Serena finds herself in the training room the next morning alone. Her body is exhausted from the previous night's encounter, but her mind is wide awake. When she returned to the manor, Dawn and Misty were nowhere to be found with their hostage. Truthfully, she didn't have any energy to even worry about his fate and what that involved. She remembers the furious look on Ash's face and the thin line that stood between the man's life and death in his hands — Serena can stand to guess the sort of door to hell his life lingers in front of.
She makes her way to the shooting range and loads a set of bullets into the barrel robotically, a motion she grew more and more familiar with. The space she's in feels separate from the world above and she knows everyone will be rising to greet the morning soon. Down here, it's noiseless and lonely, and the only thing that keeps her company is the shadows of her own fear on the target straight ahead.
It comes and goes in her vision in the shape of ocean blue eyes pink lips curling over the blade of a white smile. She bites her lip and pulls the trigger, shooting dead center repeatedly until the gun clicks empty, her heart weighing no lighter. She huffs and strides down the gap to replace the shredded target with a fresh one before taking her spot once again, a new set of bullets loaded.
She thinks of Ash and the look on his face before she stopped him. The leader persona crumbled away to subtle shock, but Serena couldn't bear to look at him any longer before she felt like she could wither to the wind carried by the sea. The way he called after her with a gentle tone that traced the brushstrokes of her name tugged at her heart, but she was too afraid to see what it would have meant.
It doesn't mean a damn thing. Stop it.
The gunshots go off again and Serena clicks her tongue in frustration, the shots all over the target map in her distraction when the smoke clears. The weapon feels heavier in her palm and she sets it down on the table with a sigh, then drumming her fingers on the surface as if she'd find the answers in the grain. She's so lost in thought that she doesn't notice the new presence in the room until the door opens and closes and she's met with 'cuzzo' of her troubles.
Ruby eyes look past her at the pierced target before panning back to her. "Your aim's way off," Miette says plainly, and Serena's eyes narrow at the lack of pointedness there.
"Perhaps, you could stand as the target and I'm positive I would hit dead center then," Serena mutters, not meeting Miette's eyes. Her voice is of course different from Ash's, higher, disguised as honey-sweet when in fact it grates on Serena's nerves on a daily basis. But today's different. Today, she doesn't want to look at anything that reminds her of the boss floors above.
"You weren't at the bar this morning," Miette says instead, skipping over her opportunity to tease Serena again.
Weird.
"You're an adult. You can manage a day making your own coffee." Serena rolls her eyes and her hands settle on her hips.
At this, Miette frowns, unimpressed, and closes the distance. Serena nearly bristles before a finger pokes prods at her forehead to which she immediately swats at. "What are you-"
Miette's eyes narrow as she interrupts her. "It's not the same."
Serena blinks and purses her lips at the impassive look on Miette's face. Whether Miette meant that her coffee wasn't the same or that it simply wasn't the same without Serena, the former fashion designer who can make coffee doesn't know — both prospects are just completely strange coming from someone she rarely gets along with.
She decides to bite the bait. "I'm honestly just irritated, okay? What do you want, Miette?"
Miette rolls her eyes as if the answer were obvious. "What the hell happened yesterday?"
"Which part?" Serena replies, arms now crossed with the open answer surprising Miette, whose hands find their way into the pockets of her sweatpants, tapping her shoe on the floor.
"Oh, I don't know. For starters, we have a freshly beaten hostage in our interrogation room," Miette supplies. "Ash is on edge. He hasn't looked that scary in a while. I almost feel bad for the hostage."
Serena huffs a humorless laugh alongside Miette's mock concern over the man's well-being. "He deserved it. That asshole tried coming on to me drunk, thinking he could throw money at me to make me go home with him."
Miette hums at the information and shrugs. "You should've killed him."
Serena sighs and throws her head back, staring up at the blank ceiling and just says the truth. "I would have."
"Why were you even out there alone?"
The question makes Serena stiffen and she does her best to hide it. "I didn't know this was an interrogation. Don't you have anything better to do than bother me?" She retorts, the surge to grab the gun and shoot the target again returning.
Miette snorts and it makes her jaw grind. "Seriously? Are you going to stay down here all day hiding? Drop the act, Serena. You might as well tell someone."
Serena scoffs in return. "And why exactly should I tell you of all people?"
"It's not like you'll tell the person you really want to tell," Miette challenges with a raised brow. Serena's fist tightens and she locks eyes with Miette, unmoving. She doesn't know what the woman knows or if it's her own head making her Miette could've possibly figured it all out. She drives the knife further. "You think I don't notice things about the guy who's close enough to be my cousin?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Serena denies reflexively, her fist tensing. His name feels bitter on her tongue but she has to prove it, prove to her that this really doesn't matter in the way that Serena wishes she did. "Ash has nothing to do with this."
"Keep telling yourself that, beautiful," Miette drawls mockingly and Serena can feel the twitch in her brow at the specific endearment. It sounds incredibly wrong coming from her, hearing the way Ash's voice echoes in her mind in the tone that cares about her, and the unspoken meaning behind Miette knowing about it continues to rub salt into her own wounds.
"Don't call me that," Serena snaps back and Miette only smirks at her. Serena grabs the gun off the table and proceeds to load new bullets in the barrel, turning away from the sniper. "If you have nothing else to say other than to piss me off-" She flicks her wrist, the barrel clicking into place. "-leave."
Miette doesn't say anything at first and Serena thinks she's about to leave when she raises the gun again at the target. Her finger begins to pull on the trigger when Miette's voice cuts through again, making Serena grumble in her throat. Miette gives a dirty look that she's seen a million times before, to which she returns but the woman doesn't let that deter her.
"Ash left the Ketchums a few years ago. He was eighteen then," Miette says casually and it makes Serena freeze. The gun lowers and Serena turns to her with a raised brow that Miette ignores as she continues her story. "Do you know how people become the new head of clans?"
"The previous one dies," Serena deadpans.
Miette nods. "And it doesn't matter how — whether it's by natural causes or murder. Do you understand what I'm saying, Serena?"
Serena narrows her eyes in thought. "Giovanni... murdered his father?"
"Wrong."
Serena stands with the weight of that single word, watching Miette's expression remain completely still and with each passing moment, it slowly dawns on her what the answer is.
What was it like for you?
Deserved.
But instead of saying it directly, she asks, "why are you telling me all of this?"
"Because there are things in this world that are better for you to stay away from and maybe instead of wallowing like you're a depressed teenager, you could understand Ash a little better," Miette says boredly. "Whether you get it or not isn't my problem — I don't care, but you two drive me nuts like hell, so figure it out already."
"The feeling's mutual," Serena retorts and Miette takes that as her cue to leave, having nothing more to say. She turns on her heel and her hand is on the door knob to the shooting range before Serena speaks up, quieter. "There was a woman on the cruise ship. She... just made me upset. That's all it was."
Miette doesn't turn to face her but there's a chuckle that shakes her shoulders. "Let me guess — slightly tall, brown hair, press-on nails, looks like she started a teeth whitening program the day before, and a dress as flashy as a tacky disco ball?"
Serena snorts a half-hearted laugh. "Yeah."
"That's Giselle. Don't listen to a word that slut says, Serena," Miette says, mildly exasperated as if she's disappointed. "She never stepped foot in this place. Ash got a favorable contract from her father, nothing more. Now, get your head out of your ass already and start using your head correctly like you usual do in situations. For both your sakes and mine especially."
Miette leaves without another word and the door clicks shut, leaving Serena alone to process everything she had said. Her initial reaction is that she really wants to punch that damn woman — Giselle — in her jaw for messing with her head, which turns into reprimanding herself for falling for such a tactic. She feels relieved in a way, but guilt twists in her stomach for lashing out at Ash. The look on his face plays on repeat in her mind and Serena wants to hold it between her palms, caressing his cheeks with an apology.
It didn't fix everything. She still has her doubts and it doesn't mean for certain that Ash would want to pursue something more. The trigger is pulled and the familiar gunshot cracks against her ears. Serena manages a smile to see a tear through the center of the circle.
It's a start.
On the other end of the line, Ash was exhausted.
In the interrogation room, he left their new hostage, within an inch of his life. When he returned home the previous night, he was far gone from fury, in a space of twisted grief with nowhere to go. It translated into the blows on the man's face, no matter how much he begged for mercy, they rained down relentlessly.
He cried through the blood on his teeth that spilled over his lips. "P-please, n-no more, A-ash, sir, I'm begging you-"
"Fucking bastard," he spat, his shoe meeting his temple in a whirling kick that rattled his brain. Misty and Dawn winced from their guard stances at the door. The only sign of life was the staggered breathing from his bruised rib cage, and the barest peek of his irises that held dully to life behind his swollen eyelids as Ash lifted him up from the floor by the collar of his shirt. What was supposed to be a whimper only came out as a wheeze, his head barely rising to meet his fierce gaze. "Pathetic," Ash muttered with a sneer. "I should've let her kill you."
He released his grip and the man crumpled onto the floor with a dull thud. Ash glared down on him once more before stepping over his body, stopping at the doorway to give his orders to the two women.
"Contact Cilan. Gary and Brock too. Let them deal with this and his family before I change my mind," Ash said firmly, exiting before Dawn and Misty could respond.
Now in the restroom attached to his office, he unwraps bloody bandages off his fingers into the sink, the running water swirling in a tinge of red down into the drain as he soaks his hands beneath the frigid spray. There's more bruises than yesterday, a blotted painting of violet and rose spreading over the expanse of his knuckles with streaks of barely healed cuts littering over it. He runs the water over his skin until it feels numb before stiffly drying them off. Fresh bandages wrap over the worst of his injuries before he leaves the room. His peace and quiet doesn't last long.
"You look like shit."
Ash groans before meeting the voice head-on, his bandaged hand gripping at the swell building in his temples. "Miette, not now."
Miette remains in the chair across Ash's desk, one leg crossing over the other with an unimpressed expression. "Is he dead?"
Ash shakes his head before sinking into his own chair, exhaling a breath through his nose. "No. Not yet anyway. I'm leaving it to Cilan to see what we can get out of his family before I pull any triggers."
Miette nearly laughs. "How considerate of you."
"Can I help you with something?" Ash sighs, propping his elbow on the armrest and leaning his cheek into his palm.
"Get some rest. You'll get open pores," She says and he blinks at her unamused.
The boss makes a move to get out of his chair, speaking plainly and not bothering to hide the truth. It pulls a frown out of Miette. "Can't. I have to go talk to Serena."
Miette stands up first and rounds the desk, blocking his path. "Not like that you're not. Let me deal with her. Go sleep for once."
Ash arches his brow, doubt seeping into every corner of his voice. "You?"
"What's the problem?"
He looks imminently tired at her attempt at nonchalance. "Miette, please-"
Miette raises her hands defensively. "I'm not going to pick a fight." Ash's eyes narrow at this. "Again, you look like shit, Ash, and not just because you spent all night interrogating and beating down someone. While I question your tastes because you literally could pick anyone else," Ash's eyes roll, "let me help you, at least. You can talk to her when you wake up. You'll feel better when you do."
Ash stares at her for a long moment, not able to pin any ulterior motive from her typical prankster ways. He can feel an oncoming headache and the prickle in his skull from his mind begging for rest, if not for just a few hours. He averts his gaze to the wood of his desk and he breathes deeply, letting it go slowly once he's filled to the brim of his lungs.
"Don't hurt her," he whispers, an unconscious frown tugging on the corners of his mouth. He's done enough of that already.
Miette doesn't prod. She doesn't tease the clear opportunity. The look on Ash's face stops her in her tracks, the muted volumes of a grief she hadn't seen on the guy she's grown close to like family face before. Serena was something else, that much was true, but Miette didn't think it would amount to this. She'll let them know that they're both idiots once the smoke clears, she decides.
"Just trust me, cuzzo," She replies, but she isn't offended, in fact, it comes out softly and it makes Ash a little calmer. He nods, relenting as Miette makes her way to the door.
"Thank you," he calls after her.
Miette makes a finger gun with her hand, making a shooting motion in a random direction as her form of acknowledgment. Ash smiles to himself once the doors close and relaxes fully into the cushion of his chair, his head lolling to the side to look at the sun skimming the skies with a greeting. As the sun continues to rise, his eyelids droop, unable to fight his exhaustion any longer.
Before dreams fill the spaces of his mind, he promises to himself that when he wakes, he'll greet Serena like a brand new dawn, with a promise and a new beginning.
This time, he wouldn't run.