𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫

𝐃𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞?

"Move." Althea brushed past the security standing at the entrance of the conference room Hydra and the Cranii Ruşii has rented out for this meeting. Behind her was Vladimir, Mikhail, and Tamar, who of course, was only here for moral support, and the sister.

"Ma'am, this hall has been rented out for authorized personal only-"

"Althea Oksana Alexandris. Authorized enough?"

The security guards looked clearly nervous, swallowing and nodding, moving to the side, letting her through.

It had been a few days since that whole internal dilemma about this "alliance", and her demeanor to anything Lupei related had changed. She was colder, angry, almost - if not angry, then much, much more brash.

Needless to say, she wasn't in an excellent mood when she found out there was one more, mindless meeting she had to attend, to discus "important aspects and assets".

"Лохи. (Fuckers.)" She muttered under her breath, as they walked down the hallway, and into the main conference hall. Her head held high, shoulders squared, the sound of her heels clicking on the tiled floors echoing through the mostly quiet room.

Althea felt the eyes of the Lupei's turn to shift on her, and she simply relaxed her face, the cold expression looking almost mildly challenging. "We have a new addition to these meetings." She said curtly, nodding at Tamar. "Tamar El Faouly."

"And what relations does she have to this business, Ms. Alexandris?" Annastasia asked, tilting her head.

"That, Ms. Lupei, is not important enough to be discussed at this very moment."

"Ah but you see, this is a very sensitive matter, one can only be too careful."

"Mother." Dracul interrupted. "How about we skip to the proceedings of this meeting? I'm sure both you, and Mr. Dmitriev have a lot to brief us on, about this "alliance"."
She noticed the way his voice changed as he spoke the last word, as if he too was only doing this out of compulsion, and a wanting of better, general wellbeing.
He probably was.

She forced herself to get the thoughts of him out her head, not that there were many to begin with, of course not.

She sat down, as Dracul walked over to his seat, looking up at him and rolling her eyes at his quietly muttered: "Who pissed in your cereal this morning, princess."
He flashed her a mildly sarcastic grin, sitting down, placing his clasped hands on the table.

Her eyes gravitated to his arms, the rings he wore, but she tore them away just as fast.

And the meeting began.

°•°•°•°•°

"The engagement will not be a public ordeal, something private, so that it can come as a surprise to the general public."

Althea gave a slight nod in response, her eyes lingering on the ceiling, before her head snapped up at Annastasia's next words. "And you two need to figure out how to make this believable, I don't care if it takes locking you to in a room together for a few hours."

"We can take care of that." Dracul said almost immediately, grimacing at the idea of being locked in a room with someone. "Isn't that right, dear?" He said pointedly.

"Absolutely, sweetheart."

Tamar gave an amused smirk, her eyes locking with Mila's, who had a very similar expression on her face.

"There we go." Mikhail said dryly. "Now try and make it sound less like you want to rip out each others' throats."

°•°•°•°•°

"Wait up."

Althea heard a deep voice from behind her, irrevocably recognizable.

"What." She said, turning around, coming face to face with Dracul, quickly motioning at Tamar to keep going, she'd catch up in a few.

"Oh wow, didn't expect that much venom towards me." Dracul said sarcastically.

"Oh well expect it, and much more."

He gave her an amused, conflicted look, before continuing. "We can't keep arguing this much, not this close to the 'engagement'. Now now, before you protest, believe me, as much as I would love to keep on with our splendid mix of bickering and drinking, this does need to be a believable act in the end."

"What do you propose then, hm, genius?"

"We meet outside of a conference hall, or one of the bases. Talk enough to make sure that neither of us hate each other enough to foil the lie."

"So you're asking me out." She deadpanned.

"What- absolutely not, no."

"Well it sure sounded like that." She smirked, tilting her head as she looked up at him.

"Diplomatic..date? Conversation? Informal meeting? Whatever you'd like to call it."

"Conversation."

"Conversation it is. When and where?"

Althea sighed slightly, almost rolling her eyes, and she leaned forward, grabbing a pen from the table. She grabbed his hand, opening his palm, scrawling down a number with the black ink on his skin. "There. Informal meetings at any point in time."

Dracul gave a quick, half smirk, before covering it up. "Understood."

She nodded, turning on her heel and walking out into the corridor, where Tamar flashed her a grin. "Was I secretly listening to all this? Yes. Yes I was."

"You little-"

"Soooooo you gave him your numberrrrr-"

"I gave him my number so that I don't have to meet up at actual places with him, more than I need to." She corrected, as they walked out the hall, then the lobby.

"Uhuh sure, that's definitely the only reason, definitely no secret 'damn he's hot' thought."

"Absolutely not." Althea narrowed her eyes, opening the door to the limo and getting in, Tamar sliding in after her.

"Okay okay, but that aside, goddamn, his sister."

°•°•°•°•°

"Everything okay, 'Ila?" Dracul asked, chuckling, looking over at Mila, who was just staring at the back of the seat infront of her.

"Me? Oh yeah I'm perfectly fine- of course I'm not fine, I just saw one of the most fuckin' gorgeous people I have ever seen in my entire life, from the literal opposing mafia."

He laughed a bit, leaning back in the seat he was sitting in, glancing at his palm, at the number Althea had written on his hand. He quickly closed his hand before Mila looked over, settling to open one of her files, flipping through the pages. "Relax, Mila, you can figure out your little infatuation as you go along. You haven't even talked to her." He smiled, amused.

"Talk to her? Oh no no no not doing that, absolutely not, do not make me talk to any woman that fucking pretty."

"Okay, okay, calm down." He laughed a bit, again, as they walked out the car and into the lobby of the base. "I've got work to finish up, I'll see you in a while."

"Pizza for dinner?"

"We have a 5 star chef."

"Pizza for dinner?"

"Obviously pizza for dinner, is that even a question?" He demanded, as she snickered, and he walked into his room. Sitting down at his desk, he just looked at his palm for a good minute. And then he pulled out his phone, typing in the number, saving it.

Hey princess.