The sunset was beginning to burn a golden-orange, and looking out the window from the bar, the last few rays ignited the emeralds in her eyes and the ruby on her lips. Though, she always wore this specific shade of red lipstick for no obvious affair; this time it had been more than just coincidental, or at least she had hoped so. Men, she knew, were so easily manipulated with a pretty face or big breasts. Throwing a few fascinated looks at them and batting an eye coupled with a few forced laughs at their not so funny jokes was Faye Valentine's preferred method of baiting a guy's ego. She knew exactly when to laugh and just how genuine it had to sound before he had even reached the punch line. Of course, though, she knew the only real joke was that a man's pride was fragile and needed constant validation, and in her validation she would make off with his Woolongs and if luck would permit an article of jewelry even. But tonight, her luck seemed to have disappeared all together with the last light of the sunset.

With a sigh of exasperation she ordered another martini and drank it swiftly but maybe inhaled would be more accurate.

Just as she had decided to leave, a stranger a few stools down glanced over making eye contact with her that they both held for what seemed an absurd amount of time. And though they looked away just as quickly, a smile, Faye hadn't noticed, was making its way across the stranger's face.

The curious looking stranger, a tall woman with a strikingly tall updo moved down the bar toward Faye, knocking back a brown curl that fell over her face and to her back which Faye noticed was completely left bare and visible by the gown she was wearing when she sat.

"Which is your favorite?" the stranger asked, motioning with a finger at the drinks lining the back wall of the bar.

"Why? You looking to buy?" Faye replied without interest, lighting a cigarette.

"And if I am?" A small smile growing on her face again.

For a while neither said anything. Faye continued sucking the smoke out of her cigarette and letting it billow from her lips, and the woman had resigned herself to looking out the window. Faye's cigarette lighting might have just been a smokescreen to conceal any interestedness in her face, as just when she thought she wouldn't notice, Faye let her eyes, almost childlike, wander to the stranger once more.

She too, like Faye, had on red lipstick that complimented her olive skin. Her black gown, Faye saw, was slit almost entirely to the woman's hips revealing supple thighs that tapered into strong legs by the looks of her calves and then to the woman's ankles where a delicate pearl anklet hung precariously to match the long string of pearls around the stranger's fine neck.

"Do you ever think of just getting in a zipcraft and just going out there?" the woman asked, not breaking her view of the window and stars that glittered softly like the pearls adorning her; the subtle silence seemingly pierced with the question.

Startled, Faye quickly glanced away, nervous she had been caught staring and looked forward again at the liquor bottles lining the wall.

"What do you mean just going out there? There's nothing out there for anyone but the cold." Faye said, dismissively.

"I'm sorry, it's nothing. I don't know what I'm saying," the stranger replied, breaking her view of the window for a second and then returning it. "The name is, Stelle, by the way."

Almost getting up to leave, Faye thought better of it and kept sitting. An odd gravitation kept her glued to her stool and in the midst of this woman in pearls. Must have had too much to drink already, she thought. Well, what the hell, free is free.

"Faye's my name. And if you are looking to buy you can start with a Tall Maroon," Faye found herself saying, almost surprised at the openness of her response and added quickly, "I'd really just order it myself but I'm a little short on funds." Faye noticed she was fidgeting nervously with a small sweep of her hair and caught herself before Stelle had seen.

"Excellent." Stelle said with a certain delightfulness in her voice absent just moments ago.

Stelle flagged the bartender and before she knew it Faye had her drink sitting in front of her. Maybe she should have just left. What was she doing? Stelle had also gotten herself a Tall Maroon to try.

"Can't say I've ever had one of these before, but you know what they say. Something about broader horizons." Stelle lifted the sugar rimmed drink to her lips and drank it heartily putting a hand beneath her mouth to catch any of the dark liquid. "Oh. That's good." And she ordered herself another.

Who was this woman Faye had found herself sitting next to. This woman who smelled vaguely of roses? Or was it lilies? Either which it did not matter because now Faye saw that her luck had been replenished along with Stelle's drink. Examining the extravagance and detail of Stelle's gown she wondered if she just stumbled upon an heiress of some sort or perhaps a wealthy business woman come for a relaxer from the office, just look at those pearls. She wondered if they were real.

Faye opened. "Stelle, was it? Sorry, I'm so terrible with names." She sprung a few fake giggles.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, how's your drink?" Stelle replied, securing a loose shock of her brown mane with a pin.

"You know drinks are always better when someone else is buying," Faye said, giggling some more.

"Glad you like it, gotta admit I like this one a bit myself."

"Give me twenty-thousand Woolongs and I'll tell you my other favorite drink," Faye said having finished her glass.

"Give me fourty-thou and I'll jump this counter and make one myself," Stelle blurted.

At this both laughed. Faye was caught off guard by how easily this laugh came and made her feel. Definitely had too much to drink, she thought. It had been too long since last she laughed with someone liked this, nevermind at a bar where she came strictly to play with men at a game only she knew the rules to. A game she always won.

The moment seemed to last hours and a part of Faye, probably concealed in the back pit of her mind wished it could have lasted hours more, but it was time to get to business and star–

"Faye?"

"Mhmm?" Faye replied, nearly choking on a bit of ice she was chewing.

"I want you to look at something for me and tell me what you think."

Stelle met Faye's eyes and motioned down with her own eyes to her lap. Faye followed down with the last of her drink going down her throat. Stelle had already put one hand in the slit of her gown and was pulling it up, slowly revealing her thigh closest to Faye, once more.

Faye could hear the blood rushing through her ears coupled with the sound of velvet rubbing against skin, Stelle's skin. All else had seemed to get quiet; the distant chatter of conversations around grew even more distant. The hologram monitor comprising a large portion of the wall seemed to fade into a muted static.

Faye ground her jaw in apprehension and bit her lip at the peculiarity of what was happening. Was Stelle meaning to flash her her panties? In any case Faye could only watch, she wanted to say something but found herself without breath as her chest had grown tight and rhythmic with the beat of her heart.

Just when she was sure Stelle was about to reveal her panties or perhaps the secrets of the universe from underneath her gown the beautiful stranger's hand stopped retracting.

"Valentine, Faye. Age seventy-seven. I'm placing you under arrest."

In one, swift motion Stelle retracted her gown another 4 inches revealing the muzzle of a gun strapped to her thigh.