Max snored away slumped in a chair as John spoke with the man known as Dutch in The Yellow Flag bar. To keep Revy happy, John paid for her obscenely large number of drinks. Dutch explained how he ran an international courier business based in Roanapur.
"So you're a bunch of pirates?"
Dutch chuckles. "No fooling you huh?"
"Not easily."
Revy spoke up. "So what the fuck do you do then?"
"Well, Revy I'm a free agent." John said nonchalantly.
"So unemployed then." She laughed.
"No fooling you either then." John said submissively.
Revy cracked a huge grin and ordered more drinks. As she downed another she asked. "And what about Fatass."
John turned to Max who was still slumped in a chair passed out. "He is…also a free agent."
"Yeah…'course he is." Revy chuckled.
Revy was getting pretty affectionate with Shirt-and-Tie sitting next to her. She had an arm around him as she knocked back drinks and pulled him close when she was about to fall off the chair. He was looking pretty tipsy too. John spoke up, feeling a little more comfortable.
"You okay over there Shirt-and-Tie?"
The man looked over swaying a bit in his seat. " *Hic* what?"
His face wash flushed red and his eyes were heavy and dark. Revy laughed and leaned on him pressing him further off the stool. She wrapped an arm around his neck.
"This here's Rock. He's the fuckin negotiator." Rock just stared and swayed.
"… Sure is silent for a negotiator."
"Doesn't say much when he's wasted?"
John took this into account and sipped his first and final drink. Revy and Rock stumbled out into the street. Dutch tried to help John pull the sleeping Max from his slowly warping chair to no avail. Sweat formed on both their faces as they wheezed and pulled but he wasn't leaving that chair anytime soon. The bartender John had come to know as Bao spoke wearily.
"Just leave him here, come pick him up in the morning. Fuck, his stink alone guarantees the bar's security."
John laughed and waved goodbye.
"Thanks Bao, will-do."
They stepped out onto the street. While John was reasonably sober, the rest of them were completely wasted, save for Dutch who looked like he could still comprehend his whereabouts. Suddenly John's heart sank.
"Shit."
"What's up?" Dutch mumbled.
"Only Max knows where the hotel is, I'm such an idiot."
"Well, shit I guess you can just come stay at the office for tonight."
Without a moments hesitation John gratefully obliged. When they got into the office, John was greeted by the sounds of panting and moaning coming from one of the rooms. Dutch didn't seem to notice, or if he did he paid no mind to it. John stopped at the door which was open just wide enough for him to see Revy's naked form being taken from behind by Rock. She was pressed up against a dresser, banging it against the thin walls of the room. She was panting and screaming, covered in sweat and buckling at the knees.
"You better fucking wait for me this time, cowboy." She panted. Rock let out an exhausted moan and kept pumping.
It was at this time John found out the hard way that even during sex, Revy tended to keep her guns strapped to her shoulders. He hadn't noticed before for obvious reasons and almost quicker than he could react, she pulled a cutlass and fired right at him. The bullet tore through his cheek and wedged itself between his last bottom and top teeth. John's ears were ringing and his vision was blurred.
"Eyes off fuckface!" Revy screamed angrily and she continued to unload rounds through the door. John had rolled away from the door and pulled it shut. Dutch who failed to notice the massive tear in John's cheek pulled him to his feet. Mostly because he was drunk and John avoided revealing a direct look at his face, he was able to escape to the bathroom. He unwedged the bullet from his jaw and dropped it into the sink allowing it to rattle into the pipes. He looked over the wound in the mirror. The tear went right up to his left ear, explaining the ringing ears. He let out an exasperated sigh as he watched the wound close, heal and soon become a mere ache in his jaw. It was then he heard a second *clink* and looked down. His body had worked a second bullet out of his chest and he watched as it rolled to the centre of the sink before descending into the depths of the plumbing. Shit, she was trying to kill him. Evil, evil as they come. He tiptoed out of the bathroom and found an empty couch that he would make his bed for the night.
The next morning, John was up first. His coat slid off him as he rose from the couch. In the brighter setting John was able to take in his surroundings better. The office looked plain, although more like a regular apartment. He looked over at a table covered in bottles and booze stains, but what interested John the most were Revy's handguns. Two Custom Beretta 92FS Inox. He picked one up, examining it; a work of art. He really wanted to fire it, see how it handled, however his hopes were dashed as Revy's deceivingly powerful grip wrapped around his wrist. She wore nothing but a towel and panties. Her eyes were bloodshot and she definitely didn't look happy. Her eyes bored holes in him as she growled.
"Listen asshole, I might have been drunk last night but today I'm hung the fuck over and I hate it when people try to play with shit that ain't theirs. So why don't you just take your faggot-ass hands off my guns while their still attached to your wrists."
John blankly stared and let the gun fall from his hand. It fell into her hand and she threw his arm down. Their eyes never unlocked as a knock resonated from the front door. Then nothing. A second knock. Revy didn't move.
"You gonna get that?" John asked.
Revy didn't answer. She just kept giving him the same cold expression. Her eyes looked tired. She couldn't have been more than twenty-five, but her eyes showed blood in them. She had been through hell that was as plain as day. Another knock, this time louder, not aiding Revy's hangover in the least.
"Rock open the fuckin' door!" She roared not taking her eyes off or John for a second.
A few seconds later, Rock slid out of his room and hurried to the door. He opened it just quick enough to receive a fist directly into the forehead. He fell on his ass holding his forehead."
Ooh, sorry, lad. I'm a wee bit slow in the reflexes. Max said wearily.
Max walked in to the apartment looking around curiously until his eyes landed on John.
"Johnny-boy, do ya have the tiniest clue how long it took me ta feind ya? Comin to this house wasn't no stroke a' luck, I been ta ten different shitholes before I got here."
"Sorry, Max but we weren't likely to get you out of that chair any time soon." John said.
"Hahaha. Aye, lad, aye." Max bellowed. "Anyways, I got good news."
"And what's that?" John asked curiously.
"The lass is comin' to Roanapur." Max whispered.
Johns face lit up. The lass he was talking about was Amy. She was everything John loved. He never showed much emotion but if there was one person he would truly open up to it was her. She was one of two people, Max being the other, who knew what he was and she accepted it without hesitation or denial. She didn't think any less of him when she found out either.
"She's coming? She's really coming? You're kidding!" John was excited.
"Aye, lad, just one catch."
John's expression faltered. "What do you mean?
"She's bringing the book."
John's expression slackened to a casual seriousness. The book, the reason for all of this. The running. The hiding. Everything he ran away from was spawned from the pages of that book.
"Don't worry, lad. Just a precaution."
John nodded silently. Without warning the office door opened and Dutch stepped out. After a second of viewing Rock sitting on the floor holding his forehead, Revy half-naked still partially staring John down and Max staring back at him with a raised eyebrow, he spoke.
"Lagoon Company! We've got a job."
