Rory Alexis Hale

Christmas Gifts for Angelita: 

( @angelitajansen )

Christmas Gifts for Veronica: 

( @v--leon )

Normally Olivia wouldn’t be caught anywhere with Christmas being featured, however she couldn’t say no to an open bar and depending on her mood, a good party. While she wasn’t one to walk around socially and taking in the season, she didn’t mind sitting on the sidelines and doing some people watching. After taking a sip of her newly ordered drink, she noticed a women move next to her. Olivia turned when she heard the women speak French. While she would never walk around sharing, Olivia had always been fascinated by accents. “Well I guess you’re pretty lucky that you go that route over crying or yelling.” she shrugged, taking another sip of her drink. “Why is it surprising? Plus what makes you think I’m alone?” she questioned. 

“True, I don’t understand people who cry should make you happy, you get to pretend the world is not a shitty place for a little bit.” Rory grinned, taking the liberty of leaning agains the bar next to the brunette, fixing her piercing eyes on her carefully. “That you are alone? Because you are hot. Hot people get asked to be dates normally. What makes me think you’re alone? Hope. I say it is my lucky night if you are alone today though.  Si un homme se présente et qu'il est votre rendez-vous, nous finirons tous les deux par être déçus ce soir. Croyez-moi.” (If a man shows up and he's your date, we'll both end up being disappointed tonight. Believe me.) Rory winked, draining the rest of her glass swiftly. “I’m Rory.” 

Eyes followed the woman, not sure what she was about to do, but the moment she got closer to the couple, Lucas couldn’t help but start cursing her. “I ain’t giving you shit,” he replied as soon as she returned, “not only you’re a buzzkill, but also a fucking cheater. That’s not how the rules of the game go.” The man pointed a judgy finger at her, before drowning the remaining of his drink and ordering another. “Now I’ll have to find some other idiot to see how their night is ruined…or we could bet something better and make this night more interesting.”

Letting out a snorting exhale of breath the French woman rolled her eyes, flipping her middle finer up at Luke with little bother playing on her face considering he’s just cussed her out. “Oh you drama queen, I saved your suit, and I won. It isn’t my fault you didn’t think to cheat, eh?” Reaching out she grabbed hold of his finger with her hand, wicked smile licking across her lips “Okay, something better, what do you think is better?” Left eyebrow cocking she looked at him steadily, silently daring him to answer the question. Something she knew better than to think he would back down from. After a second she took a drink from her glass. “Unless you  are scared to lose again.” 

“They all burn the same, sweetheart. However, I will give it some thought, only for you.” Veronica added, a half-hearted smile finding its way to her lips. In her time she’d had every possible drink, every possible combination of two alcoholic drinks a young, broke and borderline desperate person could think of. Today, however, something as random as drinks didn’t matter not in the slightest. None of it, with the exception of their current war did. The caporegime saw no point in bursting Rory’s bubble. Not yet, at least. Not so suddenly. The young brunette, however, insisted on taking a trip to the dark side of Crystal City. And Veronica knew the Morgan mafia could use someone as resourceful as Rory Hale so why not let her ease into it. Her gaze swept over the club and the security men who still had question marks over their heads after their brief encounter with Rory. Hearing the brunette not only enjoyed having the parrot as a pet but also wanted ten more parrots, was in true Rory fashion. V gave a soft nod, smiling. “Good. Happy to hear it all worked out in the end. You never know, Christmas is approaching… You might want to put ten parrots on your list.” No doubt Veronica would get her all ten if Rory truly said so. “As you know, there’s a reason why I asked you to join me here tonight,” V leaned back and crossed her legs– as if she was making some casual conversation, not discussing illegal activities. “I need you to do something else for me. Retrieve information, to be more exact. You’d be rewarded accordingly naturally. I have to warn you though, the task might require a lot of patience. Does it sounds like something you’d want to do?”

“For Christmas, ten parrots and a pear in a tree or whatever you crazy Americans say in the song.” The woman cackled loudly, taking no notice of the fact Veronica only appeared to be half in the conversation right now. Rory was in a club, drinking, in the presence of a beautiful woman and the alcohol was free….what was there for her to be bothered by? Nothing currently. “I would have to think of ten names though, or just give them numbers, my brain is not as big as it needs to be for ten names.” She joked, not sure who she would be given said list to since her parents were back in France and didn’t give two shits about their daughter, but she humoured Veronica regardless. “I assume, but you need to tell me this reason.” Leaning forward a bit to be able to hear better what the other was saying her face was open and clearly interested, because if she had been called here by Veronica it must be for something crime related, right? Especially considering their most little outing. Pursing her lips she listened to the task the other wanted from her, eyebrows raising a little, but not in any way judgmentally. “Getting information is what I have been doing since I was a little girl. J'ai construit ma vie sur les informations que j'ai récupérées quand personne ne m'a même demandé de le faire. (I built my life on the information I collected when no one even asked me to.) Who does it need to come from?”

Luke lost count on how many drinks he had had already, but he was actually keeping track of the ones the funny man at the dance floor was having. “I bet fifty bucks that the drink will end up all over her in no time,” he mentioned, gesturing with his head, at the woman with the pompous dress dancing with him. ( @roryalexishale )

Rory was  near enough to Luke to hear his words as he gestured to a woman in pale blue to her left, who was flinging her arms around like a runaway helicopter next to someone she assumed was her boyfriend, which made the French woman cackle loudly. Without warning she stood up, putting her hand on the strangers shoulder she took her glass off her, downing the rest of the liquid in it, before handing it back with a grin. “Si tu veux garder ton verre toi-même alors asseyez-vous pour le boire, idiot” (If you wanna keep your drink yourself then sit down to drink it idiot) She shouted over the music before blowing her a kiss and turning her attention back to Luke. “No, now you give me fifty dollars, I saved your suit, you are welcome.”

From her position in a slightly elevated VIP section at LUX Veronica overlooked the entire dance floor– and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Evenings at the club were reserved for business. more so than fun. The thought of sweating on the dance floor and grinding against strangers didn’t seem as appealing as it once had been. Instead, she sat on the sofa in a killer outfit– her appearance being just one of the aces up her sleeve while negoatiating business. Just as two well-paid dancers rid her of their newest associate, dragging him to the dancer floor, young Rory arrived. Just in time, flashed through V’s mind as she fixed the woman with her most charming smile. “Let her in, she’s with me.” Veronica said to the security standing at the entrance. Her gaze followed the other brunette as she waited for her to speak first, knowing whatever came out of her mouth would amuse her. “I’m a busy woman, love. Haven’t given it much thought.” V arched a brow, bringing her glass to her lips. “You can have whatever your heart desires, though. How’s the parrot?”

“Laisse-moi entrer, je suis censé être là, connards.” (Let me in, i’m meant to be in there you assholes) Rory’s words were not sweet in the least, but the smile she plastered on her face as she cooed to the two bouncers in French was, banking on them not knowing what she had meant. Which by the looks on their faces and the smile they gave her back, they didn’t. Luckily. That was the kind of thing that could have caused her to get kicked out if they had. Plonking herself down next to the older, immaculately dressed, woman she snorted in amusement at the reply she got expecting noting less from someone who seemed to have the world dancing at their feet twenty four seven. “You should give it some though, you might be missing out on a million different better drinks eh?” Taking a sip of her own she grinned cheekily, nodding, the parrot her favourite thing to come out of her time in Crystal City thus far. “The best thing, I love it, I want ten more parrots.” She grinned, a wicked glint in her eye that probably left Veronica wondering if that truly was a joke or not, because with Rory you could never be quite sure.

@roryalexishale​

“Ok Chica, I have sweets and alcohol. Are you ready for an actually relaxing night in?” Angel chuckled as she moved to set the bottle of wine and plate of various baked goods she’d picked up from her favorite mom & pop bakery. Honestly after the traveling she’d done the last week Angel was desperately in need of a nice night in with a friend, and she’d unacceptably not seen Rory in awhile…so the Frenchwoman was her choice for the night. “I even brought French wine back from my trip so, hopefully it doesn’t royally disappoint too much.” She smirked, settling herself down onto the couch next to the other. “Did you have a movie or show in mind that you wanted to watch?” Honestly they could just talk and Angel would be happy, it was just nice to finally be able to kick back and relax for a night at least.

“I have not stopped relaxing since I got to the USA, the whole thing has been one big relax.” Rory joked as she didn’t waste a second in grabbing a doughnut from the plate that was set down on the table. Tearing a bit of it off to pop into her mouth, tiny for someone who was so addicted to junk food. “You bring French wine back? Tu es trop mignon. Je vais devoir vous remercier correctement!” (You're too cute. I'll have to thank you properly.) She winked smoothly before picking up the bottle so she could read the label to decide if it was actually good French wine or if it was ‘French wine’ aka the people who made it knew a label written in French would sell it to stuck up Americans. “I will watch any tv, it’s just noise really, how was your trip? Where did you go again? Fucking rude I wasn’t invited but whatever.”

@crystalcitystarters​

The man sat at his usual post in the quiet cafe with— as cliché as it sounded— a laptop perched on the table in front of him. The Great Gatsby in big bold letters adorning the first page of his niece’s homework lighting up the screen. Growing up, he never gave himself the opportunity to fall in love but reading about it had always been seemingly enough. Love stories intrigued him and he wondered what they brought to those who genuinely felt that way about someone. Gatsby, for instance, loved Daisy so much that he was quite literally searching for a way to turn back the time. Daisy, however, much more in love with the idea of being in love, she didn’t care who was giving her attention. He related strongly to her but in a more superficial sense. So engrossed in the familiar words, he didn’t acknowledge the footsteps approaching him. Without looking up, he navigated to the next page as if continuing to read.

“Let me guess— I’m sitting in your seat?”

“Yeah, get your fucking ass out of it before I kick it out.” Rory grinned as she instead grabbed a empty chair from a nearby table without bothering to ask if it was okay, and pulled it up to join Roman at his table. Slumping back into it she put one foot on the knee of the other leg, wiggling her eyebrows at him in amusement. “What are you doing that is more interesting than me? I am boring to you?” She teased, tongue in cheek, as she attempted to wave down a barista before clocking that this was a ‘go up to the counter’ kind of establishment rather than table service. “Ah fuck…I have to stand up if I want coffee? This country.” She grumbled in her thick French accent, reaching over to the man’s drink instead and pulling it towards her, taking a sip. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it was easier than standing up. “Ugh, what is this?”

—

Callie giggled at the words spoken in french. Although she couldn’t understand them completely, she was still charmed nonetheless. Languages weren’t something she could easily pick up, so she was always extremely impressed by those who could speak more than one. “ Merci, ” she replied, with terrible pronunciation and a worse accent. But she frowned slightly at Rory’s question. No, she hadn’t gone to their self-defense class. She quickly learned upon her arrival that it was an important skill to learn, one Elias was helping her with as well, but Callie couldn’t bring herself out of bed that morning. It was as if there was a weight on her, one she couldn’t remove, one that choked in her chest and caused her mind to swarm relentlessly. But it wasn’t something she felt the need to worry Rory with. Her company’s worry already made her feel a bit guilty; there was no need to add to it. With a hesistant smile replacing her frown, she answered, “ Everything’s fine. I just felt a little sick this morning, but I’m feeling much better thanks to this coffee. ” To prove her point, she took a big sip from her drink. “ And you? It’s a beautiful day. I hope you’ve been enjoying it. ”

“We will work on it, eh? One day I will have you speaking French like a native.” Rory gave her a lazy grin as she pushed the drink towards Callie, chuckling slightly because the girl’s accent really was atrocious. At least the word was right, small mercies. “You are welcome.” Listening to the excuse of not feeling well the girl frowned, not sure if she entirely believed that to be true, it was the kind of thing someone would say when they were covering for a different problem they didn’t want to talk about. “Pensez-vous que je suis né hier?” (Do you think I was born yesterday?) “I am glad you are feeling better now, it is not nice to be sick.” Under the guise of being entirely taken in by the excuse since she knew Callie didn’t understand what she had uttered in French. She might miss having fellow French people around her a lot of the time but there was moments it came in handy, like this one right now. “I have been working all of the morning so I did not see much of the sun, but now I have finished, it is better. And I see you, it is even better.” She flashed her a cheeky wink, piling the flirting on just for the sake of it, it amused her.