What May Happen

5: Femme Fatale

"So, I suppose since I'm indirectly the one that broke your nose, I should at least offer you a hand to get up," the other woman said. She held a hand out in Kaoshi's direction, and Kaoshi, still with her head hung in defeat, took it.

When she got up, the woman gave her a smirk. "The name's Senta. Judging from the fact I haven't seen you around this tavern before, I'm going to assume you're not from around here."

"I'm not," Kaoshi replied. She sounded angry, and she refused to look Senta in the eyes. "I'm originally from Sylek."

Senta's eyebrows raised. "Wow, that's pretty far. How'd you get all the way over here?" She seemed genuinely interested.

Kaoshi shrugged. "I just go where my friends take me, pretty much."

Senta then turned to look at Marin and Vax. "These are your friends, then, I presume?" She then looked back at Kaoshi, who nodded. Senta smirked and extended a hand toward both of them. Vax shook her hand in return, but Marin simply nodded in her direction and then made a "cheers" motion to her with his pint of ale.

Kaoshi sighed, asking her, "Well, aren't you going to yell at me for being a dirty criminal?"

She laughed, and Kaoshi noticed that her laugh sounded like bells ringing. "No, I think I've done that enough while you still had my stuff in your possession. Right now, I'm offering to pay for your next pint. What do you say?"

Kaoshi began blushing. Surely Senta wasn't hitting on her. Surely not. She looked to Marin, who gave Senta a dirty look while she had her back turned. Vax hit Marin on the shoulder, as if to signify "dude, not cool", and Kaoshi nodded a little in response, to which Vax nodded back. Marin was definitely NOT going to approve of her. She rolled her eyes. Sometimes he could be a real pain in the ass.

"Sure, why not? I mean, I stole your shit, but we can put that aside for now, right?" she replied, looking Senta right into her eyes, giving a sincere smirk.

Marin snarled a little in response, but it was too late. Kaoshi was making her own decisions for once in her life, without Marin dictating her life. She was tired of him being overprotective of her. She wasn't a baby. She could handle herself. After all, WHO had been the one that had managed to steal them enough money to pay for food since last year when Marin got himself into the spotlight of the entire country?

She snarled back at Marin as she turned her head back to look at him, while she walked in the direction Senta was walking.

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Lasercorn stopped in that moment, proclaiming, "I got nothing else after that. Anyone else want to volunteer?"

Anthony raised his hand. "If you don't mind, I'd like to keep going with Kaoshi."

Mari smiled at him and replied, "That's totally fine. Just remember that Crimson and Ake still haven't been fully introduced, and neither have Jome and Ty."

He nodded before turning to look at Ian, which Mari thought was cute. She had never noticed how much they looked at each other before, but she was glad that she had finally started. 

"Uh, actually, I think I'll give this one to Ian. He has something for Crimson and Ake."

He smirked as Ian timidly asked, "Are you sure, Anthony? I don't want to steal your storyline from you."

Anthony shook his head. "It's fine. Don't even worry about it. I'm sure I'll remember it. Go ahead. We're all eager to hear what you have in store for us."

Ian's eyes brightened a little as he gave a big smile. "Okay then..."

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Crimson didn't give a shit what the others were doing. She didn't particularly care for them. They were just an excuse to travel places and get shitfaced drunk.

Well, she supposed that the Marin guy wasn't half bad. But he even still had a sort of fatherly attachment to the thief girl, and he was obviously having some feelings for the mix-and-match guy. She didn't have any attachments to any of them.

She let out a sharp breath as she seated herself on the bar stool. "Yo, barkeep!" she called, raising her hand up as her elbow rested on the bar top itself. The barkeep nodded in her direction as he tended to the customer at hand, and she nodded back in response. This place was hella busy. She groaned a little as she thought at how she would have to wait for a long time before getting any good service. Well, on the bright side, there was a decent-looking guy sitting next to her.

"Hey," she said, trying to muster a smile.

He looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows, and simply saluted to her in response.

"Not one for conversation, I see," she replied, turning back to face the bar.

There was a tap on her shoulder as a gruff voice spoke. "Sorry, you caught me a little off-guard. Name's Ake."

She turned to face him, and noticed his outstretched hand before grabbing it and reluctantly shaking it. "Crimson. So, uh, what brings you around these parts?"

He blinked a couple times in surprise before retaliating. "I could ask YOU that, since I come here almost every day and I've never seen you here before. So, tell me, Crimson. What brings you here?"

She was taken back by his sudden question, but kept her cool as she answered simply, "I've got a group. They take me places, I get hammered. It's a beneficial relationship for me, at least. I don't think that they really see it the way that I do, though."

Ake let out a little chuckle. "Clearly. Nobody else is with you right now. It really bothers me, though. You're way too gorgeous to be left alone, especially with that half-elf heartthrob over there on your team." Crimson began to blush, the color of her cheeks almost exactly matching her namesake. "I saw you walk in with your group. I couldn't just look away from someone as mesmerizing as you are."

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Ian stopped when he noticed Joven blushing. "Sorry if that's not the way you guys wanted this to go. I just figured, since they were so similar, and since Joven usually goes for lady-killers, it would be a good match."

Joven let out a sigh before answering. "No, it's totally fine. I imagined it this way too."

Lasercorn's brow furrowed and he crossed his arms, but he had a small smirk on his face as he did this. "Whatever, I don't mind."

Mari smiled, before suddenly realizing that this could mean something.

This was it. Her way of retaliation for him (kind of) blackmailing her for her crush on Sohinki.

He was very clearly crushing on Joven.

It was time to get her blackmail on.

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A/N: Sorry if this is a short chapter. I kind of got some writer's block while working on this, but I wanted to get at least a small chapter out for you guys. :)

(The girl in the picture is meant to be my interpretation of what Senta might look like. I'll add more pictures of what the characters are meant to look like when there are more chapters that go along with them.)

Until the next chapter,

-Bree