"Nice you're back!" Jacuzzi ran in from the foyer to envelop Nice in a hug. She laughed merrily, embracing him back. "Come on Jacuzzi, you don't have to get all emotional every single time I leave the house. It's not like I'm gonna die!" She chose to not talk about the fact that she was pursued by a crazed assassin.
Jacuzzi ran his hand through his unruly brunette hair. "But what if you did?! What if you got hit by a car or snatched by an assassin or-" Nice brushed him off as he grew more and more paranoid. "That's not gonna happen. I was fine. Well, except for one thing, the assassin thing actually."
Jacuzzi looked up, crazed eyes and all. "What?! What happened? Are you hurt? Will we have to leave? G-guys! Pack it up, w-we have to get out of here!" Nice shook her head, hanging up her coat. "Get Nick and Donny together, they deserve to hear about this too. I'll be down in a few minutes." This was something that Nice knew she had to include a few people, other than Jacuzzi, in. Jacuzzi looked skeptical, and began backing away. "Uh okay Nice whatever you say um I'll go get them bye!"
With that he ran off, presumably to retrieve the other gang members. Nice chuckled to herself, walking up the stairs of the cushy mansion. "He doesn't seem like a seventeen year leader of a gang, more like a crybaby. But he's my crybaby."
She and Jacuzzi had been dating for ten years, though he had only kissed her once, and they weren't really like any "normal" couples. But Nice was fine with everything the way it was, for now. She opened the door to her room, walking to her chest of drawers. She opened the bottom drawer, which she used to keep certain... Necessities. Necessities, meaning bombs and other explosive equipment that Jacuzzi didn't need to see.
Nice reached in her belt loop and carefully sat two cherry bombs in the drawer, so that now she only had three more on her person. She didn't want to fall and suddenly explode the entire building. There had been enough trouble with her explosives in the past. That was why she had so many burn scars over her body, and why she wore an eyepatch.
As she sat her babies down in the drawer something caught her eye. There was a folded piece of paper in the drawer. Nice snorted as she picked it up. Jacuzzi liked leaving little notes on safety for everyone, this was probably another one of those. He was the only other person allowed in her room of course. If Nick even dared to set foot in the place she would lay into him. She quickly unfolded the elegant piece of paper, seeing the clean printed letters.
This was not Jacuzzis handwriting, which meant someone else had invaded her privacy. Nice growled. If Nick was in here again she was going to blow a hole in his room. Nice began reading the letter, her eyes widening as she did.
Dear Ms.Holystone,
I hope you've decided to help me. I'll be watching. And make sure to tell Jacuzzi "hi from the Rail Tracer."
Sincerely,
Claire Stanfield
Ps: you have a lot of bombs, interesting.
Nice sighed in wonder. How could the man she talked to not thirty minutes ago have time to infiltrate her room and leave a note without anybody knowing. It really was amazing the lengths people would go for love. Nice smiled. She liked his attitude and his persistence at least.
••••••••
"... And that's why we have to help him!" Jacuzzi, Nick, and Donny were all sitting around Nice, completely absorbed in her story. They looked skeptical though, not like they wanted to help. Jacuzzi bit his lip. "I don't know Nice. I mean, Chane is our friend but if she hasn't found this Claire guy by now maybe she doesn't want to. I think, well, that she's perfectly capable of taking care of her business. "
Nick nodded. "No offense boss, but to me it sounds like Chane is doing perfectly fine on her own without this guy. What would uh.... Reuniting them do for us? And another thing, would Chane appreciate this, or would it just be meddling? What if she only 'said' that to get him off her case? We could be ruining her plans." Donny merely grunted. Nice nodded. "Yeah, you all make good points. But can't you see how lonely Chane looks when we see her? I really think she and Claire could hit it off, again I mean. She needs someone loud and annoying to balance her out."
Jacuzzi smiled slightly. "Well uh maybe but um..." Nice laughed. "Ugh Jacuzzi, live in the moment for once! This is our chance to help out Chane. Look I'm not sure how to explain it better to you. Claire pretty much sold me on the idea. I admit I was skeptical at first too. Maybe you'll just have to talk to him to get a better idea. He's strangely charismatic for a cold blooded killer."
Jacuzzi nodded. "That could work. Um I mean unless he's a horrible person I mean you know I get nervous meeting new people and I can't put Chane through that and-" Nice slapped one of her hands over Jacuzzis mouth, stopping his fearful rambling. "Just stop worrying for once. He's seems like a nice guy, everything will be okay." Nice decided to omit the rail tracer bit for now.
She stood up. "Anyways, I'm going to try and get him to come and talk to us. You guys just stay here, he's bound to be around here somewhere."
Nick narrowed his eyes. "But boss!" Nice shook her head, not willing to listen to the likes of Nick. "But nothing! Just let me go!" Nick sat down without a word as Nice ran out of the room. The dashed down the stairs, not even bothering to grab her coat as she rushed out the door into the crisp air. She just felt, well, exhilarated.
Lately it seemed like she didn't even have a purpose. She just blew things up, hung out with her friends, that was it. But now she had a problem to focus on and fix, it was nice. Nice began strolling down the avenue when she almost ran into a large man. She ducked her head down. "Sorry sir." An already familiar chuckle descended upon her. "Be more careful. Now I hear you were looking for me." Nice gasped. No, it couldn't be.
She looked up to see a smirking man with red hair laughing at her. "Pardon my intrusion but I heard you guys talking about me. And I heard my services would be needed sometime soon." Nice sighed. "They won't listen to me about this, just talk to them. I wanna help you and Chane. Really. I do have one question though, how do you seem to be everywhere at once and yet nowhere?"
Claire shrugged as he began walking back to the mansion. "I don't know. You tell me." Nice muttered as they opened the front door. "You're not even human." Claire seemed to hear her. "Well maybe I'm not. I have to say, i'm confused myself sometimes." Nice snorted. They began to walk up to stairs to the room, Claire looking around the entire time. "Wow this place is interesting, very nice, very nice."
Nice nodded. "A friend is lending us the mansion, we might as well make the most of it, ya know?" Claire smiled. "I agree, I plan on buying myself a new identity and settling down somewhere around here. It would be near my family of course, and hopefully I'd have Chane by my side." Nice smiled. "Sounds real nice. Now be prepared. Jacuzzi can be intense at times." They walked towards the door of the room Nice exited not ten minutes ago.
Claire held up his hands. "I've fought the likes of Ladd Russo, I can handle a jellybean." He swung open the door, revealing the gang in their seats from before, seemingly in a heated discussion. Jacuzzi jumped as the door opened suddenly, looking up at Nice and the new guest. Claire strolled in and sat down in a chair while Nice dragged behind him.
He stayed silent, his eyes scanning the room. Nice coughed. "Uh, this is Claire guys. He will explain a little more." Claire bowed in his chair. "It's nice to meet some friends of Chane. I take it you're Jacuzzi, you're Nick, and you're Donny." He pointed to each in turn. Jacuzzi hiccuped. "H-how do you know my name?" Claire shrugged. "With a name like that who wouldn't?"
Nick squinted. "I was wondering the same as Jacuzzi. And why do ya look so damn familiar all of a sudden." Nice and Claire locked eyes. She silently begged him not to reveal his identity. Jacuzzi would most definitely fall into a fit if he found out so suddenly. Nice didn't think she could deal with another fainting spell. He smirked, challenging her to stop him. Claire stood up, pacing about the room, ending up in front of Jacuzzi. The boy looked scared out of his wits, and like he was about to explode. Claire smiled again.
"Well, I went by many names. I started out as Claire Stanfield. Then I became Vino, an assassin. I guess I've just been a conductor for a while. I was actually on the train you guys rode on, The Flying Pussyfoot. I was one of the conductors." Jacuzzi shook his head. "N-no that's impossible! Both conductors died!"
Claire sighed. "Your statement is entirely false. One of the conductors was a fake, making there three conductors. I simply look care of the other two and took on my latest identity, you should remember that one. Especially you Jacuzzi." Jacuzzi gulped. "M-m-me? Why?" Claire grinned. "Well, I may not be covered in blood or in a suit but I would think you would recognize the Rail Tracer. Right?"
