CONTAINS CONTENT:
Brief, strong language. Sensual references.
{{Unedited}}
Austin leaned over the table and stared down the billiard ball that he had his eye so intently on; the blue four… it was going in that upper right pocket whether it wanted to or not. He smirked as he glided the pool cue back a little in his hand and between his fingers.
He glanced at Chamber, who pursed his lips and shook his head doubtfully before taking a swig from a brown beer bottle.
Austin grinned on the corner of his mouth, aimed, breathed out slowly, shot, and made the sink.
Chamber let his cue stick hit the ground and cleared his throat, “Okay, okay, best two out of three,” he grumbled, moving to the other side of Austin, and eyeing the situation.
The bar was smoky and only a few lonely men inhabited seats around the actual bar top as buzzing neon – a sign that desperately needed to be fixed – flickered behind them. OP*N.
A scantily clad waitress – that Austin was having a hard time not gazing at – gave them their beers.
She winked at Austin and Austin smiled, but looked away, forcing his eyes closed. No… not tonight. Not ever again. Get used to it, Austin. She’s hot, yes… but she’s not yours.
The demon started to try to hug him. -you don’t need her to be yours. Just a few minutes, that’s all. A few minutes of bliss, of peace, of relief from the tensing in your lower stomach that’s causing the mild fear and panic. Austin felt his hand start to tremble. You can forget about it by morning. Pretend it never happened.
No. I can’t ever do that again. Not now. It’s not the same.
-You can be there again if you want.
I don’t.
He bounced his cue stick against the ground a few times, and tried to find air in his lungs that wasn’t full of bar smoke. There was none.
Chamber shifted his gaze a little, eyeing the seven ball. “I have a beef to pick with you…”
Austin narrowed his eyes and glanced up at the ceiling for a moment as if trying to figure out what language he’d need to translate that. Then he turned to Chamber, “Do you mean bone?”
“Oui, that, yes.” Chamber squatted to look at all the positions left on the table.
“Alright,” Austin said, leaning against the wall behind Chamber and taking a swig of his own beer. “Shoot.”
“Why didn’t you help more the night that we were attacked by Varun and the others?” He glared at Austin out of the corner of his eye. “You’re their most valuable asset, and yet you did pretty much nothing.”
“I seem to recall stopping the deluge that was threatening to drown everyone on the floor, Vincent,” Austin said with a sigh, tipping the bottle to his lips, once more.
Chamber stood, and looked the table over with a shake of his head at the seven ball; apparently that wasn’t the one. “Oui, you did. But you could have done a lot more, mon ami.”
“Well, for one, I didn’t know what the situation was. Remember, I ran up there from a few floors down and had no idea who we were facing, what their abilities were, or any of that,” he said with a sigh, glancing over the table. “And two, I wasn’t allowed,” he explained. “No use of powers or abilities until further notice.”
“That’s something else that’s troubling me,” Chamber added. “Barbara… you and Marielle, you’re both profilers, right? How did that one get past you?” He flicked his gaze to
Austin who took another mouthful and watched the waitress and her tight black skirt saunter by as her long black hair brushed her hips with each movement.
His jaw tensed and he closed his eyes again… no. “No, see… you’re thinking of it like it’s a super power, Vincent.” Chamber made his shot, the sink, and he did a little double fist bump and hip swivel before he danced around to the other side of the pool table, arms crossed to see what Austin would do. “That’s not how this talent- this skill, works. Firstly, you have to want to know. You have to be looking for something. If you’re doing neither, then you don’t necessarily pick up on things.” Austin eyed the table, bent, and looked at all the shots. “It’s like Marielle… how she didn’t pick up on me? My being in espionage? Because she was told that I was a profiler that worked for the government, and I didn’t act like I was anything but- so that’s what she believed. She wasn’t looking for anything else until-” he paused briefly, shifting his gaze to Chamber for a moment. He wasn’t sure how much Chamber knew about that night that he tried to seduce her at his home. The Frenchman pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Well, until it mattered to her.” He aimed his pool cue and made a shot, eleven ball, gone. Chamber lifted his hand and seesawed it quickly. “Plus,” Austin puffed his chest out a little, “I am a profiler that works for the government. Whenever you’re trying to hide something from someone, it’s always good to start with a truth, or a partial truth, anyways.” Austin made another shot. Miss. He stood back. “If something is really obvious you might pick up on it instantly, but it takes time, energy, mental expenditure. You have to really focus on your target and dig into them, watching their every move.” His eyes had wandered to the waitress again, and he was staring at her this time. “Their every gesture…” She was bending over to pick some money up from a table; her legs were stretching in that way that told him that she wanted him to look, and she took the two bills and slipped them down between her breasts. “Their every twitch,” he whispered. “It’s easy when you know what you’re looking for,” he was lost in gazing at her. She was sending him signals in every way imaginable. “And obvious,” he said with an exhale and he turned back to Chamber who was flicking his gaze to her, then him. “But you have to really want to know.”
The waitress sauntered by again to pick up a cup that someone had left at a corner table, and Chamber reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her. When she willingly turned to him, he pulled her a bit close, causing her to stand between his knees. “Mademoiselle,” he whispered, staring deeply into her eyes. They beamed and she smiled at the Frenchman.
Austin slowly licked his lips and leaned back against the wall, waiting for whatever Chamber was about to do. “This incredibly attractive young man is brokenhearted.” Her dark eyes flicked to Austin in concern, then back to Chamber. “The woman that he loves is- currently with someone else, it doesn’t look hopeful. Would you- mon Cherie, would you do him the honor of showing him a little tenderness?” Her fair cheeks filled with as much color as her red lips. Chamber looked down at her name tag, “Marie.”
Austin felt his throat go dry… Marie… Marielle… Shit. Why are you doing this?
Chamber lifted his hand. “Nono, it doesn’t need to be anything drastic, just-”
She smiled and tucked her gum to the side of her cheek, then turned to Austin and Chamber smirked as he let her go. “Is that true?” she asked.
Austin wasn’t looking at her, the back of his head was resting against the wall. He nodded, and closed his eyes, sadly.
She moved away from Chamber and went to him. He could feel the warmth coming off her body. “Are you really that lost and lonely; someone as handsome as you?”
“You’d be amazed at h-how being handsome has nothing to do with how lost… or lonely you are,” he replied, then he swallowed hard. He could smell her rose based perfume through the smoke. Oh no… this was perfect. It would be so easy. She wouldn’t even put up a fight, or protest. It was all over her face and her body language; he could see her chest rise and fall and her lips start to pout with that I want a kiss all over them. He stared at her for a moment, knowing exactly what impact he was having over her… pleasure god… thanks, Chamber, I’m about to ruin everything, aren’t I?
“Would- would you like a kiss from a pretty lady?” She asked almost bashfully.
Austin could feel his hand shaking. Chamber would go back to Marielle and tell her all of this, wouldn’t he? Austin… that’s not a good reason to not do this… what happens next time when Chamber isn’t there? Do this for yourself and not a kiss, not a kiss. My kiss is for Marielle. “Thank you.” He let out a long, ragged sigh, and lifted his hand, brushing some of her hair back behind her ear. “But you’re not her,” he whispered. “And I won’t use you as a surrogate for her.”Her eyes beamed with something that said that she’d never seen that in a man before. “Wow,” she whispered. “I’m- I’m stunned, most men who come in here would have… and have-”
He cut her off. “Yeah, I know. That’s why it’s not gonna be me tonight.” He shook his head realizing that that might have come out wrong. He cupped the bottom of her chin and smiled softly at her. “What I mean, Marie, is that you deserve more than that.” Her eyes glittered with the threat of tears. “You’re worth more than this place, and men like me,” he growled, hating himself.
She smiled at him, and wiped a tear away. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You can give me the kiss if you’d like,” Chamber broke in. “No pressure.”
Austin laughed, shaking his head. Marie backed away from him, “Oh?”
Chamber nodded.
Marie came to him, leaned in, and gently kissed his cheek. Then she walked away, wiping away another tear as she removed her apron and went to the back. “Guess she’s quitting.” There was silence for a moment. “Bravo,” Chamber said, clapping his gloved hands together. “I’m proud of you.”
Austin was staring at the table. “Why did you do that?” He asked quietly.
“Because I knew that you could do it.”
Austin’s eyes found his. “Yeah, but why… why did you do it?” Chamber swallowed and glanced away. “Do you really care about me?”
“It’s complicated, Austin… but yes.”
Austin finished the beer. “Why?”
“How long have we known each other?”
“About five minutes?” Austin scoffed.
“No, mon ami, no… seven years. I’ve studied you; you’ve studied me.” The faintest smile crossed Chamber’s face. “We know more about one another than some of the women we’ve been with.” Austin nodded his agreement with this statement. “I hate you; you hate me. It’s an odd relationship, but it works for us, don’t you think?” Chamber marched over and stood in front of him, grabbing the sides of his face, and squeezing a little. “Listen to me, you ridiculous mother fucker.” Austin smiled and looked away, but Chamber shook his face as if to tell him to look at him. “You are worth more than this bullshit… do you understand me?”
He nodded. “You- you did this when you had me back in Munich.”
“I know what I did. We both did it…” Chamber explained, reminding him of the fact that Vincent had helped. “It was on purpose.”
Austin thought about the other day and how when he was melting down, the only name that he could get out was Vincent. “Why?”
“It was the beginning of you shedding your skin, mon ami.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Austin,” Chamber stood back and looked him over. “Vincent knew what you were in the other dimension. So did I. We wanted to start you on a specific journey, that was the beginning of it. Detox you, make you suffer… give you a gun.” He stood, glaring at Austin with fire in his eyes. “Teach you how to be grateful. Because if you were not-”
Austin crossed his arms over his chest. “Then there was a good chance that I’d become Tundra?”
Chamber paused for a moment. “That was all up to you. It is still up to you. The idea was to change you; mold you a little. Make you wonder.” He lifted a finger as if to stop Austin from interjecting, “what caliber of man is Austin Rancor?”
Austin swallowed and looked off, considering. “So, you maintain that you tortured me… you did-” he lifted his right arm, briefly, and let it slap his hip again, “you did this to me to help change me for good?”
“Real friends? They stab you in the front, Austin.” He lifted the finger again, and pointed at him, “now I knew that you would need those bullets someday. I also wanted you to think about what for…”
“What if I’d killed myself?”
Chamber took his hands away from Austin and shrugged almost dismissively. “I’ll be honest I didn’t care too much at the time.” He rubbed his bottom lip for a moment before pushing his glasses back up his nose and chuckling humorlessly. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t much care until Kingdom.”
Austin went silent for a moment, turning his face away. He knew that to be true. “But you also bonded me to you. You know that, right?”
Chamber put all of his fingertips to his chest, and shrugged, “Of course. You don’t want to kill me, do you?”
Austin shook his head. “No. I want to-”
“You want to be my friend.”
Austin swallowed and looked down. Something like shame crossed his expression; maybe at the confession of wanting a friend. “I don’t really have many friends.” He glanced around the room, the bar, the line of men sitting there. “I mean there’s this guy named Larson- he does what I do. I see him like once a year, we do this…” Austin gestured at the pool table. “I hadn’t even spoken to him for like ten months until this morning. I’ve saved his life once or twice; we were captured together. I don’t know. He lives kind of like I do. He’s kind of a douche, but it’s all for show,” Austin chuckled.
Chamber nodded. “Okay, friend,” he said sarcastically as he punched Austin in the forearm. “Now finish this game with me, so I can kick your ass.”
Austin wandered to the table again with his cue stick, looking the situation over. “You know that I don’t really have… friends, right, Vincent?”
“I do know that, yes. Neither do I. You know why, right?”
Austin screwed his eyes up for a moment, then adjusted his mouth, “Let me see, because you’re a selfish, egotistical bastard who thinks of himself as a romantic but is often by himself and is entirely untrustworthy.”
The ghost of a smile crossed Chamber’s mouth. “Do you like that mirror that you hold up?”
Austin smirked. “You of course know about all of the things that we have in common,” he said flatly.
“I told you; I’ve studied you too.”
“You know you feel different from Vincent to me…”
“Of course,” Chamber replied getting up and standing beside Austin to watch. Then he slipped behind him and purposefully bumped his cue when he was about to take the shot. Austin whirled, glaring at him. Chamber smirked. “I didn’t lose my wife and all of my friends.”
Austin thought for a moment, “So he was-”
“Quite a bit more like me, once, yes.” Marie marched out the door, never to return. “Well, we’ve changed a life tonight,” Chamber said lifting his beer to Austin. “tchin-tchin.” Austin gave him a smirk, and in one fluid movement, he slipped the cue over his left shoulder, glanced, tapped the ball, and sunk it. “Now you’re just showing off, you peacock.”
“Why not.” Austin checked his watch. He had about fifteen minutes. Chamber shook his head, cursing under his breath in French. “Are you in love with Marielle, too?”
Chamber cleared his throat, pausing. “Oui,” he said dismissively.
“So, I have to compete with you, too?” Austin said with an exasperated sigh. He lifted the pool cue into the air like it was a long blade and gestured to Chamber with it, lifting his left hand as he took a fencing stance.
Chamber shook his head, chuckling, and turned, meeting his cue with Austin’s. Then playfully swatted back and forth at one another. Chamber obviously knew how to fence. “You don’t have to compete with me, Austin,” Chamber said, exhaling. Then he whirled the imaginary sword around in his hand, swatting once again at Austin’s. Austin blocked it with his own. “She loves you.”
Austin scoffed, and tapped his pool cue on the ground a few times. “Well, that’s news to me.”
“Vincent told me that when he was in the other dimensions where Marielle had died, he often went to the cemetery to confirm that she was buried. He said that there was almost always a man there… but that it wasn’t him.”
Austin paused for a moment, tensing his jaw as he thought, “I lost her too,” he realized.
“Many times, mon ami.” He raised the faux blade again. “She’s working it out.” Chamber came at him again, his left hand behind his back, his back straight. Blades swung up, then down, and Austin grabbed his with both hands, turning this into a different kind of battle before he leaned in. “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine…” He mimicked in his best British accent as he tried desperately to hide a smile.
Chamber chortled, doing the same with his hands on the pool cue. “Oh, so you think you’re the good guy?”
“Am I not?” Again, the swords went up and then whirled down, Austin whipped around, a three sixty, and met Chamber’s blade again.
Chamber stood back for a moment, pointing, “you should not have come back,” he mimicked, sounding nothing at all like Darth Vader. Austin guffawed. “Your powers are weak, old man.”
The two slammed their faux lightsabers into each other’s a few more times before Chamber mimicked the classic move and sliced through Austin. Who went to his knees and dramatically “died.”
“Okay, enough of that,” he sighed, getting up and throwing his jacket back on. “I have to go.”
Chamber straightened his tie and rebuttoned one at the end of his sleeve. “So do I.” He stuck his hand out, and Austin took it, and they shook. “Merci pour la boisson.”
“Prego.”
And the two parted ways, with Chamber leaving to catch his plane.
Austin lingered back a moment, smoothing his coat over his button up… He leaned on the bar for a moment, near the blonde guy who was occasionally taking drinks of an Old Fashioned.
He was handsome, but not as attractive as Austin was; early thirties, gray suit and tie. He was scrolling mindlessly through his cellphone.
Austin took a handful of peanuts from the counter glass and leaned back on it. “How ya doin?” he asked in a low voice, throwing some into his mouth.
The man didn’t look at him. “Picking up your sloppy seconds.” The man replied swirling his Old Fashioned. He clicked a few buttons on his phone and put it down. “Information coming in in about thirty minutes. Get back home.”
Austin nodded; neither of them made eye contact. “It’s good seeing you, Larson.”
“Get out of my sight, Rancor.”
***
Marielle sat in her office, signing a few pieces of paper before sealing them in envelopes, addressing them, and setting them aside.
A knock broke her out of her thoughts as she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly seven thirty; Vincent and Chamber were both headed to the airport, and Austin was no longer in the building.
“Yes?” she asked.
The door cracked open and to her surprise, there stood Amir. He closed and locked the door behind him, then sat on the couch.
It was almost frightening; the tight black mask that covered his entire face and neck and the white eyes that were partially hidden underneath the wide brimmed hat.
He leaned back against the couch and crossed an ankle over his knee as they both sat in silence for a moment.
Then he reached up, removed his hat, and then, to her surprise, he removed his mask as well. His dark, slightly sweat dampened curls sprung out and settled around his thin face as he set the mask on his knee, but kept a firm grip on it.
She cocked her head at him and took in a breath; there was a difference between him and the man she’d killed, but she wasn’t going to say anything about it to him.
She smiled softly at the appearance of his face; he had Vitiligo.
“Like you remember?” Amir asked.
“Quite a bit like I remember,” she said with a small nod at him. Then she briefly narrowed her eyes. “You don’t wear the mask for the-”
“My condition? No. I wear the mask so that no one knows who I am,” he said flatly, but with a flash of excitement in his eyes. He flicked his eyebrows at her a few times. “And to protect my family,” he added. She grinned. His condition didn’t make him any less handsome. She slid her last envelope to the end of the desk, folded her hands and sat, waiting for him to speak. “So,” he began, leaning in. “You are in love with Austin Rancor.”
She let her face fall against her desk with a smack. Of course, he knew… “Cameras in the training rooms?” She asked, her nose still being smashed.
“Several, my dear.”
She lifted her head, shifting uncomfortably, “Please don’t tell anyone.”
He raised an open hand, “But, everyone knows, Marielle.”
“Yeah, everyone knew except me, I think,” she growled looking left, then right, then left again.
He chuckled, “nothing stays hidden from me. Nothing. You know this.”
She smirked and looked away from him. “You think you’re alone,” she sighed at herself as she shook her head.
“If I am around, no one is alone. I know exactly where you are.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she waved a hand at him dismissively. “So did you come to tease me about loving Austin?”
He stroked his chin for a moment, “not really.”
“Then what, Amir?”
He leaned over his knees a little, “Are you okay?”
“I…” she looked up for a moment, considering. “I- I don’t know, if I’m being honest.”
He stroked his chin, thoughtfully. “The number of things that you have been through in the last few weeks is unprecedented, Marielle. A vacation might be in order? Nora and I are willing to open our home to you if you choose to ever visit Morocco.”
She smiled softly. “That’s sweet.” She thought for a moment. “I’m not really sure where my life stands at all right now.” She stood from her desk and went to the window, gazing out at the courtyard. Being down there with Vincent seemed like eons ago. “What do you know about Vincent?”
“I only know about Chamber.”
She turned to him, “You know Chamber?”
He nodded, “Not only do I know him… I like him a little. We-” He shifted his eyes around suspiciously, “know things about one another.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” she said with a sigh and she turned again to the window.
“He and I spoke of working together on… something not too long ago, now. I have to tell you, Marielle… if you don’t already know- but I’m sure that you do; he’s not trustworthy.”
“Yeah,” she replied distantly, “I should have listened to him when he told me that.”
“Vincent?”
“Yeah, they’re basically the same person.”
Amir nodded. “Are you dealing better with my death?”
She turned back to him fully and nodded, slowly. “Things make more sense now.”
“I’m here for a while, I’m prepared to help in any way that I can.” He explained, standing and slipping the mask back over his face, and then the hat.
“Thank you,” she said.
He gave her a small bow over his folded arm, and left her alone.
***
She went home, fed Felix, and sunk into a hot bath by with her glass of wine by candlelight. After a few moments, she reached for her phone and dialed, putting it to her ear.
“Hey.”
The very sound of Austin’s voice, and a single word made her shiver a little despite the warmth of the tub. “Hey,” she replied, softly, biting her bottom lip. “What are you up to?”
He smirked, “What are you up to?”
“You know what I’m up to,” she giggled. Ugh, stop that, Marielle.
“A hot bath, then, darling?”
She nodded, but he couldn’t see her. “Yeah.”
“I’m going to miss you so much, tomorrow and Friday,” he said with a sigh. “Flight leaves at three thirty. Can you drive me to LAX?”
“Uh huh.”
“You’re alone… aren’t you?”
“Uh huh.”
“Do you-” he paused, biting his bottom lip, and trying not to sound like a grinning school boy. “Do you want some company?”
She screamed silently, and squirmed in the tub. “Um… probably best not to,” she replied, and both could hear the smiling in each other’s voices.
“I understand. But damn, do I wish you’d say yes.” He swallowed. “We could… stare at your fireplace?”
“Austin,” she breathed.
“Austin,” he breathed back. “Watch a movie?”
“What?” She lifted a leg, knowing that the droplets of water were echoing into the phone, probably giving him ideas.
“Uh… Okay, so I have a confession to make. I’m a huge nerd when it comes to movies and video games and stuff.”
“I think I knew this,” she replied.
“Yeah, so like- I like to watch like classic Marvel movies? Uh…Star Wars? The Lord of the Rings?”
“The Bobbit?”
He let out a snort. “Darling… The Hobbit.”
“Right.” She felt dumb. She took another sip of the wine that she was internally blaming. “The Hobbit.” She rolled her eyes and swirled the glass around a bit, watching the red fluid. “I like most of that, too,” she admitted.
“Especially The Bobbit,” he mocked.
“Stop, okay, I’m a little drunk. I knewed what I meant,” she slurred.
He snorted. “We could always read Pierce the Hippopotamus,”
“Oh my God, Austin Rancor, I can’t even believe that you remember that.” She set the cup down and leaned over the tub, watching a candle flicker.
He was laughing, then he became serious. “I could just read to you… and rub your feet,” his voice quietened to a ragged whisper, “and whisper to you all night long.”
“Hush,” she purred.
“You don’t want me to hush,” he replied.
She rolled her eyes, playfully, and bit her lip. “Say something to me in Italian?”
He took a deep breath and let it out, slowly. “Qualcosa per te in Italiano.”
She continued to bite her lip, “What did you say?”
“I said something to you in Italian,” he replied, flatly.
She laughed, heartily, “Oh, stop!”
He was laughing, too. “Oh, God how I love the sound of your laugh… I’m freaking out, Marielle, you know that, right? I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I just want to hear your laugh. I just want to be with you.”
She sighed. “I understand.”
He cleared his throat. “Capisci. Ti amo come non ho mai amato niente e nessuno. Voglio essere parte di te fino all’ultimo respiro.”
She felt her cheeks redden, “What did you say?” She whispered, drumming her lip, her fingers dancing nervously across her lips and face.
“Marielle?” he whispered and for some reason it sent intense, hungry feelings coursing through her body.
“Yeah?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” he breathed, grinning. She covered her eyes with her hand as if to try and hide her beaming. “You hang up.”
“Goodnight,” she whispered.
“Dormi bene, Tesoro. Sognami. Goodnight.”
Click.