#and he would say 'okay a six count of vodka. a three count of triple sec. a three count of lime juice' or whatever

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

Learning bartending is so fun

[marvelhead17]

Miracle (Original Female Character x Cable Fic)

Chapter 13

Summary: “How did you fix it?” he asked. “Ask Ellen the Teenage Warhead,” Wade shrugged as he stood up, “As for baby Hitler he ended up having a diaper change, funny story I was actually going to call Cable since he was so keen on killing Russel, I thought this would be like taking candy from a baby, if that means replacing it with a bullet that is,”

Warnings to cover the whole fic: Graphic depictions of violence, use of weapons, mild to strong language, mentions of rape, mentions of pregnancy and miscarriage, referenced torture and psychological abuse/manipulation, nightmares and night terrors, sexual humour, sexual content.

Word count: 1.7k

One Week Later

“Wade, whatever happened to that kid Russel?” Hayden asked as she took another bite of her breakfast.

“Oh Baldy McWheelchair decided that he could join the school, said it’d be good for the kid to be around other kids and have a more normal life than the purification shithole he was stuck in before, along with the other kids that were with him.”

“Oh good,” she pulled a face, “Wade I’m sorry but your cooking is shit,” she stood up to toss the rest of food in the garbage.

“I’m surprised you even tried it,” Nathan said before taking another mouthful of his omelette.

“Friends support each other’s attempts at things,” she shrugged, “But seriously Wade how the hell did you manage to ruin scrambled eggs and toast this badly?”

“I don’t know! I followed the recipe perfectly! Two eggs, a quarter cup of vodka, salt and pepper-”

  “Vodka? You added vodka to the eggs? Wade what the hell!” she gave him a look and then put the dish in the sink.

“I thought you could use a buzz early in the morning and nothing says buzz like the hard Russian stuff,”

“You were hoping to get her drunk weren’t you?” Nathan gave him a look.

“Okay you got me!” Wade held his hands up, “I’ve always wanted to see you drunk, I thought it might loosen you up a little, ya know?”

“What, I’m too serious all the time?” she stopped washing the dish and turned to face him.

“Sometimes, yeah,”

“First of all, I can’t get drunk, I’ve had an entire bottle of the strongest alcohol I could get my hands on and it was ninety-six percent of bitter after-taste.” She stood inches from his face now, “And second of all, screw you,” she hissed before she walked out the room.

The men watched as she left before Nathan turned to look at Wade.

He nodded, “Nice going asshole,”

                                                            * * *

                              “HE’S GOING SUPERNOVA!” Deadpool yelled, with a hint of excitement. He turned to Cable who frowned at him, “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

“Not if I can help it,” Colossus bounded forward into the towering orange flames that were transforming into a shade of blue.

“Colossus wait!” Hayden started after him but a cold hand grasped her shoulder and yanked her back.

“He can handle it Hades,” Cable said as she looked at him incredulously and shook his arm off.

The three waited for Colossus, their anxiety growing by the second, with bated breath.

  “BOZHE MOY!” Colossus ran towards them, his skin colour was bright red and his eyes were wide, he turned to glance back at the fire and shook his head, “Is too hot, even for me.”

Cable’s cyborg eye glowed and he looked at his arm, “His temperature is going to eventually reach cosmic levels if we don’t stop him,” he put his arm down and looked back at the others.

“How hot is that? Some of us were high school drop outs,” Deadpool said.

“So hot it’ll actually kill your fucking ass,” Cable said seriously.

Deadpool whistled, “Damn,”

“Out of the frying pan into the fire,” Hades suddenly spoke, they looked at her, puzzlement clear on their faces.

She pushed the sleeves of her shirt up her arm, revealing her glowing violet scars, she blinked and her eyes were bright violet to match, before she ran straight towards the fully blue flames.

“WAIT! Are you crazy?!” Cable tried to run after her but she was engulfed by the flames, the others pulled him back as the flame grew larger, they all winced with their hands covering their eyes from the intense heat despite their distance from the chaos. A male voice boomed in the centre of it all.

  “YOU CAN’T STOP ME I’LL-”

  Silence.

  The flames dissipated to smoke, the ground surrounding was cracked and dry as if it had seen no water in the last thousand years, and there she stood towering over the figure of an unconscious man.

Cable let out a breath of relief until he realised that something was wrong, Hayden appears to have at least triple the scarring on her body than before, he started walking forward thinking that his eyes were playing tricks on him and then stopped in his tracks.

“Best knuckle-sandwich I ever gave,” she beamed at them, her skin dimmed to its usual colour, well as usual as it could be with the black soot that covered it, they all gawked at her.

Colossus cleared his throat and spoke up, “Um- Hades- you’re- uh,” he removed his X-Men’s jacket, leaving his chest bare, and quickly handed it to her while looking the other way. “Take this.”

“I don’t understa- oh my god,” she quickly grabbed the jacket after having a look at herself.

Colossus rubbed the back of his neck and coughed looking away, Deadpool wolf whistled while Cable swallowed hard before shaking his head back to reality.

“Thank you Colossus,” her cheeks went pink.

  “It’s official you can’t be my sister anymore, not after I’ve seen you naked because damn,” Deadpool remarked.

She zipped up the huge jacket on her small frame and touched her head in confusion, the hair was singed off but it was already growing back, leaving her with a five o’clock shadow of sorts.

“Also Comrade Titties, I’ve never had more of a hard-on than I do right now, you should do all your missions shirtless. That way you can seduce the bad guys into surrendering,” Deadpool winked at Colossus who coughed uncomfortably. “The way I’ve already surrendered myself,” he commented to an unknown audience.

Hayden walked over to look Deadpool in the masked eyes; “If you say anything else I will castrate you and force feed you your own dick, got it?” she didn’t blink as she said this.

“You think she’s still angry about earlier?” Deadpool asked Cable.

“Gee, what makes you think that moron?” he replied sarcastically, “The fact that you put alcohol in her breakfast, or that you practically called her a kill-joy?”

“Wade you put alcohol in her food? Where did you even find alcohol, we do not supply such things,”

“Exactly why I got a guy on the outside- and wait, Haydes you’re still mad at me for that?”

  “Mad? I’m beyond mad,” then she turned to Colossus, “You have the collar right?”

“Da.” He handed her the collar dangling from his pants pocket.

She crouched down next to the unconscious mutant and placed the collar around his neck before activating it, she then lifted him over her shoulder and made her way to the X-jet, they all stared at her in wonderment before she turned around.

“What?” her eyes flashed violet quickly, her hair sprouted further out to reach a boy-cut length.

“Nothing.” They said in unison which made her eyes roll.

“Let’s just get Johnny Storm here on ice and head back home huh?” she sighed and put the mutant into one of the seats and buckled him in.

“Da. This is good idea.” Colossus headed inside the jet and sat himself down into the pilot’s seat and turned the engine on.

“Johnny Storm,” Deadpool snickered, “Nice one.” Hades only glared at him.

  Cable and Deadpool took their seats and the group sat in silence for the long trip to the Ice Box. Colossus handed over the criminal mutant to the guards outside while the two men and Hayden remained inside the jet.

She was not particularly in favour of anyone seeing her in what could perceived as her wearing her lover’s clothing, and both Cable and Wade had practically destroyed the place with their little fight over Russel months ago and weren’t keen on finding out what kind of welcome party might be waiting for them if they dared to go in.

                                                               * * *

                              When they had reached the mansion they were greeted by Domino, Ellie and Yukio. They were glad they had returned safely and that the mission was a success, the men walked in first and Hayden walked in last looking extremely displeased, the girls raised their brows in question to her clothing and hair that had already grown to bob length.

“Apparently Target’s clothing isn’t fire resistant and neither is my hair,” she said with a hint of bitterness. “So Colossus was kind enough to give me the shirt off his back, literally,”

“Why didn’t you just ask Colossus to get you a uniform?” Ellie asked.

“A uniform? I’m not part of the X-Men,” she said confused.

“No duh,” Ellie rolled her eyes, “You can still get official X-Force uniforms though,”

“I’m listening,” Wade suddenly popped his head into the conversation.

“You have a uniform Douche,” Ellie said feeling irritated and pushed his face away, “What I’m saying Hades is that you can get a uniform that won’t disintegrate, it won’t tear easily, and it can be whatever you want it to be. Right, Colossus?”

  “NTW I’m uncertain Professor Xavier will be very impressed if I used facilities for non X-Men people,” Colossus said nervously.

“Oh come on Colossus, do you want to have to give her your clothes every time hers gets destroyed? It’s very inconvenient and you know it,” she lathered the last bit on sweetly. “It’d be much more efficient to have her own uniform suited to her abilities than to strip in front of Wade,” she added.

“Fine, you have convinced me.” Colossus said as he glanced at Wade who was busy shining the metal man’s body with scented oil. “Wade, enough please.” He gently moved the man away from him. “I will be back once I am appropriately dressed.”

“Aw Colossus, wait!” Wade yelled as Colossus left the room, “You smell great!”

“Nyet, Wade!” Their running footsteps faded away as they went further into the mansion.

  “Well I better get dressed too,” Hayden looked at herself before clearing her throat, “Where can we all meet up to start this whole uniform thing?”

“I think we can just meet up in the rec room,” Ellie suggested, Hayden nodded before walking up the stairs; Nathan’s eyes followed her as she walked. The jacket was very wide but not long, leaving her legs exposed to his line of sight.

Ellie cleared her throat loudly making Nathan turn and look at her, “Been a while since you boned someone huh?” she asked with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

Yukio elbowed her softly, “That’s not appropriate!”

“But it’s true, isn’t it Cable?” she cocked her head to the side, the smirk growing bigger.

“Teenagers,” Nathan grumbled, rather flustered with his own behaviour himself.

He wouldn’t admit it to Ellie of course but it was true, it had been a very long time since he’d had sex.

________________________________________________________________

>> Chapter 14 <<

[mercedesbarnes]

The Five Things You Know, and the One You Don’t

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Warnings: none

Word Count: 2567

A/N:  back for round twoooo…..I feel like we all need some Bucky fluff right now

“Dammit!”

You lost your second out of four lives in this Nerf war, thanks to someone—someone most likely named Steve.  He’s a sneaky one. It’s pouring outside and nobody was in the mood to do anything productive, naturally the first suggestion had been a Nerf war.

“Y/N, you will be avenged!”

Pietro vaults over the couch, very action movie-esque, which would have been impressive if he hadn’t been shot right after.

“Oh. Sorry, I’m out,” he sighs.  

“It’s okay, I appreciate the backup,” you say, sending your teammate a smile. By your count, it was only Bucky and you left on your team, versus Steve, Sam and Wanda on the other.  You weren’t sure how many lives each of them had, but you all promised to be honest.

“Y/N,” Bucky hisses. He waves his Nerf gun in a complicated circle.

“What?”

“Shh!”

If there was a way to see your face, it would read ‘???’.  A floorboard creaks behind you, and Bucky grabs your wrist and covers you until you’re safely behind the bar. A spark runs down your forearm but you attribute it to your socks shuffling on the carpet. 

He turns to you. “Didn’t I tell you the code?”

“No, it looked like random flailing—“ You raise your gun over the bar and shoot Wanda.  

She slouches. “How’d you know?”

You point behind Bucky. “The floating red stuff around the bullet about to hit him gave you away. How many more lives?”

“None.” She lowers her voice. “Sam’s got one more, but Steve’s got all four. Hurry, this game’s gone on long enough.”

Bucky mumbles ‘Steve’ under his breath and rises to go hunt for his best friend. It’s a good match, Bucky has all his lives too. Sam is yours. You tiptoe around the floor searching for any place that might house Sam.

“Oh, Bird Man,” you coo, knowing the nickname riles him up, “come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Just as you suspected: a poof from a gun misses your elbow. Bending down to pick up the foam bullet, you smile. Based on the trajectory, Sam was hiding behind the bookshelf.  Quietly, you sneak up on him and bombard him with foam before he can retaliate. Good ol’ physics, who knew it actually comes in handy?

You feel the spark again the next morning while getting your coffee, but this time you’re nowhere near a carpet.

“There’s my partner in crime!” Bucky announces when he sees you, “Have I told you about her?”

“Multiple times,” Sam says, clearly miffed, he’s swirling his tea bag more than usual.

“I’ll tell you again.  She kicked ass.”

“Is this coffee bitter, Sam?” You took a sip. “No. It must be you.”

Bucky throws an arm around your shoulders. His touch burns where your tank top can’t cover, and you have to concentrate on breathing properly. It’s like you had just come back from a run, your breath is completely knocked out of your lungs. Bucky’s holding onto you so his legs don’t give out from under him from the speechless look on Sam’s face; he’s laughing and declaring that you made his day.

First; he touches you and you light on fire. Your wrist blazes where his fingers meet your skin.  The burns don’t show, but it’s hard to breathe with ash in your lungs.  It’s so hard to breathe. You’re suffocating daily.

“What’s up with you?” Nat asks, “I was talking to you and you zoned out.”

“She’s drooling over Barnes,” Wanda replies, nudging you lightheartedly. You confessed to your crush on Bucky at the weekly girls lunch. Wanda wasn’t surprised.

“Yes, Bucky is over there, and yes, I happen to be staring in that direction, but I wouldn’t call it drooling.”

“You’re so smitten! Y/N, I can see it even without my powers.”

“He doesn’t know, right?”

“I don’t think so.”

Bucky’s on the patio, settling in a chair to play cards with Steve and Pietro.  You were staring at him, more specifically at his chest, since he had just emerged from the pool. Each droplet of water was having the time of its life trying to find its way through the maze of muscle definition, and you couldn’t tear your gaze away.  You’re starting to get hot and bothered imagining your fingers as the droplets.  

“Hey,” Nat murmurs.  

She jerks her chin at the guys. Bucky is waving at you to come over and greets you warmly when the three of you pull up seats at the table and Pietro deals you into a game of blackjack. You’re sitting two seats away from Bucky; here he’s barely a head tilt from being in your immediate vision, and you have a full view of the six—no, eight pack. Yikes.

You don’t want to get caught staring, but you can’t not stare.  Cruelly, the universe dips the sun lower in the sky, and its rays spill on Bucky like a goddamn spotlight.

“You have got to be kidding me,” you swear under your breath.

“Bad cards, Y/N?” Nat asks, and you jump on her excuse, nodding. You notice her subtly pointing down to her abdomen, then up at her face.  It’s a silent way of saying, ‘his eyes are up there.’

Bucky stretches to grab his towel, and you can feel yourself blushing when his muscles twist and contract. At the same time, Pietro makes a joke and Bucky’s smiling in that cute way where his nose scrunches. It’s too much too much–

You put on your sunglasses.

Second; it hurts to watch him. He shines. He’s brighter than the sun, he’s too beautiful for your eyes.  It’s hard to look at him.  It’s even harder to look away from him.  You’re going blind.

Two days later, you’re sitting on a bar stool tugging at the hem of your dress.  Nat swears it makes your legs look a mile long when you walk, but you’re tired of standing and are in dire need of a drink. Preferably something strong.  

“Tony, is your floor strong enough to handle this many people? I’m genuinely concerned,” you ask when Tony whizzes by, his arm around Happy Hogan, who is looking a little too happy.  You have to duck when he tries to hug you, claiming you’re too pretty to be sitting on the sidelines.

“Yeah, I designed it, it’ll even withstand Banner if someone pokes him. Stark guarantee.”

“Come dance with me!”

“I’m okay here, Hogan, but next party, alright?”

Tony chuckles and guides his tipsy friend over to a couch. Once he’s sure Hogan has a water bottle to sober up with, Tony hops on stage. “Introducing our entertainment for this evening!”

“Here’s your vodka cranberry.” The bartender hands you a glass as a gorgeous woman walks up to the microphone.

You thank him and take a few sips listening to the woman singing a slow ballad. You scan the crowd, looking to see if Hogan likes the music, but then you see him. It’s common knowledge that if you are looking at someone you can hear their voice better, though with you it’s like your ears are always plugged in to the Bucky Barnes Radio Show.

“Stevie, when do these things end?”

“Late, Buck. Around two.”

“In the morning?!”

You want to unplug the microphone so you can hear Bucky better, his baritone voice is heaven to your ears.  As the singer hits an impossibly high note, you wonder why people are clapping, impressed. Why is anyone listening to this, this noise when he’s speaking?

Struck with a sudden idea, you down the last of your drink and weave your way around the mesmerized guests. You squeeze past two middle-aged men—who, if you’re not mistaken, invented Google; they’re probably smart as hell, but they seem to like the sound of nails on a chalkboard, so you can’t give them too much credit—and find yourself behind the two supersoldiers. You poke the brunet’s bicep.

His bored face lights up at the sight of you.

“Y/N!”

“Hey, Bucky? Want to go play Monopoly?”

His reply was instantaneous. “Yes, absolutely. I’d love to play Monopoly with you. Bye Steve.”

“Bucky no—“

Bucky takes your hand and you’re around the corner before Steve can finish.  

“You’re the best, Y/N,” he says, and the butterflies in your stomach flap their wings to the rhythm of his words. “I was dying in there.”

“I know the feeling.”

An hour later, you’re losing. Badly. Despite being from the 40s, Bucky is annoyingly good at real estate.  You count forward three spots and land on Boardwalk, one of his properties. Slowly, hoping he’s not paying attention, you move your piece four spots, bypassing the danger of triple hotels.

“No, no, that’s four, not three!”

“Did I roll a three?”

“You did.”

You cover the die nonchalantly.  “No, I didn’t.”

Bucky raises an eyebrow, and suddenly it’s a war, he’s trying to pull your hand up, and you’re trying to keep it down.  To nobody’s surprise, he wins, and the number three is revealed.

“Mwahaha,” he grabs at the last of your pitiful money pile, throwing the coloured bills up in the air. “You’re bankrupt!”

The floor-to-ceiling windows around you show the stars, twinkling magnificently bright in the clear night sky. But Bucky’s singing We Are The Champions and he’s messing up the lyrics and he’s completely off-key and you’re positive it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever witnessed.

Third; your ears are tuned to his voice. You could pick him out in a sea of thousands. His voice makes pretty singers who sing pretty songs sound dull. His voice makes everything else ugly.

Bucky’s eyes should be a crayon colour, you decide.  

He has a habit. Whenever anyone says something ridiculous, Bucky looks to you like you’re the camera in The Office. And when they say a ridiculous paragraph, he widens his eyes in disbelief, pursing his lips to avoid cracking a smile. This happens a lot when Steve’s feeling particularly adventurous. It’s in these moments where time seems to slow, and you wish it would stop completely so you can study his eyes longer. Bucky has a myriad of blue that swirls to create a whirlpool of taunting winks and irritated smirks.  The wrinkled smile lines and long, dark eyelashes accentuate it perfectly.

After all, if you email Crayola, you better have a description.

Your favourite shade is when he scrunches them up from laughing.  They’re so blue they literally glow, as if they repel light instead of absorbing it.  You’re rooted to your spot when this happens.  Like you’re on a ship, and those eyes, blue like an ocean sea, are begging you to set sail with them, to cast your doubts away and leave the mainland behind.  

You’re writing this fantasy into your journal when you realize how deep you are: you’re not on the ship anymore.  

Fourth; the color of his eyes is blue enough to drown in.  He is turning you into a cliched love-wrecked being. You’re drowning, always sinking. Down, down, down.

Screaming wakes you from sleep.  Throwing off your covers, you don’t have to follow the heartbreaking sounds to know they are coming from Bucky’s room.  When you knock, you find that the door opens at your touch.

“Bucky?”

Bucky is thrashing in his bed, the covers pushed down at his feet, the sheets underneath him dark.  Your eyes rake over his anguished face; he’s sweating, and fighting some sort of invisible monster. Recently you’ve been helping him with his nightmares and you can tell, it’s a bad one tonight.  

You climb onto the mattress and nudge him gently. “Bucky, wake up.”  Nothing happens, so you shake him harder then duck as his metal fist flies at your head. It hits the wall with a sickening crunch, and this is what wakes Bucky up.  He sits up, gasping.

“Y/N? Oh my god.” He reaches out like he wants to lift you up from your flattened position, but before he does, he sees the dent in the wall and recoils.  The anguish turns to horror, and you can’t tell which one is worse.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers.

You take his hands from behind his back and intertwine your fingers. You push his chin up so he meets your eyes.

“I’m okay, don’t worry.”

“I nearly hurt you.”

“The key word here is nearly,” you soothe, “Let’s get you into new clothes.”

You slip over to his wardrobe and open his drawers to find another shirt.  When you turn around, Bucky’s sitting on the edge of the bed, his face buried in his hands.

He’s in pain, and you feel it too.  You are also angry, angry at the world, because they victimized him; angry at Hydra, because they caused Bucky to feel this way. You want to track down each and every person who hurt him and rip them apart in increasingly creative ways, but you settle for collecting Bucky in your arms and wiping away his tears.  

During your nights with him he’s confided in you the process of getting over his guilt and the fears that still haunt him.  It didn’t happen right away, oh no, it took time to show him you would stay no matter what.  Knowing Bucky, truly, bad and good, past and present, it could never push you away. Nothing could. You’re here for the long haul.

You’re lying on your back when he calms enough to fall asleep.  Bucky’s torso is on top of yours, hugging you, and his face is angled so you can feel his breaths on your skin; you’re satisfied when you confirm they’re even. Playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck, you glare at the ceiling like it’s going to come attack Bucky too.

“No more. Don’t try anything.  Or else you have me to deal with,” you growl to the world.

You’ll fiercely protect this man with everything you have, with every word, every muscle, every breath. Adjusting your hold on his back, you match your exhales to Bucky’s and drift off, mentally making a note to take him to the zoo soon.  He loves feeding the penguins.

Fifth; you know him. You love him. Through a thousand lifetimes, across millions of stars, you’d find him. You’d never leave. You love him. Till death do you part.

Bucky wakes to a rhythmic beating sound.  

Opening his eyes, he sees he’s lying on you, over your heart, and the corners of his mouth turn upwards. Bucky recalls last night. Not the nightmare, no, because you chased it away—he remembers you.  You being here for him, you saying the words of affirmation he so badly needed to hear to calm down, they further solidified the place he had carved for you to be forever in his life. He was so nervous and scared that you’d leave once you saw what he was capable of, but you stayed, and here you are.

On an impulse, he kisses your temple and you smile in your sleep. You’re so beautiful, he thinks.

Bucky watches your eyes move under their lids, and he wonders of what you’re dreaming. Hopefully it’s something good. You deserve it; you deserve the world, in his mind.

The sun is not yet up, so he relaxes again. He’s so comfortable and you’re so lovely, Bucky never wants to move. Your heart, with every beat, pumps into him more peace, and more clarity.

Bucky’s sure of one thing. It’s the one thing you don’t know.

Sixth; he loves you, too.

{insp}

still new, still small, still really love you all

@fxckmebuck @buckyywiththegoodhair @avengerofyourheart @bovaria@wndas-romanoff@thejamesoldier @caplanbuckybarnes @papi-chulo-bucky @buckybarnesismypreciousplum@redgillan  @seeyainanotherlifebrotha @langinator @secondstartotheright-imagines

[the-spoony-bard]

A Matter of Leverage - 12

Fandom: Fire Emblem Awakening

Style: Leverage!AU; modern setting; adventure/drama

Word count: 3166 words

Read on Ao3

“I am really starting to think you are crazy, Bubbles,” Gaius accuses as soon as the hotel door is closed safely behind them.

 “We had the money for Donnel and you just threw it away!” Nowi adds. “Money! Beautiful, green money!”

 “T-this is b-bigger than just Donnel now,” Olivia says, coming to Robin’s defense.

 Robin, for her part, ignores the chatter as she pours herself a drink. Olivia turns on her as she does so.

 “Robin, please!”

 “You’re right, Olivia.” Robin turns around slowly, carefully swishing the glass around and watching the clear golden brown waves. “This is bigger than just one client. Four hundred homes… this is a chance to give a voice to so many more victims.”

 “It’s also a chance to get caught by the cops,” Lon’qu cuts in, eyes narrowed. “There’s too many ways this can go wrong with them involved.”

 “But if played right, it can go even better.”

 “What are you talking about?” Nowi laughs uncomfortably. “You’re always so weird and cryptic when you’re drunk. And you’re always drunk, so…”

 “Nowi,” Olivia cringes.

 “We’re going much bigger,” Robin presses on, ignoring the dig at her alcohol problem. “An even bigger scam. So Norris likes to invest in people’s misfortune? Let’s see how willing he’d be to invest… in death.”

 Silence reigns in the hotel room as Robin stares pensively out the window. Nowi takes a deep breath.

 “I’m sorry, you said invest in what?”

 ○

 “You see, it’s very simple,” Robin spreads out her arms to her audience of two: Olivia and Norris, sitting together in the office at Roddick’s house. “You have your average run of the mill person. Hasn’t done anything too extraordinary. Except now, they figure out they have a fatal disease with only months to live, if that. What would you do in a situation like that?” Robin pushes her chair back and stands. “You want to live even more! Travel the world, spend more time with the kids, things like that. But see, most people have no savings left after preliminary treatments. So you’re let knowin’ that you’re gonna die, and on top of that, you’re broke.”

 “Okay,” Norris says, hardly convinced, instead glancing down at his phone.

 “Now here’s where it gets interesting.” Robin points at Norris, attracting his attention again. “Your big juicy insurance policy is just sitting there with nothing else to do. So what we do, our group—” she gestures to Olivia “—we buy their policy. They get a nice chunk of change now, and we can get our pay after they kick the bucket. It’s a win-win for everyone. They get to enjoy their last days, and we get a healthy profit from the exchange.”

 “Lyn’s been in insurance for over ten years now,” Olivia explains. “She approached us with some… insider information.”

 “You wanna know what I got?” Robin asks enthusiastically, clapping her hands together. “I’ve got databases full of sick people and some specialists with detailed reports that helped me compile a short list of people with fat policies and less than six months to live.” Robin leans forward conspiratorially, passing the list to Norris. “Do you have any idea what I’ve just handed you? This is a game changer, my friend. This, well… this will triple your money or more.”

 “Lyn has a select number of investors already,” Olivia inserts smoothly. “With your contribution, we could buy even more policies.”

 “Eh?” Robin grins expectantly.

 Norris glances over the list before shaking his head, handing it back.

 “No. It’s too risky. You can’t control when someone’s gonna croak.”

 “Are you not listening?” Robin replies with a half laugh. “This list is our golden goose! I mean, just look at it.” Robin clears her throat before reading with gusto, “here we go. Lung cancer, middle aged man in Renais. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, twenty-something in Gallia. Do you see this Rolex? Yeah, this baby’s all thanks to some sucker’s melanoma.”

 “Alright, alright!” Norris relents. “But I want independent confirmation myself with a doctor of my own choosing.”

 “Hey, fair enough,” Robin grins. “But…” she pauses as she picks the list back up, swinging it back and forth in the air. “We do have one condition. No one gets a look at this list without a little buy in first. Ten thousand up front.”

 “Of course,” Norris snorts.

 “Of course,” Robin replies as they shake hands. She hands him back the list. “Take your pick, my friend. Take a good, long look. Pick a patient, any patient…”

 “Uh… okay,” Norris points to a name. “Sain Kent, inoperable brain tumor. He’s even nearby.”

 “Well…” Robin smiles humorlessly. “Nice choice. I’ll set it up. You bring your doctor.”

 “Alright,” Norris makes a note of it as the phone rings. “Oh, this is gonna be good,” he snickers at the caller ID. “Florina!”

 Olivia hurries over as Norris answers, putting the call on speaker.

 “You damn weasel!” Murray exclaims without preamble. “You had one job, man. All you had to do was write the check!”

 “Oh, but I did. Just ask our friend Florina.”

 “What? What’s she doing there?”

 “Oh, I’m sorry, darling,” Olivia cuts in. “We just decided to… go in a different direction.”

 “What—what did you say to her?” Murray shouts.

 “Oh, I wouldn’t know. I just sit alone in my office all day counting numbers,” Norris returns in a mocking impression of his brother. He and Olivia share a laugh.

 “Norris, you little asshole!” Murray thunders. “We’ll see how happy you are when dad hears about this!”

 “Sorry—kssshh—you’re—kssh—breaking up!”

 “Norris, you fu—”

 Norris hangs up, then spins around in his chair to look at Olivia.

 “Oops.”

 “Now that is what I call control,” Olivia chuckles. She looks up and meets Robin’s eyes. “We’ll meet you later at the hospital, then.”

 “Yeah. I’m looking forward to it.”

 “I’m looking forward to a prosperous partnership,” Robin says, shaking Norris’s hand.

 ○

 There’s something relaxing about driving with no destination in mind, even more so when Robin thinks about all of the griping she faces back at the hotel. Between Olivia’s attempts to talk about Robin’s reasons for drinking and the other three still hung up on the decision for Olivia to refuse the check, being alone on the road with vodka in a water bottle sounds like the better alternative. Robin pauses at the flashing red and blue lights in the mirror. Confused as she is, she pulls over, stashing the vodka safely away and shoving a couple mints into her mouth in an attempt to mask the smell. She rolls down the window.

 “What seems to be the problem, offi—”

 The man opens the back door and sits down behind Robin.

 “Ah. Judging by the ill fitted suit…” Robin chuckles despite herself. “Now, what would the state police want with my business, Lieutenant…?” She pauses for the name.

 “Deen. Racketeering and Corruption Task Force. What business do you have in Alabama?”

 “Oh, you know, I just like the country side.”

 “We know you came from a meeting with Norris Roddick. Now, what I want to know is why an ex-insurance agent is trying to make a deal with that family?”

 “Racketeering? That’s what you’re trying to get them with? I realized that you couldn’t get them on the fraud, but… you must be pretty desperate.”

 “We’re going to get the Roddicks.”

 “Oh, of course.”

 “Now, if you and your people still happen to be around when that happens, well… we’re not going to stop to sort all of that out.”

 “Yeah, well, you wouldn’t be talking to me right now if you had anything. You’re fishing.” Robin looks at him in the rearview the mirror. “I must have hit a nerve. Either way, two days. Two days, and the Roddicks will have made a mistake, and we will be gone and out of your way. Just keep your eyes and ears open, and they’ll be yours.”

 “There’s no reason I should trust a drunk.”

 “Your choice, Lieutenant.”

 The lieutenant leaves without a backward glance. Robin watches the other cars go by for a while before she pulls back onto the road.

 ○

 “How are we going to do this? It’s not like any of us have any brain tumors,” Gaius quips, rolling a lollipop from one side of his mouth to the other.

 “Nowi, would you be able to edit the image on the computer?” Robin asks.

 “I don’t think so,” Nowi replies from her seat on the bed of the medical scanner, legs swinging back and forth as they dangle over the ground. “Not easily, anyway. The images from the brain scan go directly from here to the computer, and trying to make any adjustments between the two could get messy. I don’t do messy!”

 “Sure…” Robin trails off, recalling all of the times Nowi’s visited her apartment.

 “Not in my work anyway!” Nowi adds with a pout.

 “So our only option is to scan a brain with some sort of artificial tumor that we plant in there directly.”

 “Yeah… no,” Gaius cuts in. “I am not risking permanent brain damage for you, Bubbles.”

 “We’re obviously not going to put anything in your brain. We’ll need another one…”

 “Creepy~” Nowi sings.

 “Even if we get another brain, how will we scan it if Gaius is in this one?” Lon’qu says from his spot near the door.

 “The computer from this bay doesn’t need to be attached to this scanner,” Nowi grins.

 “There’s another bay next to this one,” Robin says thoughtfully. “Nowi, if you could cross the wires and send the scans from the other scanner to this computer, we can get through this without having to kill Gaius.”

 “Why do you always talk like you have plans where I die?”

 “Don’t ask question you don’t want the answers to.” Robin favors Gaius with a sly grin.

 “Creepy~” Nowi sings again.

 “Well,” Robin takes a deep breath, clapping her hands together. “We need to secure both rooms and a brain for tomorrow morning. Let’s get on it.”

 ○

 “There you are!” Nowi calls, jogging forward to Lon’qu pushing a table with a sheet covering what can only be a body.

 Olivia jumps in surprise as they burst through the door together. Her eyes zero in with horror at the motionless lump underneath the sheet.

 “Do—do I w-want to ask wh-where you…?”

 “No,” Lon’qu answers.

 “Olivia,” Robin says from the earpiece. “Norris should be here soon. Could you join me in the waiting room?”

 “S-s-sure!” Olivia scrambles out, giving the body a wide birth.

 Lon’qu pushes the table next to the bed then slides the body over. He flinches as he notices how close Nowi hovers behind him, though she seems not to notice.

 “So what do we have?” she pulls back the sheet and immediately jumps back, throwing her arms in front of her face. “Oh gods! Gods, so icky!”

 “What were you expecting?” Lon’qu asks dryly. “This is even a clean corpse.”

 “It smells!” Nowi protests, two fingers pinching her nose closed to accentuate her point.

 “Just do it,” Lon’qu sighs, grabbing the injection from the nearby table and holding it out.

 “No!” Nowi cries, recoiling as if struck. “You’ve killed people before! You do it!”

 “I’ve never killed people by sticking giant needles into their cranial cavities,” Lon’qu says, an edge of discomfort in his voice.

 “Excuses, excuses!” Nowi says shrilly, attempting to push away the needle that Lon’qu still holds out to her.

 “One of you is going to do it or I’m coming up there,” Robin threatens in a voice so stern and threatening that only a mother can really manage it.

 With a shudder, Lon’qu jams the needle in. Nowi spins around, making gagging noises.

 “Worst job ever! Worst job ever!” she cries, not even looking at the garbage bag that she holds out for Lon’qu to deposit the evidence into.

 “Hey, guys!” Gaius opens the door and pokes his head in. “Which hospital gown should I wear? Dead inside off green, or borrowed time rose gold?”

 “Pink! Pink!” Nowi replies.

 “Really? I thought the green brings out my eyes better.”

 “Just pick a dress and put it on,” Lon’qu deadpans, brushing past him into the hallway.

 “Norris is here,” Robin reports. “Get in position.” She steps forward with Olivia, shaking hands with both Norris and the doctor he’s brought with him. “A pleasure,” she smiles once introductions have been made. “Shall we?”

 A few minutes later they stand in front of the glass window as Gaius is shown in by a rather disgruntled looking nurse Lon’qu. He looks blankly ahead as he is directed to the bed.

 “That’s Sain Kent?” Norris peers inside as his doctor preps the computer to receive the scans.

 “Yes,” Robin replies. “Poor guy.”

 They watch in silence as Gaius is laid down on the bed, then slid inside.

 “I’ve got our other brain scanning in here,” Nowi reports from the room next door. “And we’re sending you our other brain… now!”

 “Well… what do you think, doctor?” Robin asks the balding man Norris brought with him.

 “Oh, he’s terminal alright,” he replies, leaning forward to better view the screen. “It’s almost too large to believe… he has weeks left; a month at best.”

 “There you have it,” Robin says to Norris after the doctor had been thanked and sent on his way. Norris smiles, half chuckling as he stands in a quiet hallway facing Robin and Olivia.

 “I had my doubts, but yeah,” Norris concedes. “So, what’s my cut?”

 “Your cut? Oh,” Robin laughs. “That’s it?”

 “Yeah, I put my money in, now I want my cut.”

 “Fine, fine,” Robin holds her hands up in surrender before pulling out her checkbook. “Gone scared on us. Can’t say I’m surprised; you don’t look like the sort willing to take a risk. Let’s see, first stage investor?” Robin pauses to give Norris an appraising look. “One hundred grand?”

 “What is wrong with you?!” Gaius howls from over the coms. Robin doesn’t even flinch.

 “This just might work out after all,” Norris whistles, looking up only just in time for Olivia to recover from her grimace.

 “Yes,” Olivia chuckles woodenly. “With this money you could even start your own company and leave your father entirely.”

 “Yeah,” Norris says, perking up. “Yeah, it would be easy. I just need to move some accounts around and—”

 “What?” Robin cuts in, flinching away. “Moving some—moving accounts? What sort of… who do you think we are? We don’t operate this way!” She whirls on Olivia as she throws her hands up in the air. “What is this nonsense? Who did you bring me to?”

 “You don’t understand, I just—”

 “No, you don’t understand,” Robin interrupts Norris, turning away to storm down the hallway. “I can’t help you, sir. You just don’t get it. It’s fine. Keep the money. We don’t need you.”

 “What is she…?” Norris looks helplessly to Olivia.

 “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ll talk to her,” Olivia says hurriedly before rushing after Robin.

 “I want serious investors, Florina!”

 “Lyn, a word?” Olivia chases Robin around the corner into one of the dark hospital rooms.

 Robin is met with three intense glares as soon as the door is closed securely behind them.

 “I know,” she says evenly, not intimidated in the least. “Save it until we’re back to the hotel.”

 She receives nothing but more stony glares as she leads her team back to the van.

 ○

 Nowi immediately races to her laptop as soon as she steps foot inside the hotel room.

 “I’ll have the payment canceled in a jiffy!” she announces with forced cheerfulness amidst the general animosity directed towards Robin.

 Robin, for her part, remains unfazed, already reaching for a bottle and glass.

 “Just let it go,” she remarks, settling down in a chair as Gaius stalks over to her, brows angled downward over his narrowed eyes.

 “Let me just get this straight so you get how stupid you are, Bubbles. We had half a million dollars, and you tossed that away. That’s enough on its own. Now you’re offering up a hundred grand of our money. Our money.”

 “Please, you know how this works. It’s just a stall.”

 “You use a stall when you have someone on the hook.”

 “Guys, please. I know what I’m doing. You’ve got to trust me. You’ve trusted me before.”

 “Not when you’re drunk like this,” Lon’qu cuts in.

 Robin pauses for a long moment, matching Lon’qu’s look with one of her own. She sighs when he shows no signs of backing down.

 “Please,” she scoffs, aiming to play it off when no other argument can be found.

 “Robin…” Olivia starts uncertainly.

 “Listen,” Gaius cuts in, pacing back over. “You’re welcome to drink yourself into a stupor for all I care, but I’m not going down with you.”

 “Pfft,” Robin tips her glass back with a snort. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re all exactly the same as you were before. Always caring about nothing but yourselves.”

 “I need to speak to Robin alone!” Olivia blurts out suddenly, standing between Robin and the others.

 “Good luck with that, Twinkletoes,” Gaius mutters, shoving a chair aside roughly on his way out. Lon’qu and Nowi follow him in similar humors.

 Olivia moves only once they are alone, turning around to face Robin in silence. Robin rolls her eyes, swirling her glass around moodily.

 “You’d better not give me some kind of ‘but we’re all family’ speech.”

 “No speeches,” Olivia shakes her head, looking down pensively for a long moment before raising her gaze to look at Robin’s eyes. “Just… a question: is this helping you?”

 Robin silently watches her bourbon swish around in her glass.

 “I-if you help Donny and his mother to keep their home and stay together, will you find some peace?”

 “Olivia, you know me,” Robin says, though she finds herself unable to meet Olivia’s eyes. “You know I can do this.”

 “I knew you two years ago, Robin.”

 “I’m still the same person.”

 “N-no. No, you’re not.”

 Robin pauses, at last tearing her eyes away from her glass to look at Olivia. The usual pity is gone from her eyes, replaced by a grim sort of acceptance. Robin lets out a sigh, feeling those two years all too well as their weight settles down in her bones.

 “No, I’m not.”

 They lapse into silence, neither one wanting to broach all of the unspoken thoughts and questions hanging between them. It’s Olivia who breaks the spell, averting her eyes as her cheeks flush pink.

 “…Sorry.”

 “It’s fine,” Robin says, though she feels far from it.

 “I-I’ll… let you sleep.”

 Olivia slips out of the room as silent as a ghost. Robin watches her glass of bourbon again for a few moments before setting it down on the counter. Slipping off her shoes, she shuffles over to the bed and falls face first into the pillow.