Fateful Encounter
Chapter Two: Memories, Booze, and Women
(Flik x Rina)
NOTE: Rate T+
…
The sun had gone hours ago, along with everyone. Leona's bar had been occupied by a few drunkards until a while ago, and they too had been too tired and returned to their rooms. Well, almost everyone but one person.
Flik had been taking a spot on the corner of the bar, away from anyone, for the past few hours. He didn't seem to be moving from his spot anytime soon. The barkeep moved around and gazed at the cuckoo clock on the side of her bar, it was about several minutes passed one a clock in the morning. She sighed.
"Flik, honey. It's one o'clock, you should go back to your room and have some sleep." Leona put her hands on her hips; her face was tired and a little bit concerned.
Flik just shook his head. "Sorry Leona, but I think imma staying here a bit longer. Leave a bottle or two in my table, and you're good to go. I promise I won't make a mess." his voice was a bit unsteady, but at least he still had his senses. "Cheers." he motioned a salute with his glass, and continued drinking.
Leona shook his head in exasperation. "It's that time of the year again, huh… Well. I guess nothing I can do about it then…" she mumbled to herself in a gentle voice, giving up all attempts to push him further. "Anyway. I'm going to bed. I'll leave the lights on, okay? You go back whenever you wanna go back. Or I guess I'm just gonna find you in this very spot tomorrow morning." She looked around a bit, realizing how empty and hollow the bar must be without all the people who usually populated the room to brought loud, merry atmosphere. Is it wise to leave a person unattended in such stillness? After debating for a second or two, she decided Flik would be okay sitting here by himself, even without her or Viktor to babysit him. Besides, what might happen? The castle was quiet at night and guards were on standby on the corridor. Really, nothing could go wrong.
With that thought, Leona finally left him alone.
Flik kept drinking. Right then, he wasn't alone in his mind. He was with his eternal lover, Odessa. Even if it was just a fragment of her soul, a projection of his mind, right there in his heart. In normal days, he kept her dormant in the corner of his mind, latent and not threatening. In silent nights, Odessa sometimes greeted him and smiled. He usually smiled back, and embraced her with a bit of pain, but also a little bit of happiness. In silent nights, Odessa was a tame memory. Might have been coming out from nowhere, but tame nonetheless.
It's only on this day in every year, that the memory once again relieved itself without his permission. The memory trailed off without him having the power to neither stop nor control and make him lost track of reality. It sucked him to a black hole, a hole he thought he covered well. A hole he thought he had filled with new memories and bonds he had forged along the way. But only in this day in every year, the hole was re-opened… She will laughed and danced with him, they would spend some quality time together, and he would fell in love with her all over again… But in the end, it's always the same ending. In the end, Odessa was gone. Disappear. And he would be left in his hole, unattended, delirious, and alone. Without her.
Like today. Because today was her death anniversary.
-,-,-
Rina was restless, she was naturally a nomadic street performer and yet she had been staying in a place for more than a week. Forget one week, it was almost two months! Two weeks, by her standard, was already too long, and this had been two months? Not that she regretted it, oh no, she did not. She liked this castle, she liked Riou, and she liked almost all of the palace's residents. But she was an adventurer by nature, a traveler, a free-spirited person. She can't lie to herself that she missed being in a journey.
Though, there were quite plenty of entertainments to keep her busy and keep down those desires to leave the castle and continue their travel. For one, there were truly plenty of attractive guys around, basically adoring her and swooning over her. She enjoyed the attention. Rina always knew she was gorgeous and can be skillful with his womanly charm if she wanted to. Second, she knew there won't be any place in City-State that could be safe as long as Luca Blight was alive.
The woman decided that she really couldn't sleep. After glanced to her side and corrected the blanket position on her sister, she carefully stepped out of the bed and quietly opened the door. She closed the door behind her and thought to herself, 'Now where can I go?'
Rina decided she'd go checked out the bar, it's already passed midnight, but if she's lucky, she might be able to catch someone and hangout.
And there he is. The unmistakably blue outfit, someone she had been secretly refered as a 'Prince', though she won't admit it to anyone but herself.
She smiled brightly and approached the man. "Hello there." she spoke, her voice alluring.
Flik looked up from the vacant air he had been staring at from the past few hours. "Ah… Rina." he gestured in greeting, his voice rather unsteady and a bit rough.
Rina took a chair next to him, leaning a bit to the table to face the man and resting her hand on her hair, twirling it a little. "What are you doing at this hour by yourself?" she asked.
"Mhmm…" Flik gave her a casual smile he gave to just about everyone else. "I'… uhmm… reminiscing."
Rina gave him her best smile, casually placed her free hand on his shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Oh? And what is it about, if I may ask?"
Fllik nodded again. "Something… that was a part of me once upon a time." he poured more beer in his glass and began took another sip.
Rina kept her disarming smile on her face when she probed, "Can't you tell me? What is it?"
Flik looked down to the table and back to Rina, and nodded a bit. He was drunk, Rina made a mental note, though his natural good nature won't let him turned into an idiot—even if he was slowly losing his senses. "She was… a very strong woman." he said.
Rina felt a pang on her heart. 'So, all of this is about a woman?' she thought bitterly. She lost maybe half of her motive of being there once she heard that. She was about to ended the conversation and stood when Flik continued, "I… hmm… I wasn't there when she left this world,"
Rina glued back to the seat. She was looking into his eyes with much curiosity and a little bit of concern. 'Does he still in love with her? Apparently he does…'
"Do you still love her?"
If Flik was in his right mind, he would have been mad at her for asking such a delicate question. No one had ever asked him that in such a blunt manner, not even Viktor. But Flik wasn't in his usual emotional state… so he simply shrugged and answered.
"I must be still in love with her, right…? Because… she won't leave me alone." he started to ramble, and his words made no sense. Rina frowned. She slowly moved her hand on Flik's shoulder, sliding it down his arm to his elbow and back up, caressing gently. She didn't feel rejection from the man.
"Won't it be better if you…" Rina carefully chose her words, "… let her go?"
Flik's eyes were misty, Rina hardly figured out anything from his look. And then, quite unexpected, the man laughed. First it was chuckles, and then it was laughs. "Hahaha..! You-you're funny…" he coughed between his laugh. Rina blinked a couple time, watching him in mild amusement.
"She's gone, ma'am." suddenly his laugh was halted abruptly, replaced by a solemn tone… but a sad smile was still apparent on his lips. "I can't see her again." with that remark, he rose his glass and finished its content in big gulps.
Rina had it enough. This man was so cool and handsome and all that and yet he was stuck in his past? What kind of sad predicament was that suppose to be? Shaking her head a few times, she leaned towards Flik a little too close, and said with a soft voice. "… Does it have to be her?"
Flik looked a bit taken aback, but said nothing. Rina stood up from her chair and circled him a little so that she was standing right behind him. Her hand flung over the man's shoulder in a half-hug. She leaned a bit forward and whispered on his ear.
"Do you want me to accompany you?"
Now, there's this thing about the night air that created this something in the atmosphere. People had been proven to be more unstable at night, and a bottle or two booze might just gonna enhance it.
When she leaned on him like that, he felt her body warmth. And it felt… nice, really. She smelled good too. He looked to his side, searching for the pretty face he supposed was cute enough to fill the empty hole that had been exposed in this very day, in this very minute. And the face was right there, so pretty and so darn close, with that big eyes and flushed lips, half opened in anticipation, oh-so inviting. He closed his eyes when he switched to automaton, seeking those lips with his. It felt so easy, and so natural.
Odessa was forgotten in the meanwhile.
-,-,-
Rina helped Flik to stand up and then support him all the way to his room since he's too drunk to walk straight.
"Where's that big guy?" Rina panted, carrying an adult male really wasn't an easy task.
"Hnn?"
"Viktor!"
"Oh… he's… uhmm… gone for the night." the drunk guy recalled bits of information stored in the layers of his consciousness, which by the way were slipping by the minutes.
Rina's heart leapt when she heard that piece of information… she couldn't really told her mind not to imagine the possibilities, could she? But then she shook it off and focused more to the task at hand, because she could swear that the guy was getting heavier by the seconds.
She swung open the door and almost dropping Flik on the bed, catching up her breath with a surge of relief when the massive weight was lifted from her.
For a moment she looked nervous and skittish. For once she was seriously debating whether or not she's going to do what she was about to do. Her adventurous spirit clearly challenged her wiser nature to seal the deal right then and there. The only thing that stopped her was that she convinced herself that Flik looked really tired—and that she won't do it with a tired guy, anyway. After debating again for a moment or two, she finally decided to leave it at that. Contrary to what most people think, she too had dignity.
Rina took a breath and told semi-conscious Flik, "Go sleep." She was about to turn to leave the room and let the guy have his rest, when she felt a hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her from leaving. Huh?
"After all that… you're not gonna leave me, aren't you?" his voice low and raspy.
Rina let out a shriek when he felt him yanked her to his side… she landed on his bed with a bump. The man rolled up unti she was trapped beneath him. His eyes looked darker than usual.
"You don't play with fire and hoping not to get burnt…" he rasped. The next thing she knew, the man sunk his face on her neck and start kissing her like he never kissed a woman before. Rina gasped, the heat on her face rapidly spreading to her stomach, a dangerous heat she hadn't experience for a while now. Flik left her neck to kiss her mouth passionately… a display of raw lust. Rina couldn't exactly say she minded it… if anything, it was the opposite. She was eagerly welcomed the kiss and return it in the same wavelength.
The Blue Lightning seemed to be losing all senses now as he put all his weight on Rina when he was kissing her.
Rina caught her breath when Flik finally let go of her mouth and he too, resting his head on the bed. It's too late to back down now, they had crossed the line miles behind them. The heat had been on her for a while now, and she wanted to get burnt...
'Is this the weight of a man when he's lying on top of you?' Rina thought to herself. 'it's heavy… and it's hot…' Rina started to feel overwhelmed by it when she realized…
in utter shock,
… that Flik had lost consciousness.
...
Dumb-stricken, Rina's eyes widened in disbelief as she pushed Flik to the side with all of her strength. She then tried to bring herself to sit, half shocked, half disappointed. No, 'disappointed' gotta be an understatement. She was frustrated, she was fuming.
'Oh dear gods, you must be joking. What have I done to deserve this…?' she asked the gods in her frustration. She was lying flat on her back, mentally spat and laughed at the funny little twist fate decided to play with her. She glanced a little to her side, for the first time that night truly paying attention to the sleeping face. A flawless aristocrat look, with pretty lashes and amazing lips that were just kissing her oh so passionately just a moment ago.
Rina smiled. She rolled a bit and rested her hand on her cheek, her other hand gently caressing Flik's hair. She leaned a bit and kissed him on the forehead.
The woman slowly rose from his bed and threw a last glance in his direction.
'Later, my Prince.'
She opened the door and closed it again. She didn't look back.
