Yey, I finally wrote something again! This has already been published on in German, also by me, so that's why it might sound familiar for German readers. I did however edit it quite heavily while translating, so you are more than welcome to read this version :)
The story is fully translated by now, the chapters just need some editing and proovereading. So I will probably be able to update once a week, depending on how much real life intervenes.
Of course I make no money with this and I do not own the charakters, I just like to play with them for a bit (or a lot).
That said, have fun reading. Reviews make me happy :D
The Taming of the Shrew
1.
It was with quite a lot of reluctance that the young woman with the reddish brown hair let herself be dragged into the dark cellar room by her sister. There was a lot she didn't appreciate concerning her presence in this etablissement. The music was too loud, the dark room too packed, the dancing crowd too drunk and she had, in her opinion, a little too little on. All that did indeed annoy her – but Akemi not in the least. The young woman dragged her down the metal staircase with a joyful smile, and suddenly she found herself in the midst of a noisy, dancing, celebrating crowd where she felt decidedly uncomfortable. The air was stifling and smelled of smoke, sweat and alcohol.
Her sister had decided that she had to get distracted from her work in the lab, get something else than experiments and complicated metabolic cycles on her mind. And really, Shiho was in complete agreement with that – at least in theory. But her idea of a "nice convivial evening" seemed to differ decidedly from that of Akemi. That she was here nevertheless was all the fault of her benevolence, her sister's puppy dog eyes and not least a bottle of wine, that both had had an hour earlier. Definitely a bottle that Shiho regretted deeply, anyway.
Akemi soon disappeared in the dancing crowd but Shiho didn't mind too much. In fact, it may have been Shiho's fault they lost each other in the first place. On the contrary – it was her chance to leave the club without having to withstand the big begging eyes of her sister. She could easily pretend that she had looked for her long enough but oh so sadly didn't find her in the crowd. She would just text her when she was home again.
As she approached the steely staircase for that exact purpose, she saw him. He was casually leaning against the wall, a drink in his left hand, a cigarette in the corner of his mouth his black hat hiding most of his face in its shadows. The multicoloured lights of the dance floor illuminated his long, silvery hair and around him there was a bunch of giggling girls drooling over him, but all in condign distance. But he didn't pay them any attention, he just stood there, sipped his drink once in a while and smoked. He looked dangerous. And undeniably hot.
Shiho could thoroughly comprehend why those women were standing there but she had no interest whatsoever in joining them. She wasn't attracted to men like him. Well, technically she maybe was a tiny little bit, but… she was decidedly too sane to be interested in any contact with him. Probably he wasn't interested in her either – he didn't seem to be the kind of guy who preferred brains over big boobs. Willing, young girls he could play with seemed right for him, the ones without any dignity that would do whatever he wanted. But not her – every girl but her. Which was better, though.
Slightly shaking her head she continued making her way through the crowd to reach the exit when suddenly a hand laid itself heavily on her shoulder.
"Sherry," a dark voice spoke next to her ear and for a short moment she felt like she would faint.
But it was only a mere second of weakness before she found the strength to turn around and answer with a snippy "Gin" and the according annoyed look on her face. But while she managed to keep up the façade, her mind was racing. Why did he have to address her in a place like this? She felt uncomfortable enough already!
She knew him for a few months now and had found him to be an arrogant, narcissistic bastard who got himself off by ordering others around – including her, which was the worst thing about that. The first time they had met had been in the headquarters where she had presented her latest research results, several months after she had been assigned with the development of the Apoptoxin, a project that had been abandoned since her parents had died. He had been sitting in the back of the room, silently smoking a lot of cigarettes and following her every move with those creepy green eyes. The assassin must have had noticed that his gaze had confused her and she was sure he had had a lot of fun at her cost when she had been distracted by his gaze and his mere presence.
After the presentation he had introduced himself to her with a dark smirk and had outright explained that he wanted the toxin she was developing. The young scientist had replied that no one but her very self would decide when the poison would be progressing to test phase and who would have the honour to test it but of course he hadn't agreed to that.
Since then he used to turn up every once in a while, naturally in the most inconvenient situations, to try and persuade her to change her mind. He had tried sweet talking, threats, intimidations and then sticked to a combination of all three. Unsuccessfully, obviously.
Luckily, Sherry was smart enough to know her value for the Organization, to know that Gin would never kill her just like that as he was likely to face a similar fate or at least some very unpleasant punishments if he did. Of course he could try to make it look like an accident but it was pretty hard to keep secrets from the syndicate, almost everyone and everything was constantly shadowed and monitored. He maybe not – but she surely was followed more often than not and so it would be hard to kill her unperceived. Moreover, it was him who wanted something from her and Sherry paid a lot of attention to not granting any of her assistants access to the prototype toxin outside the lab. She was the only way for Gin to get his hands on the poison – and for that he had to keep her alive.
That was the reason why Sherry wasn't scared of the assassin – or rather why her brain told her she needn't be. But when you faced him like she was now, with nowhere to run, and looked in his unsettling emerald eyes, it was nearly impossible to even remember let alone believe that.
"I wouldn't have thought I'd meet you in a place like this," he smirked and savoured another drag on his cigarette before snapping the embers carelessly at her feet.
"We both wouldn't have."
Judging by the look of his facial muscles, he was raising his eyebrows at this, but she couldn't be sure as the hat hid them from view.
"So why are you here?"
"I'm afraid my sister can be very convincing. As well as half a bottle of wine can be."
She wasn't exactly sure why she had told him that but her research-trained analytical mind immediately surmised a correlation with the alcohol concentration in her blood. Which in turn lead her to only one conclusion: she shouldn't have had that last glass of wine. But as the damage was already done, it was best to go home and to bed as quickly as possible where the danger of making more alcohol-related mistakes like that was relatively low.
Gin on the other hand smiled slightly at her words as he bent down to look directly in her eyes.
"So you are drunk, Sherry," he stated contently and began to stroke his chin with his long, white fingers. "Very interesting, indeed. Well, what to do with a drunken little scientist…?"
His lips again curled into this evil smile of his as he answered his own question.
"Maybe this is the moment for us."
"For us to do what?" Sherry tried very hard and probably not equally successfully to hide her anxiety.
"To come to an agreement, of course."
"An agreement?" She suppressed the overwhelming urge to roll her eyes at his mysterious choice of words. She knew all too well what he wanted, of course, but it was not like him to beat around the bush like that. As well as she suppressed the urge to run either, but that was a feeling she was all too used to in the presence of the assassin.
"I want the apoptoxin."
Aaah, there it was.
"I know that. But I also know that you won't get it as long as I can prevent it."
A sinister shadow crept over his face for a split second then he smiled again his trademark evil smirk.
"We will see. But maybe…" His hand ghosted coolly over her cheek. "Maybe we can find something you want from me in return."
Sherry's heart raced – even more so than before. He shouldn't touch her like that, he shouldn't look at her like that. It made her feel – weird. She gasped for air almost desperately.
"What would I want from you?" She spat the words at him and finally succumbed to the urge of running away. It was a relieving feeling to turn from him and ascend the metal staircase but Gin's hand on her shoulder held her back a second later.
"Let's walk a bit."
"I'd love to. Just tell me where you walk so that we don't meet coincidentally on the way."
Gin laughed quietly. He really shouldn't have expected anything but a snippy answer. He strangely enjoyed those battles of words they were fighting whenever he addressed her about the Apoptoxin.
"Oh Sherry, always such a shrew."
"Well, that's due to my nature. And to the fact that you're so dislikeable," she hissed disdainfully as she climbed the stairs before him.
It really was an amusing game he played with the little scientist, Gin decided smugly. She definitely had a way with words and besides she was beautiful. He hadn't really tried to seduce her since their first encounter, but there always was something he couldn't quite put his finger on in her demeanor that told him she was not as opposed to the possibility as she wanted him to believe. Maybe it was her decidedly pronounced obstreperousness; maybe it was just a little bit too much to be genuine. He smirked. Maybe it was time to try.
As they reached the alleyway to stand in the flickering light of the not-so-well working street lights he grabbed her chin, almost tenderly but with a finality that dared her resistance. He saw her gasp yet again and stare in his eyes – unbelieving, scared and… nervous, maybe. It was hard to tell. It always was with her – it was part of why she was so intriguing.
He smiled and bent down to her until only mere millimeters separated their faces.
"Well, so let's see if I'll be able to tame the shrew, then." It was hard to miss the seduction in his smooth voice but Sherry seemed to manage.
"Certainly not." She tried to sound placid but there was a slight tremble in her voice as well as in her whole body that belied her calmness.
"Will you, nill you, I will marry you," he whispered, his lips not a fingerbreadth from hers.
While Sherry had managed to ignore the enticing tone in his previous words there was now something undeniably seductive about them. And it was not by accident. Nothing was, with Gin.
It was the magic of the moment that captured her, held her and only for this short moment she wanted to succumb to the sudden need to feel those thin, cruel lips on hers. But she was stronger than that and so she pulled herself together – and away from him.
"You don't want to marry me, you want the poison," she remarked drily and smoothed her brown cloak down neatly, aware that it was a mere displacement activity but hoping Gin would not notice. The assassin however just grinned as if he knew exactly what she had felt in this small magical moment when they had been so close. Shiho snuggled deeper in her coat involuntarily.
"It was just a quote, Sherry."
"So you're able to quote Shakespeare, congratulations. And next you're going to tell me that the sun is shining just now, right?" she shot back, still angry about her second of weakness – it was something she could not afford in such proximity to such a dangerous man.
Gin glanced upwards to the clouded sky in the dark night.
"Not yet," he drawled. "To begin with I would be content if you'd agree when I tell you that you should give me the poison."
"You know… maybe you are right, Gin. Maybe you deserve it after all," the scientist replied smoothly and gloated at his irritated look. "Two capsules should be enough for your body weight, I think. Or do you prefer to receive it intravenously?"