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[ text ]: I woke up to a half empty bottle of cider on my dresser. I drank it and have no regrets. Morning. 

[ ALEX ]: ... How did the bottle get on your dresser? Were you on your dresser when you woke up? Have you had breakfast yet? So many unanswered questions. Good morning, sleeping beauty. 

[ ALEX ]: Is this you telling me there’s half of a pizza left unattended and inviting me some? Because I might cry if you say yes.

Lips pressed together in a firm line to holding the laughter, it too all of three seconds before Will lots it at the show he’d just seen. “I’m sorry, I just came to hang, man. Didn’t know you were having uh…private time.” He snorted. “Hey, I’m not here to judge but…” Will chuckled as he made his way to the bar, holding his stomach. “After a long day I kinda needed that, sorry to laugh at your expense, but I’m also not sorry at all. So, RENT , huh? You’re not going to ask me to duet , are you? Cause I’ll walk right back out.”

“Right, and you couldn’t make yourself noticeable before having me embarrass myself” the pseudo bartender pointed out with a laugh, shaking his head. “Hey, if it means it’ll make your day even a bit better, I can try a better one. I can try some Mamma Mia for you” he offered with a heartfelt laugh that only grew slightly at the other’s suggestion. “Come on man, this is a duet. You could be my Joanne.”

Aurora let out a small chuckle. “Well, I guess that’s the truth! It does make me feel a bit better, I must admit. I’ve missed it a lot, honestly. It’s the first sort of break I’ve taken and I wouldn’t even consider it to be one. Okay, Father! I’ll try and make sure that I will do that for you.” She took the bag, walking alongside him. “It certainly is. Miley Cyrus made it far too easy.” She chuckled slightly. “Ha, no thanks. Relationships are so tough for us and Claire is a one in a billion. He’s pretty nice, I deal with him well. Don’t worry, Alex. He’s really not that bad.”

“Well enjoy it while it lasts because you’ll be back at one point and you and I know it’s hard to go back after a while. Thank you” Alexander laughed at his friend’s words, shaking his head slightly. Perhaps he could be seen as over-protective, but then again, Aurora was his closest friend. “Yeah, it’s hard to have the best of both worlds. Hannah Montana lied to us all along, Rora” he laughed as they arrived to her car, opening the door to her with a joyful smile. “Yes, Claire is one in a billion and I am the luckiest man in the planet, I’m the first person to say it, but doesn’t mean you won’t get your one in a billion someday, maybe. Good, but if he ever does something to you, I will make him pay, warn him that.”

“I work with all dogs, they just make me happy.” She nodded, “No, you didn’t. I have Milo, would love another one.”

“Yeah, me too. They are just so full of life and adorable, they are my favorite animal. What type of dog would you get after Milo?”

Persephone needed a drink. She’d had a tough day and all she wanted was a few drinks before her shift at the strip club. She entered the open establishment, freezing as she heard the man sing. She listened for a while before clapping once he was done. “Well done! That was amazing!”

“Thank you, I—- it’s a good song” he replied with a chuckle, scratching the back of his neck before pointing to a stool in front of himself “Sorry about that, how can I help you? We are closed but... do you need anything?”

“What an’ give up a free performance? Never.” Leighann let a small tsk follow her words, as if such a suggestion would be blasphemous. The redhead stood idly aside with a clipboard in hand, making little to no effort to hide her bemusement. “Though, i’m thinking I might have to give the bar a citation now. Storage of combustible materials must be maintained in an orderly fashion, away from flame-producing appliances, and at least 18-inches below the fire sprinklers. An’ well you’re practically on fire and hanging out maxin’ relaxing all cool near a decent amount of liquor. Thus, a fire hazard.” A steady nod followed, as if to insinuate she was being genuine despite otherwise merely trying to make a joke. 

Alexander frowned lightly, looking around XS, trying to find the hazard the other was referring to before finally noticing the joke, letting out a full-on laugh, shaking his head in response. “I panicked for a minute there, my boss would kill me if I ever let anything like it happen to this place and I pretty much like being alive” the bartender replied with a chuckle, scratching the back of his neck with an apologetic and timid smile, pointing towards the stool in front of him “Have you been standing there for a while? Should I expect a video of my obviously amazing performance on Youtube soon?” he inquired, chuckling.

Layla chuckled quietly at his joke. While she found most of Angelica’s requests reasonable, no matter how strange they seemed at first, she realized, even as her assistant, that couldn’t be the case with everyone. “What was the most uncomfortable thing she told you to do? Or, top 3, if you can’t decide.” The blonde let out an awkward laugh. “Thanks, you’re sweet but that won’t be necessary. I was just checking. But hey… Same goes for you, honey.”

On their way to the restrooms, she made a quick stop at the elevated station where the DJ usually worked and called out. “I’ll put on some music, do you like the Black Keys?”

Alexander considered the blonde’s question for a brief moment, chuckling to himself. “I had to go to her house at like, 4 am because she heard a noise and she thought there were burglars. It was one of her maidens and her driver. One time she made me lock someone in the broom closet” he confessed with an embarrassed chuckle. “But you, you were her assistant, right? You must have stories” he rose a brow before smiling back at the other. “Thank you, that’s very nice of you but I’m fine, it’s not necessary, but I’ll keep it in mind” he replied with a smile before shrugging lightly. “I’m not sure if I’ve heard of them but I’m willing to learn a thing or two about music so, hit me with your best shot.”

“It might be slightly unhealthy to get attached to a corpse, but it’s not hard to know people who have, simply because it’s very hard not to get attached to someone who has suddenly ended up on your table. Trust me, I constantly wish I had the answers for them and when I don’t, it’s incredibly frustrating. It’s probably one of the reasons my nickname is Morticia, because I usually end up feeling bad for those people whereas some other people only look at them and see corpses,” maybe it was a part of her moral conduct that kept her from being something other than that, but Rebecca didn’t really care. In fact, she thought it was a good thing on her part to feel bad over those who had no one to feel sad over them. There was also the fact that she was almost one of them, once upon a time and she wondered if her family would have been able to identify her at all after that maniac was done with her. Her peers constantly warned her of the dangers in getting too close, getting too attached, but at this point, her nightmares were often confused with the nightmares of others and she thought that it was just the way it would go. There was really no turning back. “It was hard for him, yes. He did love his job at the FBI, but when my brother started in the military, he saw no way other than actually coming back home. My mother would be alone in a few years, because I moved states to go to college and medical school— we don’t balance him out, we drive him crazy,” she laughed, “it’s two women louder than loud stuck in a house with one man. He was a minority there and he often spent more time at the precinct than he did at home. I’m glad he is retiring now though, more often than not it’s normal to see a casualty around here when it comes to police officers.” It was unseen for a police officer to have such a long run as her father did, she just so happened to expect the same for her friends in the force. When he spoke of her family, Rebecca was left with a small smile on her lips. “Oh, I miss them, but I moved here when I was only four years old, so, I think I wouldn’t grow used if I went back to India,” she told him. The whole idea of living back home with her entire family was out of this world. “Of course she is going to worry. It’s basically what women do best of all, but it’s nice to have someone worrying for you. Me? No— Just my beagle, he is probably scratching the door waiting for me to come home, but it’s only me and thousands of locks.” 

“It’s not a bad thing. It— takes a lot of heart to do what you do and I think it’s admirable to say the least. It’s just... hard, I guess, it must be hard on you” he sighed deeply, chewing his inner cheek. Morale vs Reason, Human vs. Monster, Sanity vs. Humanity. Sometimes it wasn’t an easy choice and it was endearing encountering someone who shared his values, but it was also unsettling when those values affected her well-being. Yet, he wasn’t one to talk. It came with the badge/the desire of being in the field, probably. Or perhaps it had to do more with who they were as individuals or their backgrounds. He still couldn’t help but worry about the other, even if he didn’t muster it. It was one of the things he did best, after all. The agent then nodded along with the brunette’s story, granting her a gentle smile every now and then. “Well sounds to me like he made the right call if he’s really happy and I can’t imagine what your mom felt when she found out her two kids were going away, one to military nonetheless. And yeah, I know. Sometimes going to the field feels like you are playing Russian roulette somehow, but your dad did fine and he is ready to move on to the next adventure, maybe before you know it he’ll be playing golf all day” the agent added jokingly. “Understandable. No matter how much help you’d get from your family, it would still be harsh to unlearn everything you learnt here.” Alexander beamed then, shrugging lightly. “It is, but I wish she didn’t have to. It’s just too much sometimes, saying goodbye in the morning and seeing that... look in her face because of the risk. She’s been through enough, sometimes I wish things were different” he rambled on before taking a sip of his drink, putting that thought to rest. “Anyway, you have a beagle? That’s adorable. How old is he and why are you here with me instead of playing with him?”