Chapter 3

St. P's Pub

St. Patrick or better known as "St. P" was a very happy fellow. Although once spent a couple days in prison for letting a human see him. A sad story that was. He was above ground for vacation and accidentally dropped a bag of gold by a rainbow. Well, when he went back to look for it a wandering human saw him, so he ran. The human tried to convince others it seems but no one believed him, so it just became a myth. Slowly his pub became one of the most popular in Haven.

Trouble entered the pub and sat down at a pretty nice table by the window. You could see up, down and across the street, into the grocery store window from the table. About two minutes after Trouble sat down a waiter came up to him. "What would you like to drink, honey?" said the waiter with a heavy southern accent. " Um just water, I'm driving tonight." Said Trouble as he waved his keys. The waiter nodded and hurried of to get his drink. As if almost on cue Chix walked through the door and looked around. Trouble sighed; sprites weren't very smart were they? He waved in Chix's direction "Hey Chix over here!" Trouble said. Chix looked in his direction and came to sit down. "Hey Trouble" said Chix as he took a seat next to him. "Hi Chix" said Trouble.

There was a moment of silence that was broken by Trouble,

"Hey Chix, did you notice that the commander was in a pretty good mood today?" asked Trouble.

"Yeah," said Chix truthfully "He's been like that all week I wonder what it's about?"

"Maybe he got a girlfriend?" said Trouble sarcastically

Chix snorted loudly at the idea "The day the commander gets a girlfriend will be the day Holly wears a skirt!"

"Yeah like that would ever happen" mumbled Trouble

Chix stared out the window for a second then let out a low whistle. Trouble rolled his eyes; it always meant the same thing when Chix whistled. He had seen a girl. "Who is it now Chix?" sighed Trouble. "That one over there." said Chix gesturing to a woman in a black skirt and tang top facing the grocery store window. "Chix!" said Trouble in an exasperated voice "You can't even see her face!"

"Yeah," retorted Chix "but you can still tell that she is really hot, I mean look at her auburn hair!"

Just then Captain Vein walked in and sat down, "Hey guys" said Vein. "Hey Ash" said Trouble. "What were you guys talking about?" asked Ash. "That hot girl standing by the grocery store." answered Chix. "You mean the one in the skirt?" asked Vein. "That's the one," answered Trouble.

And then Commander Root walked in, and seated himself at the table. An awkward silence took everyone over. "Hey guys what were you talking about?" asked Root. More silence. There was probably only one guy there with enough daring to answer him, so he did. "We were talking about that girl over there," gestured Trouble "Chix thinks she's pretty but you can't even see her face!" Root gave a small chuckle (Root chuckling? That is ssoooo out of character, I wonder why he's so happy?….) And said "Then why don't you find out, Trouble?"

"Yeah," piped in Ash "drinks are on me if you can get her number!"

"Ok," replied Trouble "I'll do it!" and with that he got up and started walking towards the girl. He decided to turn around and give the guys one last look before he went in, unfortunately that was the exact time the girl shifted and the guys at the bar could see her face. As soon as Root and the others saw her face they started making motions and signals telling Trouble not to go. But it was too late; he was already there.

"Hey babe, I haven't seen you around before, what's your name?" asked Trouble coolly, walking up behind the girl. Holly had had it, first work and now this arrogant elf is hitting on her? That was it! "Sorry if most girls are taken by that line but I'm not, and I would NEVER tell my name to a jerk like you! Never the less go out with you!" said Holly through gritted teeth, with her back still turned to him "So, if you could just please bu-" Holly started but she had turned around and saw who she was talking to. Trouble's eyes widened in shock, had he just called Holly a babe?

Holly was the first of the two to regain her breath, "Trouble, is that you?" asked in Holly in surprise.

"Yeah," mumbled Trouble as he shifted uncomfortably "I guess I didn't recognize you out of uniform…"

Holly laughed a little "I don't think I'd recognize myself!" said Holly "Its just that I'm going to visit my mother and she always bugs me about not wearing any girly stuff!"

There was a bit of silence and then Trouble almost instinctively blurted out "You look good in skirts, you should wear them more often."

"Thanks Trouble" said Holly, and for a split second there their eyes locked. But Holly clumsily shifted and knocked over a couple of oranges at the stand and their eyes broke. "Whoops!" said Holly as she bent down to get them. Holly bent down and started to reach for one, but by the time his hand was on the orange Trouble's hand was on hers. Trouble looked down at his hand for a second but then quickly retracted it. "Sorry" he mumbled as he stood up. "That's ok," said Holly standing up beside him "Well, I got to get going I'll see you around!" and with that she walked off.

Trouble stood there trying to take in what just happened, had he and Holly flirted? Nah, he thought to himself Holly was his friend! But he had never seen her like that; she had looked so… 'Don't say it!' Trouble thought to himself. Beautiful….

His daze was broken by Ash giving him a playful slap on the back and saying "That was hilarious! You should have seen your face!" said Ash laughing hysterically.

"Yeah, nice joke." Said Trouble in an annoyed voice. "We really didn't know it was her man!" said Chix defensively. "Well, I got to go see ya later." Said Trouble as he started to walk off. "Were you got to go?" said Root. "To think…" said Trouble and with that he was gone.