Title: Always Win: The First Night
Fandom: Dark Angel
Summary: Alec moves in on a hot girl in Crash, but little does he know she's gonna turn out to be a bit more than he can handle...
Rating: PG-13
Reason: language
Genres: action, romance
Pairings/Characters: Alec/OC (that's original CHARACTER, not Original Cindy), and implied Max/Logan in later chapters
A/N: Well, so far on LiveJournal, this fic's been pretty much a flop. I'm hoping for better success here, but I'm doubting it's gonna happen. Prove me wrong!
Always Win: The First Night
With a contented sigh, Alec walked through the doors of the Crash bar. This week had been long, and he was glad that it was coming to an end. Today was Friday. That meant no work tonight, or for the next two days.
And all play no work made Alec a very happy man.
Making his way to the bar, he looked around for Max and noted happily that she wasn't here tonight. He swung his leg over a barstool and sat down, ordering the first—but certainly not the last—beer of the night.
While he waited for the bartender to pour it up, his eyes scanned the room, from the other people sitting at the bar, to the couples and groups sitting at the tables, to the area with the pool tables. At the last area, a sight instantly caught his eye.
At the pool table nearest to the bar, a rather fascinating game was going on. With probably twenty people looking on as spectators as a big burly man who frequented the bar, and was a fairly good pool player if memory served Alec right, played against a tall, thin, shapely blond woman.
This woman's back was currently turned to Alec, but what he did see of the woman he liked. Her black, thin-strapped shirt left most of the back of her slim and trim shoulders bare and clung to her tightly before ending an inch and a half above the waist of her jeans. Said jeans were likewise tight, showing off shapely buttocks and legs. Her feet were shod with a pair of high heels that, coupled with her already great height, easily made her taller than half the men in the bar—including Alec.
And her hair, though short-cropped, was blond. Very blond.
"A tall, hot blond right here in Crash tonight," he muttered to himself under his breath. Unintentionally a little louder, he added, "What're the odds?"
"Right now, they're against the blond woman," the bartender said, causing Alec to turn around and look at him. The bartender nodded faintly in her direction. "But she's been on a hell of a roll." He sat the beer down in front of Alec, then turned his gaze towards the billiards game. "My bet's with her."
Alec likewise looked in that direction. "Hmm."
The bartender whistled faintly through his teeth. "But even if she loses, the guys over there are gonna try and keep her playing anyway," he said.
Not understanding, Alec frowned. "Why?"
In front of him, the big burly man made his shot and failed to drop the ball into the pocket. Since it was now her turn, the blonde woman stalked around the table with a strut that practically made Alec—and most of the men gathered around to watch the game—drool. After she found what she obviously thought was a good position, the woman stopped and leaned over the table to line up her shot. And the back of her shirt rode up to expose a large section of her lower back, and the front of it most likely dipped down a little lower.
Whistles echoed from men all around the bar, but mostly from the men sitting directly behind her. The woman just looked over her shoulder at those men, and Alec swore he saw a satisfied smirk pass across her face before she looked back down to the table.
"That's why," the bartender answered unnecessarily.
"Oh," was all Alec could say.
The woman made her shot and Alec heard the sound of not one, but two pool balls dropping into the pocket. Applause and a few cheers followed from some of the spectators, boos from the others that were supporting the woman's opponent. The woman stood up and shrugged at her opponent.
And then proceeded to run the entire table in the same manner.
The amount of cheers and applause increased as the game—or rather, the woman's domination of the game—progressed, as did the amount of grumbling and boos. And Alec, sitting at the bar and sipping away at his beer as he watched the game, was becoming more and more fascinated by the woman.
When she finally dropped the eight ball right into the pocket, the woman stood up straight, looking, obviously very satisfied, at the table. Then she laid down her stick atop the table and turned to her former opponent, who looked like he was about ready to shatter his stick into splinters.
"Well, bud, looks like you didn't have it in you this time around," she said, shrugging.
"You cheated," the man accused.
The woman's stance instantly hardened, her arms folding across her chest. "I never cheat," she said strongly. "This game is over." With that, she turned sharply and the man mumbled angrily before stalking off. Not even noticing, the woman took a couple of steps towards a man that Alec recognized as the usual bookie. She held out a hand towards him, palm up and raised an eyebrow. "I believe you owe me some cash."
The bookie rolled his eyes and unwillingly handed the woman what looked like a fairly large wad of cash.
She accepted it with a smirk and thumbed through it, counting. Satisfied with the count, she stuffed the cash into her bra. Then she turned to the spectators. "Anybody else want to take a shot?"
The people were quiet.
And the woman raised an eyebrow. "No takers?" she asked.
Alec washed the rest of his beer down in one gulp and stood up. Walking towards the billiards table, he started sliding his jacket off of his shoulders. "I'll play," he said.
The woman turned and looked at him, sizing him up in a single glance. "Hmm. Think you can break my winning streak?" she asked cockily.
"No, I know I can," Alec responded just as cockily. As she was sizing him up, he was doing the same to her. He was finally getting a view of her from the front instead of the back.
She was a few inches taller than he was—maybe it was her shoes, maybe not—and was as thin and shapely as she looked from the back. Her shirt dipped low in the front, accentuated by a thick necklace that hung around her neck and down her chest. Her face was just as hot as the rest of her body, and her eyes were a deep blue.
And she gave Alec a short, disbelieving snort. "Care to put your money where your mouth is then?" she asked.
He shrugged loosely and reached for his wallet.
After they settled on an amount and handed over the money to the bookie for safekeeping, the woman racked up the balls and set them in position. After she removed the rack, she looked at Alec and shrugged with a single shoulder, wordlessly asking if he wanted to go ahead.
He mimicked her half-shrug. "Ladies first," he said.
The woman's stare hardened. "You can go ahead, then," she responded sharply. The spectators gave a collective "oooooh" at the insult, but the woman ignored them and continued, one eyebrow arched dangerously, "I might be a woman, but I'm no lady."
"Oh-kay," Alec said, making a face. "I'll break."
He lined up his shot and took it, sending the balls scattering across the table. Three of them dropped into pockets—two solid, one striped. Unable to stop it, a faintly smug smile appeared on Alec's face, and he looked over at the woman with a slight lift of the brow.
"Looks like I'm solids," he said. "I dropped one of yours. Your shot."
The woman cocked her head slightly to one side. "I know how to play the game," she said flatly.
Alec could've sworn he saw a flash of anger pass through her blue eyes as she brushed past him to set up her shot. And that made him happy. His faint slight at her had struck, and taken root. Now to see if it affected her game.
She easily dropped one, two, three, four balls with no trouble. The fifth bounced off of the pocket, though, and most of the spectators gave a collective, "Awww."
It seemed that since the last game, the woman had become the favorite, and Alec had become the underdog.
She stood and shrugged at him nonchalantly. "Your turn," she said casually.
As Alec brushed past her, he was mentally running through different tactics that he might use to affect the woman's game, as angering her obviously did not. Maybe the opposite—getting on her good side, or even better, flirting with her—might affect her. He glanced over his shoulder at him.
"So, what's your name?" he asked.
Leaning partially on her cue stick, the woman smiled faintly and again cocked her head slightly to one side. "You can call me Win," she said smartly. "Just call me Win."
He raised an eyebrow, barely suppressing a chuckle. "Win?" he asked.
She nodded, face completely serious as she continued speaking, "Because I always win." There was the faintest touch of smugness to her voice, though not nearly as smug as Alec would've expected in a statement like the one she had just made. And her tone was not nearly as sharp as it had been during her earlier jab at him.
He raised his eyebrows and said, "Well, okay, Win. I'm Alec. And after this game, you might have to change your name to lose." Without even double-checking his line-up, Alec quickly made his shot. And sunk it—though not quite as smoothly as he might've hoped.
Still, he looked at Win with a smile and shrugged. And she gave him a ruggedly flirty half-smile that made his heart freeze.
"You've still got to drop two more of those to catch up, and five more to win," she said, one brow arching slightly. "Seeing as how that still puts you definitely behind, I wouldn't be getting too confident quite yet."
To prove that he could easily catch up, Alec quickly sank two more, catching up to his opponent. The next shot, however, proved too difficult for him and it was Win's turn again all too soon.
The moment she lined up her next shot, Alec knew he had lost.
Both of her two remaining striped balls were easy shots. And though it was a difficult shot, she made dropping the eight ball into the called pocket look just as easy as the two previous shots.
That brought a round of applause and cheers from the people watching.
Straightening, Win gave Alec a satisfied smirk—but one that was considerably less smug than he would have expected. And that vastly surprised him. Smugness just seemed to be turning out to be an emotion she didn't display.
"Told you not to get so cocky, Alec," she said, raising an eyebrow slightly. "You just lost yourself a game, plus some cash."
Deciding that being annoyed and hostile like the last man Win had beaten wouldn't impress her any, Alec coolly shrugged. "You win some, you lose some," he said smoothly.
The woman only smirked again. "Not me. I'm all win."
Before Alec could say anything in response to her, she'd turned to the bookie and was holding her hand out, palm up again. And once again, the man unwillingly put money in her hand, which Win then stuffed into her bra.
While she was doing this, Alec turned away and headed back to the bar. He wanted to see if Win would follow. If she didn't, then at least their bit of flirting had been fun. If she did, then maybe things might go somewhere. He found himself hoping that it was the latter.
He sat down on the same barstool as he had earlier, and ordered another bottle of beer.
A moment later, someone sat down on the stool next to him. He didn't have to turn to know that it was Win, but he did anyway. And she gave him another flirty smile. Before he could say anything, she turned to the bartender and ordered a beer.
When he turned around, she looked back at Alec.
"Done dominating the pool tables?" he asked.
She shrugged. "After the way I beat you, I don't think anybody else wants to even try their luck against me. I think everybody in this bar's figured out I'm a pool shark."
Again, before Alec could respond, Win looked away, again to the bartender, who had returned and set down her beer on the bar.
"Thanks," she said. Using one hand to hold the bottle and take a long swig of the beer, her other hand reached for and pulled out some money. She pushed it across the bar to the bartender as she took her bottle from her mouth. "There you go," she said.
The bartender counted the money. "This is—" he started.
Standing up, Win stopped him with a hand. She jerked her head towards Alec. "The rest is for his," she said. With that, she winked at Alec, turned, and walked out of the bar.
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