song_tra_bong | (no subject)

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The door opens onto a dimly lit bar. Two men in suits sit at a table by the wall, speaking in low voices; they don't look up when Mary Anne and Ramon walk in.

Four men at the pool table in the back do look up, then go back to their game. Their rolled up sleeves show off jailhouse tattoos--tattoos that mean murderers, time served, rank in their organization. Just because they aren't staring openly doesn't mean they aren't paying attention. The fact that no one makes a fuss just yet over Ramon's machine gun is telling.

A waitress in a short skirt goes by with a tray, delivering drinks to the suits by the wall. Mary Anne heads for the bar, taking a seat that's a few stools over from the next man. She beckons the bartender over.

"Vodka for me and my friend," she says in flawless Russian. "And keep them coming. We're out on the town tonight."

The bartender shakes his head. "You picked a hell of place to come," he says, but pours the drinks all the same then wanders down to the customer at the other end of the bar.

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'No.'

And really, no. She looks like a skank. Besides, thats not what he came here for. His eyes flick back to the four guys.

'Let's give them some incentive for action.'

He downs another drink, then pulls a roll of notes from his pocket, making sure everyone can see. He peels off a hundred dollar bill and puts it on the bar-top for the drinks, but never stops watching the four men.

'You any good at pool?'

"I'm not bad."

She eyes the roll of cash. "You gonna stake me?"

'No. I'm going to ask if the two of us can play two of them. Start off at a hundred a game.'

He looks at the one who shouted over to them just now.

'He wont say no. If we win, he'll be pissed and even if he doesn't start something here, he'll follow us to get his hands on the rest of this cash anyway. Assholes like that can't resist the chance to steal if they see it. And if we lose,' he shrugs, 'it'll be on for us to get it back. And win or lose, they'll try to rob us after we leave.'

He notices something else then, and smirks at Mary Anne.

'Anyway, his friend has his eye on you. I expect that one'll be after more than just money.'

"Mmm. Have I told you lately I love the way you think?"

She finishes off her shot and grabs a third from the bar before she heads over to the pool table. She poses the idea of a two-on-two match to the loud one from earlier; when she mentions him getting a partner, she makes sure to glance at the guy who was checking her out. The two other tattooed Russians hand over their pool cues and take up spots against the wall to watch.

Mary Anne turns to Ramon, grinning. "We've got ourselves a game. Also, let me introduce you to Anton--" She nods to the loud guy, handing a cue to Ramon. "--and Kostya." She points to the one with his eye on her. "They want to break."

Ramon has taken the bottle of vodka from the bartender and put it down on a table, along with his gun. He nods at the two Mary Anne introduces, making sure to look particularly derisive of the loud one - he'll be the trigger for all of this.

'Let them. They'll need all the help they can get.' He glances at Mary Anne. 'Translate that for them, will you?'

He absolutely refuses to leave here without burying his knife in someone. His fingers are itching for it and though he might look calm on the outside, inside he just wants to see someone's blood.

She nods, grinning, and relays the message. Kostya laughs it off, though his eyes are sharp, but Anton's smile is much more forced. He breaks so hard that Mary Anne is afraid some of the balls are going to jump the table, though none of them do. He nods jerkily and Mary Anne murmurs to Ramon,

"Your turn."

'Mmm.'

He doesn't return the Russions' smiles, forced or not. In fact, he rarely looks away from Anton at all. He does when he shoots though - Ramon's pretty good at pool. He spent a lot of time playing as a kid when he should have been in school and of course, all his houses have tables in them now.

One goes down, but the white isn't placed well for the next and it bounces off the lip of the cushion. Ah well. He couldn't care less and really hopes they can get to the fighting soon. He'll push Anton harder if he has to.

It's Kostya's turn next; he makes a good shot, but the ball doesn't have quite enough momentum behind it to go in. Mary Anne sinks it on her turn, and the ball after that as well.

All her shots she takes crouched lower to the table than is strictly necessary--ass stuck out and up, back dipped in an inviting curve.

She scratches the third shot on purpose and flashes an apologetic smile at Anton; his knuckles go white around the cue stick and she thinks she hears the wood creak.

Ramon keeps from smiling at her display for Kostya, though he wants to. It would ruin things though so he carries on facing down Anton. And then Anton steps up after Mary Anne has finished - and clears the table.

It's Ramon's turn to grip his cue though he hopes he stops before anyone notices. Anton takes the money with a triumphant grin that makes Ramon want to slit his throat there and then.

'We play again,' he says, curtly. 'Five hundred this game.'

Mary Anne translates quickly, and Anton gives a breezy reply, tucking the money into his back pocket.

"He's says he's happy to keep taking your money for as long as you like," she tells Ramon.

"We get to go first this time."

'Lucky us,' he says, drily, and breaks. The balls make a loud crack as the white hits them but none go down.

Anton is smirking at him. He wants to kill that man, so much.

He'll get his chance.

Anton sinks his first shot easily, but misses the follow-up. Mary Anne takes that one, and two more besides. She's still posing for the boys with every shot, but her eyes are more focused.

When she misses on the fourth ball, she shrugs and backs off to let Kostya shoot, moving to stand beside Ramon.

"You going to let this game finish, see if Anton's fuse is blown once we win, or are you hoping to set him off before then?" she murmurs.

He contemplates a moment. Anton is not looking pleased with the way its going for him and Ramon doesn't want to wait much longer.

'I'll finish the game. Then we'll rub it in his face a bit and that should do it.'

And if it doesn't, Ramon'll just take him out anyway.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Kostya makes two clean shots before missing utterly. Mary Anne taps her pool cue against Ramon's leg.

"Your turn, người yêu."

'Not a problem.'

He raises an eyebrow at Anton, letting a slow smirk spread across his face. The man visibly twitches and Ramon laughs quietly before bending over the table and clearing it.

When he straightens his eyes are still on the man.

'You lose, amigo.' The guy should be able to understand the gist of that.

'Time to pay.'

There is a moment when everything is perfectly clear to her.

Anton's jaw clenches as he understands perfectly well that he's been had. He probably thinks they threw the first game on purpose, Mary Anne suspects. She watches his grip on the pool cue change, shifting to make it a weapon.

Kostya's eyes widen and for the first time he looks more at the gun in her waistband than her ass just below it. Mary Anne gives him an apologetic sort of smile.

She hears the two goons on the wall behind her start to shift their weight; she wastes a moment wondering just where Ramon put his machine gun, but then dismisses it. It will be somewhere he can reach, and beyond that, he's plenty well armed.

The two suits in the corner lift their heads, paying attention to the group by the pool table for the first time. The waitress catches a hint of the tension in the air and runs into the back room, the door slamming shut behind her.

And then all hell breaks loose.

Anton is the first to move, swinging his cue at Ramon's head. He blocks it with his own and flicks the end up so that it catches the guy under the chin and knocks him back. This gives him enough time to grab a knife that's up his sleeve - he knows exactly where the machine gun is but that wouldn't be any fun.

A glance in Mary Anne's direction shows that with two behind her and Kostya in front, it would be the gentlemanly thing to do to take one out for her before Anton gets his ass up. There's one close by anyway - Ramon steps to the side and with one fluid movement, buries his knife behind the man's ear.

He's aware of people moving in the main part of the bar and the bartender has disappeared - for a gun? To get help? Just running? He doesn't care - he leaves the knife stuck in the goon's head and pulls out another, moving round the table to the one he really wants.

Ramon's show of chivalry is much appreciated; it lets Mary Anne devote all of her attention to the other man behind her.

A quick check over her shoulder helps her line up the strike, and then she's bringing her pool cue up hard between his legs. He makes a strangled sort of noise and Mary Anne's next strike breaks the cue over his head. He drops to the floor, down but not out.

Still, down is enough for now. She needs to check on Kostya.

She looks up just in time to see him thumb his gun's safety off.

"You don't get to play games like that in here, little girl," he murmurs, then pulls the trigger.

She drops low, the bullet punching into the wall behind her while she tries to work her way around the pool table without getting shot.

Ramon ducks too because that's what you do when someone is firing a gun in close proximity to you. He's at the other end of the table from Kostya though, with Anton between them - who is on his knees and trying to pull a small gun out of his boot. It's jamming on the hem of his jeans though and he won't stand up because there are gunshots and he knows that Mary Anne is carrying as well as his friend.

Ramon doesn't bother getting his own gun out, that'd be too easy. He laughs wildly and launches forward instead, throwing a hard punch into the Russian's face. Anton is no weakling - he takes the punch and seems more than happy to abandon his pistol for the time being and engage in some old-fashioned punching, leaving Mary Anne and Kostya to their own devices.

Getting around the pool table and staying out of Kostya's line of sight are quickly proving impossible. Mary Anne draws her own gun and fires under the table, her shot clipping Kostya's knee.

He curses, dropping to the floor; Mary Anne scrambles around the table and kicks his gun out of reach. Kostya reaches out and grabs her by the ankle, yanking her down beside him. She shouts in surprise, kicking for his face, but he ducks out of the way. Hauling against her leg to help himself sit up, he punches her hard enough to make her ears ring.

"Why do you have to be so angry, pretty girl?" he murmurs, while Mary Ann blinks dazedly. "All your showing off...We could have had some fun, you and I; we still might, after Anton kills your friend.."

Julian's knife drops smoothly from her sleeve into her hand and she lunges to bury it in Kostya's throat. "We could have," she replies, voice barely louder than the breath and blood hissing out through Kostya's neck. "But who ever said I was showing off for you?"

She jerks the knife one more time, then pulls it free as Kostya falls back. She wipes the knife clean on the dead man's pant leg, then rolls to grab her gun and see what's become of the guy she downed earlier.

Anton is spitting things in Russian at Ramon, who ignores the because...well, he doesn't speak Russian. But he thinks he'd ignore them even if he did, he's having too much fun. When he notices that Mary Anne's plugged Kostya, he stands and kicks Anton hard in the face. The man reels backwards, clutching at his nose - Ramon takes out another knife.

'Get up.' He makes an 'up' gesture with the blade. Anton climbe to his feet five feet away, eyeing Kostya and their other friend with all the blood pouring from their throats. He seems to make a decision that that's not going to happen to him - so he rushes at Ramon with an angry bellow, yelling something and swinging madly for his head.

Ramon laughs once more, steps under the swinging arm and happily buries his knife in Anton's gut. The shouting comes to an abrupt halt as air leaves his lungs and he freezes a moment, impaled on the blade.

'You lose, amigo,' Ramon says again, and with a glint in his eye, slowly begins to twist the knife in the man's belly.

Three down, and one to go. Mary Anne rises with her knife in one hand and her gun in the other, only to find that the man she'd pummeled into unconsciousness earlier is back on his feet and he has Kostya's lost gun.

"Bitch," he snarls, and pulls the trigger.

Mary Anne lunges out of the way, the bullet skidding off her collarbone instead of getting lodged in her shoulder. Before he can fire again, she charges through the space between them, hitting his chest with her shoulder and shoving him into the wall. A slash of her knife knocks his gun free and she shoves the muzzle of her gun into the man's gut.

"Yes. But not yours."

Two shots and he starts sliding down the wall. She leaves the third in his head.

Ramon takes an inordinate amount of satisfaction from the look on Anton's face, the way he's trying not to make noises of pain and can't help himself, the feeling of blood running over his hand and the pleasure of ripping the knife free and watching the man collapse to the floor and curl up. He's dead within a minute and Ramon watches the whole time, smirking at him. He's not worried about the fourth guy - he knows Mary Anne can take care of him and will enjoy doing it.

He does look round at the sound of the bullet though and frowns when he sees blood on her.

'You OK?'

She nods.

"Just a graze. I--"

Anything else she might have said gets cut off when one of the suits gets up from the table and starts crossing the room. Mary Anne shifts her grip on her gun when he reaches into his coat, but blinks in surprise when he pulls out a business card. The man offers it to her, murmuring in Russian, with a nod in Ramon's direction. Mary Anne manages to rein in her visible shock long enough to make a reply and the man nods. After he and his associate leave, Mary Anne turns back to Ramon, holding up the business card and grinning crookedly.

"Apparently we made quite the impression. We just got offered a job."

Ramon stares for a moment then breaks into a laugh.

'If its as much fun as this every day, I might even consider it.'

Except he'd end up killing the people at the top and taking over. He's genetically predisposed that way.

'You want to stay and get drunk here or somewhere else?'

He eyes the bodies scattered around and down at the blood staining his own clothes. Hmmm. Decisions.

Edited 2008-03-03 21:28 (UTC)