TumRum Drabbles von -Broeckchen- (Short Stories about the Candy Girls) ================================================================================ Kapitel 1: The Faint Taste of Cigarettes ---------------------------------------- The first thing on Kitiaras mind when she woke up was the oddly satisfied notion that the faint taste of cigarettes was still lingering in her mouth. The second thing was the somewhat shocked realisation that she didn’t smoke. When she opened her eyes in confusion, blinking at the ceiling, the whole last night came rushing back to her. A knock on the door disturbing her late peace. Dark eyes, first ice cold, then warm and vulnerable. Pale skin beneath her own, dark fingertips. The faint taste of cigarettes on her lips. Heat rushed into her cheeks and she could feel her heart racing. Had she… had she really done that?! Had Coffee finally gotten to her? Kitiara thought back to how the club owner had suddenly been on her doorstep the night prior, obviously planning to get information about a friend out of the officer. “Roamer”, a dubious person with a long enough crime record, who had disappeared just a few days ago. Despite Roamer going into hiding regularly, this time Coffee seemed to worry - she stubbornly refused to go for hours, tried to manipulate, discuss, even plead… until she had finally broken down, or so Kitiara thought. When the officer rested her hand on the empty spot next to her in the bed, she wondered if what Coffee had shed had only been crocodile tears. She felt ashamed and guilty when she remembered how she had cupped the pale cheeks of the shady woman, promised to look into the case… And kissed those tears away. Coffee had won. Finally, Kitiara had caved and this manipulative… person had gotten what she wanted from her, and apparently left right after. The only thing remaining from the night before was the faint taste of cigarettes, and as Kiti noted when she closed her eyes in disappointment, the scent of coffee still in the air. Clack. Clack? Kitiara opened her eyes again, facing the nightstand on which a pale hand had placed a mug. The scent of coffee wafted over from it. "Good, you’re awake. I thought I had to wake you up.", Coffee noted, taking a sip from her own cup. Kitiara felt her cheeks flushing again when she looked up to the smaller woman and noticed that she was wearing the shirt of her police uniform - and nothing else. But this time, the feeling was mingled with something almost a bit like pride or happiness. The dark pair of eyes she looked into evaded her own, and Kiti couldn’t help but grin, instantly recognising it as the sheepish gesture it was despite Coffees attempts to appear cold and collected as always. "I saw your work schedule. You ought to be at the station soon, so…" Coffee trailed off. It was really satisfying to see her that flustered. "How long do I still have?", Kitiara asked, sitting up. Coffee glanced at a wall-mounted clock behind her. "About 45 minutes?", she replied. "Mh… I think I can get ready in five, and manage the way in ten…" Coffee barely had time to give Kitiara a surprised look before the police officer had pulled her back into the bed. At least she managed to save the coffee by placing it on the nightstand before it could spill. It ended up cold and untouched. Apparently, Kitiara preferred to start off her day with the faint taste of cigarettes instead. Kapitel 2: Aerico (Trick/Cocoa) ------------------------------- "Some more chicken soup?" Trick nodded weakly. He could talk, easily even, but maybe he was feeling a tiny little bit sorry for himself, and maybe he enjoyed it a tiny little bit. So nonverbal signals it was. Cocoa, of course, saw right through it. He read it in her smile when she picked up the tray with the empty bowl and carried it away, but she didn’t comment on it. It made him smile in relief that she just accepted his sniveling behaviour without judging him for it, and even played along by nursing him back to health. Not that he wasn’t really feeling awful - after Bartoff had eaten him, he’d gone to hell and back, and a vast amount of little and big injuries and the absence of his whole deck save for maybe one or two cards were evidence for this. But he had been able to drag himself all the way back to Cocoas place, and now he acted as if he could barely open his eyes anymore. "Open wide~", he heard the magical girl say, and with a content smile, he complied. The warmth and nice flavour of the soup seemed to spread throughout his whole body, and with a happy sigh he enjoyed the feeling. He let her feed him until the bowl was as empty as he felt full, and only broke the weak semi-facade to take her hand as she was about to leave again with the tray. "Hey, Cocoa…" She gave him a bit of a surprised look, but he smiled as wide as he could. "Thank you." Now a smile spread on her lips as well, and she nodded. "No problem. It’s kind of fun to coddle you." With a wink, she got up and brought the tray back to the kitchen, while he settled back and gave another, content sigh. He’d have to ask for that chicken soup recipe, so he’d be able to return the favour if she ever got sick. Kapitel 3: Christmas Eve ------------------------ Actually Coffee really didn’t mind giving Cocoa kind of a day off on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve brought back memories aplenty, memories Coffee didn’t like. She preferred to cut herself off from the senses and thoughts of her host body, just for these few hours, and and to retreat into the darkest corners of the mind she was sealed within. Christmas reminded her of Theo. The imagery of white snow, white as his hair had become eventually (bleached by time), the scents of the treats he’d loved to buy around this time… After freeing her, he had always shared them with her, often letting her sit in his lap as he broke the gingerbread apart, giving her small bites she could handle and taking bigger ones himself. Candle light like from the candles still weakly flickering when he finally fell asleep, his thumb only slowly stopping to pet her back. When his head drooped to the side, she had often crawled down from his knee to return with a light blanket shortly after. It had been nice to pull it up to his chest, then have a nap on his shoulder, covered by his soft hair and warmed by his neck. Supporting his head at the same time, so he wouldn’t wake up with a strained neck. While Coffee curled up within the depths of the mind that wasn’t hers, she wondered how it could be that happy memories stung so badly. That despite how beautiful they were, they were a burden on her soul. If only she could stop remembering the time with Theo. If only she could stop missing the affection of who was now her greatest enemy. Kapitel 4: Own Me (Trick/Cocoa) ------------------------------- "So, want to get started on the wine now, Trick?” Announcers tone was somewhere between pushy and plain confused - after all, he’d never seen Trick sticking to nothing but orange juice for so long while sitting in a bar that had literally every wine conceivable ever. But the magician, after seeming about to nod for a moment, exchanged a short glance with Cocoa and then shook his head. "Another juice, if you don’t mind." Announcer turned his head too slowly, when he looked at his best friend, she was already innocently sipping her hot chocolate with cream liqueur, and nothing about her face suggested that she had anything to do with Tricks unusual decision. "Mph. Okay." Announcer picked up the empty glasses of himself and Trick and got up to get a refill from Bartender. The instant he left the table, Trick leaned forward, giving Cocoa a look as if he was going through some kind of inhumane medieval torture. "You have no heart!", he accused her quietly. "Under all of this sweet and nice exterior, you have no fucking heart. That was free wine I just rejected! Free, delicious, expensive wine!" She answered with a giddy chuckle. "Awww, sorry." She was obviously not even a little bit sorry. "But I want you sober tonight." Supporting her head with her hand, she winked at him, and it sent a small shiver down his spine and some blood south. "Mph. Is that how it’s going to be every day from now on?" He tried to avoid her eyes, but she just commanded him to look at her again, and without even thinking about it, he complied. Which made her grin, this mischievous, impish grin one wouldn’t expect from her. "If you want it to.", she answered his question and tilted her head. "Do you?" As long as he was her possession, this was the only choice she allowed him to make. And he always decided the same way. "Yes.", he admitted quietly, and her smile told him that a generous reward for this answer awaited him as soon as they’d get home. "There you go.", Announcer said, placing the refilled glasses on the table, and slipping onto the seat next to Cocoa again. "So, where were we?" "Trick was about to tell us an embarassing childhood story." Again with that impish grin, quickly hidden behind her mug when Announcer frowned confusedly at her. "Yeah. So… when I was little, we had this huge water basin next to our house…" Trick knew that she was only warming up. He couldn’t wait for the commands she’d give him as soon as they’d be behind closed doors. Kapitel 5: Befriend Me (Trick/Coffee) ------------------------------------- Jason coughed and spit out another bloody tooth. He briefly wondered how many he’d already lost from the hard beating he was currently receiving, but his buzzing head made it difficult to remember and count, and eventually he decided that it didn’t even matter anyways. "Thank you, Bishop. I think that’s enough for now." A low growl left the throat of the big man who was holding Jason as if he was a light little doll, and by opening one of his huge paws he just let the smaller guy fall down onto the hard cobblestone. The woman who’d commanded him closed in on Jason, studying his beaten and bloody face from behind big, dark shades. She was wearing a trenchcoat and a wide-brimmed hat, but she didn’t really seem to expect either to be a good disguise. Much more useful in keeping her unrecognised on the streets was her posse, the giant who’d beaten up Jason just now and the slender blond man who was actually scaring him shitless even more than “Bishop” did. He was attractive, but his grin unnerving, even more so because he constantly gave off the vibe that he was undressing Jason with his eyes, but not stopping at the clothes when it came to removing layers from him. Nobody wanted to recognise a woman accompanied by these two. "The money." It took Jason a moment to realise that she was still talking to him. "Where is it?" He gave a chuckle, but it quickly turned into a bloody cough. "I told you…", he replied, still grinning despite the pain, because the money was safe and so was the person who’d received it. Finally safe. Finally out of this shithole of a town, even if he couldn’t follow them. It was okay, as long as they were safe. "I worked my magic on it. And made it disappear." Unafraid, he looked up to her, catching just the faintest squinting of her eyes while the Bishop seemed about to kick him again. "YOU LITTLE-" "No." It almost made Jason admire her a little for how easily she could stop this force of nature in his rampage with just a short word. The look that the Bishop gave her, confused, but not doubting, made him wonder what exactly gave her power over her lackeys. "You really did make it disappear, mh?", she asked, kneeling down next to Jason, looking into his eyes as if it would suffice for him to think the answer and she would know it. "Well. In that case, I suppose you should take responsibility and earn it back for us." What? "Pick him up, Bishop, we’re taking this one with us. Butcher, I’m sure you can fetch us some actual stage magician gear to replace those sorry scraps with." Jasons eyes widened as the big man picked him up and threw him over his should, knocking some air out of him and making him feel even more dizzy. A small hand lifted his chin and he looked into the dark eyes of the unknown woman again. "From now on, your name is ‘Trick’.", she informed him matter-of-factly. "And you will work your magic for us." The blond man she’d called Butcher appeared for a moment in Jasons line of sight, with a wide grin and a raised fist, then everything went dark around him. When he woke up, his name was Trick, and he worked his magic for Coffee. Kapitel 6: Dragon (Walker/Cocoa/Roamer/Coffee/Theo) --------------------------------------------------- Finally, all of his problems would resolve themselves. Theo smiled as he leaned down to the child that almost seemed in danger of getting lost between the sheets, being almost as white as them. With fever glinting in her eyes, the little girl looked back up to him. "Do not worry, my dear. Here, this will make it all better." He held up the pill he had imprisoned his former pet demon in. A weak seal that the wretched creature would soon be able to break if he didn’t combine it with another, more sturdy vessel. "Now. Open wide, Cocoa." At first, it seemed as if she wanted to do as she was told, but then her eyes focused on something behind him, her expression growing surprised. He felt a strong grip around his wrist, and magic so intense it almost burned his skin. "No. I won’t let you do this." Theo was about to reply something, but the stranger had already pulled him to his feet, glaring into his eyes. With a quick motion, the man - hair even whiter than that of Theo himself, and eyes that seemed to slightly shift in color as if they were filled with dark smoke instead of having a normal iris - snatched the pill out of Theos hand and let it disappear somewhere. "You will go now. And never return." The almost ethereal looking man commanded. Probably a magical being, Theo thought, feeling hatred burning within himself already. But one much more powerful than him. So he carefully pulled his arm away from the stranger, packed his things and left. He was not surprised by the reaction of the guards outside, who acted as if they hadn’t seen anyone enter after him. At least it seemed like he was rid of the Spiritus for now. Walker sat down by Cocoas bedside, gently brushing away some of the brown locks that stuck to her hot forehead and flushed cheeks. They could see how her little body relaxed when their life-spending magic seeped into her, helping her immune system to fight whatever threatened her right now. "I think this is the last one I can save.", they said, their voice full of grief. "I will be too late for the ones after. This was just in the nick of time…" They looked up to the window, which reflected the well-lit room, and their eyes met with those of Roamer. It was weird to see a compassionate expression in their eyes. Standing up, Walker stepped closer to the window, hesitating for a moment while looking first at the pill in their hands, then back at their dark counterpart. "You… you do know that it’s not her yet, right? None of them is… And they will never grow to be her, either. You’re taking away all those opportunities from yourself." Roamer sighed, and despite being unable to actually make themselves heard through the glass, Walker could read their words from their lips. "I don’t dare. This is an opportunity to save her so much grief… Remember our deal when we went back. You get to shield Cocoa from this fate, and I… I get to save Coffee." Even if it wasn’t Coffee yet and never would be. Roamer didn’t need to add this, Walker understood it perfectly well. Cocoa was not the Cocoa they knew either, and yet, for the sake of the young woman who had gladly given her life for them with a wide smile, Walker was ready to prevent this little girl from ever becoming her. They slipped the pill through the glass as if it wasn’t even there, and smiled faintly when Roamer held it in the palm of their hand like the greatest treasure they had ever known. "We might not be able to save the rest from Theo.", they mouthed. "But… we can guard them when they escape." Walker smiled, relieved to be given a bit of hope to help more. "Yes. Let’s do that.", they replied, walking over to the door of the room after giving the little girl a last, gentle kiss on the forehead. "Don’t worry, dear little princess." They said on their way out, feeling the eyes of the small girl on their back. "I will watch over you. Rest now." Quietly, they slipped back into the Halls and closed the door behind themselves. Kapitel 7: Forbidden (Roamer/Coffee) ------------------------------------ "We… we shouldn’t…", Coffees mouth said, while her legs signaled ‘But we want to’, her ankles crossing behind him and pulling his hips closer to her. "Mmmhh…", he replied with her earlobe between his lips, his dark voice making her shiver already. "I… I need to be by the altar in half an hour…" She gasped when he gently bit her neck and slid his hands under her wedding dress. They wandered up her thighs and pulled her panties to her knees with only barely enough restraint to not rip them off entirely. "The last thirty minutes we have.", Roamer murmured, breathless himself already as he dipped his fingers inside her. She would have given them away with a loud moan if his lips hadn’t been there to muffle the sounds with a passionate kiss. "Anubis…" Hearing his name made him open his eyes, looking deeply into hers for a while with a familiar fire in them. It burned up all resistance, willpower and rational thinking she’d had left. "Take me." With a hungry, but loving smile he pinned her against the wall. "Your wish is my command, Liebchen~.", he said and kissed the bride. Kapitel 8: Breakfast (Trick/Cocoa) ---------------------------------- "And then he just kissed me. Like, smack dab on the lips and all. I mean, he said it was a dare by Coffee, but I don’t know if that makes it much better, because it felt so sincere and if it was just a dare, that just makes it all the more confusing for me for some reason." Cocoa bit into her pancake. It was almost admirable how quickly she dug through these, thought Trick, pouring some maple syrup onto his own. "Was it good?", he asked, grabbing the chocolate syrup to put that on top of the maple one. "Huh?" She blushed as little as she looked up to him. Yeah, she’d probably understood him just fine. "Is he a good kisser?", Trick repeated anyways, this time notably louder as if talking to an old woman. She blushed even more and tried to hide behind her pancake. "…yeah I… I think so…", she replied quietly. "Hm… Interesting. I have been wanting to check out his skills for aw-ow!” Trick grinned despite the pain in his shin. It was just too cute when Cocoa couldn’t decide if she was flustered or offended or both and puffed up her cheeks with an adorable glare while she blushed. Even when she also kicked him under the table. "No! Bad Trick! No smoochin the Nouncer!", she grumbled, taking another big bite of her breakfast. "Why, are you jealous?" His grin got even wider. "Don’t worry, I-" They both hadn’t even noticed the sound of a key being turned around in the lock of the apartment door. The fact that Announcer had entered the place only occured to them when he suddenly stood in the doorframe to the kitchen, staring at them while being frozen in place. "It’s… not how it looks?", tried Cocoa, well aware that with her wearing little more than a shirt and Trick still having a towel from the shower around his hips and nothing else, it probably looked a lot like Trick had stayed for something different than a casual movie night and a few glasses of wine the day prior. Which wasn’t the case. There was a perfectly valid and PG 13 explanation for the current situation. It was a pretty long explanation and it sounded very shady, but it was absolutely true. "…but if it was, would you like to join u-OW!" Well, at least now both of Tricks shins hurt equally much. Kapitel 9: Ares (Tybalt/Cole/Coffee) ------------------------------------ "Uncle Cooooole!" Tarts words were almost drowned out by the first bigger impact and the way it shook the entire building. Still, Cole carefully peeked out of the door. "I heard, I heard. They’ve already started, huh?" "Yeah." Tart seemed unimpressed, even as the house shook again and some plaster dropped down from the ceiling right next to them. "C’mon, if I don’t get you outta here, Dad will throw a fit again." They held out their hand for Cole, and he quickly grabbed it. At least with Tart by his side, he was relatively safe, even when they would pass the living room. Loud, high-pitched noises were audible from there, followed by the hellish buzz of Coffees demonic minions. It soon decreased in volume when Tybalt knocked out the first twenty or so. "What did even set them off?", Cole asked, blinking into the sun relievedly as they exited the house. "Hell if I know. I think it’s another age discussion and just escalated again." Tart sighed, looking at the shaking building. "I just wish I wouldn’t have to babysit you whenever they do this. Nothing personal, but I was in the middle of a really cool dungeon…" "No hard feelings." "Thanks, uncle Cole." As always, it didn’t take long before the place stopped shaking again, the demonic voices inside fading along with the other sounds of battle. Cole smiled in relief, but as he moved closer to the entrance, he noticed that Tart was not by his side. He turned around to them with a confused look on his face. "Are you not coming?" Tart made a face. "Ew. No. They’ve stopped fighting." "…yes, that was actually my point?" "Uncle Cole. You do know that after they stop fighting…" "…yeah?" "…they make up?” Cole pulled his hand away from the doorknob, staring at it for a while. He was pretty certain that he heard some kind of faint chirping from behind the door. "…you know what, let’s go have ice cream or something else that we can do far away from here.", he mumbled and trotted off, Tart following him with a quiet chuckle. Kapitel 10: Dionysus (Kitiara/Cocoa) ------------------------------------ Kitiara placed her empty glass on the table with a hard clacking sound and wiped her lips with the back of her hand, giving Cocoa a provoking smile. "Sorry, but you’re going down, sweetheart!", she announced, just to blink surprisedly when she realised that Cocoa was long since pouring her next glass. "We’ll see about that.", the smaller magical girl said. She poured Kiti a new glass as well, they exchanged looks that emphasised their challenge to each other even more, and then they quickly downed their drinks again. A few minutes later, their drinking competition had kind of become the background radiation to a cuddlefest. "Cocoa… I mmmight need to arrest you!", Kiti slurred while ruffling the smaller womans hair with a grin. "For… tha CRIME of CUTENESS! God your hair’s so sooooft!" She just buried her face in it, saying a few more muffled words of no significance. "Okaaaay~ buuuut… only if I get hug-cuffs!", Cocoa replied, followed by a silly giggle, and nestled even more closely against her drinking buddy. Despite there being no clear winner, everybody won that night. Kapitel 11: Break Me (Kitiara/Cocoa) ------------------------------------ "No! Nonononono please no!" Cocoa gave a small sob while she carefully pulled Kitiaras head into her lap. The Bubblegum Barrier she had created, a pink sphere around them, kept them safe from the raging android trying to get to them. But that seemed to come too late. "Please don’t… please don’t go, Kiti! Please!" The brunette leaned down, hugging Kitiara to herself. "Please… I haven’t apologised yet… I’m so sorry Kiti… That wasn’t me who told you all those ugly things, I promise I like you, I’ve always liked you, and I was so happy that you gave me the time out of the day… Kiti…" More sobs shook her while she tried to hope that Kitiara could still listen, maybe even would wake up again, despite the fact that her cheeks were cooling next to those of Cocoa. Kapitel 12: Breakfast (Kitiara/Cocoa) ------------------------------------- "Oh God. Oh God, Cocoa!” Kitiara took a deep breath and looked at her plate. “THIS FRENCH TOAST IS AMAZING!”, she blurted out, almost tearing up from how much she loved the taste. “What did you put in there?!” "Uh, it’s a bit complicated, but basically, I do that thing with the eggs and use vanilla sugar instead of regular one and… I’ll just write it down for you, okay?" Cocoa smiled sheepishly, happy about the nice compliment, while she took another bite from her own breakfast. "Also, thanks again for letting me crash on your couch while my flat gets renovated… I suppose it wasn’t the best idea to invite both Greg and Announcer for a movie night, heh…" "Dude, you can actually move in if you keep making me food like this." Kitiara grinned widely. "In fact, if you don’t, you might have me over for movie nights more often in the future!” Cocoa gave her a long look, with a deeply moved expression. It already meant so much to her that when the two men, arguing as always, had “accidentally” trashed her place, Kitiara had offered her to stay - despite their last, ugly conversation. But now, not only did Kiti smile and laugh and acted in no way as if she harbored any hard feelings… hearing that she enjoyed Cocoas company was genuinely wonderful. "I’d like that.", she quietly replied, and happily bit into her French Toast. Kapitel 13: Reunite Me (Coffee/Cocoa/Roamer) -------------------------------------------- In Roamers opinion, Coffee had aged very well. It didn’t surprise him one bit that she had survived her husband and still had the vigor to keep his grave clean and neat. Smiling, he watched from a distance as she knelt next to it, tending to the flowers she had planted there. She seemed to frail now, an elderly lady… "Excuse me!" Ah, he knew that voice! "Cocoa?" That made the woman who had just bumped into him stop in her tracks and spin around. "Ooooh, it’s you Uncle R!" She beamed. "I almost didn’t recognise you! How are you doing?" "Oh, fine. Finally in retirement. Your auntie is doing well, too." She smiled a bit wider for a moment, then it shrunk into a slightly worried expression. "I heard that about Pa… I mean, I tried to call you when it happened, but nobody let me through…" A shadow passed over his own face as well. "Ah… yes. I apologise, I… I just realy didn’t feel like dealing with anyone else. I didn’t know they would turn you away, too though." "Is he buried here, too?" "Mhm. I was just visiting him when I saw your mother and… considered catching up." Cocoa followed his own gaze with her eyes, then lowered them. "You know… she still has that tie and the earring in her jewelry box.", she said with a shy and somewhat sad smile. He didn’t ask how she knew about the significance of both - she had always been a smart child and after spending so much of her childhood around him and Trick, it probably wasn’t hard for her to put two and two together. "I see…", he quietly replied. "Well… I gotta go. Uncle T needs a lift, and Tart’s gotta work today so… yeah…" Cocoa patted his shoulder. "Take care, okay?" And with that, she was gone. Roamers eyes returned to the elderly lady next to the grave. The response her body made to every move made Coffee acutely aware of her age. Of the tiredness her long life had left behind. And as she wiped her forehead with her arm and dirt crumbled down onto her nose, making her sneeze, of how awfully dirty she was. With a smile she thought that she probably looked like a mole, covered in the dark earth of the grave. But all of it felt good. She was finally at peace with many things, and three of them were that she was old, tired and dirty. Then she stood up, and a pair of arms snaked around her waist from behind. "Those are lovely roses you picked out. One of these blossoms would look beautiful in your hair.", a dark, warm, familiar voice said right next to her ear. And made her forget completely that she wasn’t 18 years old anymore. Kapitel 14: Persephone (Kitiara/Coffee) --------------------------------------- Kitiara raised her eyes from the Wanted Poster Lori was holding up for her. "She… she’s a pirate?" She turned around to the cell behind her, frowning at the drunk woman in it who kept singing shanties in disbelief. "Not just any pirate, either. Part of the Triad, or ‘Tempting Triad’ as they are called in the marine!" Lori lowered her voice a little, grinning widely. "The only reason their crime records aren’t as long as their bounty numbers is that they consist of like 50% adultery and 40% adultery no one wants to admit committing - they kidnap people every now and then when they feel like it, but word has it that most people end up giving them their worldly possessions out of their own volition, that’s how good they are." She snickered. "Doesn’t keep people from regretting their decision later occasionally though. But that means you hit jackpot, Kiti! Here!" She shoved the poster into Kitiaras hands. "So when you got the watch now, you can look at the nice reward you get for this sweet catch later." Kitiara still didn’t look very convinced, she kept looking back and forth between the drawing on the poster and the woman in the cell. But when Lori patted her back, she snapped out of her stupor. "Huh… all right, have a nice evening then, Lori.", she mumbled, getting a laugh from her colleague as a reply. "For you too, Kiti. And don’t let her wrap you around her finger, that’s how they get to you!" "I’ll be on my toes." Kiti shook her head with a smile. As if she’d be into drunkards, that was why she had arrested the woman in the first place after all. The moment Lori had left, the woman in the cell - “Coffee” according to the poster? - shouted out to her. "Hey! Hey marine! Didcha get yer reward yet?" When Kitiara came a bit closer, she suddenly realised that Coffees eyes did not look as glazed over as they usually did on people with her behaviour. Maybe it was a good thing that Lori had warned her. "No… my higher ups aren’t here yet. But I don’t really care about the reward, I just wanted to break up that fight you started in the tavern." She genuinely had thought that the drunk woman needed protection to sober up… Her reply seemed to irritate Coffee. "What do you mean, you don’t care about the reward?! What did I let myself get caught for if you don’t get it?" What? "Lass, ya ought to be more assertive to your bosses. Insist on yer rights, kick them outta bed if ya got to! We’re talking about a pretty big amount of money here! By the way, can I see that?" Starting to have a suspicion about what Coffee was up to, Kitiara crumpled up the poster and threw it so the smaller woman could catch it. "You won’t make me fall for your trap… Coffee. I don’t care about the money, it’s the law I’m doing my job for." She pulled up a stool and sat down on it, nervously playing with her keys. If those pirates were a "triad" - then what about the other two? "I’m not trying to deceive ya, lass. If ya want a list of things I’m trying to do, here it is: 1. Getting a nicer picture on my posters I mean have ya seen this piece a shit? 2. Giving ya a nicer and more truthful impression of myself. Didcha know I didn’t even do half the stuff they want me to dance with Jack Ketch for?” "Well that’s a thing I definitely heard before.", Kiti replied, still jingling with her keys, but actually focusing on the little woman now. It was ridiculous that she was called lass by the smaller pirate and not the other way around. "I swear it’s true though. I mean didcha see the people lining up to get me hanged for adultery with them? Talking bilge, most a them. I wouldn’t touch them with a stick and the truth is that they want me dead because they can’t take no for an answer." It made Kiti smile slightly, and try to not start feeling protective of the other woman again. Pirate. "Even if that’s true, that still leaves the other half of true cases and the fact that you are a pirate - and you probably didn’t get called such without good reasons." "I prefer the term ‘corsair’!" "I don’t care about your preferences." "Which is a shame, cuz yer one a them." Kiti managed to choke on nothing but air at this unexpected remark and the cheeky wink from her prisoner, and quickly turned her head away. "Sorry, but smooth talk won’t get you out of here either.", she mumbled, perking up when she heard a noise behind herself. For a moment, a scarred man with a grin that warranted arresting him on it’s own sauntered into her line of sight, but as she wanted to stand up to defend herself, someone else knocked something against her head from behind. "Didn’t expect it to.", she heard Coffee say, and the mischievous smile of the pirate was the last thing she saw before she passed out. She reawakened in a cabin on the sea, and the first thing she felt was gratitude for the fact that someone had placed a bucket right next to the spot she’d rested on, because the up- and down of the ship and an unconscious body didn’t seem to be the best of friends. After emptying her stomach, she became aware of the rest of her surroundings. The cabin was pretty empty, safe for the makeshift “bed” (pile of clothing more like) and instead of a door, or fourth wall for that matter, it had sturdy bars on one side. Coffee was sitting on the other side, leaning against them. "Morning, beauty.", she cooed. Kitiara sat up quickly, immediately regretting that decision when her head began to buzz. "Ah, don’t overexert yourself. Yet.”, Coffee commented on the muffled whimper her prisoner gave. “Roamer hit you pretty hard. Don’t worry, I already gave him a piece of my mind about that.” The reaction she got was an angry glare from the marine. "Let me off this ship right. Now.”, Kitiara hissed, and Coffees lips curled into another one of these awful, dangerous smiles that made her head swim even more than the hit had. "If you want to swim a few kilometres back to the mainland, sure. But I’d recommend you to just be patient. We’ll drop you off at the next haven when we restock our supplies. How about you regard this as a nice little vacation, mh?" "I don’t tend to be held prisoner on vacations.", Kiti snarled, but Coffee just leaned in even more closely, pretty much devouring her with her eyes already. "Well, let me extend an offer to you then. If you play nice, you won’t have to be my prisoner - but instead, you could be my guest.” She winked again, and Kitiara turned her head away, trying to keep her anger on the forefront of her mind. "Think about it, beauty.", Coffee added with a smirk and briefly, Kiti wondered when she’d grown from a lass into a beauty in the pirates eyes. The faint memory of Coffee giving her a glance across the room before starting the ruckus in the tavern crossed her mind, and she could feel her cheeks getting warmer as the pirate exited. Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)