- I -

It was just another job.

Balalaika had found an enemy just outside of Roanapur, a wealthy and influential man who was able to pull some strings resulting in losses of her profit, and apparently this guy was about to continue interfering with the drug trade. He was smart and rather difficult to find as he had multiple hideouts and a formidable army of bodyguards. They were, of course, no match for Balalaika's men, however those guards never engaged in an open battle and left the russian lady frustrated. The man's daughter Tori, however, was not so smart, and having recently turned 17 she successfully ran off from her guards to party with her friends. Unlucky for her, she never arrived to the party, and now was reluctantly sitting in the lower cabin of Lagoon's boat, being guarded by one the Balalaika's soldiers.

Tori seemingly was a wild and difficult to control girl, thus it was no surprise she ran off from her home without giving much thought about her father's warning. She sat on the chair with her hands and legs crossed, sulking; although she was of the kind who'd jump and run for her life at any given chance, she was in a boat in the middle of the sea with nowhere to run, therefore nobody bothered to tie her up. Her kidnapper sat at the same room, patiently waiting for arrival to Roanapur, where Balalaika was expecting to get her bargaining piece.

Rock had just came back from checking the passengers to the upper cabin and plopped on the couch, lighting a cigarette. Revy, who was dozing off on another bunk, shuffled and finally sat up, irritated for whatever reason. The atmosphere downstairs was eerie; the man had a stare that made you feel paranoid, while Tori just watched everything with anger and refused to talk with anyone. Rock had to admit this time he may not be able to connect with their passengers, and sitting with them simply felt unnecessary. Revy, on the other hand, might be more successful if only she tried, he thought, since she and Tori had something similar about them. Perhaps the stubbornness or the hatred-filled eyes, aimed at everyone and everything.

Maybe this was the exact reason of slightly different behaviour of his female partner. If usually Revy doesn't care the slightest about people she comes into contact with and most of the times feels indifferent, the second she and Tori met Revy seemed instantly pissed at the girl, acting all superior and talking harshly. Although the change of behaviour was quite clear, it was within her usual ways, so others didn't pay much attention to it, however Rock was intrigued.

"How long was I out?" she grunted.

"I'm not sure, I spent some time downstairs before coming back here. Half an hour, perhaps."

"We'll be in Roanapur in 40 minutes, then." She ran her fingers through her hair, tucking some loose strands behind her ear. "I'm going to check on them."

"Alright."

It was an unspoken rule not to leave their passengers, whoever they may be, for a long period of time alone. Thieves, murderers, smugglers, this boat has seen them all, and you didn't need to spend a long time in Roanapur to know not to trust anyone. And funnily enough, almost the same moment Rock thought about this, he heard shots coming from the lower cabin.

Dutch had nearly knocked him over when they both raced to the stairs, and as they fled down, Benny joined, tumbling out of his cabin. Three men barged through the door.

The air almost sparked with tension. The first thing Rock saw was Revy holding a gun, pointed at the corner where Tori used to sit. He followed the direction of a barrel - at the other end there was a guard half-lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, as it oozed from the hole in his thigh. He was pointing his gun at Revy. Behind him, squeezed in the corner, shivered Tori. Her previously angry eyes were now full of fear and tears as she clenched her ripped blouse against her bare chest.

"IT IS NOT YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS WHAT I DO WITH THE HOSTAGE, REVY!" Man growled. "Back off before I plant another bullet in you!"

Rock scanned Revy's body. There was some blood running down her leg from her hip, but the wound was hidden by her shorts. From the amount of blood though, it seemed the soldier was in a much worse situation.

"NOT. ON. MY. FUCKING. BOAT." Revy spat, gritting her teeth with resentment.

Dutch, looking as calm as ever, pulled his gun and pointed it at the man on the ground. "Fun's over. If you don't want to rot in the sea, lower your fucking gun."

Realizing he was not in a position to bargain, he eventually holstered the pistol. At this rate he will die soon anyway, he thought, compressing the hole in his leg that pulsed with blood.

Just as Revy lowered her gun, her and Tori's eyes met. Revy slightly tilted her head, implying for the girl to come, and Tori sprinted around her capturer and hurried behind the redhead. Benny extended his hand towards the girl to take her away from the room, but noticing this she jumped away from him and towards Revy like a rabbit, eyes overflowing with tears and trembling.

"Come with me." Revy's voice was so different from what usually came out of her mouth Rock was perplexed. It was gentle. And Tori complied, closely following Revy upstairs. Rock turned to follow as well, but Revy shook her head at him.

"Revy, you're bleeding."

She seemed to register the fact only now, ignoring the pain during the adrenaline rush. She took a look at her blood-covered leg, and carefully pulled the side of her shorts, revealing a shallow scratch.

Their eyes met in understanding, and Rock remained standing on the steps while they hurried out.

Dutch took away the man's gun and grabbed some bandages, helping the injured guy. The bleeding slowed, but judging from the speed of the bandages turning red, Roanapur's hospital was going to have one additional surgery today.

"Why are you helping me?" The man asked, somewhat confused, gritting his teeth in pain.

"You are still our passenger." Dutch answered. "You did not harm either of us four. Other matters are between you and your employer."

"So why that crazy bitch cared what I do with who I am holding hostage?"

"Balalaika paid for the transport of you and the girl and not for anything else, certainly not for a room in 1-hour motel. You need to behave. After you're out of here, you can do whatever you fucking like." Dutch retorted, annoyed.

"This should be common sense." Benny added, standing in the doorway. "Dutch, you want us to stay with him until we arrive?"

"No. We will lock him up here. I need you at the radar, Benny. Rock, go help Revy if you want. I'm going back to the wheel."

Rock turned towards the deck. On his way he passed a closed door of the room he previously sat smoking while Revy slept. Through a circular window on the doors he saw Tori sitting on the couch, dressed in a black T-shirt, and Revy in front of the girl, holding her by the shoulders. He listened closely, but over the wind and crashing waves he could only make a phrase "you'll be alright". He lit a cigarette, lost in thought, and leaned against the railing, staring into the water.

After a while Revy came to the cockpit where Rock and Dutch sat in silence, staring at approaching Roanapur's port.

"Revy, what exactly happened down there?" Dutch asked.

"I came upon him trying to rape the girl. I pulled the gun, he did too. I think he fired first, but I may be wrong."

"Balalaika will be pissed."

"I know, but what was I supposed to do? Excuse myself and close the door?"

"Let me talk to Balalaika. She might not be happy about her soldier, but instead she gets an unharmed hostage." Rock suggested. He wasn't quite sure if the russian liked or disliked him, but he felt he had her respect and wasn't afraid to bring the tension down with his tongue.

"Don't interfere, Rock, this has nothing to do with you. I'll handle it." Revy answered.

"It has to do with me as much as it has to do with you or Dutch or Benny. This is our business and some things are not tolerable for all of us."

"He's right, Revy. This is not personal, so don't worry and rest." Dutch responded and turned back to the wheel. "And by the way, Rock. Think of what you will say if the fellow dies, because Benny checked up on him and he's already unconscious."

Back at the office, Rock poured two glasses of whiskey and lay down on the couch, before setting one in front of Revy. She was sitting across the coffee table on another couch, disassembling her Cutlasses and preparing to clean them. Her leg was still bloody, but a corner of a patch was peeking from under her shorts.

Dutch and Benny had left for Yellow Flag after both Rock and Revy decided to skip going out and instead intoxicate on the Lagoon's office sofas.

Rock closed his eyes and leaned his head against the armrest of the couch, his bare feet one atop the other at the other end. "Revy..?" He fell silent before continuing the question to take a sip of his drink, keeping his eyes closed.

"Mm."

"Did you know Tori before this?"

"What? No. It's the first time I saw her. Why?" A hint of annoyance could already be heard in her voice, but Rock wanted to continue.

"I was just wondering why, after always criticizing me of attempts to save other people, you went full hypocrite and decided to save her."

The lingering silence signaled Rock it was about time to open his eyes and see the answer in Revy's eyes instead of waiting for her words. And naturally, he saw hate and anger-filled stare in a dissatisfied face. Revy pressed her lips into a thin line and stared for what felt like eternity, then managed to calm down and emptied her glass of whiskey.

"You feel like telling me something else, Rock?" She asked in ice-cold voice, her hands busy at assembling the cleaned cutlass. The bullets went into a cartridge, one by one, slowly, while she stared into Rock's eyes.

He did his best to pretend his heart did not start pounding faster at the sight, and continued to slowly sip his drink. "No, I was just curious about your reasons." He answered matter-of-factly.

"You have the nerve to be calling me a hypocrite." She tilted her head, gazing down into her ready-to-shoot gun. The hatred she radiated was so fierce, Rock thought if Tori was in the room, Revy would rape her herself just to prove him wrong. "I already gave a reason. I walked in on the soldier trying to rape her in our boat." She spat out. "If he was trying to kill her, or clip her fingers and torture her on our boat, I would have done the same thing."

Rock placed his nearly empty glass on the coffee table and grabbed a pack of his cigarettes. Shuffling he reached for a lighter in his pants' pocket and lit one, deeply inhaling the smoke, his moves deliberately slow.

"So did you save her because you wouldn't allow such things to happen on your boat, or because Tori was a valuable hostage and you wanted to bring her to Balalaika unharmed?"

"Both." Revy answered, her voice still hard. "And both reasons are directly related to our job. Your attempts to save people were never related to job. So tell me, how am I a hypocrite? But do think very well before you open your mouth."

Staring contest continued. Revy played with a gun in her hands, waiting for his answer, while Rock simply looked deeply into her eyes, pulling a cigarette, masterfully hiding his uneasiness about this situation. The ashes at the end were approaching a near-falling stage, and Rock broke eye-contact looking for the ashtray. It lay in the middle of the table.

"I think you're lying."

Just as he thought of reaching for the ashtray to shake off the ashes before it fell on his shirt, his implied calmness and arrogance made Revy snap. Within a second she stepped on and over the coffee table with her army-style boots, knocking her whiskey glass on the ground, slid her knee between Rock's torso and the backrest of the couch, straddling him, grabbed a hold of his tie with one hand and shoved a barrel of her Cutlass into his temple.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO FUCK WITH ME AGAIN!?"

The weight of her body on his stomach forced him to halt breathing, which was also hindered by a suffocating tie. His hand with a cigarette hung awkwardly in the air, never reaching the ashtray he intended, having dropped some of the ashes on the ground during Revy's attack. He looked into her eyes, trying to grasp whether he was a deadman in 10 seconds or 1 minute. She was furious, but… affected. Maybe shaken. So he took his chances to provoke her a bit more.

Ignoring the loaded gun at his temple, in one quick move he sat up and turned, placing his feet on the ground, the movement pushing Revy's body of off his stomach onto his legs. She held onto his tie for balance, not having expected such a change, but keeping her gun glued to his head. Rock continued to ignore the threat, leaning in and attempting to reach the ashtray, making Revy instinctively lean back before he touched her chest with his face.

After knocking off the cinder he leaned back, almost comfortably, staring slightly above into outraged Revy's eyes. Truthfully, this argument filled with hatred and anger from her side was beginning to rub on him, and Rock also felt like losing his patience and the calm-guy act.

"For once, Revy, can't you just admit that you cared for someone?"

"YOU KNOW SHIT, ROCK! FOR ONCE, STOP PRETENDING TO BE SUCH A SMART-ASS OR I WILL MAKE YOU STOP!"

"Yes, Revy, of course! Deny, deny everything! Deny any positive feeling you have, because that wouldn't fit you and your life in this shithole! Deny you ever cared or care for someone, keep on telling yourself caring would make you weak! Keep on lying to yourself about the real you, keep on pushing people away! And if they still refuse to let that go and try to get to know you, the real you, fucking shoot them down! Show them, prove them you don't give a fuck! Shoot every motherfucker who wants to get just an inch closer to you! Now prove me you're as heartless as you want to be seen and pull the trigger! It's a shame though, if you do that, there will be no me anymore to prove anything to. But fuck that! Shit, if you and someone else were the last two humans on earth, shoot him the second you meet him, god forbid he actually gets to know you!"

The cigarette in his hand was shaking. With his other hand he loosened up the tie that was still clutched fiercely by Revy, and he looked away, attempting to find a drop of solace in the nicotine as he put the cigarette to his lips and pulled. He did not want to look into her eyes, the change he saw during his speech was enough. The gun at his temple trembled slightly, but he didn't fear she'd pull the trigger. Instead of cold, emotionless eyes she has when she kills, her eyes were also trembling. Looking at that suddenly felt like something so intimate he had to look away, suddenly feeling uneasy about the success of his provocation.

Revy sat motionless on top of him, like a statue with a gun in one hand and a tie in another. Rock still avoided her eyes, and looked down at her muscular thighs, one of them with a trace of already crusted blood. He pulled at his cigarette again. He had a habit of resting his hand on his thigh between the puffs if he sat smoking, and was already lowering his hand before realizing Revy's leg was on that exact spot. Considering her disregard of nudity and the pose she mindlessly occupied now, resting the back of his hand on her thigh did not seem to be a big deal at first thought, but an accident he witnessed before more than a year stopped him and left his hand hovering in the air.

Rock and Benny were sitting in the Yellow Flag, emptying glasses of beer, waiting for Dutch and Revy to join after they finish some business in the city. Sitting at the bar with his right-hand side towards the entrance, he quickly registered movement with a corner of his eye and turned his head towards the door where his partners just entered.

Benny, already quite drunk, raised a glass and shouted something to them in order to catch their attention, but the holler also caught the ear of some Colombians, who sat at the table near the entrance, the table that Revy and Dutch were about to pass. One Colombian guy was seemingly a newbie and the gang were having a drinking party as a welcoming for him. Already visibly wasted, he turned to noise-creating Benny, and subsequently followed his look to find long bare legs coming his way. Rock did not see his expression, but judging by the reaction of his drinking mates, who began waving at him not do anything stupid and shaking his shoulder to wake him up from hormone/alcohol-induced frenzy, he must have had his tongue out like a dog.

Revy ignored the commotion and calmly approached Benny and Rock, Dutch behind her, when the new Colombian guy sneaked his hand right on Revy's leg. Revy reacted almost instinctively, wasting no time for looking or thinking, unholstered one of her guns and shot the guy precisely between the eyes. This went down so quickly, neither Colombians nor Dutch had a chance to pull out their own weapons, and after the shot the bar became very silent as everyone turned to look what happened. As the bar registered Revy and a dead body lying by her feet, people turned back to their drinks, and Revy turned her head to the table of Colombians to inspect their intentions. Since there were none, she calmly stepped over the body, upholstering her gun, and joined Rock and Benny as if nothing has happened.

Something clicked inside his head, and it wasn't Revy's bullet.

Her reaction to a girl almost getting raped; her reaction to being touched by a random man. Rock had already realised a long time ago that Revy's current power and her amazing gunslinger skills did not come out of blue sky. There was no way a young teenage girl in NYC had such abilities with weapons, therefore most likely she didn't have any way to protect herself. She only told him the cops beat her senselessly; perhaps she did not tell him the full story, or a hundred of stories for that matter. He didn't know what she went through. And the skills she have now are her power, her shield, and her protection. She became untouchable, and a touch is punishable by death. Is everything she demonstrates now is an over-compensation of what she didn't have growing up?

And she was holding onto the power, refusing to compromise. To trust someone means to open up; to open up means expose yourself. And being exposed means you might get hurt.

Rock became disgusted by himself. By wanting to draw out her confession or feeling, he bit where it had to hurt the most; selfishly opened her wounds without even thinking what she might feel.

He stood up, holding Revy tightly against him by her back until she regained her balance, then let go, allowing her to step back, away from his body. She let go of his tie and a hand holding a gun was hanging by her side, the only thing directed at him were her eyes. She figured him out. She realized what he was trying to do, realized he wanted to provoke her. She did not fully understand his need to connect, to know, to understand other person, but could now very clearly see how important it was for him. So much so that he prepared a tactical plan to get something human out of her, so much that he nearly got himself shot, so much that he felt a need to shout out everything that has been hanging on his tongue in order to provoke her. So much, that he felt guilty as a dog after saying all these things that were supposed to bring her over the edge but instead woke her up from an emotional state.

Revy sighed, watching Rock plummet into the couch, burying his hands into his hair.

"Revy. I'm sorry…"

"Rock." She cut him off. "If you so desperately want to connect, look for someone else." He raised his surprised eyes into hers as she upholstered her weapon, having expected to hear something that will mean destruction of what little trust he had, but instead hearing something about him. "I don't do this. I have my reasons, and they are not meant to be shared, not with you, not with anyone." She collected her other gun, grabbed a pack of cigarettes and turned towards the door. "Third time you try to pull this on me, I will fucking pull the trigger." She warned coldly.

As she stepped through the door, she heard his answer.

"I don't want to connect with someone, Revy."

The words slithered through her ears and straight into her chest, causing a subtle sting as she furrowed her brows with unfamiliar sensation.

PS

I initially intended this to be one-chapter short story with much lighter ending but it took an unexpected turn, and what I mean by that is that the atmosphere became too heavy to even attempt some positivity. If you guys like it, I can try to write several more chapters, but if you don't - that's good, because these characters are really difficult to write.

With love, as always,

Cafe de Flore