Faye paced a bit in worry. He was late. Was he normally late? She couldn't be sure, this was the first time she had ever met him for a date. What if he was late because Spike had caught him and turned him in for the money? He was her bounty, damn it!
The casino was crowded inside, people passing by on their way to and from the grand entrances. In the night she seemed innocent enough, dressed for a quiet evening, waiting for her significant other. But she had her weapon strapped to her thigh. She was ready for this. She looked about, eyes scanning the few ships and cars stationed in their respective spots. But no sleek limo, no distinguished man in the darkness. She paced a bit more, wishing she didn't have such high heels. If she found out Spike had had anything to do with this, even after their talk the night before-
"Faye!"
She whirled and Black Jack swept out of the casino quickly, his dark hair tousled, dressed in a business suit. She was struck once more at how familiar he was, his height and his hair. "I am so sorry! I was tending to some business and it ran late, I'm terribly sorry-"
She smiled coyly at him as he reached her and enveloped her in a tight embrace. "Business in the casinos?” she asked but then passed the question by, exhaling in his embrace as he held her for a long moment. Such a warm embrace. When was the last time someone had embraced her like that? “I thought you had forgotten," she lied against his neck, knowing full well she had just about started panicking. "I was about to go in and just gamble away all my money-"
"Not at all," he said to her and he pulled away to leave a lingering kiss on her lips. He tasted like brandy, a sweet alcohol that left her craving a drink for herself. "I say we gamble all my money away..." he joked, gazing at her and lifting a hand to sweep errant locks from her face.
Not a bad idea at all...
"I haven't eaten yet and I'm starving," Jack said to her and he turned, leading her into the casino, one arm wrapping around her waist comfortably, as if it belonged there. "There's a small French restaurant inside if you'd like to take a quick bite. Yesterday you seemed to like French so why-"
"Careful," came a soft masculine voice from behind them, drawling in disinterest. "She’ll eat you out of your entire embezzled fortune."
Jack came to a stop, a small frown crossing his forehead and Faye quickly looked over her shoulder, also coming to a stop.
He wouldn’t-
Spike smiled in the darkness, taking a drag of his cigarette, one hand comfortably shoved into his pocket from where he stood only a few feet away. His blue suit hung open over his yellow shirt comfortably, the tie loose around his neck and Faye realized he looked too comfortable and too mischievous for it to result in anything good.
Her mood immediately soured. "What are you doing?" she hissed at him angrily, her free hand at her side clenching into a fist.
"I'm about to take down a bounty," he replied with his trademark impish smile, motioning to Jack.
Faye pulled free of Jack's arm, taking a step in Spike's direction. "We went over this! He's my bounty! I'm bringing him in-"
"Faye-" Jack uttered in disbelief, looking at her quickly as if to prove he had heard correctly. And he looked at Spike, his face darkening as Faye stared at him stiffly, the anger practically radiating from her.
"Was this before or after you stole all my money?" Spike asked with a twitching brow, and he flicked ash, his one hand in the pocket clenching. "How long is it going to take you, anyway? We're starving, have a little common courtesy. Just because he feeds you doesn't mean he feeds us!" he motioned over his shoulder with his cigarette and Faye could only guess the Bebop was stationed somewhere in that direction. "Ed's a growing kid-"
"There is a reason we have Ein!" Faye shouted furiously. "And don't, for a second, act like you care about Ed!"
Spike opened his mouth to speak, managing to look indignant but at her maintained glare he merely shrugged in agreement and shut his mouth.
"Faye, you're a bounty hunter?" Jack asked her slowly, his eyes still focused on Spike. He stared the bounty hunter up and down, the expression on his face unrecognizable.
Faye looked back at him and behind her Spike said, "She tries to be." But he was staring at Black Jack as well, a small frown beginning to mar his face.
"Shut up, Spike," she growled over her shoulder. Looking at Jack, she said in a coy but disappointed tone, "I'm sorry it had to end this way, Jack. You were different from all the other bounties I've dated. You actually fed me," she sighed miserably. "I haven't eaten like that since-"
Faster than she thought possible he suddenly had a gun leveled at her forehead, the barrel pressed to the soft skin between her eyebrows.
Faye came to a dead stop, her breath catching in her throat. That had been fast, amazingly fast.
Behind her, Spike exhaled. "I knew it. Now look what you did," he mumbled. "This is going to take even longer now. Do you hear my stomach?"
"Was any of it true?" Jack asked Faye quietly, staring her dead in her eyes over the barrel of the compact weapon he had placed to her forehead.
Behind her she was sure she heard Spike shift and Jack's eyes widened, looking in his direction quickly. Then he lowered his gaze to her face once more.
"Is that him, then?" he asked and his eyes shifted back toward Spike momentarily, studying the bounty hunter intently.
"Is that who?" Faye asked and something told her Spike had his own weapon leveled at Jack. She shifted a bit, feeling her Glock 30 between her thighs. She couldn’t possibly reach it in the time it would take him to shoot off a round.
"The one who came back. The one you-"
"Shit, you told him about me?" Spike asked in disbelief, although his disbelief sounded more like a bored afterthought.
Faye's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Had you not said anything I could have played it off as a lie," she mumbled darkly, feeling the familiar vein in her head throb. “Besides, weren’t you eavesdropping on us yesterday?!”
"Not me,” he answered swiftly from behind. “Besides, don’t shift the blame to me. You've been a bad girl, Faye. I'm telling Jet."
"I could have made you happy," Jack said to her and behind her she heard Spike give a surprised, "Hmm?" at the expression on his face. “I still can.”
Faye nodded at him slowly, only too aware of the gun pressed to her forehead. "Yes, you definitely could have. You and your money. But the bounty on you can help me start paying off my debts-"
"Yeah, right," Spike murmured and she could just see him taking a drag of his cigarette as he said it.
"Bite me, you stupid lunkhead," she snapped at him over her shoulder.
Spike snorted. “Not for all the woolong in the world,” and he paused suddenly as he heard the very familiar engines of the Bebop off in the distance. He looked to the side slowly, listening intently.
"So it wasn't all a lie," Jack asked Faye quietly.
"Nope," Spike replied for her, turning his attention back to the matter at hand. "She would definitely have cleaned out your bank accounts."
Faye smiled uncomfortably at Jack, shrugging warily. "I like casinos," she confessed.
Jack's eyes narrowed thoughtfully at her, studying her with dark eyes. His eyes flew back toward Spike momentarily and then, with a sigh of defeat he said, "I understand, Faye Valentine."
Faye's eyes widened, a frown crossing her face and she felt, more than saw, that Spike had had the same reaction. A sound behind her warned her that he had floated closer.
"It's who you are, isn't it?" Jack continued, staring at her intently and the look on his face worried her the tiniest bit. He pushed the barrel of the gun into her forehead a bit more, causing her to grimace faintly. "Faye Valentine. There's a bounty on you as well, my dear."
"Six million," Spike said for her, seeing as how she stood a bit stunned. "Twice as much as you, Black Jack."
Jack smiled faintly at his familiar alias. "May I ask why she hasn't been brought in yet?"
Faye growled, realizing she had been left out of the conversation entirely.
"She's worth more to us out of custody," Spike answered in a serious tone and Faye blinked, actually turning her head to look at him over her shoulder.
He shrugged at her, a wry smile curling his lips and he did indeed have his Jericho pulled. "Well, actually, she eats all our food, steals our money, and she has this attitude half the time but who else can play the part of the whore better than her?"
She threw him a glare that could have frozen the lakes of hell.
"I see," Jack mused and Faye slowly turned her head back to face him. His eyes shifted to hers once more, lingering on her face. "I knew who you were. They call you Poker Alice. But I know all about you, Faye Valentine."
Faye stood quietly, hesitant. "I didn't know I was well renowned..."
"I wanted you by my side,” he murmured and he lifted his free hand to her face as well, his fingers trailing across her skin. She swallowed faintly, staring at him with a small frown as his fingers traced her lips, the barrel of the weapon pressing into her forehead. “From the very first moment, I wanted you. I could have given you all the money you desired, the jewels, the ships-"
"The beef..." she whined with him.
“And you don’t even really know her. Now that’s love,” Spike said with a solemn nod.
Jack’s glance shifted over to Spike. “You know what love is, do you not, Mr. Spiegel?” he asked him and Faye felt her frown deepen. She felt her stomach grow cold at Jack’s voice, at the threat he had implied just by using Spike’s full name. “You would go to the ends of the earth-“
“Faye, I suggest you tell your date to shut his mouth,” Spike murmured in a very quiet tone and his tone seemed completely comfortable, jovial even. But the sudden anger in the air sparked enough to sting.
Faye didn’t have to see his face to know he was angry. “You’ve done your homework on us,” she stated, gazing at Jack as he gazed back. “Which is scaring me, actually…”
“More than you know,” Jack said quietly. “For example, the moon, Faye? I’m sure she was beautiful when you gazed at her. Whole. Undisturbed. Did she shine brilliantly?”
Faye’s lips parted in disbelief. “W-what?”
“How was the cold storage?” Jack asked her faintly.
A small sound made it passed her lips and she took a step back. No one knew. No one. She had never actually told Jet and Spike had been an accidental eavesdropper the day she had spilled her story to the damned dog. Whatever they thought was on them. But this was…she felt a shiver in the warm night.
“Faye,” Spike said behind her and she ignored him.
“How do you know?” she asked softly. “How-“
“Did you really think it was all about you chasing me down?” he asked her and she didn’t question the thought that his voice had grown marginally colder. “Did I fool you into thinking I was the real bounty?”
A glare crossed Faye’s face even as the pained disbelief struggled to show through.
“Do you think I don’t know that you live on the Bebop? That Jet Black was an ISSP officer before his little accident? That little Miss Edward’s father is wandering the Earth still? Or that Mr. Spike Spiegel here used to be a member of a small organization called The Syndicate?” Jack smiled at her and she took a step back as he took that same step forward, his gun still aimed at her head. “I know more than you think.” And his gaze shifted toward Spike. “I also know the way you think. I bet half my fortune Mr. Spiegel doesn’t think you’re worth all this trouble. Right, Spike?”
Spike’s voice was soft and seemed uninterested. “You shouldn’t talk to me like we’re friends,” he said to him. “I don’t know you.”
Faye didn’t turn to look in Spike’s direction, didn’t let emotion through. “You’re probably right, though,” she murmured. “But then, not much matters to fuzzy head by way of people.”
“Gee, thanks,” came the lazy reply.
“It’s the truth,” she said and looking toward Spike she saw his eyebrow twitch, a sweat drop practically hanging off his head of green hair. “You don’t care if I come or go, if I sleep all day, if I get myself killed. All you care about is money. Money and running out on us.”
Impatience creased Spike’s brow. “Are you aware you’re standing in the way of two drawn guns?”
“And you only chase me down to make me miserable!” Faye continued, anger rising inside. “What do I have to do to get some kind of consideration-“
“Stop stealing my money, for one,” Spike growled back at her. “Every time you leave the ship we hope it’s the last time! That way at least we’ll have some kind of money-“
“Is it my fault I have a gambling hobby?!” she screamed.
“Hobby?!”
“You know I like all the fine things! I deserve it! As a woman, I should be paid to be beautiful! I deserve to have men throwing themselves at my feet! I deserve to be able to waste someone’s money on the things I want!”
Spike’s face was deadpan as he mumbled out of the corner of his mouth, “Faye, you’re in denial. Gambling is an addiction, you can get help for that-“
“And I deserve-“ she went on shrieking and she suddenly whirled on Jack, knocking his weapon to the side.
The gun went off in the night and she vaguely heard Spike’s voice, “Aw, shit! Damn it-“ but she didn’t bother to turn to look as she rammed her fist into Jack’s mouth. He flew sideways with a muffled grunt, recoiling as Faye kicked the weapon out of his grip. Moving cleanly and quickly, she yanked up her dress skirt and drew the Glock 30, pointing it at Jack’s head as he recovered, hunched over before her.
“I deserve,” she said through clenched teeth and a wicked smile, “a little bit of fun.”
“You deserve to get shot,” Spike said as he came up beside her and out of the corner of her eye she saw him lower his weapon but not before a drop of blood trailed down his hand.
“You hit?” she asked him, still staring at Jack as the man glared angrily at first her then Spike.
“Yeah. But I forgive you. For a share of the bounty.”
“A what?” she demanded in a high-pitched shriek. “You didn’t do anything except piss me off and get in the way-“
“Hey, if I hadn’t shown up-“
“I would have eaten and then claimed the bounty! Now it’s gonna be all your fault that I’m hungry and that I’m gonna have to go and clean out the fridge!”
“We never have food in the fridge anyway, you know that,” he said to her, his shoulders slumping even as he lifted his cigarette to his mouth. Furiously, she snatched the cigarette from him and took a drag, ignoring the glare he sent her. “Ah, well. I’m sure I have some Ganymede lobster you can have. Maybe in that old fridge…”
And above them, the Bebop appeared, Jet’s voice booming from it in the night as lights suddenly came on and blinded the group. “Well, now, what have we here?”
Spike and Faye glanced at each other before looking up and shouting in unison, “Dinner!”
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