Chapter 7: Corruption Spreading
"Whatever," Revy mumbled, her head propped on her left hand. She was listening to Rock ramble on about this business with Ulysses, though she didn't much care. The café they were sitting at wasn't too crowded. On their day off, they weren't sure exactly where else to go, especially seeing as how Dutch and Wolf had gone to the Rip-off Church to acquire a shipment of weapons.
"You don't seem very interested," Rock noticed at last.
"Really? What was your first clue?" she asked sarcastically. Rock sighed, followed by an extended silence broken only by the Japanese man sipping at his tea.
"So…what's the deal with you and your new pet?" Revy asked at last.
"Huh?"
"Old Wolfy Boy. You two getting along nicely?" Rock set his tea down and cleared his throat.
"I knew you didn't like him," he said.
"He's just full of shit," Revy claimed. "We should have just left him at the Yellowflag."
"I think there's more to it," Rock began. If this was like any past conversations where Rock challenged her authority, it would end with his nose broken or a bullet somewhere in his body. "I think you're threatened by him."
"Hah! Try again."
"No, I think so. It's happened before. Roberta, Eda, Ginji…all of them were exceptional fighters. And all of them were challenged by you at some point. You have this excessive need to take out anyone as or more powerful than you. Wolf is just another name on the list."
"Shut it, Rock!" Revy snarled, standing up from her seat and glaring into Rock's unwavering eyes. Noticing the attention she was attracting, she took a seat once more. "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about." Rock decided to leave it alone. If he pressed the matter further, she may not be so willing to sit back down. A confrontation between her and Wolf was more than likely inevitable. Rock just hoped it didn't end with one of them dead. "Goddammit, what's taking Ulysses so long to call us back?" she exploded out of nowhere. "He can't be that damn busy."
"We'll get the call," Rock assured her. "They'll interrogate Alexander and get the information. After that, they can kill him and be done with it." Revy's eyes flashed forward to land on the uncharacteristically violence-condoning Rock. She didn't like when he got like that. When they first met, Rock was this whiny, frightened little kid, a pathetic excuse for a member of Lagoon Company. Recently, he'd been succumbing more and more to the corruption of her world. It pissed her off to see that.
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Well, we won't have any more use for him…right? After we get the information, he's just dead weight."
"Stop it, Rock!" The normally timid man shot up from his seat then and slammed his fists down on the table.
"No, you stop, Revy!" he roared at her, his voice becoming gradually louder with each word. "I don't know what it is in your head that makes you feel the need to control me, but it needs to stop! You once said I wasn't cut out for this line of work. And it scares you that I'm becoming more suited to this world. Well, too bad, Revy! Why don't you worry about your own life for a change and keep your nose out of mine?!" Rock was the type of person to remain calm and collected, keeping his anger and fear bottled up or suppressed. When it came out, it came with a vengeance. It would more than likely be his undoing one day. Revy kicked the table over, dragged Rock over to her by his tie and punched him square in the face, breaking his nose.
"How fucking dare you!" she growled at him. Seemingly at a loss for words, she turned and left him there, curled into a ball on the ground. That certainly could have gone better. As he waited for the pain to subside, he called Dutch for a ride. Revy more than likely took the car and left him there. There was no way he was walking back. Ten minutes later, Wolf drove up on his own. Rock stumbled over to the car and got in, wiping blood away from his face. Wolf just stared at him with unblinking confusion and slight amusement.
"Who were you with?" he asked.
"Ugh! Revy," the bloodied man answered, still in pain.
"She lose her shit like this often?"
"More than you'd think." Wolf chuckled heartily.
"Oh, I dunno. I think she'd lose it quite a bit." He turned around and took off towards home. The journey would not take that long. If Revy was there, it would be painfully awkward to face her.
"The fuck did you say to her, man? I mean, granted, the first day I met her she put a gun to my head but still. Looks like you really pissed her off." Slowly, Rock roughly outlined what their conversation had been about, embellishing some of the details about his outburst. As he finished, Wolf nodded understandingly.
"Well, I know you probably don't want to hear it right now but she's not wrong. Life is shitty, Rock. And it's even shittier when you do what we do. It might make sense to dedicate yourself to this life, to give in to the corruption…but it's not. Believe me. Don't lose yourself to the darkness." Rock simply frowned at that, more annoyed that the assassin hadn't really provided any useful advice, at least in his eyes.
"What makes you so qualified to tell me this?" he questioned. "You and me…we're nothing alike. You're just like all the others." Surprisingly, Wolf almost looked hurt for a moment before resuming his stony expression.
"Easy, Mister Business," he mocked. "I'm more like you than you might know. I'm not going to break your nose to make you see it, but…think about it." They did not speak for a few moments. "Ah, I don't mean to be talking shit to you like this. Fuck it, forget what I said if it makes you feel any better. You think that lad at the Yellowflag will serve us?" Rock couldn't help but laugh at that.
"I doubt it," he said. "You did wreck his bar."
"And if he gives me any more cheek, I'll wreck his face."
