N O R T H S T A R

“I mean, I like to think I know a little bit more about mercenary work than a bartender, but,” he shrugged. “I could be wrong. I wish it was all as easy as slipping a customer some pills in their drinks to get them talking.”

He most definitely wanted to correct him, wanted to say that he knew very well what mercenary work was and how to go about it. But the cautiousness his sister had ground into him kept his mouth shut. “Hey now, don’t accuse me of drugging you,” Luca replied, voice light and joking. “This was all very much self inflicted. I just provided the outlet.” He tilted his head as a thought occurred to him. “Although, if I were the one fishing for information, I suppose I might want your name.”

Raising his glass to his lips, Kaiden couldn’t help the smirk that rose to his expression. After taking a small sip, he set it back down, steepling his fingers together as he looked at the other, chin on top of his middle fingers. The sarcasm was nearly enough to make him roll his eyes, but he refrained - just barely. “Oh, dollface, I know I’m lovely. That’s why there’s practically a line of people just waitin’ to sleep with me.” Perhaps bragging wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had, but he couldn’t quite help himself – after all, he knew that Luca wasn’t going to pull a gun on him right now, given the fact that he was working; bad time and place for him, which meant a good one for Kai. “Just a little weird to me that you’re working. Doesn’t the night job bring in more than enough for you to live comfortably?” The night job referring to the Renegades, of course.

“I’ll have you know I had a bagel this morning,” he mumbles in protest of that little accusation, but even to his own ears it’s a weak rebuttal, hardly an argument at all. His poor self-care is not exactly a secret, especially not to Luca. “I appreciate it, but you really don’t have to keep bringing food over.”

Still, he won’t turn down the gift of free food. It’d be a waste, and sandwiches don’t sound too bad compared to some of the more bizarre offerings he’s been presented with. But then Luca says ‘weird’, and that gives him pause. He eyes the takeout bags with newly aroused suspicions.

“Weird how? The last time you said something was weird we ended up with banana on pizza and I don’t think I’ve fully recovered from that experience..”

Luca scoffed at the idea that a bagel being enough sustenance for a whole day. “Considering your eating habits and your work-life balance, I’d say that I’m morally obligated to keep bringing food.” Honestly, how the clinic doctor managed to stay alive before him was a total mystery to him. “Besides,” he continued, grabbing one of the sandwiches and taking a bite. “The banana pizza wasn’t horrible.”

He paused before replying, mouth still half-full. “They have these customizable flavors, but some of the recommended ones were miraculous mint and creamy milk chocolate.” Luca shrugged before pulling out the bag of chips he’d bought. “Went a little safer and chose the dill pickle ones. You should try them. It’s actually pretty good.”

His opening arrived as the target turned to an alley, presumably to meet up with his Ghoul informant. Far enough through the smell of piss and liquor that anyone on the main road would only see shadows, Luca pulled up the mask as he stepped in to follow, drawing his gun out from his jacket, fully intending on just taking a shot and getting the job done until he caught sight of just which Ghoul was waiting for him. A split grinned mask and a wild stance. “Ah. Well fuck,” slipped out, and the target whirled around. Didn’t matter. The target was no longer a priority, because if all the rumors were true, then Luca’s night was about to go to shit.

It took more effort than Nine cared to admit for her to push herself up into a seat, all winces and hisses of pain while she assessed the damage. As far as she could tell, it could’ve been worse—it certainly should’ve looked worse, and the bruises that would bloom under her skin tomorrow would be a reminder of that. But for now, most of the pain just erupted when she did things like, uh, move. Or think about moving. “Are you an angel?” she cracked a grin. “Or maybe just a savior. Should change your name to Jesus H. Christ. Hey, what the hell’s the H stand for, anyway? Hector?” And then, with no shortage of grunts and groans, she stood, and offered up her arm with its racing stripes of chafed, torn, burnt flesh. Yikes. “…I guess I could use some bandages. What do I owe ya, nurse?”

Kaiden wouldn’t particularly describe their so-called ‘unspoken alliance’ with the Renegades as one of his favorite things. He understood that the Renegades had what they needed, and that the Delights had what the Renegades needed, but that didn’t mean that Kai had to be happy about it. No one was his enemy, sure, but nobody was his friend, either. With that being said, looking across the bar at the Renegade, Kaiden found a little bit of (perhaps unfair) irritation growing in him. “Why do you still have this job, exactly?”

“Oh, a magician never reveals his secrets,” he said as he tapped his glass against the bar a few times, making a venn diagram of water ring circles. “But when it comes to getting sensitive information, once you start taking teeth you usually get what you want.”

The water ring circles were going to be a pain to get out of the wood, he knew, and Luca had to resist the urge to grab a coaster napkin. Something a little more violent than a dentist then. “I’d like to think that the lack of teeth makes it harder to talk,” he replied instead. “But yeah, sure, go off. Sounds like you know what you’re doing.”

“maybe it should be,” he said, and even though it sounded vaguely threatening, poet wasn’t sure what he meant by that. what was he gonna do, hide a gator under this dude’s bar? nah. the thought made him smile and his playful grin returned. “where do your thoughts go then, huh? penny for the truth?” he tapped his fingers on the glass he was nursing and then looked around the bar. the person he was meeting here was either very late, or a no show. so be it. he’d rather talk about crocs anyway. “i’m just saying, they been here for a long time, man. been here before us, they’ll probably be here after us. nature doesn’t change what it doesn’t need to.” 

Luca snorted and shook his head. “I definitely don’t run off to philosophical evolutionary questions, that’s for sure,” he replied. Doing so would mean getting distracted, and unlike his day job, his general lifestyle offered no room for such thing. “I don’t know. Usually to what I have left in my fridge. That or to the stars.” He noted the glance around the room and tilted his head in curiosity. “Looking for something in particular?”

“I’m sorry, but the clinic is closed for the day.”

That’s what he says, and that’s what the sign that hangs in the front window says, but when has either actually stopped someone from coming in as they please anyway? Especially the type who typically find him at this hour, when the sky outside starts to turn and everything starts to look a beautiful monstrosity under fading lights.

So when the footsteps change from crunching on asphalt to echoing on tiled floor instead, a clear indication that this is an audience that refuses to go unseen, he’s not surprised. Exasperated? Yes. Tired? Definitely. But it’s all to be expected by now, and really he only has himself to blame for never putting his foot down.

“Is this an emergency?”

It was a routine that Luca had long since perfected. Once his shift at the bar ends, he stops by whatever takeout restaurant catches his fancy, gets two meals to-go, then heads straight for the clinic. Locked? No problem. He’d learned how to get past what little security it had years ago.

Emergency? Luca hefted up the to-go bag, a cheeky grin pulling at his lips. “The emergency is that you haven’t eaten today, and I come bearing gifts.” He set the bag on the counter, opening it up and offering one of the boxes to Amber. “I found this funky sandwich place a couple days ago. Good stuff, weird chips though.”