The mission brought Rebecca horrible memories of that time with Van Kleiss and his "peace offering" and Beverly's rescue all together. Trafficking with EVOs seemed like a new way of trafficking people in the modern era.
Fancy dresses. It wasn't as if she was that type of woman, but if the circumstances obliged her to look her best, then she would. And it seemed that she wasn't the only one thinking the same, even if it was much more weird for someone like Six. His black suit shone under the light and that made her wonder what kind of fabric it was made of, but it looked really soft and comfortable to wear, even if the man continued fixing the tie and arching his eyebrow in front of a mirror, while Rex was trying to keep his hair down and sighing each time as if it had a life of its own; it kept doing whatever it wanted.
"Isn't it better if you just wear hair gel?" she asked, looking inside her purse to make sure that everything they needed was concealed properly.
"Right... gel," Rex said, leaving the room and going to the bathroom, making her now pay attention to the man in front of the mirror and shaking her head, walking over to him to hold his tie and end his dilemma, with a kind of choking fixing.
"Stop that. It isn't as if it will magically change to green if you keep fixing it."
Walking away and knowing that he was following each one of her movements with his eyes and his trademark arched eyebrow, Holiday shook her head in the middle of the room as if she was taking care of two children and if the entire mission depended on her. Apart from that, not even a comment on how she looked in her black dress? She even decided to be bolder and leave a good view of her back and cleavage. She had even tried to find something that matched Rex and Six's suits. But of course it was as if she was invisible to the man. And after his memory loss, she felt that it was even worse.
"Don't you think you look better in black than in green?" She asked, and Six shrugged, turning to look at her.
"I'm not used to these kind of fancy events," he said in his usual monotone voice, but he seemed to be pondering something. "Isn't your dress a bit...revealing?" He asked, and her eyebrows shot up.
Really? Not a compliment, but a complaint?
"Just stop looking at yourself in the mirror and let's finish getting ready. We should already be there." His eyes followed her as she left the room, her face flushed. He wondered if she had been expecting to hear something different from what he had said, and decided to follow her and Rex, who had already finished with his hair and was walking behind the woman, though he couldn't keep up with her as she walked as fast as her heels would allow.
"Dude, what happened?" Rex whispered to Six as his pace quickened.
"I just asked if her dress wasn't too revealing," he said, and Rex shook his head, facepalming himself.
"Wouldn't it be easier if you just complimented her, instead of that?"
Of course that she looked beautiful, but in his mind he was more worried about any unwanted advances that could happen during the party than how well she looked in that dress.
"I'm just hoping that there are no men who could take advantage of her for being dressed like that."
"As if Holiday would allow it. Dude, she's so into you, to let someone else even get close to her."
Stopping before entering the airship, Six considered Rex's words. It wasn't the first time he had heard him say that, even though he couldn't remember what had happened between the two of them before, she seemed to always be hurt by the memory loss.
"Let's finish with this." He heard Holiday say again, and stepping inside the airship, he wondered if it was already too late to compliment her.
"Holiday..." he started, looking at the woman sitting beside him while he was piloting the airship. "You... look nice."
"I should thank Rex for that, I suppose?" she asked, so he decided not to indulge in the conversation any more, so as to not annoy her even more if they had to maintain their facade.
Handling their invitations to the party, Holiday looked around and quickly noticed that it was one of these events full of rich people that she neither wanted nor cared to talk to, but she had strict orders from White to gather as much information as possible about the mysterious man who owned the company and his plans behind wanting to protect people from the EVOs.
And it seemed that Rex was ready to mix with the crowd, asking some ladies about their target.
She shook her head a couple of times.
Of course.
Who was she supposed to ask first? If she was there, she was supposed to already know what the master plot was. But she never asked White how he had gotten the invitations for the three of them to be there and Bobo being their escape plan if everything went wrong.
"Look at that handsome man over there!" She heard one of the girls say and stopped debating with herself to look where they were pointing. It was Six, fixing his tie as she supposed she had tied it too hard. Drinks were offered and he took one but looking as if he indeed didn't know what was he even doing.
They soon approached him and started a conversation, surprising her.
So... he was now in the mood for a talk.
"C'mon doc, stop staring at him and get along with the plan." She heard Rex say next to her.
Blushing, Holiday shook her head. She wasn't staring and she definitely didn't care whatever that silly man wanted to do at that stupid party, but she hoped that he remembered their reason for being there.
But she never stopped staring, even when some guests tried to talk to her about the matter she was supposed to ask them about. They didn't know much, just the promise of a great spectacle.
Whatever it was, she didn't really care; she just looked at his face while responding to the women he kept talking with. Sure they had tons of information, as he hadn't moved from the spot he was standing since their arrival to the party.
If he could do that, then why couldn't she talk to some random guys? Would he even care? She then decided to accept a drink and walk away, looking for more clues where she couldn't see whatever Six was doing.
But in the heat of the moment, she forgot that Six could literally notice everything without even having to directly look at his target. And he could indeed see how angry she was, looking at him each time his eyes looked away from the women he was talking with.
Why was she acting like that? He had no clue, but something was bothering the woman since the start of their night and he thought that it had to do with not telling her how beautiful she looked in that dress. But why would she hold onto that for so long?
"Are you single?" One of the women asked, and he raised an eyebrow, still looking around for Holiday but not finding her anywhere, just Rex talking with some guests.
"I..." He started, looking back at the smiling woman in front of him. That wasn't precisely what he had asked them about, so he was confused at the sudden change of topic. Before he could even reply to that, he felt something like a deadly glare and his eyes, behind his glasses, met Holiday's green eyes. The woman followed his gaze and stared at Holiday, making her think that her wrath was like a black aura all around her and that she could see it and notice that he wasn't 'precisely' attending alone.
"Can we talk... just the two of us?" Holiday asked him, arms crossed and looking at him in the same way she would look at Rex if he had done something wrong. He was an adult, a very grown-up one, to be lectured by the woman in front of him. But he suspected that there was no escape from that, as her fury had even caught Rex's attention.
"Am I the only one working here?" They both heard Rex ask, but neither of them paid enough attention as they walked to one of the balconies that the big house possessed.
"Weren't you supposed to ask about the kidnapped and trafficked EVOs, instead of answering questions about your love life?" She asked, unable to contain herself any longer, leaning against the balcony with her arms crossed.
"Love life?" Six asked, raising his eyebrows. What was she even talking about? "All I heard was that our target is some kind of entrepreneur who founded a security company that helps people to deal with EVOs. But none of them know what happens with them once they are captured. Today the man decided to host a show; some kind of flashy event to thank everyone for their trust in his company. But as we know, all they will do is pay money to choose how these captured EVOs will be killed or bought as pets for whatever reason."
Blushing as a result of the conversation and how much he already knew, while she couldn't even find anything because she was preoccupied by him talking to other women, Holiday looked down and sighed.
"You seemed pretty content to talk with all these women but you wouldn't even look at me for more than five seconds." Before he could even say a word, Six noticed that there was a man walking towards them and seemingly reaching his hand out to touch her bare shoulder. The man shrieked as Six held him by his wrist.
"I didn't decide to talk to them. Instead, they approached me." He said, looking at the man and then at the surprised woman, who in her furious state hadn't even noticed that someone else was also there with them. "And, you..." he said, looking at the guy. "You shouldn't touch someone without their permission."
Seeing the interaction, Rex excused himself from everyone and walked as quickly as possible to stop whatever was happening before they got caught.
"Er... Six..." Rex said, raising both hands. "There's no need..." Letting his hand go, the man simply stared as the guy rubbed his injured wrist and hurried inside, fixing his glasses and turning to look at Holiday again, emphasizing his point.
"I told you that the dress was too revealing."
Facepalming himself, Rex couldn't even believe that they were talking about that in the middle of their mission.
"Could you guys sort this out before all our plans go to hell because of it?" Holiday blushed and Six raised an eyebrow.
"Sort out what?" he asked. "I was doing what I was supposed to do. Gathering information," but Rex knew that he wasn't as clueless as he seemed to be. Soon, Six would tie the loose strings together and understand why was Holiday so angry with him for talking to other women.
"This is ridiculous," Holiday said, rubbing her forehead with one of her hands. "Just go with them. They seem to still be waiting for you."
Rex had already been going back to the party and she decided it was better to do the same and drop the topic. Before she could even go back, resigned that perhaps she had been overreacting, a hand stopped her. Six's hand was holding one of hers.
"Were you jealous?" He asked, pushing his glasses up with his other hand. "Or was it because I didn't compliment your dress?"
She didn't even know what annoyed her the most: his flirtatious past behaviour or his clueless current state. Part of the old Six that was gone. His past self that knew how to balance himself perfectly, but she couldn't hold him accountable for that. It wasn't his fault. Holiday tried to free herself from his grip, but after noticing that the women were looking at them, she decided against it and looked up at him.
"You shouldn't wear black again; you're attracting too much attention to yourself." Holiday smiled playfully as his eyebrow rose again at her words. Her other hand held his shoulder as she stood on her tiptoes so her voice could caress his ears as she spoke. "And that makes me... jealous."
Petting his chest a few times with her free hand, she decided to go back inside and continue with their research, leaving the man staring at the imposing view outside of the mansion.
"Is everything better now?" She heard Rex asking her in a whisper, since Six wasn't moving and none of the women were approaching him anymore.
"All is better now. We should tell White about what Six found out of this guy before the show starts," Holiday said with a smile, her mood seeming to be improving as if she was satisfied with letting everyone know that the man was hers. "I suppose you also gathered any kind of information and didn't simply flirt with every girl at the party, right?"
"We weren't flirting!" Rex defended himself and thought that Six deserved to be defended as well, as the woman laughed. "You two are clearly meant for each other. You, jealous of him for talking to other women, and him, almost breaking the wrist bones of a guy who dared to touch you."
As Rex communicated with White in the most private place they could find, she heard someone's footsteps approaching and turned to look at Six with both hands in his pockets, smiling at her as she smiled back.
"Guys can't stop looking at you," he told her, taking off his jacket and covering her with it.
"Really?" she asked innocently, holding onto his jacket and embracing his scent. "At least I finally caught the attention of the only man who should be looking."
"Please, just stop," Rex pleaded as she laughed again. She had always wanted to tempt him, and it seemed she had finally succeeded, after having to remind him that he wasn't as single as he thought. Both of his hands were placed over her now-covered shoulders as he listened to what Rex was reporting and slowly massaged her shoulders, making her close her eyes at the feeling of his fingers on her. "We should get ready; the show will start soon and Bobo will be waiting with the troops in the airships to take the EVOs out," Rex informed them as Holiday and Six nodded in unison, but they didn't move, even as Rex walked away to mix with the crowd and not draw attention to their already strange behavior.
"Holiday..."
"Yes?" she asked, turning to face him. He didn't say anything, but instead held her face with his hands and placed a kiss on her lips.
Before she could even ask, he whispered to her, "There is a man looking at you, and I sincerely do not like the way he is staring."
"How so if there's no one watching?" He smirked as she smiled back at him.
"I am."
"If you can talk with women, then it should be fair that I can talk with other men as well," she teased. Six raised an eyebrow at her. He might not remember their only date, but if she could be jealous of him talking with other women, then he deserved a spoonful of his own medicine.
"It was part of my job," he reminded her as she laughed, feeling as if a heavy tension was falling off her shoulders. Perhaps it was her fault, because he was right about it. It was part of his job after all, and by how worried he seemed about how revealing her dress was, they both seemed to share the same sentiment for each other.
"So..." She started, caressing her lips with two of her fingers.
"We should discuss it properly, somewhere else." he replied seriously.
"Good. I can't promise I won't be jealous again, but you should promise not to break any guy's bones if they get too close to me."
"Agreed if you stop wearing dresses like this. There are other ways to dissuade people, anyway."
Before she could even follow Rex back to the party, as their host was finally arriving and the fun part was beginning, she heard Six's voice from behind.
"So... are we... dating?"
"You kissed me first," she said with a smile, blushing but still with her back turned to him.
"I did because I thought..."
"Remember, we will discuss it properly later. Now is time to work."
He had absolutely no clue about how women's minds worked, but all he could do at that moment was smile at how everything had transpired and how much he had learned about her jealousy display.
She wouldn't admit that she was falling for him, but would still be jealous if he dared to speak to another woman.
"Man... why are girls so complicated?" He heard Rex say as Holiday was preparing her gun and listening to their target's discourse.
"Good question."
"White would've thrown a fit if he knew that the entire mission could have failed just because of Doc being jealous of you talking to other women and you breaking the bones of whatever guy that dared to even get near her."
"I was just protecting her. That's all," Six said, staring at the spectacle.
"You don't even know what that man wanted to ask her anyways. So you have to also admit that you were kind of jealous as well."
"Did I?" He asked as Rex shook his head, trying not to laugh at how awkward these two were. He just wished that they would both simply confess their love for each other and end these stupid games.
