I own no one but my own people
"Please!"
"No."
"Please!"
"No."
"Please!"
"Yes."
"Really?!"
"No."
"PLEASE!"
Roni groaned as she turned towards her best bartender who also happened to be the daughter of her best friend.
"Margot, we've been over this. Halloween is our fifth biggest day of the year, I need you here."
"I know and Roni I SWEAR I will never ask for another day off as long as I live!"
"Why do I get the feeling you're exaggerating that promise?" Roni asked as she poured one of her patrons a jack and coke.
"I'm not! I promise, any Friday and Saturday you want off, I got you covered."
She just sighed, turning to a pleading Margot who had stuck her lip out in a rather pathetic looking pout.
"And I'm sure you will, until you want another date with Tilly."
"This is different!" she argued. "It's our first big Halloween party! She told me she's going as a RABBIT!" Margot told her as if that was supposed to mean something significant.
"So?"
"So!? Have you not see girl rabbit costumes? They don't exactly leave that much to the imagination! Tilly, MY Tilly, is going to be wearing that sexy little getup. And I'm gonna be here, working, and missing it all."
Roni leaned up against the bar, cocking her brow at the young girl. "Lemme get this straight... You want the night off… so that you can oogle your girlfriend in a white mini skirt and bunny ears?"
"She's gonna be getting to oogle me too," Margot argued as of that was the point of the whole discussion. "I don't take what I can't give back."
"Oh how generous of you."
"Come on, Roni! Please!"
The brown eyes bartender saw the desperation in Margot's eyes and heard the pleading in her words and Roni remembered a time when she was young and head over heels in love with a farm boy named Danny, God rest his soul. Only she wouldn't have even bothered asking her boss for the night off if she wanted to go on a date.
Roni sighed as she leaned up against the liquor shelf, crossing her arms in front of her well endowed chest. "I want you to open that day, and I want you working here until 7."
Margot squealed in delight before throwing her arms around her boss, dancing in the spot. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"You're not getting any of the tips after you leave," Roni warned her but judging by the way she was still exclaiming her thanks, she had a feeling Margot didn't really care.
The rest of the week passed by fairly easily, with Margot working far harder than she normally did, which isn't to say she didn't work hard when she didn't want something, as of to further earn her much desired night off less Roni changed her mind.
When Halloween finally arrived, Roni showed up around six PM in a sexy off brand Snow White costume with a large red bow in her teased curly hair, her bare midriff and long legs on display for all to see.
She noticed that the bar was full but still not terribly busy, not as busy as it would be in a few hours at least.
Cotton spiderwebs draped over all of the signs, the neon creating a rather spooky effect, blow up skeletons were perched everywhere the eye could see, her menu now included fun additions such as 'straw-bloody mar-ghoul-rita' and 'poisoned apple' which were really just strawberry margaritas with a gummy worm draped over the rim of the glass and an apple martini with a small chip of dry ice to make it smoke, while Margot was nowhere to be found.
Roni looked around the bar, her temper flaring at the absence of her bartender as she watched the barback, pour drinks and hand them out.
"Where the hell is Margot?" she demanded. "She's supposed to be working until seven!"
When he offered nothing but a shrug as an answer Roni rolled her eyes to the heavily decorated ceiling, getting out her phone and storming to the back room where she could call and yell at her bartender who she was sure skipped out early without distractions.
However, just as she was about to dial the memorized number, she heard a man shouting followed by a loud !BANG! coming from the alley beside her bar.
A very familiar scream came next.
Margot's scream.
Her heart pounding, Roni raced out the back door, the sight in front of her making her stop cold.
Margot, sporting a large bruise on her eye wearing a slutty fox costume which was nothing more than a short and tight reddish brown dress with a hood with two furry fox ears attached and a large furry fox tail behind her, was sitting in the filthy dumpster riddled alley with a blonde man in a forest green hoodie and a cheap fox ear headband was kneeling beside her, his arms wrapped protectively around her as the tears streamed down her face and the sobs ripping past her lips.
"What the hell happened?" Roni asked, gaining the attention of the two 'foxes'. "Margot, you alright?"
Margot quickly stood up with another sob and raced to her boss, throwing her arms around her as she sobbed into the confused bartenders shoulder.
"I was just taking out the trash!" Margot sobbed as she grabbed hold of Ronis cheaply made costume. "And- and this guy, he came and started touching me, and when I- I pushed him away, he- he hit me!"
The man in the hoodie stood up from his previous position on the ground and walked over to the two women.
"I believe that's where I come in," he said with a soft and warm British accent. "Robin Locksley, M'lady, at your service. I was walking past, saw what was happening." He reached into his waistband, pulling out a small silver revolver before holstering it again. "A bullet clipping your ear tends to scare you off." Seeing the rather terrified look on Ronis face he simply told her, "I was the best marksmen in Her Majesty's Royal Army, that bullet wasn't going anywhere I didn't intend it to go."
Roni nodded in understanding before she took hold of Margot's face, wincing at the bruise on her face that was only going to get bigger.
"Do you need me to drive you to the hospital?"
Margot sniffed away more tears and shook her head. "I'm fine, he just kinda hit me a little bit. I was just so scared, and then that gun shot…"
Roni kissed the top of her head. "I know, Sweetie. I was scared for you too. But you're alright, he didn't touch you, he didn't hurt you…" She gave her best friends daughter a soft smile. "You even got your own knight in shining armor to come rescue you."
Robin chuckled softly. "Afraid I'm not so much a knight as I am just a lucky passer buyer."
"Well in any case, you're a hero Robin Locksley," Roni told him. "If you hadn't of scared him off…" She hugged Margot closer to her, the ending of that sentence too terrifying for her to even fathom.
Robin gave the women a smile that reminded them both of someone very familiar and pointed to the plastic ears atop his head. "Well us foxes have to stick together, no?"
Margot let out a sad laugh and nodded, wiping away her tears before she went over to the man and hugged him, resting her head against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Thank you," she told him. "For saving my life."
He kissed the top of her head as well, a surprisingly intimate gesture but it, shockingly, felt natural for not just the blue eyed man but for the woman hugging him as well.
It felt familiar almost.
And Roni, well, she was having the strangest sense of dejavu. Like she had seen Margot and this strange man, this Robin Locksley, embrace one another like this before.
"You don't have to thank me for that, little peanut," he told her. A nickname that should have creeped out the women but again it felt far too natural for them to side eye him because of it.
They held one another for another moment before Margot let go of the warm embrace and turned back to Roni, wiping her eyes before she spoke. "Do you mind if I head home? I know I promised to work until seven but right now I just want the most comfortable pajamas I own, my hot green apple tea, and to cuddle with Tilly."
Roni nodded, almost wanting to laugh at the relief that flooded Margot's face.
"Give me ten minutes and I'll drive you home. And I'm sure Tilly will understand you not wanting to go party tonight."
With another round of thanks towards both Robin and Roni, Margot headed inside the bar, still wiping away several stray tears. Once she was alone with the man, Roni let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"God, if anything happened to that girl," she muttered out loud with a tremble in her voice…
"It didn't though," Robin assured her. "She's safe."
"But what if something did? I've known Margot since the day she was born, her mother is my best friend, I was 'Aunt Roni' until a couple of years ago. I just- the thought of anything happening to her."
Her voice caught in the last moment and Robin almost instinctively wrapped his arms around the bartender.
"She's alright," he told her again, and the strangest warm feeling came over him as he held this brown eyed woman. "No one hurt her. I promise you."
"Because you saved her." Roni sniffed away her tears and looked up at the man, seeing just how handsome he was for the first time. "If it hadn't of been for you walking by… I don't know how I can ever repay you."
The corner of Robins lips tugged upwards. "Well… you do own this establishment do you not?"
"I do."
"How about you allow me to buy you a drink as repayment?"
Roni raised her brow at the man. "You wanna have a drink? Now?"
"Well in the last few minutes I've saved a young girls life, nearly shot a man, you've taken a rather emotional beating as well… I say we've earned it, wouldn't you?"
Despite everything that happened in the last few minutes, Roni couldn't help but chuckle, an enticing grin on her plump red lips. "I suppose you're right. I'm going to drive Tilly home and then… you can buy me that drink. Don't go anywhere while I'm gone?"
Robin simply smiled at her. "Oh I wouldn't dream of it…"
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