Another absurd thing that hit at 2 AM and wanted to get written. Takes place in SR1 about in the middle of the game's timeline, and done purely in good fun.

"What I'd give to be a fly on the wall of those meetings."

V took a bite of her burger and leaned forward to see past Dee. Troy and Dex were standing close to the entrance to the offices in the back, both stuck in a conversation that appeared to be going south fast, and she groaned in disappointment when Julius ushered them both inside.

"Don't know," Dee said, chewing on the onion ring in her hand. She reached for the last ketchup packet and kicked her feet up onto the seats they'd stolen. "Seems like boring shit most of the time."

"Boring? Please."

"It's big talk with everyone trying to swing their dicks around. If I want that I head down to the club. At least I'd be able to get dinner with that show."

"It's not all politics and business. You never know, they could running the numbers from the last Skeeters game."

"And they could all be highfiving each other in the middle of a massive gang-bang. Big deal."

V choked, and pounded on her chest as she coughed. "The fuck, Dee!"

"What? I'm just throwing out ideas. I mean half the place jokes that they're all fucking anyway. They all spend enough time together to begin with. Then again," she mulled, tapping her fingers on her knee, "I don't even think getting laid would help Dex unwind. Lord, just when you think someone can't get high-strung enough..."

"It'd help if you walked in without shouting at him." V said, gathering up their trash. "...It'd also probably help if you didn't give him shit just because he's not Troy."

"I've got two bosses. That's my limit. One of them jumps up my ass enough as it is."

"I'm just saying, if you want info don't be a dick about it."

"Says you. Kiss ass."

V rolled her eyes and threw the wadded up bag at her. "Shut up. You've got to know when to bitch and when to roll with it. Now how about those cars you mentioned earlier?"

"What, the list of shit that they're willing to let go for cheap? What about it?"

"I think I'd like one."

She didn't bother to knock when she ran into the office later. Just barreled in and tossed a small bag of powder across the desk.

It almost smacked Dex in the arm, but he didn't stop writing. "Thanks. Want to tell me what that is?"

"Heroin. Coke. Some mish-mash they thought would be cool to toss together, I don't know. Carnales were trying to sling it by my place."

"You trace it back?"

"You bet I did. Beat the shit out of them and took an entire apartment full of this stuff." V pulled up a chair and spun it around to straddle it. "I've got a few guys breaking it down right now, but we've got to keep a better eye out. We might've pushed them back, but they aren't getting the message yet."

Dex picked the bag up and turned it over. "Any idea where they were trying to sell?"

"Old Rollerz territory. ...And my fucking street, but I think that was more random than anything else. They had a map up with some other planned routes, but I figured we could stop by when you're free and go over the important stuff."

"Nice." He tossed the bag back to her, looking pleased, and went back to his papers. "I've got some things to finish up, but you come by early tomorrow and we'll clear it up."

She stashed it in her pocket and made a mental note to pitch it once she got home. "Ah. Still got stuff from the meeting?"

The pen paused, but went right back to recording a sentence or two about the Vice Kings. "You could say that."

She wasn't trying to pry too hard, but Dex didn't even move the papers out of sight or tell her to leave. So she peeked, watching his neat handwriting detail the mess she'd made of Tanya's old place. "The boss wasn't pressing you too hard, was he?"

"No. You did good, actually. Keeping Tanya from crawling back gives us the advantage in the area and King's got to be bleeding money left and right. That hurts, and Julius wants us to keep the heat on."

She grinned, and noticed Dex mirror the gesture even though his eyes never left his work. "Cool. So, mostly just business as usual?"

"You know it. Never stops."

"Nothing too terribly exciting?"

Dex raised his head, noticed the way she was idly picking at her fingerless gloves, then went back to work. "You're intent on that today. Any reason why?"

"No, just curious." Her eyes flicked up and Dex did so at the same time. "About nothing."

"You're a horrible liar, V."

"Hey, you looked tense earlier. I had no idea if what Julius wanted to say was good or bad, so I figured I'd ask without asking."

"Which doesn't get you anything."

"But it doesn't piss you off either, so...huzzah?"

He gave a short laugh and pulled over one of the folders he'd kept off to the side. "Mission accomplished?"

"Kind of." She switched positions in the chair so that she was facing the wall instead. "I still have no idea what the hell you were talking about, but a girl can wonder right?"

"She can wonder as much as she wants." He flipped it open, and she did her best not to immediately start scanning its contents. "No problem there."

"But at some point you've got to let me in on all those wild sex parties you guys have. They sound amazing."

There was a clatter and V glanced over to see that Dex's pen had fallen from his hand and rolled right off of the desk. "What?"

"You know. The freaky shit that the LT's do on the weekends. Must be the ones that I don't stop by on, because I seem to miss them every time."

"The fuck? You're not being serious about this, are you?"

Her neutral expression cracked, then broke at the look on Dex's face. "Nah, I'm totally messing with you. You might want to do something about those rumors, though. Pretty damn hot."

He pressed his hands to his temples. "I'm sure they are." He recovered his pen and glared at her when she didn't stop smirking, but started to smile himself. "Fuck. That's a new one."

"You're telling me. I was all set up to be disappointed too. No fun guessing who's bending who over what if you don't get a turn."

"Don't worry. You want one, I'll be the first to let you know," he said, flipping through the papers again. "Might want to ease into this gently next time, though."

"Gently?" She turned the chair so she could face him head on. "Only if you ask nicely."

His pointed stare didn't last when the two heard someone trading words from outside.

One voice she couldn't pin down, but Troy's was impossible to miss, accent and all. Dex went right back to his papers while she folded her arms behind her head. Neutral was what she had aimed for, but her posture tensed the moment after he knocked on the doorframe and came right in.

You could only joke about bending someone over for so long, and she willed her mind not to jump from point A to point B while he was within arm's reach.

"Busy?"

"Don't think it'd matter if I was," Dex replied, folding his arms. "You got something?"

Troy had a file in his hand and dropped it on the only clear corner of the desk. "Dragged some extra info out about the deal coming up. Thought you might want to check up on that."

"I'll put it on the list. V's got something going on, so I'll get to it once we're done."

"Something?" He turned towards her and she felt her throat close up. "Something good?" The sharp nod made him cant his head to the side, and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from swearing. "You okay?"

The minute the nervous laugh left her mouth she knew she was done. "Yeah, it's nothing."

"Nothing? Sure." Checking Dex next, he took a decent drag off of his cigarette and frowned. "Any light you can shed on this?"

Dex traded a look with her, but all he did when she gestured for him to drop it was shrug. "Some."

"Such as?"

"Just some disappointment. She's lucky I'm not going to go down the list of reasons why we're not all having sex right now."

Troy choked on the smoke he was exhaling and V wanted to sink into the floorboards. Sink low then try to reach even lower than that. When he recovered enough to snap his head towards her her hands flew up. "Wait a minute! That's not what I said-"

"For real? I know I heard something in your tone when you went on about it. Didn't want to be left out."

The insult didn't quite leave her mouth as she scowled at Dex, but she switched tack when she noticed the odd way Troy was looking at her. She crossed her arms and pouted. "Would you? Shit, here I was thinking I'd just need to start staying late after cards. See what that's all about."

"Those back rooms are pretty spacious," Dex noted.

"The tables seem pretty sturdy too. How many do you think we could fit on there?" She looked between the two, but the way the corner of Troy's mouth kept on edging down told her her luck would be better with Dex. "With shuffling. Lots of shuffling."

"Three would be safe, four would be pushing it."

"Could always drag another over. Twice the room, twice the fun."

"That's...not a bad idea." Dex conceded, leaning back in his seat.

She tapped her fingers on her chin and let her lips curve up. "Still got to take a few things into account, though.."

"Like what?"

"Johnny, and whomever else is invited to that match. Could get pretty fucking creative even with the right amount of real estate. I think Lin would laugh me out of the room at the suggestion, but you'd be cool, right?"

Dex thought it over, but didn't hide his smile. "I could be down for that. You?"

"Between you and Gat?" Her grin went wicked as she eyed him up. "If I have to be the meat in anyone's sandwich, I couldn't ask for better." Switching to Troy, she made sure to drag her eyes over him at an excruciatingly slow pace. "If I play my cards right maybe I could even wrangle you up there. Four's reasonable-"

"Can you just stop?" Troy wasn't looking at either of them now, and she saw his jaw work as he walked over towards the corkboard. "Don't we have any real fucking business to go over?"

"Not even going to try playing along, eh?" she asked chewing on her lip.

He pinned some additional notes to the board, making Dex sit up straight, but didn't bother to turn around. "With your game of who's going to try and turn you into a pretzel first? Think I'll pass."

Dex let out a low whistle as her slight blush went dark, and she shut her mouth tight.

"Dex, you ever get that thing settled with Julius?"

V pulled down on the brim of her hat and kept her eyes glued to the table as Dex pushed his chair back and got up. "Thing? You want to be more specific than that?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Lopez. The McManus."

"No news usually means one thing."

"It's on?"

The question hung in the air, and Dex let it go until he was satisfied it'd been long enough. "We're still on. Wasn't much to settle."

Troy sighed. "Same as before?"

"That's right."

"And you?" He gestured towards her, but she didn't acknowledge it. "Getting in some practice still?"

Her aim was shaky, but getting better every day. Johnny's tip on keeping her breathing in line helped, and the fact that she was trying to use it now wasn't lost on her. "Yep."

"It's not giving you any serious problems? I know we probably should've given you the rundown sooner. Tried to set you up with something that didn't kick as bad-"

"Don't sweat it, chief. I'm rock solid."

He let the words trail off, and she saw Dex approach out of the corner of her eye. "You heard her. Solid. She'll be ready when we need her."

Troy reached for the dwindling cigarette in his mouth and she turned her head enough to catch him studying her. Her fingers dug into her arms and she went back to staring at the papers on Dex's desk.

"You ever get a chance to look into that lead about the shipyard?"

Dex touched her shoulder and she nodded. "Yeah. Looks busy, but they've got a strict routine they stick to. I get enough people there at the right time and we can clear it."

"Sooner or later?"

"Sooner." She tilted her head so she could see him from under the brim of her hat. "There's a big shipment coming in this week. I'd hate to let that squeeze by."

"Good. Get back to me when you've got a time and date set."

She nodded again, and couldn't quite avoid Troy's steady gaze. "Will do."

Dee grinned at her when she passed by, but dropped it fast when she had to catch her arm. "Shit. What did they do, ream you in there?"

"No, and for the record please don't bring up orgies ever again." She raised an eyebrow and V rolled her eyes. "The only one having raunchy sex around here is you, Dee. …And possibly Gat. Anyway, I need to get wasted. Pronto."

"Like primo pronto, or..."

"I don't even give a shit right now."

"Oh, fuck. You had to drop that bomb, didn't you?" Dee slung an arm around her shoulders and guided her towards the door. "Way to go, sweets."

"Dropped it, threw myself into it, and why the hell do I even open my mouth sometimes?"

"Because you're a hoot. Don't worry about it." She tugged her closer and pressed a small kiss to the side of her forehead. "Their loss."

She supposed it was, and later at the bar when she started her line of shots and pounded back the last she couldn't help but reflect back on it again.

How Dex had played along with no objections while Troy couldn't even pull a smile off. It made her sip her next drink as she tried to piece together the expression on his face.

It'd take one more for her to say, 'Screw it', and one more soon after to switch to wondering about him in general. How he'd purse his lips a certain way when he'd exhale, and switch to pulling off the most difficult tricks at her prompting. How during games he'd grip the cards when he had a decent hand, while the other tapped at his cigarette. The way he'd slip her an extra smoke even if she wasn't out, and spark his lighter before she'd even reach hers.

How warm he'd felt when she'd leaned in close before. Wrapped an arm around him. Touched him.

One step further and she knew this dance. Had played it out more than once, but never could get rid of the way her chest fluttered at the idea.

She couldn't drink enough to push the thought out after that.