song_tra_bong | (no subject)

Ramon just raises an eyebrow as he walks past her into her room.

'Nice,' he says, without even looking around.

There's not much to look at--bed, dresser, nightstand and a small lamp. A set of minibar sized liquor bottles line the dresser and there's a rifle under the bed.

"It'll serve."

She kicks the door shut and reaches behind her to twist the lock. "So where were we?"

'You need an instruction manuel?' he says, as he turns and walks towards her.

'I would have thought you'd have done this before.'

She leans back against the door, smirking.

"Time and time again, sweet thing. But everybody's got their preference."

Sweet thing. He frowns because its not normally her that calls him that. His thumb unconsciously worries at his ring, twirling it idly, but then he's moving on. He walks up to her and puts a hand either side of her head, flat against the door. His eyes are serious as he looks into hers.

'We should have done this months ago.'

This is the part where you're supposed to hit him.

There was a plan--a very hastily constructed, fragile one, but a plan nonetheless. It involved getting him away from the bar and the brothel, limiting his ability to do anything really stupid, and then rendering him unconscious.

Only now he's entirely too close and "We should have done this months ago" and that's not part of the plan.

Her tongue flickers over dry lips.

"You're probably right."

He smirks, just a little, and runs a finger down the line of her jaw. Only it doesn't stop there it carries on down her throat and lower, towards her chest.

'The why didn't you do something?'

But he doesn't wait for an aswer, just leans in to kiss her.

It's a slight touch, but more than enough to stop her breathing.

why

"Because--"

He's close enough that her lips brush his when she speaks and suddenly 'why not' is much harder to remember.

He pauses but doesn't move away.

'Because...?'

"I was afraid."

I am afraid

Close enough still to make her head spin; her lashes flutter, but she keeps herself from touching him.

'Of what?'

This is heavy. What a drag - he'd come up hear to get laid, he doesn't want a chick getting all emotional on him. Fucking typical. He resists the temptation to roll his eyes.

you're losing him

"I can't remember."

And she cradles his face between her hands, pulling him into a kiss.

Well. That's better. Ramon happily lets all the boring stuff drop away and kisses her back because she might be a friend but she's also hot. And female and has a pulse, which is about all his teenage self requires. But luckily for her, he's good at this. Experience and all.

He smiles when he pulls back but leaves his hands either side of her head in case she has any ideas about escaping.

'Can we fuck now? If you want paying, I've got cash.'

The kiss is spectacular, but the words that follow are something of a bucket of cold water on any libido she may have had. However, she makes sure she keeps up the appearance of interest.

No ideas about escaping; none at all.

Which isn't to say she doesn't have ideas.

She shifts a little closer to whisper in his ear, one leg sliding between his. "One thing to remember, người yêu ," she murmurs.

"Nobody's whore. Not even yours."

At which point she brings her knee up hard.

He's letting his eyes close when she slides her leg between his because that's niiice and promises all sorts of good things and then she says something and he isn't really listening but then suddenly he is because ow.

It's a fairly instant fold and crumple because yeah, he wasn't expecting that, had no defence against it. Lucky he was already leaning on the wall really, so he doesn't fall over - Mary Anne will probably have a nice bruise on her shoulder where he bent forward and accidentally headbutted her though.

'...!'

No sound except a small grunt of surprise, and then he's all silent, strained, agony. But that flush starting at his neck and creeping up over his face? That's fury as much as pain and when he can breathe, he's going to have a few things to say.

She doesn't want him to get that far.

Get him down before he can move, or you may not have another chance. He cannot kill you but he will try.

It's difficult with him almost pinning her to the door, but she works her arm free and punches hard for his temple.

'...fuck!'

He reels to the side with the punch, sliding away from her and still trying to grip the wall. His vision blurs and his head swims so he shakes it to clear things. And though it hurts, adrenaline's blazing through him and it won't let him fall over just yet - so he looks to where she is and then whips an arm back at her as hard as he can. He may not even make contact but he's not just going to stand here and let her beat up on him, no mater how much he just wants to throw up and then curl up right about now.

The arm clips her forehead, snapping her head back and throbbing enough to indicated a future bruise, but it doesn't slow her down.

I'm sorry

She closes with him again, throwing another punch and hoping this one might be enough to knock him out. Otherwise, she's not sure how much longer she can do this.

so fucking sorry

Her head snaps back and he growls in pain and satisfaction, spitting out, 'fucking cocktease!' at her.

...and then she comes right back and this time the punch connects sweet as anything and he does fall, back into the wall and sliding down it, unconscious.

She stands there for a minute, half expecting him to stand back up and start throttling her, but he doesn't move.

She sinks to the floor, lips fastened on a split knuckle oozing blood.

I just punched out my best friend.

There's a trill of high, almost histerical laughter before she clamps her jaw on any further noise. She takes three deep (if ragged) breaths.

"Okay."

breath out

"Okay."

The plan didn't extend this far, so it's time to improvise. First, she slips the gun out of Ramon's waistband and hides it in the dresser; her own gun gets tucked into the small of her back. Then she heads to the bathroom and returns with her kit, a bottle of aspirin and a washcloth; these things go on the nightstand.

Back to Ramon. Danger to himself and others or not, she can't just leave him there. With a little jockeying, she slings his arm over her shoulder and drags more than carries him over to the bed.

With nothing left to do but wait, she sits half-huddled at the foot of the bed, toying with the lighter she took from his jacket. It keeps her hands from shaking.

He's not out for long. The first thing he does when he wakes up is groan because she kneed him and that still hurts and now he's got a nice headache to go along with it. And she's still a bit blurry so his first instinct - which is to launch at her and break her teeth - gets squashed fairly quickly.

'What. The fuck?'

It's fair to say that he is Not Happy.

One hand rests behind her back on the butt of her gun.

"You back to normal, or you still want in my pants?"

'Back to normal?'

It's not that long since he had the candy bar but then again, she just knocked him out. He wants to hit her more than he wants to sleep with her but the throbbing pain in his gut rules out that idea for the time being.

'When have I ever not wanted in your pants? What the hell are you doing?'

Confusion! And ow. Still lots of ow.

Ah, well. A girl can dream.

"Much as I appreciate the complement...I'm trying to keep you from doing something really stupid."

Ow is good; residual ow means she won't have to hit him again.

He fixes her with a glare that would possibly be intimidating to other people, in other circumstances.

'You didn't seem like you minded a few minutes ago. There's nothing stupid about what I'm doing, you're just a bitch.'

'You didn't seem like you minded--'

and for a minute, I didn't

She doesn't bite.

"Yeah, I'm a bitch. I'm the bitch that's reminding you fucking around while you're on...whatever isn't smart, since at some point you're bound to remember you're married. And I like you and Random too much to watch you screw that up."

Ramon snorts.

'Married? I know I am but it's stupid.'

Though he does glance down at the ring on his finger and it occurs to him that yes, actually, Random is rather nice.

'...I mean, who wants to get tied down? He's even got a kid and it pisses me off - I just want to go out and have fun and I'm supposed to stay in and work and it's boring.'

And he has to add,

'If you're trying to stop me getting into trouble, what did you kiss me for?'

It's just as well her own left hand is still behind her back.

"Figured better a little trouble with someone who can kick your ass than a lot in the brothel or the bar proper. I'm nicer than Security."

It's even mostly the truth.

He doesn't believe that and it shows.

'Bullshit. For one thing, you don't know that I would have got into trouble with anything - whores are supposed to get paid to fuck. And that wasn't a kiss like you were doing it because you had to. You loved it, don't try and tell me different.'

His ego wouldn't allow him to hear anything else anyway.

"I know you've got a short ass temper, which makes it damn likely you'd get into trouble."

Her lip curls. "And so what if I did," she mutters.

He hopes he would have got into trouble. That's what makes things fun. But right now, he's enjoying her admission too much to impart that vital information.

'Fucking knew it. Remember when we weren't talking but I asked you one time whether shit would be different if I'd got you into bed before Julian did and you said it wasn't about sex? I fucking knew you were lying.'

He's laughing because how can she expect to not get beaten over the head with this?

'Random's gonna be pissed at you - even more pissed, I mean. And I bet Ruin will be interested to hear it.'

Ramon is so the man.

Of course she remembers. The idea had scared her shitless.

he's not in his right mind I'm not in my right mind he might not even remember and if he does surely he won't

'Were you ever going to tell me about your little crush?'

"Shut up. Just shut the fuck up!"

'No need to be embarrassed.'

He sits up with the most infuriating smirk on his face, lights a cigarette and then lounges back against the head of her bed.

'You want me. It's understandable. But why should I do anything? You just hit me.'

He thinks she should consider herself lucky that he's still in her room, quite frankly.

"I hit you to keep you from 'doing anything,'" she snarls.

She's pissed, because she doesn't feel comfortable with pounding the shit out of him for the hell of it and she would ever so like to hit something. Also because he knows she's pissed and he's got one more thing to beat her over the head with. And also because she thought she was over this.

She curls her legs to her chest and seethes in his general direction.

He snickers quietly and spends a minute just watching her fume. And then sighs in a dramatic way and stubs out his cigarette.

'Well, all right. Otherwise you're just going to sulk, aren't you?'

Can't have that. He shifts down the bed until he's sitting in front of her curled-up legs and then carefully takes hold of her wrist and attempts to tug her closer to him.

'You hit me but I'll let it go. Just stop talking crap and it'll be OK, alright?'

"The only one talking crap in here is you."

She tugs against him and manages to resist being moved, but doesn't succeed in freeing her wrist.

"It's not going to be okay."

Ramon looks genuinely surprised by that.

'What am I saying that's crap? I'm not making this shit up. Come here. I won't do anything if you don't want me to.'

Of course, he thinks she does want him to so is assuming there won't be much resistance beyond the perfunctory.

'It'll be fine. Just don't tell anyone.'

She doesn't (can't) believe him.

"So what? Our little secret, huh?" She practically sneers the words.

'Yeah. Why not?'

He can't see anything wrong with that. If no one tells, then no one'll get hurt. But it might not matter anyway because in the last couple of hours he's decided that he's not ready for a committed relationship and is definitely going to ask Random to have an open one instead. Yes. Definitely. But later.

...although Random did look very nice in bed this morning, all rumpled and sleepy. Mmmm.

He blinks, to focus. 'What's your problem now?'

She smiles faintly.

"Secrets have a habit of not staying that way. Especially when it comes to who's sleeping together."

'You can't keep your mouth shut, is what you're saying.'

His tone is flat and he lets go of her wrist. Christ. Women.

'And that's your only objection?'

She arches an eyebrow, managing to not look totally offended.

"My mouth can stay shut...among other things. I'm just saying that things have a way of getting found out."

She shrugs. "It's my main one, yeah."

Because people finding out does have such potentially delightful consequences.

He laughs again, a little cruelly.

'So you like me and Random so much that you're trying to keep me out of trouble but you'd still fuck me if you thought he wouldn't find out.'

He doesn't need to tell her that there's a name for people like that; it's written all over his face.

This isn't exactly her proudest moment.

"I'm your friend, not a saint," she snaps, trying to put enough edge in the words to sound pissed instead of hurt.

He stares at her for a long moment, torn between flattery, hormones that want him to just rip her clothes off and the sudden knowledge that he is wearing a wedding ring and does he really want to mess that up, even if it is stupid to be tied down?

He won't find out...

...but I only want him anyway, right?

Right.

He sighs and stands up, not feeling nearly so amused with the whole situation.

'What is it with women? I was all ready for it, you fucking tease me and then knock me out and now you want it but are all serious about shit and Christ, I would have been happy with a blowjob, y'know?'

Men make a lot more sense.

"Sorry talking's not a turn on. Maybe next time."

Even as her smile says there isn't going to be a next time.

He knows there isn't. Doesn't want there to be one - he may be mentally a teenager at the moment but when it comes down to it, he's not about to rick losing Random. And he knows Mary Anne too well to be able to honestly say it would be a simple one-off thing. Nothing's simple with her.

'Yeah. Maybe.'

Never.

'I'm going home. I'll see you around - let me know when you're going to be in the bar and I'll bring an ice pack in anticipation.'

He doesn't smile as he slips out of the door.

Her smile holds until the door closes.

"Well...that could have been worse."