"Interlude", Baccano! NaNoWriMo response
So, I'm, like, a huge fan of the Gandors (especially Keith <3 *raowr*), but I have no real inspiration to actually write about them. D: WHAT IS UP WITH THAT. However, I was determined to give piecrumbs a decent wordcount for her trouble. Even if it meant giving in and relying on Firo again. OTL
Character(s)/Pairing: Luck and his brothers (blood and adopted! ...and Firo if you're so inclined XD)
Genre: Any~
Rating: Any!
Prompt: A deck of cards and a glass of wine can simultaneously say so many things and nothing at all.
Title: Interlude
Characters: Luck, Berga, Keith, Claire(/Chane), Firo(/Ennis)
Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG (alcohol & talk of death)
Warnings: I... I couldn't stop myself from hinting at Luck/Eve again. OTL (But not seriously enough in this case to actually list them as a pairing. XD)
Wordcount: 2214
Total Progress: 26600/50000 = 53.20% complete
It was the first time Claire Stanfield had visited New York City in over a year and letting him run off to find yet another woman he was convinced would agree to marry him before they had a good chance to talk and catch up with each other was the absolute last thing the Gandor brothers would allow. As they had grown up together, once he had come to fully appreciate the beauty of the fairer sex, there rarely came a day when Claire didn't 'fall madly in love' with random women on the street and immediately propose to them, spending the next couple hours sulking and suffering at the ensuing rejection (while he was, admittedly, fairly attractive, he had yet to locate a woman interested in binding herself to a complete stranger 'till death did they part), only to suddenly recover at the sight of the next beautiful lady who crossed his path, continuing the cycle. There wasn't any reason for them to believe this time was any different, other than a slightly longer duration between the proposal and the rejection. This time, however, he was being particularly annoying about it.
Quickly tiring of their attempts to distract him from his insistence to quickly learn the details of the job he had been called over for, effectively stalling him from setting out on his quest to locate Chane Laforet, Claire dropped himself into an empty chair with the clear disposition of a stubborn child. "Fine," he said. "Fine--one hand. Then you'll tell me about this job so I can get on with it and start my search."
"If that's the way it's going to be," Luck said, digging out a bottle of the red wine they always made sure to have on hand for just this type of situation, "you should write or call more often, rather than simply dropping off the face of the Earth." It wasn't his favorite alcoholic beverage, and Claire actually didn't care much for the taste either, but it had become somewhat of a tradition in welcoming Vino back home. He handed the bottle to Berga as his older brothers passed him to take their seats at the table, and managed to locate their old, mostly unused, set of wine glasses, also kept on hand purely for these small reunions.
Completely ignoring the words, Claire focused on the bottle. "I haven't had any wine in such a long time, but the flavor always resurfaces whenever I wonder what you three are up to." Berga pulled the cork as Luck set the glasses on the table, and the four of them carefully wiped the dust from the rims before pouring their drinks. Keith lit a cigar for himself before beginning to shuffle the cards, leaving the package and his matches on the table in case anyone else decided they'd like to join him, but the others just took small sips of the wine, reaccustoming themselves to the strength of its taste and smell.
Putting his glass down, Berga exhaled loudly before asking, "Well, what card game should we play? If it's just going to be a single hand, the stakes should be high. Poker, then?"
Claire's face tightened in disgust. "Poker is so depressing," he claimed. "Instead of rejecting card after card, can't we just pair them up happily in a game of Old Maid?"
"What the hell, Claire?" Berga replied, not sure he really wanted to know.
"The old maid always ends up alone in the end," Luck reminded him, exchanging a look with Keith, who added a joker to the deck before resuming shuffling. Claire hadn't quite figured out that nothing was stopping him from pursuing his love interest before moving on to complete the task they had for him, and if a game of Old Maid would keep him in his chair, then that was a small price to pay.
Claire scoffed. "She's an old maid. Not interested."
The Gandor brothers were very used to their adopted brother's reasoning. "Didn't we just play this game last night?" Berga complained. "Isn't this just an invitation for someone to barge in and put bullets through our heads again?"
Laughing as Keith began to deal out the cards, Claire asked, "How much did I miss while I was away? Sounds like you three were kept busy with plenty of excitement."
"Hmm," Luck hummed while he picked up his cards and threw down his pairs. "Things have been picking up quite a bit lately. Firo and I were assassinated in that old bookstore yesterday. As if the pain wasn't enough, replacing the ruined clothing time after time is starting to tire me."
"I swear I would still think you were joking about that if it wasn't for that kid on the train. I completely lost track of how many times he got himself killed. Mostly by me," Claire replied, sporting a slightly sadistic grin as he looked over his cards. Dropping over half of his hand on the table, he added, "How about we make this interesting, after all? The one stuck with the old maid at the end must tell the rest of us a charming tale about their love life."
Slamming down a couple pairs, Berga was less than thrilled about the wager, but knew that listening to Claire's demands was the only way to keep him still. "That's hardly fair," he protested. "You'd tell us all about your latest woman whether you won or lost, regardless."
"It doesn't matter because I'm not going to lose," Claire explained, completely certain of that. "But if it makes you feel better, in the unlikely event that I do lose, I'll let you three come up with something that may actually embarrass me. Good luck with that, by the way."
"You seem determined on the subject matter of this conversation, Vino," Luck observed, wincing a little as Keith only managed to part with a single pair, leaving him glowering a full level above his usual scowl.
"Of course," Claire replied, starting off the game by taking a card from Keith rather than Berga, not liking such an off balance game right from the start. As luck would have it, he ended up completing another pair, leaving him well in the lead with only four cards left in his hand once Berga took his turn. "I'm starting to become a little concerned about you three. Are you seriously planning to stay bachelors 'till the end of time? How boring. You can't even imagine how surprised I was to learn that Firo actually managed to beat you all into convincing a woman to move in with him. What a hopeless trio," he sighed.
"Don't forget that he pulled ahead of you, as well," Berga told him, the conversation quickly grating on his nerves as Luck took a card from his hand, both brothers having failed to pick a needed card.
Brushing the reminder aside, Claire asked, "Where is Firo anyway? I'm sure he's living a grand love story, and I'd like to have the chance to hear it."
"You would have been able to see him at the station, but now he's probably busy with his friends who also arrived on the Flying Pussyfoot. Besides," Luck added as Keith chose a card and threw down a pair, it being practically impossible for him not to make a match with his full hand, "you don't really know the circumstances. There are a lot of complications--Firo isn't nearly as fortunate as you seem to believe. There isn't a lot to be envious about, though he does have plenty of time to turn things to his favor."
"Is that so?" Claire wondered, failing to make a match this time. "What about the rest of you? Give me some hints so I can pick which one of you I'd like to lose."
Taking the chance to throw off the attention from himself, not wanting to test Claire's ability to successfully cast a losing streak with just his sheer force of will, Berga drew a card and announced, "Luck would probably have the best story to tell. In fact, he broke another girl's heart just yesterday." Almost as if the game was influenced by the divine, or at least the devil, the card he chose turned out to be a match.
With a strained smile as he plucked a card from Berga's grip, also forming a pair, Luck replied, "You shouldn't intentionally mislead others with such a vague description. Her heart was broken because she found out how we made her older brother disappear last year, of course," he explained before Claire could get any ideas.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Claire said, his voice deepening into a conniving tone. "Should I be more interested in the story of the brother who apparently makes a habit of breaking girls' hearts, the brother who suspiciously casts attention away from himself, or the brother who hasn't spoken a word since I arrived?"
Keith, managing to complete another set from Luck's hand, removed the cigar from between his teeth and may have actually said something, most likely sarcastic, if it hadn't been for the door swinging open.
"Oh, so you guys came back here after all," Firo observed, stepping inside, the game continuing on as he talked and moved about. "I was wondering what happened after you three suddenly disappeared from the station. Why didn't you meet us inside, Claire? Ennis was a little curious about you."
"He said something about getting his alias killed off," Berga supplied as Firo pulled up a chair, then stepped further inside to grab a wineglass from the cabinet.
"Man, what did you go and do that for?" Firo asked, pouring himself a little wine. "Being a conductor sounded like a really fun job."
"Hey, are you even old enough to be drinking that?" Claire teased.
"I turned eighteen last year," Firo complained, taking a sip just to spite him, then looked around the table. "So, mafia drinking red wine and playing Old Maid? You guys really know how to set up the atmosphere," he joked. "Is it too late to join in?"
No one objected when Keith passed him half of his hand across the table.
"Is it really all right for you to be here right now?" Luck wondered.
"Yeah," Firo answered, "but things were getting a little complicated right before I left, so I should head back after this game. It's starting to look like I'll be getting another permanent resident as well as Isaac and Miria staying with us again for a while."
Claire pulled a card from Keith's now intensely more manageable hand, forming yet another pair. "Just so you know, Firo," he announced, "the loser of this game has to tell the others something about their love life. But I want to hear about that woman of yours, regardless. You've been living with her for a year now, haven't you? Sounds encouraging."
"You want to hear about Ennis?" Firo wondered out loud as the game continued, taking a card from Berga when his turn arrived, and throwing down the resulting pair. A little sheepish, he admitted, "It has been a year already, hasn't it? Sorry, but you'll probably be disappointed at the snail's pace. It's really complicated. What about you, Claire? Still proposing, or have you finally figured out that women would at least like to at least know your name before you get down on one knee?"
"He claims to have found someone promising," Berga replied. "But it sounds more like she just ran off instead of refusing him outright."
"She left me a message to come and find her!" Claire protested. "And I would, only these guys won't tell me about the job they have for me until this game is over so I can get it over with!"
"Good job, you guys," Firo told the Gandors, then focused back on Claire. "This kind of thing wouldn't happen if you just came to visit more often. You could have started searching right away if you called once a month or something."
"I assure you all," Claire announced, in depression, "that irregular communication is a mistake I shall never make again."
The game quickly progressed, Firo being the first to run out of cards after not failing once to make a match to the combined rage of the rest of the table. "That is just ridiculous!" Berga ranted, slamming a fist on the table, nearly knocking down the wineglasses. "How is it that you so effortlessly pull ahead of the rest of us every single damn time?!"
"Hey, calm down," Firo told him, removing his glass from the table and steadying the bottle. "It's nothing more than a game of chance, after all."
"Not really," Claire disagreed, also pulling out of the game once his turn came about one last time. "You can tell where the old maid lies based on subtle changes on your opponent's demeanor and you're able to keep track of the position of cards if you pay attention and no one constantly shuffles their hand."
"There are people who take it that seriously?" Firo asked, amazed.
It became increasingly apparent to the Gandor brothers that Claire had taken the game very, very seriously. The three of them exchanged glances, determining that not one of them were particularly looking forward to the penalty of losing.
"...Why don't we just go ahead and tell him about the job?" Luck suggested.
"Brilliant," Berga agreed, and the brothers withdrew at once to do just that.
Character(s)/Pairing: Luck and his brothers (blood and adopted! ...and Firo if you're so inclined XD)
Genre: Any~
Rating: Any!
Prompt: A deck of cards and a glass of wine can simultaneously say so many things and nothing at all.
Title: Interlude
Characters: Luck, Berga, Keith, Claire(/Chane), Firo(/Ennis)
Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG (alcohol & talk of death)
Warnings: I... I couldn't stop myself from hinting at Luck/Eve again. OTL (But not seriously enough in this case to actually list them as a pairing. XD)
Wordcount: 2214
Total Progress: 26600/50000 = 53.20% complete
It was the first time Claire Stanfield had visited New York City in over a year and letting him run off to find yet another woman he was convinced would agree to marry him before they had a good chance to talk and catch up with each other was the absolute last thing the Gandor brothers would allow. As they had grown up together, once he had come to fully appreciate the beauty of the fairer sex, there rarely came a day when Claire didn't 'fall madly in love' with random women on the street and immediately propose to them, spending the next couple hours sulking and suffering at the ensuing rejection (while he was, admittedly, fairly attractive, he had yet to locate a woman interested in binding herself to a complete stranger 'till death did they part), only to suddenly recover at the sight of the next beautiful lady who crossed his path, continuing the cycle. There wasn't any reason for them to believe this time was any different, other than a slightly longer duration between the proposal and the rejection. This time, however, he was being particularly annoying about it.
Quickly tiring of their attempts to distract him from his insistence to quickly learn the details of the job he had been called over for, effectively stalling him from setting out on his quest to locate Chane Laforet, Claire dropped himself into an empty chair with the clear disposition of a stubborn child. "Fine," he said. "Fine--one hand. Then you'll tell me about this job so I can get on with it and start my search."
"If that's the way it's going to be," Luck said, digging out a bottle of the red wine they always made sure to have on hand for just this type of situation, "you should write or call more often, rather than simply dropping off the face of the Earth." It wasn't his favorite alcoholic beverage, and Claire actually didn't care much for the taste either, but it had become somewhat of a tradition in welcoming Vino back home. He handed the bottle to Berga as his older brothers passed him to take their seats at the table, and managed to locate their old, mostly unused, set of wine glasses, also kept on hand purely for these small reunions.
Completely ignoring the words, Claire focused on the bottle. "I haven't had any wine in such a long time, but the flavor always resurfaces whenever I wonder what you three are up to." Berga pulled the cork as Luck set the glasses on the table, and the four of them carefully wiped the dust from the rims before pouring their drinks. Keith lit a cigar for himself before beginning to shuffle the cards, leaving the package and his matches on the table in case anyone else decided they'd like to join him, but the others just took small sips of the wine, reaccustoming themselves to the strength of its taste and smell.
Putting his glass down, Berga exhaled loudly before asking, "Well, what card game should we play? If it's just going to be a single hand, the stakes should be high. Poker, then?"
Claire's face tightened in disgust. "Poker is so depressing," he claimed. "Instead of rejecting card after card, can't we just pair them up happily in a game of Old Maid?"
"What the hell, Claire?" Berga replied, not sure he really wanted to know.
"The old maid always ends up alone in the end," Luck reminded him, exchanging a look with Keith, who added a joker to the deck before resuming shuffling. Claire hadn't quite figured out that nothing was stopping him from pursuing his love interest before moving on to complete the task they had for him, and if a game of Old Maid would keep him in his chair, then that was a small price to pay.
Claire scoffed. "She's an old maid. Not interested."
The Gandor brothers were very used to their adopted brother's reasoning. "Didn't we just play this game last night?" Berga complained. "Isn't this just an invitation for someone to barge in and put bullets through our heads again?"
Laughing as Keith began to deal out the cards, Claire asked, "How much did I miss while I was away? Sounds like you three were kept busy with plenty of excitement."
"Hmm," Luck hummed while he picked up his cards and threw down his pairs. "Things have been picking up quite a bit lately. Firo and I were assassinated in that old bookstore yesterday. As if the pain wasn't enough, replacing the ruined clothing time after time is starting to tire me."
"I swear I would still think you were joking about that if it wasn't for that kid on the train. I completely lost track of how many times he got himself killed. Mostly by me," Claire replied, sporting a slightly sadistic grin as he looked over his cards. Dropping over half of his hand on the table, he added, "How about we make this interesting, after all? The one stuck with the old maid at the end must tell the rest of us a charming tale about their love life."
Slamming down a couple pairs, Berga was less than thrilled about the wager, but knew that listening to Claire's demands was the only way to keep him still. "That's hardly fair," he protested. "You'd tell us all about your latest woman whether you won or lost, regardless."
"It doesn't matter because I'm not going to lose," Claire explained, completely certain of that. "But if it makes you feel better, in the unlikely event that I do lose, I'll let you three come up with something that may actually embarrass me. Good luck with that, by the way."
"You seem determined on the subject matter of this conversation, Vino," Luck observed, wincing a little as Keith only managed to part with a single pair, leaving him glowering a full level above his usual scowl.
"Of course," Claire replied, starting off the game by taking a card from Keith rather than Berga, not liking such an off balance game right from the start. As luck would have it, he ended up completing another pair, leaving him well in the lead with only four cards left in his hand once Berga took his turn. "I'm starting to become a little concerned about you three. Are you seriously planning to stay bachelors 'till the end of time? How boring. You can't even imagine how surprised I was to learn that Firo actually managed to beat you all into convincing a woman to move in with him. What a hopeless trio," he sighed.
"Don't forget that he pulled ahead of you, as well," Berga told him, the conversation quickly grating on his nerves as Luck took a card from his hand, both brothers having failed to pick a needed card.
Brushing the reminder aside, Claire asked, "Where is Firo anyway? I'm sure he's living a grand love story, and I'd like to have the chance to hear it."
"You would have been able to see him at the station, but now he's probably busy with his friends who also arrived on the Flying Pussyfoot. Besides," Luck added as Keith chose a card and threw down a pair, it being practically impossible for him not to make a match with his full hand, "you don't really know the circumstances. There are a lot of complications--Firo isn't nearly as fortunate as you seem to believe. There isn't a lot to be envious about, though he does have plenty of time to turn things to his favor."
"Is that so?" Claire wondered, failing to make a match this time. "What about the rest of you? Give me some hints so I can pick which one of you I'd like to lose."
Taking the chance to throw off the attention from himself, not wanting to test Claire's ability to successfully cast a losing streak with just his sheer force of will, Berga drew a card and announced, "Luck would probably have the best story to tell. In fact, he broke another girl's heart just yesterday." Almost as if the game was influenced by the divine, or at least the devil, the card he chose turned out to be a match.
With a strained smile as he plucked a card from Berga's grip, also forming a pair, Luck replied, "You shouldn't intentionally mislead others with such a vague description. Her heart was broken because she found out how we made her older brother disappear last year, of course," he explained before Claire could get any ideas.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Claire said, his voice deepening into a conniving tone. "Should I be more interested in the story of the brother who apparently makes a habit of breaking girls' hearts, the brother who suspiciously casts attention away from himself, or the brother who hasn't spoken a word since I arrived?"
Keith, managing to complete another set from Luck's hand, removed the cigar from between his teeth and may have actually said something, most likely sarcastic, if it hadn't been for the door swinging open.
"Oh, so you guys came back here after all," Firo observed, stepping inside, the game continuing on as he talked and moved about. "I was wondering what happened after you three suddenly disappeared from the station. Why didn't you meet us inside, Claire? Ennis was a little curious about you."
"He said something about getting his alias killed off," Berga supplied as Firo pulled up a chair, then stepped further inside to grab a wineglass from the cabinet.
"Man, what did you go and do that for?" Firo asked, pouring himself a little wine. "Being a conductor sounded like a really fun job."
"Hey, are you even old enough to be drinking that?" Claire teased.
"I turned eighteen last year," Firo complained, taking a sip just to spite him, then looked around the table. "So, mafia drinking red wine and playing Old Maid? You guys really know how to set up the atmosphere," he joked. "Is it too late to join in?"
No one objected when Keith passed him half of his hand across the table.
"Is it really all right for you to be here right now?" Luck wondered.
"Yeah," Firo answered, "but things were getting a little complicated right before I left, so I should head back after this game. It's starting to look like I'll be getting another permanent resident as well as Isaac and Miria staying with us again for a while."
Claire pulled a card from Keith's now intensely more manageable hand, forming yet another pair. "Just so you know, Firo," he announced, "the loser of this game has to tell the others something about their love life. But I want to hear about that woman of yours, regardless. You've been living with her for a year now, haven't you? Sounds encouraging."
"You want to hear about Ennis?" Firo wondered out loud as the game continued, taking a card from Berga when his turn arrived, and throwing down the resulting pair. A little sheepish, he admitted, "It has been a year already, hasn't it? Sorry, but you'll probably be disappointed at the snail's pace. It's really complicated. What about you, Claire? Still proposing, or have you finally figured out that women would at least like to at least know your name before you get down on one knee?"
"He claims to have found someone promising," Berga replied. "But it sounds more like she just ran off instead of refusing him outright."
"She left me a message to come and find her!" Claire protested. "And I would, only these guys won't tell me about the job they have for me until this game is over so I can get it over with!"
"Good job, you guys," Firo told the Gandors, then focused back on Claire. "This kind of thing wouldn't happen if you just came to visit more often. You could have started searching right away if you called once a month or something."
"I assure you all," Claire announced, in depression, "that irregular communication is a mistake I shall never make again."
The game quickly progressed, Firo being the first to run out of cards after not failing once to make a match to the combined rage of the rest of the table. "That is just ridiculous!" Berga ranted, slamming a fist on the table, nearly knocking down the wineglasses. "How is it that you so effortlessly pull ahead of the rest of us every single damn time?!"
"Hey, calm down," Firo told him, removing his glass from the table and steadying the bottle. "It's nothing more than a game of chance, after all."
"Not really," Claire disagreed, also pulling out of the game once his turn came about one last time. "You can tell where the old maid lies based on subtle changes on your opponent's demeanor and you're able to keep track of the position of cards if you pay attention and no one constantly shuffles their hand."
"There are people who take it that seriously?" Firo asked, amazed.
It became increasingly apparent to the Gandor brothers that Claire had taken the game very, very seriously. The three of them exchanged glances, determining that not one of them were particularly looking forward to the penalty of losing.
"...Why don't we just go ahead and tell him about the job?" Luck suggested.
"Brilliant," Berga agreed, and the brothers withdrew at once to do just that.