Elisabeth stepped into the pub, leather jacket thrown over her shoulder and helmet under her arm. Asterin, Alexander and Selwyn were sitting at the bar already, different drinks in hand chatting merrily. Well, Selwyn was doing most of the talking but Asterin seemed surprisingly calm. The three noticed her entry and greeted her accordingly : Selwyn with a grand gesture of the hand, Alexander with a bright smile and Asterin with a nod. She sat on the stool they had left free in between the two girls.
"Hey guys, what did I miss ?"
Asterin took a sip of her drink. "Nothing much. Selwyn was telling us about the time she mugged some girl from a television show she likes. Or something along those lines." Asterin said, tipping her head slightly, a small smile drawing itself on her lips when she heard Aramith's protest. Black threw a mocking glance her way and turned to Lis to whisper. "The show is awful."
"Hey !" Alexander nudged her with his elbow. "It's not so bad. I liked it."
Asterin rolled her eyes and twirled her drink in its glass. "Of course you did."
Elisabeth smirked as she took a sip of the glass of scotch the bartender had just brought her, she hadn't even needed to ask, which she guessed meant she was considered a regular now.
"I wouldn't know. I haven't watched anything in ages." She put up a thoughtful finger. "Wait no, I have watched a movie on streaming like three months ago. But that's it. And it wasn't even a satisfying watch, it was a terrible adaptation from a book."
"Yes they usually are." Asterin nodded before resting her chin in her hand. "How is your Jamesie boy ? »
"My Jamesie boy as you put it, is of status unknown. He's supposed to call me tonight to update on his health."
Asterin let a smirk slip on her face. "Ah. I see. He has not tried to call you yet ?"
"No, the idiot seems to really like calling me late at night. It's an infuriating habit."
"Maybe he is trying to make you long for him," she replied teasingly and Alexander snickered.
Lis rolled her eyes and took another sip of alcohol. "Well if that is his goal I hope he knows it's a terrible way to attain it."
"Liar." Asterin whispered under her breath.
"First of all, I heard you. Second of all I will let you know I am by no means criticising his goal, merely the way he means to attain it." She raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"Hey, Lis, who's that Jamesie boy of yours ? Never heard of him," Aramith raised an eyebrow, a glass of whisky in one hand and the other holding up her head. "You wouldn't mind telling me a lil' more, would ya ?"
Elisabeth smiled and stared off in the distance for a few seconds before answering. "I don't know. James is very confusing most of the times. It's hard to explain without the whole backstory but I doubt you'd want to hear it."
"Bold of you to assume that I wouldn't. So, what's the tea ?"
"You want the short version or the long version ? Because I tell you, the long version is long ."
"What do you mean by long ? Like, long long, or long we're gonna stay the whole night in this bar ?"
"Like I said, depends on how much you want to hear. Do you just want to know how we met and a bit after that, the full time period in which we met or go the extra step - which I doubt you want - and have from when we met until now. I personally don't mind staying here all night, I could drink you three under the table."
"I wanna know... Everything. Barman? Another drink. The night's gonna be hella long !"
"Okay then, but don't come complaining if it's too long for your taste."
She took a gulp and downed the rest of her drink before starting her story.
"It was a few years ago, I wasn't as far up the ladder at work as I am now and I was offered a case. A big case. Unfortunately it also meant I needed to be involved big time but that didn't matter at the time because honestly, I only cared about the possibility of getting a promotion. I had to go undercover and get all the information necessary to dismantle a gang. And so I did. I started low, pretended to be a rookie trying to get more of a reputation, it worked pretty well. They weren't suspicious of who I was. That didn't mean I didn't have a rough time though, these guys were harsh to say the least. Still, I slowly managed to make my way uptake ranks until I met the higher 'officers'. There were a few of them : there was Ash, Leo, Thomas, Noah, Juliet and Lucy. Half of them were nicer than you'd imagine so I actually became friends with them. I did a lot of things during these few months, not things I need or want to talk about now, all you need to know is that my sudden rise to power made some people angry. I was set up, attacked and lethally wounded. I couldn't go to the hospital in fear of questions being asked, I couldn't go to the precinct without blowing my cover and I couldn't go to the gang without appearing as weak in the public eye. So instead I showed up at Leo's door. It was quite melodramatic now that I think about it : it was raining, I was bleeding and holding my wound and I pretty much collapsed in his arms as soon as he opened the door."
"Wait, Leo ? What about Jamesie boy ?" Aramith gasped, scandalized. "Don't tell me it was a love triangle !"
"Hush now. Don't interrupt me. So I collapsed on his porch, and when I woke up I was on his sofa all patched up. There were a few bloody pieces of cloths on the floor, my wounds were cleaned and bandaged and he'd even bothered to set aside my jacket and fold it. Leo was sitting on an armchair opposite me with a drink in his hand. We talked quite casually for a while, until he snapped a bit and said to hell with it tell me what happened. So I did. He got mad. Threw his drink on the floor. Mumbled a few things about betrayal and people not respecting authority." She took a deep breath. "By then I'd been looking into Leo, he was suspicious. So the way he acted made me weary, I grabbed the knife I always kept on me at all times and crept up on him. I got him in a headlock, blade against the neck."
"Oh. My. God. That's so hot."
Asterin frowned over to the woman. "You are a bit messed up, aren't you ?"
Alexander leaned forward. "So what's the rest of the story ? »
She turned to Selwyn and narrowed her eyes.
"That... Is not... Why would you automatically assume that... Oh whatever." She sighed. "Anyways, I had him in a headlock and I told him all the information I'd collected about him over the months, threatening him and all that. And the bloody baboon had the gall to laugh. He said and I quote : 'That's fascinating. I guess neither of us are who we say we are.'"
"What's really fascinating, Lis, is that you remember aaaalllll of this with so many details... " Aramith then mumbled to herself, her face red from alcohol : "Can't relate."
"I have a great memory. Ask anyone." She discreetly grabbed the glass out of Selwyn's hand and continued her story as though nothing had happened. "Leo had figured out I wasn't just any rookie trying to make it big in the Underworld. He didn't exactly know who I was, but he knew he was searching for something in the gang. And he told me he wasn't just a high ranking officer, and that he wasn't named Leo."
"Hey, my glass ! Barman ! I need more liquor !" She downed her new glass in one go, afraid that Lis would take it away. "What's his name, then, if not Leo ?"
"Hey," she whispered to the bartender, "Oliver, I'll tip the same amount we drink if you don't give her a single other glass."
The man nodded and smiled.
"I gotcha Ellie."
"Good." She turned back to her three friends. "As I was saying, his name wasn't Leo, it was James. And he wasn't just a high ranking officer, he was the highest ranking, the one in charge."
Asterin laughed as she herself ordered another glass, partly to spite Selwyn. "It is almost sounds like a movie. A very cliche one at that. The gang leader and the detective," she said nudging her friend playfully
Aramith glared at the rude policewoman. She leaned on the counter, highlighting her most attractive features. "Come on, barman~ You really don't want to give me another glass ?" She winked at him, smirking.
Asterin's eyebrows rose as barman blushed. "Oliver." she said in warning. "We are your best customers. Do not listen to her. She has had a bit too much." she said nodding towards Aramith. "So finish up your story Lis." the white haired woman added.
"Yes, well it sounds nice when I tell the story. It's much less nice to live through, try being beat up to a pulp only to have to keep a man way taller than you in a headlock a few hours later and then we'll see just how fun being a movie character is. Point being : the gang I was investigating was only a sub-branch of a larger organisation, and James kindly offered to help me destroy everyone. You see, the arrogant and annoying prick wasn't just the leader of this particular branch of the gang, he was also the son of the Big Boss. Well one of the sons. And he didn't exactly like how far things had started to go so he wanted to put an end to it and he saw my arrival there as a perfect opportunity. All in all, we decided to team up while I still had a knife to his throat so I guess we had an odd start to our friendship. The only problem was that I couldn't just suddenly come into the big office and take all the info like it was normal. So James created a plan that, to this day, I still hate and is probably the worst idea he ever had."
Alexander chortled as Asterin made a face as the word 'friendship' was pronounced. "So what was it ?" he asked as he draped an arm around Asterin's chair.
"The plan... Was to pretend we were... Dating. So that I could 'meet his parents' and infiltrate his house to get all the documents necessary to incriminate everyone. I did not like that plan. But I had no choice, this whole case was the biggest of my life and the key to being successful at my job and pretty much metaphorically flip my mother off. So I did it. I had to put up with pretending to be the idiot's girlfriend for a full week in front of everyone... God, I thought I was going to pop my own eyeballs out. And before any of you make a comment, yes I actually do mean it. James wasn't the same person he is now. These days he is annoying but bearable. But back then ? Oh boy !"
Aramith frowned. "Wait. He was the one who came up with the fake dating idea ? You can be 100% he didn't want to fake date you. He wanted to date you, dumbass!"
She raised an eyebrow. "Oh no he hated this. Maybe not as much as I did, but still. I mean I say he's changed since then, but to be fair so have I. He pretty much called me a stubborn b***h at the time. Point being, we went to his parents house - his brothers are all a-holes by the way and I guess his sister is passable in comparison but she's still awful - and at some point during the dinner I snuck out, broke into the private parts of the house and grabbed everything out his dad's office. It worked. We were doing great. I only had to wait a few more days for the precinct to get everything in order and I'd be done. But of course, I have terrible luck and nothing went according to plan..."
"Oh, I remember that." Asterin nodded with a smirk. "It was something."
"I wanna know, I wanna know !" Aramith kept whining desperately.