♊︎Year 5067, Month 8, Day 8, Time 12:00 am♊︎
☯︎︎
It's been quite some time since they've all narrowly escaped the harrowing attack back at The Succubus. All of them— Jongho, Olivia, Kurenai, San, and Juniper— sit in the car that Jongho is currently driving around town, packed tightly together. They didn't know where the heck to head to, that is, until San advised the younger male of a certain location only the two of them seemed to know about.
With myriad turns that the mechanic continuously took to get their clandestine location and the sharp bends, everyone gave up on questioning his sense of direction. They all fell victims to the hypnotic purring of the car's engine and the occasional squeaking from one of the loose tires that was bound to give out but surprisingly hadn't.
Besides, they couldn't continue complaining about where he was taking them even if they wanted to, having all of their energy and stamina drained from their previous encounter with MALUS.
Still, Jongho didn't need their bickering and yelling to feel pressured to get to their destination quickly. Just the sight of Olivia's drained form slumped down in her seat wordlessly and San's injured form lying atop Kurenai who's combing her finger through his hair is enough to motivate him. At some point, he found that he must've been staring too hard considering what his dear team member followed up with.
"You know, I think that maybe if you just stopped staring at Olivia for a second we could have already arrived at our destination." Kurenai snarkily remarks, smirking when he sees Jongho send her a glare through the broken-but-miraculously-working rearview mirror.
San lifts his head briefly to look over at Kurenai with a quirked brow, hearing juniper snicker from upfront. Jongho refuses to look in her direction out of guilt of being caught.
"I'm not staring. I'm just— worried." He attempts to defend himself which only earns him a scoff from Juniper.
"Worried that your girlfriend is hurt?" The pink-haired woman goads making the younger man snicker.
"I'm— she's not— w-we're not—!"
"I'm fine, Jongho." Olivia offers the mulleted man a weak smile as she places a light hand on his thigh, going back to resting her head on the back support of her seat after a small second. A moment of silence follows as both Juniper and Kurenai mechanize what just happened before San's voice appears.
"Yeah, they're definitely smashing— OW!" The mulleted man not-so-subtly mutters, earning himself smack upside the head from Jongho who reached over the seat to chastise him.
"How are you injured and still making fun of me? Don't you have your injury to be worrying about?" Juniper snorts in her seat when she hears Jongho's complaints and the couple currently being subjected to this treatment remains awkwardly silent, neither denying nor affirming the accusations.
Finally, when the obvious tension between Jongho and Olivia becomes unbearable, Jongho announces their arrival.
"We've arrived." He declares defeatedly, making a final turn into a dark alleyway and pulling up to an oddly small garage that just barely fits the car inside.
"Where are we? And why is it so... grubby?" Juniper wrinkles her nose as she looks around the small garage, opening the car door and stepping out carefully with much disdain for the place.
"It's not in the nice side of the city, what do you expect?" Jongho scoffs, getting out on his side and helping Olivia out as well. He then moves to help out San and Kurenai who've remained rather silent the whole car ride. "It's been some time since I've stopped by here, though. So if anything, blame San for it's dirty state."
"Blame San?" Kurenai queries, getting out after Jongho helps San. "Why would we blame him?" Jongho looks at San with a frown, opening his mouth but then closing it right after.
"I thought you would've at least told her by now." The mechanic vaguely states, earning no answer from the injured man.
"Just get me to my room and patch me up. This wound is quite literally killing me." San's voice comes out a little more defensive than the team would have liked, considering they just narrowly escaped the clutches of MALUS and have no idea where they are currently.
"As you wish," Jongho responds, walking over with San to a door that the younger kicks in. The women all look at each other in curiosity but also hesitate, snapping out of it only when they hear Jongho call for them again. "Do you guys plan to stay out there?"
"C-Coming!" Juniper is the first to snap into action, holding her robe tighter to her body and picking her way through the garage's mess to get inside of wherever it is they're at. Olivia follows next, then Kurenai who was still pondering Jongho's ambiguous statement.
They all follow the men into the back of what seems to be a work shop of some kind with multiple machines and utensils lying around, collecting dust and cobwebs over the years of being neglected. The room is incredibly dirty, to say the least, but the dim and grimy scenery soon changes when they're lead up the stairs on the opposite end of the workroom.
Climbing up the flight of stairs to get to the second floor, Kurenai hears the faint traces of Jongho and San engaging in a small dispute that she doesn't pay attention to until San calls her out of the blue.
"Kurenai, the key?" Her attention gets ripped away from the machines she was overlooking from her height on the second platform, tilting her to the side at first and then catching on to what the man means when she sees the four other people with her standing idly by in front of a locked door.
"Oh, right." She mutters to herself, stepping forward and using the ghost key around her neck to open the door. The minute the door opens, the group is hit with the soft scent of butterscotch and faint traces of vanilla.
Stepping inside, there is only one word to describe the whole place— Homey.
As soon as one walks in, the delicate porcelain sculptures that decorate the room and the soft creme colors that paint the walls jump out at you first, looking exactly like the perfect house for a senior couple.
The living room, dining room, and kitchen are all right next to each other, so compact that it's almost impossible to tell where one ends and the other starts if it weren't for the awkward clash of colors between the three settings. Oddly enough though, it's all very comforting, in a "grandparent" kind of way.
Kurenai turns to ask San where exactly they've arrived when she notices that both he and Jongho have disappeared; where to, no one knows. Instead, she meets Juniper's eyes-- ones that hold an odd glint to them. It makes Kurenai skin crawl.
"If you think I'm going back to The Succubus after this, you're highly mistaken." Kurenai jumps the gun, heading over to the kitchen in search of a first aid kit for her wounds. Juniper snickers, crossing her arms and following Kurenai.
"That's not what I was thinking currently, but it breaks my heart to know that you don't care for me enough to come back." Juniper pouts, leaning up against a counter adjacent to Kurenai. "I guess, it's inevitable. You know, since you have a bad habit of jumping around from person to person."
"Juni, what the hell are you trying to get at?" Kurenai stops her search of the first aid kit to meet Juniper's snooty glare, leveling herself with the dancer.
"Oh, nothing." Juniper bats her eyelashes innocently, looking away rather dimly. "I just can't help but notice that you, Mia Bambina, have a bad habit of playing the double agent. Do you plan to betray him as well?"
"Don't you dare go there—!"
"Hm, you're right... it's not a matter of 'do you plan to betray him', it's more of a matter of 'when''."
"Juniper, I'm warning you. Don't push my buttons." Kurenai grits through clenched teeth, trying her best to ignore the pink-haired woman. But if there was something that Juniper did best, it was pushing Kurenai's buttons to the point of no return.
"If I can recall correctly, you always did struggle with committing to people who weren't the Meisters—!" Juniper gets cut off, finding herself pressed up against the refrigerator and struggling to breathe as Kurenai tightens her hands around the woman's throat.
"You... wouldn't... dare... kill me," The dancer claws at Kurenai's hands, gasping for any slither of oxygen as her face turns red and her eyes glassy.
"I'm not so sure about that. You're annoying and a pest to me. It'd do me better to get rid of you than to keep you around." Kurenai tightens her grip, smirking sadistically at the sight of Juniper's eyes widening in terror as she realizes how her life falls neatly into Kurenai's hands. "What's the death of one more fly to me, hm?"
"Kurenai." A timid voice that the tattooed woman had forgotten was even present suddenly speaks up, catching her attention just in time to save Juniper. "I don't think— I don't think it smart to kill her off."
"And why not? She owes me, anyway." Kurenai refuses to let up her hold out of pride.
"And she can pay that in the form of classified information and contacts. There's n-no need to hurt h-her." Olivia's confidence dies down as she continues to speak, falling silent shortly after in anticipation of what Kurenai will choose next.
Thankfully, the tattooed woman lets go of Juniper, looking down on her as the dancer falls to the floor with a loud thud. Gasping and heaving for air, Juniper places a hand around her throat to rub at where Kurenai was digging her nails into the skin, grimacing when she feels some of the open skin.
"Mmcht, what will Vael say to this?" Juniper rasps humorlessly, coughing as she speaks.
"Vael can go screw himself for all I care." Kurenai crosses her arms over her chest, tilting her head as she stares down Juniper. Shifting her footing, Kurenai notices how Juniper cowers away. "What's wrong, Juni? Did I scare you? Where's your big girl act now?" She squats to be at eye level with Juniper, grabbing the dancer by her chin to make their eyes meet. Kurenai scowls at the sight of Juniper's hateful glare, jutting her chin out in mockery. "It's funny how the tables turned so suddenly. And all it took was Vael leaving."
"Shut up." Juniper snaps, clenching her jaw. "Just shut up!" Kurenai roughly pushes her jaw away, standing back up and resuming her search for the first aid kit. "If Vael heard you just now, he would—!"
"Olivia, please go look for Jongho and San. I need to know where they are." Kurenai sends the other girl off, irritated by her quiet yet invasive presence. The girl hesitantly moves away, leaving the other two to talk, privately. Kurenai keeps her back facing Juniper, her shoulders going slack. "You and I both know that Vael wouldn't do anything no matter what I do or say to you."
"It's only because the idiot still looks up to you. You were a role model for him. I looked up to you. And then you left us. Not only that but you turned us over for dead, too." Juniper continues bitterly, her voice almost failing her at the end. Kurenai is too ashamed and afraid to meet the woman's eyes out of fear of what she'll encounter. "All because of your undying loyalty to those stupid pigs that run the show."
"Do you want an apology?"
"No," Juniper shakes her head, rising to her feet shakily. "I don't want a vain excuse for what you did to us."
"Then what do you want from me? Why do you keep bringing that situation up? I put that behind me for a reason."
"And yet, here you are again, seeking me out to use me and dump me once more."
"It's— I had no choice. I don't want to be here either, but you're the only person that has the information I need. So, what do you want me to do?" Kurenai finally turns, a hard-set expression masking her true feelings. It becomes hard to keep up the facade when she's met with Juniper's twisted face, her raw emotions as clear as day.
"I just want to know what changed in you. Then and now. I want to know how the Meisters' pride and joy, their token subject, their runt— how did you ever manage to fall so far from grace and end up as one of us 'blacklisted scum' as you used to call it. Even when you swore up and down that you'd never turn your back on your saviors." Juniper utters each word with such potent venom, one would think it enough to genuinely poison Kurenai's soul.
"I found out the truth."
"The truth?" Juniper derides. "Enlighten me, oh great Queen of Spades, what 'truth' did you find?" Kurenai purses her lips, narrowing her eyes.
"You know exactly what I found out. I'm sure you've come across the files."
"I have."
"Funny how even with knowing what they've done, you still withhold that information from me. Looks to me as if you're no more reliable than the Meisters you oh-so abhor." The Dancer opens her mouth to retort but is saved by Jongho who cuts in just in time.
"Uhm, Kurenai? I helped San wash and Olivia is sowing his injuries, but he asked me to call you over." Not letting her eyes off of Juniper for a second, Kurenai answers.
"Alright. You've got a med kit?"
"Yeah, it's in his room." Jongho replies, noticing the tension between the two women. "I, uh, San told me to tell you there are two other rooms beside his. Olivia and I will take one room and you guys can—."
"I'll take the couch, Juniper can take the last room to herself." Kurenai intercedes before the man could even finish, pushing past him to walk toward another set of stairs that must lead to the bedrooms.
Juniper utters something snarky but Kurenai ignores it, knowing that if she pays any attention it would just be letting the pink-haired woman get under her skin again.