9 December 2012
Elle pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail, and peered in the mirror. Her lips were still faintly coloured by the lipstick she'd removed a minute ago. She pulled her best top up and looked at her flat stomach and new piercing, the blue gem sparkled at her. She smiled and poked it, watching the light glint from it. She pulled her top back down and padded through her appartment into the kitchen, looking for something to eat. Her kitchen was modern and full of metal and marble. She didn't like it, but it was easy to clean and when one lived alone one had to make sacrifices. She looked over the food in the cupboards, nothing worth eating here. She sighed and pulled a bag of nachos from the top cupboard and some cheese from the fridge. She arranged herself some cheesy nachos and waited while they cooked. From her shorts pocket, she removed her phone and looked through the messages. There were a few new legal jobs that would be distributed overnight, and a few completed jobs of all legal states. One message caught her eye. It was sent from the man that ran her office's night security. She opened it up and read the text. Her jaw dropped and she grasped her phone so tight her knuckles turned white. "Oh no." She muttered to herself, "Oh, not good." Elle grabbed some shoes and a jumper, already dialing another number on her phone. She crammed herself into the back of her car and barked instructions at her driver - who doubled as her personal bodyguard. She didn't care that she'd left the nachos in the oven.
Sam brought his cloth over the varnished wood of his bar, watching the dregs of the day disappear underneath it. All the marks it had accumulated over the open hours disappeared, and it soon stood glimmering in the half light once again. He smiled and left the cloth on the top of the wooden bar as he checked the windows and locked the doors. Tonight they had shut earlier than usual, but there was a guest here and that meant something to Sam and his family. "Sam." A quiet set of footsteps behind him alerted Sam to Althea's presence in the building. "I came back to find you shutting up and Sparks in the back with some old man. Tell me there's nothing to worry about." Sam turned around and saw the black haired woman standing in front of him. Her riding leathers left little to the imagination, tight against her body where it mattered. "Nothing to worry 'bout, darling." Sam grinned, pulling her to his chest and wrapping his arms around her. She was short, a tiny fragile little thing next to him, and he had worried about her a lot while she had been gone. "I've got a visitor and then I've got a job, otherwise it's business as normal." Althea looked Sam over, her eyes searching him for any trace of a lie. She was years younger than him, but worried about him a fair bit more than anyone else. She was his adopted little sister and often played up that role. Althea was in her early twenties now, but still looked like a teenager. "Tell me about this old guy." "I don't know much about him to be honest," Sam shook his head and let Althea go, "Cap's teacher... His name's Draco." "Dragon?" Althea's eyebrows shot up and hid under her bangs. "That's... An interesting name." Sam nodded and wiped his hands on his jeans, he picked up the cloth and walked through the door into the back rooms. Althea followed him. "Yeah. Wanna talk to him with me?" Althea nodded, and reached out for Sam. She touched his shoulder lightly and he turned to face her. "Thank you." "For?" Sam asked, confusion clouding his face. She knew he was acting but didn't push it, he needed to act like this wasn't a big deal for him. Like Cap wasn't an important person to him. "For this." She waved her hand around at the building around them. Both of them knew that wasn't the 'this' that Althea was talking about. Sam smiled and pushed open the door into the main living area. Sparks and Draco were sat next to each other, Draco was talking about a wound that he had gotten on one of his missions. He spoke animatedly, and sounded like a much younger man. Draco noticed Sam and stopped talking, holding his hand up when Sparks tried to ask him another question. He watched as Sam sat his large frame on the couch. "Continue." Sam said quickly, not wishing to interrupt Spark's story. "No, I was done telling that tale." Draco smiled warmly. "Then tell me one..." Sam leaned forwards. "Tell me how you met Cap." The colour drained from Draco's face and he swallowed. "I guess..."
Elle arrived at her office, the building was shut up and had been locked for the night. She pulled her key card from her purse and opened the front door, letting it lock automatically behind her. She took the elevator to her office on the top floor and marched down the corridor, into her room. Once she saw what had been done to it, she bit back on a scream. The glass window were covered in small cracks that radiates outwards from what looked like fist impacts, but had not shattered onto the floor. Her desk was ruined, scarred with deep gorges in the wood. Her computer was trashed, luckily it had very little on the hard drive, even less of which had anything of importance. She swallowed deeply and looked around at her brand new chair, the heather had been stripped and the stuffing had been removed and thrown on the floor. She sighed and pushed it away from her desk. Sinking to her knees, Elle looked for the catch on the underside of her desk. Her fingers caught it and she dragged it from its locked position to the open one. A compartment on the side of her thick oak desk sprung open. She peered into it, there was the folder safe and sound. She pulled it out and flicked through it, the information inside was incredibly detailed and somewhat dangerous. Elle sighed and held it close to her chest. Thank God it was safe.
After Work - 3 - Working It Out • Opuss № I