Been rotating on the Roleswap AU that's been cooking in the HGCZ Contributor Discord (if you don't know what I'm talking about, @gingermaple has distilled it quite elegantly here), so I present: The Teaming Up
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” the red-haired woman huffed, sliding the baton back into the holster on her back.
Hotgal just chuckled. She rolled out from under the man who now slumped unconscious against the wall. “That, or we start scheduling to meet up from the start - cut to the chase when one of us inevitably needs help. What’s the count at now?”
Her savior just rolled her eyes even as she grabbed Hotgal’s hand to hoist her upright. “4 times you helped me, 6 times I saved your ass.” A faint jingling sound, and a wrinkle in her nose. “Handcuffs, again? Really?”
“Yeah, you think they’d have more original ideas.”
“You think YOU’D come up with a counter for it by now.”
“I have. It’s called ‘find you to pop ‘em open for me again’. And ‘saying pretty please?’”
Hotgal held out her bound hands, blinking her lashes like an old-school movie flirt. The other woman muttered something under her breath.
And yet, within seconds, the cuffs were falling to the ground, a hairpin being slid back into the buns once more.
The woman nudged the unconscious man with her foot. “Gotta say, you can really pick ‘em. I think even I recognize this one from those police reports I borrowed. Pyramid scheme, or something like that.”
Leaning against the wall, Hotgal shrugged, the adrenaline fading and leaving only the foreshadowing of some ugly bruises. “He was sloppy.” A pause, and she added, “Though I guess I was too, tonight. Really, thanks.”
Going to brush it off, the woman stopped herself, finally offering Hotgal a small nod. “You’re welcome.” She turned to leave.
“I wasn’t joking.“
Hotgal felt the words leave her, then faltered as the red-haired woman turned back around. She cleared her throat.
“I mean, about the. Meeting up. Thing.”
The woman raised an eyebrow, clear even behind the mask. Hotgal pulled herself off the wall, in too far to back out now.
“Like, we seem to be after the same people and all, right? Or at least the same, uh, type of people? We’ve been watching each other’s backs on chance like this - could just. Work together from the jump. Two heads over one, and all that?”
A long silence. A measured look.
“…sure.”
Instantly, the bruises-to-be faded from Hotgal’s mind, energy rushing back into her. “Wait, really?”
“Yeah, why not,” the woman returned, a crease in her eye the only visible sign of the smirk in her voice. “Saves time getting you out of trouble.”
“Great! We can start right now - think Buddy Boy here has a date with those cops down the street.”
Hotgal slipped one arm around the unconscious figure, lifting him off the ground. Without a word, the red-haired woman moved to his other side. Together, they slunk out of the abandoned warehouse, carrying him to the empty patrol wagon parked by the MooPop station.
Seems the cops’d be coming back to a bigger catch than just burgers, sitting on the car hood, dazed and already handcuffed.
“You know,” Hotgal said as they wandered down another side alley after dropping him off, “I don’t think you’ve ever introduced yourself. Pretty sure I’d remember if you did. Kind of important now.”
The other woman tilted her head. “No, I don’t think I did. My name is-“
“Woah, woah, name? I meant like alias or whatever - cute gal like you’s gotta have one picked out, right?”
Silence, followed by a quiet “What did you just call me?”
“I said, a cute gal like you-“
“That works. Cutegal.”
Hotgal snickered. “No shame, ey? You know what you are.”
Cutegal huffed. “Says the one running around as Hotgal.”
“Cuz I’m hot on their trail!”
“Literally no one is going to take it like that.”
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