Goodnight, My Love
By MargaritaDaemonelix
On his first night on this job, Elsword arms himself with a small knife, thinking he'll be in and out in two minutes, tops. It's supposed to be a simple kill, after all - his target is unarmed, unassuming, unknowing.
Unfortunately, he stops before he even makes it through the front door.
The woman he is sent to remove is still wide awake in her little apartment, glaring at him with wide eyes. "I don't remember giving my key to anyone else," she says, hands on hips. "Did Hennon send you?"
Immediately, guilt washes over Elsword, because in a way, he did. He looks at the sparkling diamond ring on her finger, looks at the open draft of her newest novel, looks at the dark circles hastily covered with drowning concealer. "I guess."
He doesn't mention the contract he'd made with her fiancé, and quietly hides his stiletto blade back into his sleeve. If she is really to believe that he is here on good terms, then he cannot complete his job tonight.
He'll have to make up some stupid excuse to tell Hennon, then. "What are you working on, missy Landar?" Elsword asks, closing the door behind him gently. It clicks shut behind him, despite all the careful lock picking he did. Fancy rich people shit, he thinks.
"Writing," she sighs. As expected of Aisha Landar, Mystery Author Extraordinaire. The critics call her the queen of her craft, a mage of words, vastly underrated until her third novel suddenly caught fire and stood blazing at the top of the charts.
Now, as Elsword stands beside her computer, he suddenly has to wonder: Why is this young woman awake at two o'clock in the nether hours? According to the job file, she's not much older than he is, and most of her life was spent in school, unlike him. Elsword wishes he could order her to get some sleep, but he knows how Hennon works, and it's definitely not like this.
"Kill her," he'd said. "Discreetly," he'd said. "So they think she committed suicide," he'd said.
Elsword decides he doesn't like Hennon anymore.
Aisha studies him carefully. "You've got a mission here," she muses. "Murder? Did someone send you to kill me? Which of my rivals was it?" She snorts. "Was it Edel? It would be characteristic of her to try to keep her hands clean."
It hurts him to think someone as kind and hardworking as Aisha Landar would have enemies, but Elsword knows her biggest foe is the one closest to her. "Not her," he assures her, smirking. "But yes, I'm a hitman for hire. At your service, love."
"Fair enough," she says, her brow wrinkling. "Are you going to kill me, Mr. Hitman-for-hire?"
"The name's Elsword. And not today." Elsword shrugs. "It would be a messy job, wouldn't it?"
He glances down at her laptop screen, where the draft of her new chapter is half-written. "That's supposed to be "you" there instead of "your," he offers. "Until we meet again, then, goodnight, love."
Aisha blinks, and Elsword slips away while she's focused on her screen, unlocking her front door manually. By the time she turns her attention back to him, he's gone.
At least he now knows how her door works. Next time will be a lot easier.
Yet something in his heart is unsteady.
Is it really right to pick this flower in its prime?
Hennon is disappointed, but doesn't blame him for failing the mission on the first go. "She's very observative," he says. "It's not your fault that she's like this."
And then, very quietly: "try again. I expect results this time."
The next time, Elsword brings a little tube of cyanide that sparkles like blue diamonds. He slips it into his sleeve, ties his hair up, and sits on her balcony until she comes home.
"Are you going to tell me who it is?" She asks, hands on her hips as she sets her bag on the armchair in the parlour. "Or are you going to keep secrets from me again?"
"I'm not legally allowed to disclose the names of my clients, sweetie," he replies, letting the tube of cyanide drop out onto the coffee table. It shatters, leaving cyanide crystals and glass shards all over the wooden surface. "Whoops. Silly me. Now I don't have anything I can use to kill you with."
Aisha stares at him for a solid five seconds before laughing out loud. "Elsword, I hope you understand that I am an author," she says, "and my fame is due to my fantasy writing. This is more surreal than anything I've ever written."
"Tell me about it," Elsword sighs, sinking into her sofa. "I'm supposed to be a hitman taking out elite targets, and then there's you - a globally famous author, with huge plans for the series that's taking the world by storm. Not exactly my typical type of target."
"Maybe I'll find a way to incorporate it into my next book," she replies. "Hey, do you want some Chinese takeout?"
They split the eggplants and rice between them, and a silent agreement is made that Aisha gets the last spring roll. It's the best meal Elsword has had in about a month, and it might just cost Elsword his job.
"Who's died at your hands so far?" Aisha asks. "Politicians, innocent people?"
"Actually, so far it's just been corrupt business heads," he says. "The mysterious disappearance of COBO's last leader? That was me."
"Oh." Aisha shovels a spoon of rice into her mouth. "Hired by the current head, I presume?"
"You got it," Elsword says. "I mean, business is slow, but it pays well, and I get enough to fuel me for years with each job."
That doesn't mean he's almost desperate to take Hennon's job. Ariel Arkwright was his last client, and really, killing her father in his sleep was a piece of cake. Still, that job was nearly a year ago, and his resources are running dry.
Maybe that's why he agreed to Hennon's offer, to kill his innocent fiancée before their marriage. He doesn't really know what the motive behind this is, but considering Aisha's financial successes from selling her books, he gets the feeling that Hennon has been playing her for her money all along.
"Why don't you live with your fiancé, if the two of you are engaged?" He asks, suddenly just curious. "Does he have his own house and stuff to manage?"
"Yeah. He's a director for Henir pharmaceutical. I mean, up until about two years ago, I was a broke college student." Aisha laughs. "At least now my net worth is above zero. Hennon was able to help me get my first book published, and the rest is history."
"Don't you think he should be here, trying to protect his fiancée from getting assassinated?" Elsword presses further. "Or at least have a bodyguard for you, since you're getting so famous."
Aisha's face falls. "He doesn't have the time," she says quietly. "And I don't blame him. I interned at Henir for a month, and it nearly killed me." She smiles weakly. "My hope is that my series will be successful enough to keep us both afloat, so that he doesn't have to work there anymore."
Elsword gives her a bright grin. "That's a good goal to keep in mind." Within the gears of his own head, though, things are starting to click. "Well, I really should be getting back. My sister and her girlfriend can't cook, so I gotta go cook for them."
"You live with your sister and her girlfriend?" Aisha asks, sounding amused.
"Desperate times called for desperate measures," he says unabashed, shrugging. "Elsa lost her job, and I really don't spend much time in the apartment anyways." He smirks and gives her a little sarcastic salute, touching his fingertips to his temple before flicking them out again. "Until next time, then, goodnight, love."
He's almost off the balcony before he hears her calling from indoors. "You owe me food!" She yells, standing up with her chopsticks still in hand. "If you can cook, you'd better make me food!"
Elsword laughs out loud. "I'll remember that for next time."
There's a report in the news the next day. Aisha Landar, author, in hospital from mild cyanide poisoning, it says. She is expected to make a full recovery in a few days.
Hennon is much more pleased this time. "Good," he says, cigarette at his lips. "Whatever you're doing to outsmart her, keep doing it. Just don't drag it out too long."
Like your damn cigarette, Elsword thinks, but doesn't say out loud. He just smirks, as always, nods politely before turning and leaving once more.
God, this is stupid. Why is she having such an effect on him? Just over a year ago, he stuck a needle in the neck of a woman not unlike her, completely remorselessly. He looks at Aisha, and he doesn't see a target, but a friend, and maybe something more.
He really should have just ended it with the silver knife the first time he came, but he didn't, and now, he pays the price.
What would Elesis say if she saw him like this? Practically playing for time to save a target, playing away money that they desperately need to keep themselves afloat with? Then again, she did give up her entire career at Rose's bequest.
Elesis Sieghart, once the bloody queen of the Elrian underworld, brought to her knees by a college student. They were the talk of the town for months.
By the looks of it, Elsword's going to follow in her footsteps. They called him the new monster, because he was replacing his sister at the top of the hierarchical ladder, hopefully forever.
And now, they'll call him the fallen, because he's disappeared from their sights, just like her.
The next time he visits Aisha, he keeps his promise and makes her a dozen cinnamon rolls. He leaves a plate of them in the apartment, saran-wrapped with a note on top to remind Elesis to not eat them all, and takes the rest in a plastic Tupperware to Aisha's apartment.
Her hair is damp and there's a towel across her shoulders when he opens her door. "Wow, not even bothering to knock?" She snarks, grinning. "It's like you're a regular visitor."
"Are you not constantly visited by adoring fans?" Elsword asks. "Or have you just managed to conceal your existence that well?"
"I'm pretty good at that," she replies, snagging a cinnamon roll from his Tupperware. "Hey, you're actually pretty good at baking. I haven't met many guys who are actually good chefs."
"This is just my mom's recipe," Elsword admits, watching as Aisha's hand sneaks under the Tupperware lid and steals another cinnamon roll. "I learned how to cook when my sister was an assassin."
"Oh?" Aisha's eyes light up. "Didn't you say your sister lost her job?"
"Yeah. She stopped being an assassin." He looks down into his lap, unsure of what to tell her, before deciding to just tell her the truth. "She was hired by a university professor to kill his student."
The world buzzes around them in perfect silence. Aisha's eyes are wide. "The student had created a hypothetical motor that could take mankind to Mars in just months," he continues. "And the prof wanted to claim the concept as his own."
"Plagiarism and murder," Aisha mutters, disgusted, and Elsword agrees.
"Anyways, there was no way my sister could have finished the job." He smiles wryly. "She's always had a soft spot for pretty girls, anyways. They skipped town together." He scoffs. "Elsa is so whipped for Rose, it's not even funny."
"I can imagine," Aisha chuckles, licking the sugar glaze off her fingers. "Mmm. Did you put booze in this?"
"A bit of brandy in the glaze," he confirms. "Sometimes when we don't have any, I use beer instead. Doesn't have the same feeling, y'know?"
Aisha hums in agreement. "Say, you wanna skip outta here and find somewhere to grab a drink?"
It's a good idea, and that's what makes Elsword so worried.
The hole-in-the-wall where Elsword used to work is quiet tonight, but Rena is on duty, which makes things better. "Aren't you a cutie," she coos, bopping Aisha on the nose before laughing out loud and grinning. "Elsword, is this the target you keep sleeping w-on?"
"Not funny, Rena," he says sternly. "But yeah, this is Aisha. She wrote the super famous fantasy series. Her next book is going to be published in about three months."
"Aw, isn't that sweet," Rena says. "You wanna grab a seat so I can get you something to drink?"
As Aisha wanders to a nearby table, a little shell-shocked from Rena's bright nature, the bartender grabs Elsword by the shoulder. "She's a dangerous one to be playing games with," Rena hisses into this ear. "You better be quick, and careful, if you're planning on saving this one."
"Who said I was planning on saving her?" Elsword snarks in reply, wrenching his shoulder from her grip.
Rena grimaces, looking like she has something more to say, but keeps her mouth shut as Elsword moves behind the bar, tossing raspberries and gin into a slim glass. He still remembers the training he's gotten - you always juice citrus fruits with a fork, and to make things look pretty, pour the grenadine syrup last.
Aisha watches in stunned curiosity as he brings the glasses to their table. "Have one on me," he says, sliding one over to her. "I hope you're not allergic to raspberries."
"Interesting." She lifts the glass to eye level and examines it in the dim light. "What's it called?"
"The Floradora," he says. "Gin, lime juice, raspberry vodka, and ginger ale to top it off." He winces. "Might be a bit sour for your taste. Sorry in advance."
"I refuse to believe anything you made might taste bad," Aisha says, holding her glass out. "Cheers to a long life?"
Elsword clinks his glass against hers. "Cheers to a long life."
This is a mess. Everything is going downhill. Elsword knows he can't be doing this, that he has a job to complete and two people to help provide for. Instead, he's sitting in an old dingy bar that hasn't been renovated since 1978, making cocktails for his target.
But it's not like Elesis could have done any better. Instead of killing Rose the night of the assignment, she slept with her. Elsword still laughs at his sister for that.
A drink can't be that bad, not when they have all the time in the world. He lifts the glass to his lips, and drinks from it like it's the fountain of youth. There's just a little too much raspberry vodka, and it burns on the way down, but in the rim of the glass, Aisha is smiling.
There's a blur of words as the night goes by. At some point, Rena joins them in drinking, gossiping about the latest fashions and Aisha's fiancé. With every passing word, Elsword gets closer to bursting out loud, revealing the truth.
People come and go. A grey haired guy in a huge fur-trimmed jacket comes in, and Elsword expects him to be a pimp or something but he turns out to be a magician. Lu and Ciel, surprisingly, still work at the bar, and they arrive to take over Rena's shift. Ciel still smiles more than he speaks and mixes a Clover Club for Aisha after she asks what it is. Lu ends up drinking it afterwards when Aisha realizes the froth is raw egg white. Elsword stifles a laugh at the thought of it, even though he's pretty sure Lu is still underage.
He keeps an eye on Aisha, though. She sits at their table for the most part, only getting up when the magician asks for a volunteer to hold his birdcage. With nothing holding her back, though, the stiff Miss Landar disappears, and the free, happy Aisha that Elsword has come to love is released. Someday, when she's free of Hennon, maybe she'll be like this forevermore.
"Why'd you poison yourself with the cyanide after I left?" He asks Aisha, when the world is fading from blue and silver to black and white. It's been bearing down on him for a while now, and guilt threatens to clog his lungs if he doesn't find out.
Aisha only laughs, tips his chin up with a slim finger. "Your client, whoever wants me dead, would have been much more suspicious of you if I wasn't at least slightly harmed," she chuckles. "Did you really think I could let you go that easily?"
Her lips taste like raspberry vodka and lime juice.
Elsword drowns.
He brings her back to her own apartment just past two in the morning, like a gentleman, even though he's far from one.
(Assassins for hire can't be gentlemen, right?)
"Won't you stay a while?" Aisha asks, hand brushing against his. "It's dark out. I'd hate it if you got hit by a car."
Elsword shakes his head. "I need to get back," he insists. "My sister is probably worried sick. I haven't been home this late since..." He smiles. "The first time we met."
"Alright." She kisses him again, this time softer. "Until next time?"
"Until next time," he says quietly, "goodnight, my love."
They share a final kiss, and then Aisha closes the door, letting the lock click shut.
Elsword sits on the other side and tries not to scream.
"Find someone else to do it," he tells Hennon the next night, pounding his fist on the table. "I fucking quit."
"I'll pay you twice as much," Hennon offers. "Money means nothing to me. It's her books that I need."
Elsword shakes his head. "It's pay now or nothing," he says, extending his hand. "You said she'd be the easiest target I've ever taken on. Even killing Alexander Arkwright of COBO was easier than this!"
He leaves Hennon's office with three times as much money as he was originally promised, with the promise of another billion ED upon completion, and two more nights to make his decision.
Where am I going with this?
"Do it," Elesis says lazily from her perch on the couch when he asks her. "Did you think I hesitated to give up my career when I met Rose?"
"It's not that," he argues. "How can I tell her that her fiancé - the guy she's supposed to love - is the one who wants her dead?"
"Hey, I wasn't surprised at all when Ellie told me the prof wanted me dead," Rose pipes up, with her head in Elesis's lap. "Aisha probably figured things out long before you did. If she was smart enough to give herself mild cyanide poisoning, she has to be smart enough to realize her fiancé is the one trying to steal her worth."
"He wants her books," Elsword says. "Why? It's not for the money. Is it for the intellectual worth?"
"Probably," Elesis says, shrugging. "Whatever it is, just remember that you have less than a day left to make your decision. Then Hennon starts hiring someone else."
Elsword takes a deep breath. "I have a plan," he says. "But I'm gonna need to teach you guys something I should have taught you a long, long time ago."
It's one in the morning when Elsword reaches Aisha's balcony again. He quietly pushes open the screen door, making sure to lock it from the inside when he gets in.
Aisha is in her kitchen, nursing a mug of cold Earl Grey. "So," she says as he approaches, and doesn't say anything else.
"So?" He says. "I can't do this anymore, Aisha Landar. I won't let anyone kill you, let alone myself."
"You have two hours left," she says, and that's when Elsword knows for sure that she knows too. "Am I right?"
"That's an hour and fifty-nine minutes more than I need," he says. "I know you know who's trying to kill you at this point."
Aisha's expression is serene. "I know," she whispers. "Why do you think I let you steal me away, night after night, even though I'm engaged?" And although she's still, her eyes betray her fear. "I'm glad Hennon hired you, instead of someone else. I didn't think I could love again after I found out what he was planning to do."
She turns around and kisses him, burying her hands in his hair, and lets him lift her up onto the counter, lets his hands wander under her blouse, lets him pick her up and carry her to her bedroom.
Elsword does it all breathlessly, lips and body locked against hers.
A scream escapes Aisha's lips, forming Elsword's name.
"I love you," she gasps, crying out again as he lays a train of butterfly kisses across her neck. "I love you so, so much."
(The "please don't ever leave me" is more or less implied.)
And then it's over, and then their bodies are still tangled together as they whisper to each other the love they've finally found, the love they've needed.
"Please tell me you love me as much as I love you," Aisha says, almost begs. "Please."
In the dim light, Elsword finds her lips and kisses her again. "I really do," he promises sincerely. "I really do love you. And I'm not going to let anyone try to hurt you anymore."
He brushes her hair out of her face, the tears out of her eyes. "It's late," he says simply. "We'll probably be leaving pretty early in the morning, so you should get your rest."
"And you?" Aisha asks, grasping his hand as he begins to pull away.
"I'll be your guard for tonight, just like every other night from now on." He kisses her forehead, her nose, her lips. "Get some sleep, and I'll be here when you wake up. So until then, goodnight, my love."
"Don't you have better things to be doing?" Elsword snaps, watching as the other assassin climbs through the window.
"Hey, I'm taking a job." Ara shrugs. "Shouldn't you also be, y'know, not sleeping with your target?"
He winces. "Is it really that obvious?"
Ara laughs out loud. "Oh please. I was the bookkeeper for a madam for two years," she says. "I can practically smell the sex coming from that room."
She twirls her stiletto blade around in her hand. "I don't want to do this job, just as much as you don't," she admits. "I'm a huge fan of her series. But I have a family to provide for."
And Elsword only smiles, reaches for the suitcase on the armchair. He's always had a way of extorting money out of clients, after all, and even with Elesis and Rose's expenses covered, he's still got more money than he knows what to do with. "I think I can help with that."
He hands the entire thing to Ara. "That's just shy of a billion Elrios Dollar," he says, watching as Ara opens it in shock to count the stacks of bills. "You have a husband and twins, right? Take care of them."
Ara is silent for a while, simply staring at the money. "Get out of here before six if you want to keep her safe," she says, and then adds, "and please do. I need to find out if Cory outlives Ea."
And then she's gone.
Elsword sighs and closes the balcony door, checking all the locks and windows in the apartment once before returning to Aisha's room. She's still sleeping soundly. He smiles, presses a kiss to her forehead, and goes to grab his coffee.
He'll do anything to keep her safe, and if that means keeping vigil at her door to guard her, then that's what he'll do.
The internationally successful author Aisha Landar is discovered to be missing the next day. The most recent draft of her newest novel, along with the laptop containing the entire plot line for her series, has disappeared along with her. No traces of foreign DNA can be found in her apartment, save for a single feather of a white dove belonging to a magician, whose alibi is thoroughly scrutinized but determined to be clean. A bundle of sheets is found in the washing machine, still sopping wet but providing no help.
In a heartfelt interview, her fiancé, director Hennon of Henir Pharmaceuticals, declares his intention to continue his late fiancée's legacy as an author, before breaking down into tears.
Somewhere in the nearby rural town of Ruben, a redheaded young man enters a jewelry store, requesting an appraisal on the diamond ring that "once belonged to my mother". With the money, he buys a slim ring with only a small amethyst gem, because his girlfriend does a lot of typing work, and he'd hate for it to get in the way of her work when he proposes.
In Elder, a young woman finally wins her legal battle against the professor who tried to not only steal her blueprint but murder her as well. Her fiancée celebrates by using her new cooking skills to make them dinner.
A jubilant mother of fraternal twins returns home to find her husband playing with their children quietly, watching them grow up. With the money from her unexpected transaction, she'll be able to pay the bills, and let her husband experience the childhood he never had through their children.
A month later, in a small ceremony in the town hall in Ruben, rings and vows are exchanged, with the promise to always protect one another. At the end of it, they go home to their new tiny apartment, where they order Chinese delivery. Elsword gives his spring rolls to Aisha.
("Husband and wife," he repeats, over and over. "What a concept.")
Hennon releases a statement, informing readers that the newest book in the late Aisha Landar's series will be published a month after promised since the last draft was lost. What no one expects, however, is for the promised book to appear on the market, the day it was promised, under a different publishing company, by the same woman of a different name: Aisha Sieghart.
At first, the public is in shock, but as police checks and meetings come to light, so does Hennon's clear horror. He takes Aisha to court for trying to impersonate his late fiancée, and she makes her own argument that he tried to murder her to take over her writing fame.
It's proved very early in the trial with the power of DNA testing that Aisha is, in fact, herself, so Hennon changes his accusations to those of adultery and fraud. However, her legal team is easily able to crush his accusations and move on with their own.
Her number one witness is the anonymous, masked hitman with flaming red hair who has papers and recordings proving that Hennon hired him to kill her. When asked what his relationship to Mrs. Aisha Sieghart is, he only replies that he is her husband, and the one who saved her from an untimely death.
And then Hennon is sent away, and although Elsword doesn't go unpunished for his past career, he doesn't really care. The one good thing he's done in his life turned out alright, after all.
(Being a favourite of Aisha's fans helps a lot. They call him her masked hero, and some even liken them to Luthien and Beren. After Aisha makes him read the Lord of the Rings legendarium, he kinda gets what they mean.)
"Do you think we should thank Rena for letting us crash in her bar?" Aisha wonders one night, as they're curled up in each other's embrace in the covers. "I mean, we kinda did get it on there after I kissed you that first time."
Elsword thinks about it for a moment. "We should. But maybe another time," he says. "It's late now. Time to get some sleep."
He kisses her forehead softly. "Goodnight, my love."
This time, instead of stiletto blades and loose cyanide crystals dancing in their dreams, they're dancing with each other.
A/N: 2018 is going to be the year of me pulling up old ideas from out of the void and finishing them
this is actually the third draft of this fic! the first, original draft has been lost because there were some serious issues with it and the second was accidentally deleted... but i like this version best!
to clarify some things:
- Elsword is an assassin, Aisha is a novelist, and Hennon is her fiance who's really just trying to take her writing fame
- Elesis was an assassin, but after meeting Rose, she gave up her career. The reason they can't support themselves is because Rose is caught up in a legal battle against her professor, and Elesis doesn't have the education to find a well-paying job.
- Ara is currently an assassin trying to support her family (you can probably deduce who that is)
and now back to french bc i have a presentation in two days
~Marg