Vermillion

37

Circe had a pain in her chest, it was tight and her breathing was laboured, she was in pain.

Her emotional pain, had turned into physical pain.

The van was quiet, as it always was after a mission, their heads were too busy thinking about what had just happened to form a coherent sentence.

Circe's hands trembled in her lap, the others thought she might have ben affected by tonight's mission, the realisation of the lives she had just taken catching up to her and haunting her, but Ilaria could sense she was angry. And so could Raffaele.

Ilaria shot Raffaele a look, which Raffaele returned with an 'Ill explain later' look.

You fucking better.

Circe's jaw ticked, all she saw was Raffaele pressing his lips against Katarinas. And all she could hear was Raffaele's voice declaring his love for the Russian.

A Russian. A member of the Kuznetsov family. His worst enemy. He was in love with one of his worst enemies.

This angered her even more. She was part of the very family that had brought so much pain and suffering into his, Mario's and Ilaria's lives.

And he was in love with her?!

It was ridiculous, and the fact that her logical brain couldn't work out a solid explanation, one that made sense, angered her even more.

The rest of the ride was silent and uncomfortable for all of them, especially Raffaele, who was thinking of a way to explain his actions to Circe, without her killing him in the process.

:｡･:*:･ﾟ'★,｡･:*:･ﾟ'☆

A few days had passed, and Circe has spent all of her time in the gym, at the punching bags specifically.

Every time she punched, she pictured Raffaele's face, and every time she pictured his face, she punched harder.

Raffaele was tired of avoiding the conversation, and sent Ilaria to get Circe, and bring her to his office.

Circe sat in front of her boss. A look laced with venom on her face, with her arms folded across her chest and her jaw clenched tight.

"I need to explain to you why I did what I did the last night" he began, once Ilaria had left the room.

"You don't need to explain, you are, or should I say, were in love" she spat.

"Just shut the fuck up for a second and listen to me goddamnit" he huffed.

"Listen to what? You whining that I murdered your Russian girlfriend? Hm? If it makes you feel any better I regret it" she told him.

"Instead of killing her straight away, I would have loved to torture her to death. Maybe skin her alive. Or scalp her. Then there wouldn't be any more of that long hair of hers to stroke, would there?" she told him, smiling sadistically at the thought of torturing someone.

"Circe" he sighed "It was a distraction"

"What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Raffaele opened up his drawer, pulling out a ring, and a small box with a blinking light.

"What is it? Christmas? You're going to gift me a shitty ring and a box to make up for this?" she mocked.

"Jesus christ, do I need to get some fucking duct tape to make you stop talking for a few minutes" he rolled his eyes, annoyed that she wouldn't let him finish.

She rolled her eyes dramatically back, mocking him, knowing how easy it got to him.

"Like I was saying" He continued "I had Mario analyse these, and he immediately knew it was a bomb" he told her.

Now Circe was listening.

"When you had her hands nailed into the deck, she was still able to move her fingers because the adrenaline wouldn't allow her to feel too much pain" he began to explain as Circe leaned forward, analysing the two items on the table in front of her.

"The ring has a button on it, if she had pressed it, which she was about to before I interrupted, it would have triggered this box" he said, holding it up.

"It might not look like it, but it's an incredibly powerful bomb, linked to other bombs on the ship. If she had pressed the button, she would have blown herself up, along with the ship and everyone on it" he finally finished.

Circe sat back. Thinking over things. It made sense.

She then went red in the face, angry at herself for not noticing the devices in the first place.

She did recall a small box being attached to Katarinas belt, but thought nothing of it. It could have been some fancy ammo holder for all Circe knew.

"Okay" was all Circe said.

"Okay?" Raffaele asked.

"Okay" she replied, a little calmer than she had before.

"Is that it then? You're not mad at me anymore?" he asked.

"Oh no honey, I'm still mad at you. You had already had her distracted. You didn't need to kiss her"

"Seriously" he laughed, raising an eyebrow, but he quickly went serious again when he noticed Circe's straight face.

"How do I make it up to you then?" he asked.

"You can start by telling me about yours and Katarina's past" she smiled fakely "Because her caressing your shoulder seemed all too familiar"

"Alright" he agreed "When I was younger, about twenty three years of age, I started to go out on my first missions" he began.

Circe sat back and listened intently.

"On my second or third mission, I was to go to a high profile club, and hire a private dancer, who happened to be Katerina, who was also working undercover for her father, the late Kuznetsov"

"I will admit, I had a little crush on her from when she first entered the room" he said and watched as Circe's jaw tensed up again "I pitied her, her dad had forced her to go undercover as a sex worker at such a young age, and I knew what it was like to not have a childhood"

"I was supposed to get information out of her, but I failed and wasn't allowed on another mission for the next few months. But we secretly started meeting up with each other, and developed feelings for one another"

Circe grew more and more jealous by the second.

"I was never in love with her, although I can't say the same about her. She would have jumped off of a cliff if I had told her to" he smirked "But then, when I was allowed on missions again, I saw her in action. I watched as she killed countless of my fathers men, with a stone cold look on her face, as if their lives meant nothing. I watched several of my childhood friends die at her hands"

He looked down for a second, trying to erase the images from his head.

"For the next few months, I made excuses as to why I couldn't see her, telling her I was under stricter surveillance, or was undergoing harder training programs. And eventually, she stopped contacting me. And we hadn't seen each other in over seven years, until the mission in Latvia"

"That's it?" she asked.

"That's it" he nodded.

"Cool" she stood up, and so did Raffaele, making his way over to hug her, but she dodged it.

"You have to shower a few times and wash your lips profusely if you want me to touch off you ever again" she smiled, before leaving the office, a little less pain in her chest.

Raffaele let out a small laugh and a sigh of relief as he watched her walk out.