John stumbles slightly as he steps over a large chunk of broken concrete, Madeline clinging to his back, her legs dangling on either side of him. The vivid red soles of her high class heels flash with each careful step.

Madeline laughs playfully as she says "careful there hero. I'd hate for us to die from a piggyback mishap. I can already see the headlines: Space Crimes Detectives Found Face Down in Rubble. Cause of Death: Poor Balance."

John grinning replies "hey, my balance is fine. It's the extra weight throwing me off."

Madeline with a mock gasp responds "extra weight? Did you just call me heavy?"

"No, no!" John quickly replies "I meant...uh...the emotional weight of your brilliance. Yeah, that's it. Brilliance is dense, like... a black hole. Very heavy stuff."

Now resting her chin on his shoulder, Madeline responds with a chill "mmm-hmm. Smooth save hero. You're just lucky that I'm not walking or I'd chase you down for that."

"Well... you *could* walk, if you didn't insist on wearing those skyscrapers strapped to your feet. What are those? Five inches? Six?" he replied with a heckling tone.

Madeline, grinning, quickly quips back "four and a half, Louboutin red thank you very much. And these "skyscrapers" cost more than your entire wardrobe. No way I was risking them on that death trap of a floor."

Thinking about it for a second John responds "So, just to clarify, I'm risking my back to protect your shoes?"

Madeline responds "exactly... My hero."

John, shaking his head, with a chuckle responds "yeah, yeah. One of these days, I'm charging the heels for hazard pay" as they share a smile.

Moments later he finally steps onto solid ground and sets her down. Behind them, the silent facility looms a tomb of mysteries still unsolved. But the playful glint in their eyes says the day isn’t a total loss.

NOTES:
Honestly the shoes are supposed to have a reflective blood red nail polish shine to be Louboutin red. But in the scene the stark red just seemed incredibly strange to me. So here we are.. muted red.

I just learned about expensive red bottomed shoes about a month ago. New to me...

I really believe this story captures the banter I want to have between these two throughout the entire book. Well, at least until John gets his heart broken. Oh... late spoiler alert!

Bored yet of these two? Be honest please. I try to render other things in between.

NO AI USED