Supply Run, Chrysa

"Ugh fine yeah I'm too tired to argue let alone walk home." She started to follow him to the car and got in carefully. The wolf sat across her legs and the dragon rested on her shoulder.

The door closed silently, and the car slipped into motion gently. Sitting on the centre console atop a silk napkin, a tumbler filled with a lemon-scented concoction awaited her. Beside it sat a folded card, which smelled faintly of brimstone.

Inside, the card read:

It was signed Alexi Stiachkov

Alice looked at the drink and took a quick sniff then sipped it enough to taste it and wet her lips. Lemonade and vodka. Damn they were good. She took an actual drink of it then sat back

"I really need to stop dealing with that man..." She sighed to herself.

The driver said nothing, if there even was one; he never talked or even moved, as far as she could tell. The Maybach glided through Kensington and Mayfair, and skirted between Soho and the West End. The roads were clear, there was no traffic and the glitzy lights slid across the the car's glass.

Isolated from the world, ensconced in luxury, this was far from the most uncomfortable place she's been. Sleep beckoned her, but the car's provenance forced it from her grasp.

The car pulled to a stop in front of her hastily-repaired storefront and the door popped open.

Chrysa slid out of the vehicle with animals in tow and headed towards the door. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and smelt brimstone. Opening the door she stared at the intruder then walked behind her bar. It felt safer behind there and it was almost a position of power. In a palace the one on the throne was ruler, in a pub the one behind the bar was the ruler.

".....You have no idea when to quit do you?" She was annoyed and it was obvious.

Scratch regarded her from upon the stool he sat, opposite her at the bar. He was sipping from a glass he had already poured himself, and as he talked, a man with a handcart carried a clinking and sloshing stack of boxes into the pub and wheeled them to the back of the room. Waiting for her was another vodka lemonade.

"In the animal kingdom, they call it tenacious. I see an opportunity, I pursue it. Your friends did not make new friends of their own last night. People are askink for names; Mean people. I do not tell them. For we are friends, no?"

"We ARE friends, yes?"

Alice looked at the drink as she listened. Drinking it meant he was in power, not drinking it could also mean that too, it could mean she was scared to drink it. Either way she couldn't win.

When he insisted on the 'friends' comment the second time she blinked and looked at him dead in the eyes. Dangerous move with animals. Might be seen as a threat.

"....I wouldn't say friends. We do business together. Never a good idea to be friends with someone you do business with. Personal feelings and all that." She replied icily.

"Yes. Always Business." Scratch catches and holds that stare.

"Business is built on trust. You know what job I am pulling, but you are not workink for me. I trust that this is our business, and our business only. Not anyone else's." Without breaking his gaze, he finishes his drink.

"If I hear you tell anyone? Perhaps Ice Queen learn she not check close enough in closet of third room last time. Perhaps Ice Queen learn who it is make a scene at Pig Inn last night. Perhaps your friends meet my gurls in dark passgeway." Scratch's eyes hold no malice, but the edge in his voice betrays that he cares little what happens to anyone but himself. If anyone gets in his way (even the Toy Soldiers), he has no compunction in trampling over them to get to where he is going.

"This is our deal... yes?" Scratch nods before breaking the gaze and walking out the door. "Good night smart gurl, see you in a few weeks. To do business, that is."

Alice let out a breath when he turned away to leave. "....I..." She started, but her throat closed enough to stop her and she had to hesitate.

"Do you really think I like telling people I do business with you Scratch? I won't tell anyone.... I'm already trying to convince myself its not happened." She told him quietly but steadily and downed the drink he'd left out for her.