[BACKLOG]How do you solve a problem like Maria~
Who: Komui Lee, Cross Marian, Maria's corpse
When: Just after Komui 'outed' Link and Allen
Where: A quiet corner of the saloon
Summary: Cross and Komui gather to celebrate their great "success", on the condition that Cross unsummons Maria because she freaks Komui out. Weeeell...
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Zombie women, drunkenness and Cross pointing guns at people. And swears. But it's Cross, so that's like default. XD
Komui peeked into the Saloon of the hotel after wandering down the stairs to find General Cross. He was pleased with himself, so pleased. His plan, which had come to him in a sudden flash of inspiration, was bound to play off, convincing Lenalee that Allen was in no way a good match for her. The General's help was a boon, though Komui knew it was motivated mostly by Cross' love of torturing his poor apprentice.
Still, all was fair in love and war and Komui always made a point of fighting a war to win. Time to celebrate with his comrade! As long as a certain corpse was out of sight.
Maria. Beautiful Maria. Compelling Maria, whose voice was a gift from heaven, who was powerful and knew it, who could command friends and enemies alike and who didn't see anything wrong with dragging young auxiliary stuff half her age back to her bed for enlightening sessions. When Komui read her death report it was a true blow.
It would be easier now if she'd been allowed to rest in peace.
Cross, meanwhile, was away from such morbid thoughts. Most other people would have been away from thoughts entirely, considering the amount of alcohol in his system right now. However, the red haired general had one of the highest alcohol tolerances possible (aside from the fact he was very rarely sober in the first place) and could think quite clearly despite having already downed two bottles of whisky, an unknown number of shots and various glasses of beer. Currently, he was musing on the plight of his idiot apprentice and his so called "love interest". He was partly certain that the boy was about as likely to have a crush on his personal stalker as Komui to have a crush on a Noah, but this opportunity did not arise so often as he would have liked, and he intended to take full advantage of it.
The sight of Komui coming through the doors to the bar made him grin. He raised a glass (lord only knew what he'd poured into it, he couldn't remember) in a mock salute to the Chinese man's genius.
"Here's the man of the hour." he laughed.
Komui grinned when he spotted Cross, weaving his way through the people lying on cots on the floor or drinking until he reached the older man. It was relieving to see that Cross hadn't decided to drape Maria over his shoulders as some sort of morbid decoration.
"General! How lovely to see you! I see you're fully enjoying everything on offer." He commented lightly, his eyes briefly resting on the glasses lined up in front of Cross. How did the man's liver still function? He peeped around the bar for something that didn't look too deadly, settling in the end for a red wine. He poured it into a glass and took a sip, wincing at the sharpness.
"Enjoying torturing your poor apprentice?" He asked.
Cross scoffed lightly at the choice of drink. Komui was probably a total lightweight. "Enjoying is somewhat of an understatement." He grinned. "I'm thinking more along the lines of laughing uproariously even thinking about when he hears about this." And he would inevitably hear about it. Too many goody-two-shoes around here. Cross was waiting for that moment. He'd probably hear it from where ever he was at the time. "I don't know how you come up with this shit Supervisor, but heres to it." He raised his glass, grinning widely like the troublemaker he was.
Komui gave Cross his most innocent, confused look over the rim of his glass.
"Come up with it? It's a perfectly valid theory that fits the available evidence." He replied lightly, before grinning and clinking his glass. Oh, it was good to have someone around who understood that sometimes, more underhand methods were needed to keep people in line. The second sip of wine went down far easier than the first. Obviously some of his tastebuds had gone numb in protest. Excellent.
"He'd better not find out too soon. A few days of blissful ignorance, acting like he normally does with Link while everyone's mind is turned in a certain direction really would strengthen my case." Komui commented.
"Okay, let 'em stew for a while, that'll work." Cross knocked back another glass. "Like a good brew, the longer it sits, the better it is in the end." He was gleefully waiting the final explosion. He'd give it until Wednesday, or something. Then he'd oh-so-helpfully leave his laptop open, on the right page, where his idiot apprentice or the central dog would find it.
"In the meanwhile, we need to spread this shit around a little more." Cross smirked as he stood, moved round the back of the bar and poured himself another glass of beer. "See if we can get that Mewtwo... thing in on it." He'd seen some weird things here, talking turtles and cat-eared boys, but now there were aliens- sorry, Pokemon, whatever the fuck they were.
Komui swallowed his wine, waving the glass to Cross to get a refill. Usually he wouldn't dare to let himself get tipsy in this strange place, but, well, if ravening monsters did burst in, he was surrounded by a large number of people who enjoyed fighting them.
"I'm sure we can get him on our side, whatever he is. I was surprised he got into it so quickly. I suppose it must be my convincing demeanour and way of presenting evidence." He saluted Cross with his wine glass, taking a large sip. "Skills developed against Central, the bastards." He covered his mouth. Oops, this wine must be a bit stronger than he thought.
Cross helpfully poured the supervisor another drink, having to grab Komui's already swaying hand to stop him from spilling. Yep, lightweight. The red haired general actually laughed aloud when Komui made a direct attack on central. What he wouldn't give for a voice recorder. "I propose a toast," he cheered, elbowing Komui in the ribs in a friendly way. "To our future enjoyment of this merry chaos!" Okay, so he was a wee bit drunk now. Who gave a shit, Komui was already pissed. "Cheers!"
Cross' idea of a friendly elbow was enough to make Komui teeter dangerously off the side of his stool. Thankfully, Cross was solid enough, so Komui grabbed hold of his black uniform and hauled himself back to safety. Cross actually made quite a good place to lean. Warm, solid, if slightly funny smelling.
"Not just enjoyment," he declared "but a successful outcome too! May romance wither and hearts be kept safe!" Oh, the drink was rather strong. He drained his cup to remove any further temptation!
With a slight choke, he allowed Komui to pull himself back up, even at the risk of rumpling his clothes.. He was in that good of a mood."Here here!" Cross laughed.
There was a rustle from under the bar, and the red haired general was suddenly reminded that he hadn't actually unsummoned Maria. His face went blank as he tried to figure out what to do from there. Komui would leave if he found Maria, and this was getting fun. Then again, would the look on Komui's face be more or less amusing?
More.
"Say, Komui." He started, innocent as possible, which of course made him sound more incriminated.
Komui blinked at Cross, his expression suddenly becoming incredibly suspicious. Cross only ever used that tone when he wanted something he knew he couldn't order people into doing.
"What is it, Cross?" He asked, letting go of the other man and strightening his beret. He put down his empty glass, in case the older man tried to scare him.
"Eh, if I said I actually had actually hidden a certain somebody under the bar rather than actually getting rid of that somebody, how badly would you spaz out?" he asked lazily, scratching his nose, but eyes trained on Komui's reaction.
"You WHAT?!" Komui yelped, jerking his body away from the bar as if it was contaminated. The sudden movement overbalanced him and he crashed off of the barstool, his slippered feet waving in the air as he whined at the sudden pain in his skull.
"CROSS! You promised! You bastard!" Komui wailed, flailing himself off of the floor into a sitting position.
"I dunno, Komui, I think my parents were married. Can't remember." He shrugged, inwardly laughing hysterically at the reaction. He got off his stool in a far more dignified fashion as Maria unfolded herself from under the bar. He gave her a hand to help her up, which she automatically clasped daintily. "And don't lay an egg about it, I was already too pissed to send her back without messing some shit up by the time you asked me to. Then I forgot where I hid her." He scratched the back of his head. He willed Maria to offer the fallen supervisor a hand up, which she of course did, complete with that seductive smile.
The whites of Komui's eyes were showing all around as he stared at Maria. He remembered that smile, far too well. It meant wicked whispers in Italian and being led through the corridors behind swishing hips. He flinched away from her, tucking his chin down and sticking his hands under his armpits, refusing to let her touch him.
"Put her back." He pleaded. "Please." He could smell her, faintly. That wasn't the Maria he'd known, once. That was a corpse.
Cross ignored Komui's discomfort, huffing irritably. "Like I said, I can't until I'm sobe-... not as pissed as I am right now." In all honesty, he hadn't been sober since he'd got here. Maria's arm was still extended. "Why're you so scared anyway? It's only Maria..."
"No, it's not." Komui responded, still looking down. "That's not Maria. Maria had a soul. That's just a puppet. She'd never let you tell her what to do." His eyes skittled over the corpse in front of him before turning away from her. The wine had loosened his tongue to a degree it never would have been when he was completely sober, and he found he couldn't help but say what had been on his mind since the first time he'd heard of what Cross had done with the corpse of their former comrade. "You know I'm right, or you wouldn't cover her eyes. Why can't you let her rest in peace?"
For a while, Cross was stunned into silence by the sheer audacity of Komui's words. Nobody had ever, ever said that before. They hadn't had the nerve to do it.
And they'd never known Maria, either.
... How did he fucking know about the eye covering thing?
In one smooth movement, Cross had Judgement trained idly on the Chinese man's face, glaring down the barrel with the anger of someone who has just been caught in an act they themselves did not want to face up to.
"You." He growled, low and dangerous, cocking the gun with a solid click. "Are in no position to judge me, Komui Lee." The gun itself gleamed threateningly in the evening light.
Komui's eyes crossed slightly as he focused on the end of the barrel pointing at him. Cross was serious. Oh, dear God, he was so serious. Komui did what any sensible man in his position would do.
He curled into a foetal position on the floor and began to wail.
"I wasn't judging you, I was just pointing out how it looked from here and I don't want to die!" He huddled, knowing that Cross' temper could very well mean his end.
Cross continued to stand there, glaring at the quivering man on the floor. The lack of struggle both calmed his anger and irritated him more, and after about a full minute of listening to Komui babble out apologies and wishes to live, Cross turned with a sneer, lowering his gun. "If you ever say that again, you'll be so full of holes it will be tough for your sister to identify your body." he growled, spinning on his heel and striding out of the saloon, taking a liquor bottle with him. Maria ghosted out after him, not even giving Komui a second glance.
Komui remained huddled on the floor until he was sure Cross had left, along with Maria's remains. He really, really didn't want to twitch too soon and be full of bullet holes.
Cross' footsteps faded out of hearing, and Komui wobbled his way upright, dusting off his white clothes. He decided not to look, just in case Maria was hovering somewhere nearby. It was bad enough he could smell her faintly, the lingering smell of death nearby.
He needed to change his clothes to get it off of him.
When: Just after Komui 'outed' Link and Allen
Where: A quiet corner of the saloon
Summary: Cross and Komui gather to celebrate their great "success", on the condition that Cross unsummons Maria because she freaks Komui out. Weeeell...
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Zombie women, drunkenness and Cross pointing guns at people. And swears. But it's Cross, so that's like default. XD
Komui peeked into the Saloon of the hotel after wandering down the stairs to find General Cross. He was pleased with himself, so pleased. His plan, which had come to him in a sudden flash of inspiration, was bound to play off, convincing Lenalee that Allen was in no way a good match for her. The General's help was a boon, though Komui knew it was motivated mostly by Cross' love of torturing his poor apprentice.
Still, all was fair in love and war and Komui always made a point of fighting a war to win. Time to celebrate with his comrade! As long as a certain corpse was out of sight.
Maria. Beautiful Maria. Compelling Maria, whose voice was a gift from heaven, who was powerful and knew it, who could command friends and enemies alike and who didn't see anything wrong with dragging young auxiliary stuff half her age back to her bed for enlightening sessions. When Komui read her death report it was a true blow.
It would be easier now if she'd been allowed to rest in peace.
Cross, meanwhile, was away from such morbid thoughts. Most other people would have been away from thoughts entirely, considering the amount of alcohol in his system right now. However, the red haired general had one of the highest alcohol tolerances possible (aside from the fact he was very rarely sober in the first place) and could think quite clearly despite having already downed two bottles of whisky, an unknown number of shots and various glasses of beer. Currently, he was musing on the plight of his idiot apprentice and his so called "love interest". He was partly certain that the boy was about as likely to have a crush on his personal stalker as Komui to have a crush on a Noah, but this opportunity did not arise so often as he would have liked, and he intended to take full advantage of it.
The sight of Komui coming through the doors to the bar made him grin. He raised a glass (lord only knew what he'd poured into it, he couldn't remember) in a mock salute to the Chinese man's genius.
"Here's the man of the hour." he laughed.
Komui grinned when he spotted Cross, weaving his way through the people lying on cots on the floor or drinking until he reached the older man. It was relieving to see that Cross hadn't decided to drape Maria over his shoulders as some sort of morbid decoration.
"General! How lovely to see you! I see you're fully enjoying everything on offer." He commented lightly, his eyes briefly resting on the glasses lined up in front of Cross. How did the man's liver still function? He peeped around the bar for something that didn't look too deadly, settling in the end for a red wine. He poured it into a glass and took a sip, wincing at the sharpness.
"Enjoying torturing your poor apprentice?" He asked.
Cross scoffed lightly at the choice of drink. Komui was probably a total lightweight. "Enjoying is somewhat of an understatement." He grinned. "I'm thinking more along the lines of laughing uproariously even thinking about when he hears about this." And he would inevitably hear about it. Too many goody-two-shoes around here. Cross was waiting for that moment. He'd probably hear it from where ever he was at the time. "I don't know how you come up with this shit Supervisor, but heres to it." He raised his glass, grinning widely like the troublemaker he was.
Komui gave Cross his most innocent, confused look over the rim of his glass.
"Come up with it? It's a perfectly valid theory that fits the available evidence." He replied lightly, before grinning and clinking his glass. Oh, it was good to have someone around who understood that sometimes, more underhand methods were needed to keep people in line. The second sip of wine went down far easier than the first. Obviously some of his tastebuds had gone numb in protest. Excellent.
"He'd better not find out too soon. A few days of blissful ignorance, acting like he normally does with Link while everyone's mind is turned in a certain direction really would strengthen my case." Komui commented.
"Okay, let 'em stew for a while, that'll work." Cross knocked back another glass. "Like a good brew, the longer it sits, the better it is in the end." He was gleefully waiting the final explosion. He'd give it until Wednesday, or something. Then he'd oh-so-helpfully leave his laptop open, on the right page, where his idiot apprentice or the central dog would find it.
"In the meanwhile, we need to spread this shit around a little more." Cross smirked as he stood, moved round the back of the bar and poured himself another glass of beer. "See if we can get that Mewtwo... thing in on it." He'd seen some weird things here, talking turtles and cat-eared boys, but now there were aliens- sorry, Pokemon, whatever the fuck they were.
Komui swallowed his wine, waving the glass to Cross to get a refill. Usually he wouldn't dare to let himself get tipsy in this strange place, but, well, if ravening monsters did burst in, he was surrounded by a large number of people who enjoyed fighting them.
"I'm sure we can get him on our side, whatever he is. I was surprised he got into it so quickly. I suppose it must be my convincing demeanour and way of presenting evidence." He saluted Cross with his wine glass, taking a large sip. "Skills developed against Central, the bastards." He covered his mouth. Oops, this wine must be a bit stronger than he thought.
Cross helpfully poured the supervisor another drink, having to grab Komui's already swaying hand to stop him from spilling. Yep, lightweight. The red haired general actually laughed aloud when Komui made a direct attack on central. What he wouldn't give for a voice recorder. "I propose a toast," he cheered, elbowing Komui in the ribs in a friendly way. "To our future enjoyment of this merry chaos!" Okay, so he was a wee bit drunk now. Who gave a shit, Komui was already pissed. "Cheers!"
Cross' idea of a friendly elbow was enough to make Komui teeter dangerously off the side of his stool. Thankfully, Cross was solid enough, so Komui grabbed hold of his black uniform and hauled himself back to safety. Cross actually made quite a good place to lean. Warm, solid, if slightly funny smelling.
"Not just enjoyment," he declared "but a successful outcome too! May romance wither and hearts be kept safe!" Oh, the drink was rather strong. He drained his cup to remove any further temptation!
With a slight choke, he allowed Komui to pull himself back up, even at the risk of rumpling his clothes.. He was in that good of a mood."Here here!" Cross laughed.
There was a rustle from under the bar, and the red haired general was suddenly reminded that he hadn't actually unsummoned Maria. His face went blank as he tried to figure out what to do from there. Komui would leave if he found Maria, and this was getting fun. Then again, would the look on Komui's face be more or less amusing?
More.
"Say, Komui." He started, innocent as possible, which of course made him sound more incriminated.
Komui blinked at Cross, his expression suddenly becoming incredibly suspicious. Cross only ever used that tone when he wanted something he knew he couldn't order people into doing.
"What is it, Cross?" He asked, letting go of the other man and strightening his beret. He put down his empty glass, in case the older man tried to scare him.
"Eh, if I said I actually had actually hidden a certain somebody under the bar rather than actually getting rid of that somebody, how badly would you spaz out?" he asked lazily, scratching his nose, but eyes trained on Komui's reaction.
"You WHAT?!" Komui yelped, jerking his body away from the bar as if it was contaminated. The sudden movement overbalanced him and he crashed off of the barstool, his slippered feet waving in the air as he whined at the sudden pain in his skull.
"CROSS! You promised! You bastard!" Komui wailed, flailing himself off of the floor into a sitting position.
"I dunno, Komui, I think my parents were married. Can't remember." He shrugged, inwardly laughing hysterically at the reaction. He got off his stool in a far more dignified fashion as Maria unfolded herself from under the bar. He gave her a hand to help her up, which she automatically clasped daintily. "And don't lay an egg about it, I was already too pissed to send her back without messing some shit up by the time you asked me to. Then I forgot where I hid her." He scratched the back of his head. He willed Maria to offer the fallen supervisor a hand up, which she of course did, complete with that seductive smile.
The whites of Komui's eyes were showing all around as he stared at Maria. He remembered that smile, far too well. It meant wicked whispers in Italian and being led through the corridors behind swishing hips. He flinched away from her, tucking his chin down and sticking his hands under his armpits, refusing to let her touch him.
"Put her back." He pleaded. "Please." He could smell her, faintly. That wasn't the Maria he'd known, once. That was a corpse.
Cross ignored Komui's discomfort, huffing irritably. "Like I said, I can't until I'm sobe-... not as pissed as I am right now." In all honesty, he hadn't been sober since he'd got here. Maria's arm was still extended. "Why're you so scared anyway? It's only Maria..."
"No, it's not." Komui responded, still looking down. "That's not Maria. Maria had a soul. That's just a puppet. She'd never let you tell her what to do." His eyes skittled over the corpse in front of him before turning away from her. The wine had loosened his tongue to a degree it never would have been when he was completely sober, and he found he couldn't help but say what had been on his mind since the first time he'd heard of what Cross had done with the corpse of their former comrade. "You know I'm right, or you wouldn't cover her eyes. Why can't you let her rest in peace?"
For a while, Cross was stunned into silence by the sheer audacity of Komui's words. Nobody had ever, ever said that before. They hadn't had the nerve to do it.
And they'd never known Maria, either.
... How did he fucking know about the eye covering thing?
In one smooth movement, Cross had Judgement trained idly on the Chinese man's face, glaring down the barrel with the anger of someone who has just been caught in an act they themselves did not want to face up to.
"You." He growled, low and dangerous, cocking the gun with a solid click. "Are in no position to judge me, Komui Lee." The gun itself gleamed threateningly in the evening light.
Komui's eyes crossed slightly as he focused on the end of the barrel pointing at him. Cross was serious. Oh, dear God, he was so serious. Komui did what any sensible man in his position would do.
He curled into a foetal position on the floor and began to wail.
"I wasn't judging you, I was just pointing out how it looked from here and I don't want to die!" He huddled, knowing that Cross' temper could very well mean his end.
Cross continued to stand there, glaring at the quivering man on the floor. The lack of struggle both calmed his anger and irritated him more, and after about a full minute of listening to Komui babble out apologies and wishes to live, Cross turned with a sneer, lowering his gun. "If you ever say that again, you'll be so full of holes it will be tough for your sister to identify your body." he growled, spinning on his heel and striding out of the saloon, taking a liquor bottle with him. Maria ghosted out after him, not even giving Komui a second glance.
Komui remained huddled on the floor until he was sure Cross had left, along with Maria's remains. He really, really didn't want to twitch too soon and be full of bullet holes.
Cross' footsteps faded out of hearing, and Komui wobbled his way upright, dusting off his white clothes. He decided not to look, just in case Maria was hovering somewhere nearby. It was bad enough he could smell her faintly, the lingering smell of death nearby.
He needed to change his clothes to get it off of him.