"My Sweetheart"

The Last Drop

It's cold as I walk the gloomy streets of the undercity. Outside my brother's bar, The Last Drop, are a group of alcoholic bastards. I walk past them as I enter the bar, "look at that eye candy," I hear one of them whisper to another, I scoff in annoyance. As I walk through the wooden door, I look around. To my right, I see two strong and muscled men arm wrestling in grey, ripped tank tops. I swing my vision to my left, to be met with my brother's close friend on the dance floor, he has three girls throwing themselves at him. As one of them grinds their ass against his crotch, he takes a sip of scotch and throws his head back. I roll my eyes and walk towards the bar, where I find Vander serving drinks with a rag thrown over his shoulder. I take a seat on the edge of the bar and I see Vander approaching me. I lift my elbow up and place it on the counter as my back slouches, "Silco's at it again," I state watching him from across the bar, "He's always at it, Azia. It's how he is," Vander replies with a sigh in his tone. I look at Vander and a large smile grows on my face, Vander and I both start laughing. The song changes and a few people start leaving the dance floor, the song 'Bananza (belly dancer) by Akon' starts playing on the speakers. I look over to the dance floor and Silco is gone. A slight worry hits my emotions, not for him, but because I didn't want to find him drunk and passed out on the streets. "Vander, where's Slico, he's not on the dance floor" I ask quickly, I watch Vander frantically look around, he looks behind me and his shoulders drop with relief. "I'm right here, sweetheart" a drunk voice says behind me, i feel two long and thin fingers trace down my spine giving me goosebumps. My eyes roll as I swing my chair to face Silco. I look at him with my eyes relaxed and annoyed, a stupid grin was plastered on his face. "Silco..." Vander snaps, Silco chuckles and walks around to my side and leans into my ear, "i was only joking" Silco mumbles with a playful punch to my shoulder. "So Azi, wanna dance with me?" Silco requests putting out his hand for me to grab, "I would rather down an entire bottle of Vander's strongest liquor, then dance with you, Silco. And stop calling me Azi, it's Azia" I give him a sarcastic smile, Silco's grin dropped. His eyes travel from my eyes to my lips. Silco then looks up at Vander who was standing behind the bar, he leans his lanky body against the top counter with his elbow resting over the edge, "your strongest bottle of liquor please, Vander" he grins. My mouth drops slightly as I chuckle at Silco's ignorance, Vander looks at me for approval, I nod my head and adjust my posture. Vander leans down and grabs out a skull shaped glass bottle filled with a clear liquid, he places the bottle in Silco's hand, Vander shakes his head as he walks away leaving the two of us alone to serve other customers. Silco turns his attention back to me. A smile grows on my face in amusement, Silco hands me the bottle, "bottoms up, sweetheart" He says with a cheeky smirk on his face. I grab the bottle from his pale hands, I scoff "you cheeky bastard," Silco gently rubs his chin with his left pointer finger, "you know you love it" He replies. I pop off the cork of the bottle and lift the opening to my lips, Silco watches me very intensely as I slowly tilt the bottle upwards. I wrap my lips around the opening and start drinking, the cold and dry sensation filling my throat as I swallow the liquor causing the urge to cough. I swallow each mouth full with the intent of making Silco mad. My eyes squint as it comes to the last mouthful. Once I finish the bottle, I take a big deep breath in and open my eyes, I place the bottle aggressively on the bar top and start panting. I lift my head to see the shocked look on Silco's face. My face drops when I'm encountered with Silco's grin. He isn't shocked, He's aroused. He slowly starts clapping, "not only am I impressed, but I'm also exceedingly turned on right now" He says leaning forward, Silco gently rests my chin in his palm with his fingers along my jawline and his thumb lightly stroking my bottom lip. "Now will you dance with me?" I give him an annoyed look and swiftly stand from my chair and walk past him. I walk out of the bar in haste. As I leave the bar, I'm met with the same four men that I saw from when I entered the bar earlier tonight. "Leaving so soon? It's midnight, shouldn't you still be getting drunk with your brother?" One of them yells, I don't turn around, I keep walking through the street. After a few minutes of walking, I notice someone walking behind me, I roll my eyes and turn around swiftly, "listen Silco, I don't want to dance with you-" I say angrily. My eyes widen as I'm cut off by the sight of the four drunk men from the bar. Fear rushes through my body as I back away quickly, "why so scared, princess, we just wanna have a little fun" one of them chuckles as they all continue to walk towards me. My back hits a cold and concrete wall, I'm now surrounded by them, I have nowhere to run so I put my fists up in defense. I only knew so little about fighting, I had watched Vander and Silco play-fight when we were younger, and Vander had taught me the basic self-defense skills. I had taught myself everything else I know about fighting. One of the men attempts to grab my shoulders but I push his arms outwards, I quickly look down at his legs and with my left boot, I kick his kneecaps inwards. He falls to the ground and another one of his men comes towards me with his arms out, "looks like we got ourselves a fighter" He says with a smile that reveals his yellow teeth, "maybe if you brushed your teeth and didn't act like a tool, then maybe you wouldn't have to deal with fighters" I snap at him. He pauses as my comment with a confused look on his ugly face, I smile at my own comment and jump towards him swinging my arm at his head. I curl my four fingers and push out my palm as I reach my arm up to his nose, my lower palm makes strong contact with it breaking his nose, the man grunts as he holds his bleeding nose in pain. The other two men come from behind him and each of them grab my arm as I try to squirm myself free. The leader of the group gets up and starts walking towards me and the other two men that have my arms in their strong grip. "Let me go, you rat!" I yell, "ouch, what's with the insults, princess" He mumbles as he trails his knuckles against my neck. I squirm and try to get away from him as much as possible. The two men on my side place their hands on my shoulders and aggressively push me to my knees with my hands behind my back. I notice their leader unbuckling his belt. My eyes widen and my breathing becomes faster, "no, please" I whisper as fear fills my nerves, "I'm afraid you don't have a choice, princess" He says as he struts towards me unzipping his fly. I throw my head down as my body feels weak, I squint my eyes only wishing for the moment to end. I hear a loud thud in front of me causing me to open my eyes and lift my head, I see a pair of black and red boots. "Slico?" I whisper as my eyes fill with tears of relief. Not have I ever felt happier to see him. My eyes shift to the body on the floor, his neck is broken and his head is spun around the wrong way, he is dead. Silco is filled with rage and worry, He runs towards the men who are holding me. As each of them release me from their grip,I stand up and take a few large steps back. With my hands once again in front of my face, I ready myself to fight one of the men as Silco easily takes on the other. The man throws a punch towards my face, I quickly bend my knees dodging the punch. Silco grabs the man's shoulders pulling him back onto the floor, Silco starts violently kicking him as he bleeds out on the dirty cement floor. Silco lifts his foot one last time and aggressively stomps his foot through the man's head, his skull had completely crushed as blood had exploded onto my face and all over Silco's body, the man's brains had splattered all over the ground as he lays dead next to his unconscious friends. I look up at Silco. His chest is rising and dropping as he stares at the rotten scene, the smell of blood fills my nose causing me to gag. Silco swiftly looks over at me and runs to me. He wraps his long and skinny arms around my shaking body and squeezes me tightly as we both fall to our knees, "hey, hey, hey... You're ok, I got you, You're ok now, You're safe" He frantically reassures me. His tight embrace is comforting. I raise my head to look at him, "thank you, Silco" I say with a genuine smile. Silco gives me a worried smile and pulls my head into his chest as we both pant. "Don't tell Vander about this, please" I say, "Azia why" he snaps back, "because he will kill the other three, you know this Silco" Silco simply nods his head in agreement, "so then what will we do with this guy" he chuckles "if you look very closely, you can see what might be his brain" he jokes, I laugh and sarcastically punch his chest as I stand to my feet brushing the dust off my shirt. Silco laughs and gets up sighing at the sight once again. I feel his cold bloody hands reach my cheek, He has a genuine look in his eyes for the first time in a while, "I'm sorry this happened to you" he says, "almost... happened to me, Silco i'll be fine, thanks to you" I smile trying to make light of the situation, "well whenever you're not fine, and i know this is a stretch because you don't like me all that much... but you can come to me, ya know, considering you don't wanna tell Vander" Silco stutters, I grab his hand and lift it to my lips. I gently place a small 'thank you' kiss on his bloody knuckles. The metallic taste of the blood lingers on my lips as he walks me back to the bar and upstairs where he then helps me get ready for bed. I have a massive headache considering the amount of liquor I consumed tonight. As I lay in bed with my set of pajamas on, Silco leans against the door frame before closing the door, "goodnight, Azi, I'll see you in the morning" He whispers as he quietly closes the door. I slowly drift off to sleep as the comforting feeling of my bed fills my body.