minutes. Velvet couldn’t take anymore.
“If no guard comes by,” she grunted, slowly getting annoyed. “We’re going to have to resort to other ways to break ourselves out—”
Before she could finish, Veneer motioned to her. “There’s one coming!”
“Great,” Velvet whispered, motioning back.
“I’m going to assume it took longer than expected?” Floyd guessed.
Veneer looked to the side briefly. “Not exactly.”
Veneer gulped. He knew his sister wouldn’t be too happy if this didn’t work.
“Hey,” he whispered to the guard the moment she got to their cell. “Could you stop for a second? We have a question.”
The guard did as she was told, turning on her heel to face them. Neither of them spoke. For a second. The guard glanced between the two of them the longer the silence dragged on.
“I thought you said you had a question—” she spoke, before getting cut off.
“Could you let us out?”
“What?” the guard softly shouted, not wanting to grab much attention from any of the other guards. If there were any around.
“I would have had the same reaction as her, to be honest.” Floyd rubbed his forehead. He glanced between the siblings. When they gave him matching looks, he continued, “What happened next?”
“Why?” the guard spoke up again, staring from Veneer to Velvet and back.
Veneer pointed over his shoulder at Velvet. “Honestly, my sister’s getting bored. I think she just needs a breath of fresh air. She hasn’t gotten one in ages.”
A total lie, but hopefully a convincing one.
“Well…” the guard eventually said, breaking a small silence, as she got out the keys to their cell. “Okay. But only for a short time.”
She unlocked their cell, and continued on her way. Unknowingly.
“Great!” Velvet muttered softly, making her way towards Veneer and ushering him out of the cell. “Now let’s get outta here!”