Meeting
After a long and trying day at work, Rose walked the familiar path from the cafe to her apartment building. It had been about two years since she moved to Chicago, and it felt like it was just yesterday and an eternity ago. She was so familiar with the artistically inclined city that it was like she grew up there, but at the same time there were always little things that surprised her and made it feel like she was discovering something new every day.
While she had found comfort in her new city life away from hunting, she had yet to let her guard down. Always well hidden, Rose carried a gun in her waistband, an angel blade from Dean's angel 'boyfriend' Castiel (Rose teased them relentlessly) in her sleeve, and a vial of holy water in her pocket. While she didn't hunt anymore, she was still a hunter - not at heart, more like soul. Unfortunately, she was never going to be free from the hunter title or instincts.
All of these thoughts swirled through the light brunette's head, including what exactly she was going to have for dinner tonight and how much laundry she had to do.
As she walked past a familiar alleyway, Rose's ears caught the sound of grunts and an almost crunching sound; sounds Rose knew too well.
She pulled the gun from her waistband, keeping it in her dominant hand, wielding her angel blade in the other. Gun raised, she rushed into the alley.
Not much to her surprise, Rose found two well dressed men giving a third the beating of a lifetime and the smell of sulfur in the air. He had blood everywhere, likely not just his. His nose was clearly broken and there were several stab wounds in his chest. Rose knew instantly that these men were demons. But why they would be attacking one of their own was beyond her at the moment.
"I'm feeling nice today. I'll give you three seconds to get your sorry asses out of here before I kill you." Rose announced herself, aiming her gun at one of the attackers' head.
He chuckled, spinning to look at the petite girl that spoke with such confidence. "Is that so, pretty girl?"
"3."
The two standing demons exchanged glances, watching the girl with not-so-masked humor.
"2."
Smirking the whole time, one of the demons took a few steps towards the little Winchester.
"1." Rose stood her ground. The demon was maybe an inch from the end of her silenced gun.
"Your little weapon won't kill me, sweet cheeks."
"I know." Rose threw her left arm forward, the angel blade sinking into the demon's gut with ease. With wide eyes and a gasp, he fell to the ground, dead.
The second attacker looked from his friend up to the temporarily retired hunter, his own black eyes wide with surprise. "That's not possible..." He muttered to himself.
"You gonna run or are you gonna go easily?" Rose asked, her face blank except for a small smirk. On cue, he took off. But he didn't make it very far before he collapsed, thanks to an expertly aimed bullet to the knee. Rose strode up to the squirming demon, not pausing a moment before stabbing him through the heart with her blade.
Rose returned the gun to her waistband. With a nod of satisfaction, she returned to the third demon, still laying slumped against the brick wall of the alley.
"Come on, let's get you fixed up." Rose muttered, wrapping a slender but strong arm around his waist.
Somehow managing to get the bloody demon up to her apartment without question, Rose unlocked her door, the demon still leaning on her for support. She quickly kicked away her doormat at the entrance so her house guest wouldn't get stuck in the devil's trap, and let the door slam behind them.
With less ease than Rose would have liked, she managed to get the man onto her couch. Without a word of explanation to the man, she set to work. Depositing her jacket on a nearby chair and kicking her shoes off, Rose hurried to the kitchen. She dug out her med kit, a pile of clothes, a large bowl of warm water, and a bottle of whiskey she kept under the sink for emergencies (mainly for when Dean and Sam polished off all of her alcohol and didn't buy more).
"What are you doing?" The demon spoke for the first time when Rose returned with her supplies. He had a deep, soothing yet intimidating voice, thick with a British accent and sore from the beating he took.
"What does it look like, dummy? Fixing you up." Rose rolled her eyes and carried on with her work. First things first, she needed to see all of his injuries. So she got to work peeling off his bloody jacket and shirt.
"Do I need to take off the pants too?" When he gave no reply, she could only assume that she didn't need to.
Next, she had to clean up the blood. It took four cloths damp with warm water, but she was able to clean off most of it. Next came the stitching. Flipping open her medkit, Rose pulled out an antiseptic wipe, a needle, and a spool of surgical thread. Working gently and quickly, she sewed up three stab wounds on his chest and one on his right shoulder. 10 strips of gauze, a quarter of a roll of medical tape, an ace bandage and two shot glasses of whiskey later, the demon was well patched up, and Rose now turned her attention to his broken nose.
"Aren't you afraid I'll hurt you?" The demon asked.
"No." Rose replied quickly, her mind concentrating on the task in front of her.
"And why's that, exactly?"
"Well, first, I haven't given you any reason to hurt me, and frankly that would be a pretty poor way to repay me. Second, you're a bit too weak to do me any serious harm. Also, you're sitting on a devil's trap." Rose placed her hands on his face, one on his nose, and gave it a great tug and a shove, neatly popping it back into place. He gave a great hiss of pain before he found his words again.
"So you are a hunter." He mused.
Rose threw the bloodied rags in the bowl and set to work cleaning up the mess around her.
"Retired." She retorted, not bothering to look at him as she worked.
"At such a young age?"
"Got tired of the crap." She said simply. Rose zipped up the medkit after cleaning and repacking her needle and thread.
The demon tried to formulate a witty response to her short story, but was too worn from his beating to conjure one up. Instead he settled for asking her name.
"Marian. But I go by Rose."
"Don't like your name?"
"I was named after my mother, and I prefer to leave her name to her. So I go by my middle name." Rose stood, her arms full. "And you? What's your name?"
"Well, these days, I go by Crowley."
Rose laughed. "Ah, the King of Hell. Well isn't this an interesting night."
"You must not be very retired if you know who I am." He mused with a raised eyebrow and a cocky smirk. He felt his strength slowly returning as the bleeding stopped beneath the cover of the gauze.
"Word gets around. And unfortunately, no hunter can be truly retired. Occupational pain-in-my-ass." Rose's voice was muffled slightly by the cabinet she had her head in. Crowley's eyes instinctively drifted towards her jean-clad rear as she fumbled around putting her medical supplies away.
"What sort of...'crap' forced such a pretty young girl into retirement?" He asked with raised eyebrows, his eyes still lingering on her body as she stood.
Slamming the cabinet shut, she replied: "Why exactly is the King of Hell interested in my life story?"
"Why exactly is a hun- ex-hunter taking care of the King of Hell when she could just as easily kill him?"
Crowley watched her with patient curiosity. Rose watched him with tired skepticism.
"Why were a couple of demons beating up their king?"
Crowley gave a smirk. His kind host clearly had the brains to go with the beautiful body he found difficult to keep his eyes off of.
"Why did you come to a demon's aid?" He countered. He wasn't going to be outsmarted by her. He was weak and sore, but he wasn't going to let her win a simple discussion.
As Rose thought of a counter-question, Crowley smiled to himself, a little more proud of his small victory than he would care to admit.
"Having loyalty issues, huh?" It was Rose's turn to smirk. Crowley's smile faltered and shrank.
"So does the King of Hell eat dinner?" The brunette spun to face her kitchen again and busied herself making dinner for herself and her demon guest. "Tonight's a pancake night, don't you think?"
This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, don't you think?
The first three chapters of 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn' will be setting up their relationship, then each chapter afterwards will be oneshot style and not necessarily in chronological order. Don't expect a regular update schedule as I will simply add a chapter as I think of one.
I have been informed that I do not own Supernatural or its characters. However, I do own Marian Rose Winchester and her attitude.
