Take a Shot

Jealousy, her

If this woman didn't stop following Matt around like a lovesick puppy, Emerald was gonna hurl.

She trotted around a corner after them, surveying the situation. She didn't recognize this woman, though she was mostly seeing her from the back and side, but the reasonable assumption could be made that she was a new recruit. The uniform fit her nicely, if a bit loose, so it hadn't been tailored yet. Emerald frowned. Geechis had the uniforms made to specific measurements based on height and sex, which he called the "ideal body shape", so for her to fit it so well without tailoring meant she was close to the ideal for her height. The numbers meant nothing to Emerald, but most of the male grunts - Matt included, as Emerald had heard down the grapevine - agreed with Geechis's "ideal measurements".

Even on top of that, this woman was gorgeous. Pretty green eyes, nice facial features, shiny blonde hair tied half-up with a pink bow that Emerald wanted to tear out with her teeth...but she was getting ahead of herself.

The longer she tailed them, the more crazy she felt. Emerald's jealousy bordered dangerously on possessiveness, which most of the female grunts already knew. It was less that she was inclined to believe Matt would go after someone else and more that she hated that he appeared available. He was taken, he was hers...even if she'd been waiting for the right moment to tell him, or ask him....or maybe she would just die before making a move.

Despite her cowardice regarding her partner, most of the others in the castle took a very carefully measured interest in Matt. They knew well the demon that lurked behind his beautiful face: her and her anger issues. She wasn't subtle about how protective she was over him and his time. But he did have a job to do and specific working hours which they were within at the moment. If anyone owned Matt's time more than Emerald herself, it was Geechis.

He'd taken the woman around the castle, showing her meeting rooms and a few kitchens and some of the living quarters. Emerald hadn't been close enough to hear much of what they were saying. She had heard the woman's name was Cherry, and Matt was now rambling about the many career paths within Harmony for a grunt, which Emerald was tuning out in favor of some good old-fashioned analysis.

So, Cherry was a new recruit. He was showing her around, mentoring her, something like that. She hadn't been here when Emerald left for her mission 2 days ago, and now she was here, clinging onto Matt's arm at any given opportunity. Not that Emerald blamed Cherry for taking an interest in Matt. Far from it; she'd have to be blind to not notice him. He was attractive, tall, kind, comfortable, funny, smart, really anything one could want in a man, if one wanted anything in a man. And while Emerald had been raised to never need a man, by gods did she want this one.

She'd been following them around all day. The Triad wouldn't be happy to know she was skipping out on training some kids to stalk her partner, but she hadn't told them and now they were preoccupied with the kids, so it was possible they wouldn't find out.

As neither Matt nor Cherry had noticed her throughout the day, her sneakiness got progressively less sneaky. She was hoping Matt would pick up on her presence, but alas, her ninja training was thorough; he'd made the comment before that her breathing was barely noticeable in a even in a quiet room, and she knew her footsteps were silent. It was no surprise he hadn't noticed her thus far, if disappointing. So she had two options: confront this woman and explain that he was off-limits, or run off and find something else to do.

Of fight and flight, Emerald always picked fight.

Emerald snuck to the corner the two were about to round. She watched as they hit the apex of the corner, Matt pointed out a painting on the wall, and Cherry halted for a moment to look at it. Emerald jumped at the woman, slapping a hand over her mouth and rolling them behind the corner. She pulled the other woman up, slamming her against the wall.

"Keep your hands off him."

Emerald's smile was sickening, she was sure, but Cherry didn't appear as scared as she should have been. She was tensed, but she was ready to fight. A poor choice on her part, but maybe some fun for Emerald. She moved her hand down to the woman's jaw, squishing her cheeks in.

"And who's going to stop me?" Cherry asked through squished cheeks and clenched teeth. Emerald rolled her eyes, gesturing vaguely to herself.

"Emerald. A pleasure, I'm sure," she intoned. "Matt's my partner. Keep eyeing him up and touching him like you have, and I'm gonna carve my initials so far into your cheeks that people are going to think we're dating."

"Emerald...I've heard about you, psycho. Some from him, but mostly rumors." Emerald fake-yawned. Psychological manipulation? How banal. "If you won't take him off  the market, admit that to yourself, give up, and let one of the rest of  us have him," she spat.

Emerald hissed, grabbing the knife on her thigh and driving it into her coworker.

"Hey, Cherry? Where'd you go?"

The  knife tip stopped just short of the grunt's stomach. The two stood, frozen, each waiting for a move. A thumping told them Matt was headed  back this way. Emerald looked up as Cherry looked down.

"Leave him alone and this ends here. Keep chasing him, and not even he'll be able to stop me next time."

Emerald took a quick step back from her coworker, using the knife to dig under her nails. The coworker picked her back leg up, pretending to stretch against the wall. When Matt came around the corner, he spotted her and breathed a sigh of relief. Emerald's stomach boiled.

"Ah, thank gods, Geechis hates it when I lose new recruits. Oh!" His face brightened in a smile as he looked at Emerald. "Hey Em! No training  today?" Her stomach calmed back down.

"Nope. Cheat day."

"Good times. I was about to show Cherry to the lunchroom, wanna come with?"  Matt looked back towards the new recruit. "This is Emerald! You've probably heard some about the 'Star assassin' even in the couple days you've been here?" Cherry nodded. Matt scooted closer to Emerald, doing jazz hands around her with a big grin. "This is her!"

"Nice to meet you," the women said at the same time. Matt chuckled.

"I know the rumors can be a little intimidating, but she's pretty great. You probably won't see her much, though. She's normally out and about doing assassin-y things. I'm her main partner, and even I sometimes won't see her for weeks at a time." He shrugged. "Anyway. C'mon, lunch is this way." He turned on his heel and  started back around the corner.

Cherry looked Emerald up and down.

"Guard dog."

"Bitch."

They nodded, and both women tagged along after the black-haired grunt leading the way.