The legalities: I do not own any of the Expendables franchise (characters, places, and objects especially) and this is mostly au.Rated M just to be on the safe side.

Hope you enjoy!

Prompt: "You have blood on your knees. No one goes nowhere and gets blood on their knees."

There were many things that Lacey had seen in the times that she would come into Tool's Tattoo Shop. It was getting to the point that she was sure that nothing would surprise her anymore whenever she would come to visit either Lee or Jacoba. She really shouldn't tempt fate like that, though.

Jacoba was late for their shopping trip. It wasn't too surprising to Lacey in and of itself, seeing as, even with multiple alarms and a watch, the woman would probably be late for her own funeral. Lacey was just trying to not pace as she waited in the front room of the shop. Those sales weren't going to last all day!

Just as Lacey was contemplating grabbing her phone to call her, the bell over the front door rang out. Turning toward it, Lacey furrowed her brow at the sight in front of her. Coming in the door, looking mostly clean but slightly ruffled, were Jacoba and Gunnar, of all people. And they were smirking at each other like they had just shared an inside joke. This was a sight that both surprised and scared her.

Filing that away for later, Lacey decided to have her own fun. Putting her hands on her hips, she declared, "And where the hell have you been?"

Both of the new arrivals halted and turned fully towards Lacey. Jacoba's eyes had gotten comically wide and Gunnar was just looking back and forth between the two. Taking a deep breath, Jacoba sent a pointed look at Gunnar, who smirked, before turning back to Lacey, standing up a bit straighter. "Nowhere."

By this time, Lacey was looking at her best friend incredulously. "Did you just say nowhere?" At the shared nod, Lacey rolled her eyes. "I don't believe either of you. You both have blood on your knees. No one goes nowhere and gets blood on their knees."

In any other situation, Lacey would have thought that the sight of both Jacoba and Gunnar looking down at their knees to verify what she had said would be hilarious. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she shook her head and pointed towards the backroom. "Would you two just go clean up. And Jacoba, go change so that we can go shopping like you promised, please?"

The two in question, quietly for once, quickly walked to the backroom to do as Lacey asked. If, when she peeked in a couple minutes later to ensure that they weren't fighting, she saw them quietly talking while helping each other, Lacey wouldn't say anything. One day, she'll get the story out of Jacoba. Until then, she'd just rib her on how close the two had seemed to be in that moment. This was going to be fun.