"well, i was thinking we either get out of here, or i put my number in your phone so that we can meet up later."
he paused, letting it hang, before he put on the Heavy french accent and practically growled, "and you can do whatever you want to me."
He blushed profusely–soft, just as Tessa had said. "I–How about we meet later, hm? More private."
Tessa snickered at the blush, wishing she could hear what Nik was saying.
(Forgive me, but I have absolutely no love life and am not a dude. Writing Tess is hard enough)
"here, then." he held up the man's phone, offering it to him to unlock. when he had, he "put his number" in. (in reality, he texted redcross and donated 10 dollars before putting in a fake number) he left a fluttering kiss on zane's cheek, and then walked smugly back to tessa.
"soft, just like you said. i thought he'd be harder to woo."
"Exactly. Quite the show you had going on. I'm curious what got him so worked up." She sipped her drink lazily as she smirked at Nik.
he shrugged nonchalantly, taking his place by her side. "just told him he could do whatever he wanted. picked up a decent french accent from my ma, so i tried it out. he seemed to like it."
"French and Italian–the two languages that can get the pants off of virtually anyone." She looked around, eyes seemingly searching for someone. "Hey… That Linda chick that you mentioned. Did she ever have a husband named Marcus?"
"think so. you know him?" he leaned forward. "if there's anyone you hate here, we can either mess with them or just leave. don't stress."
"They were my foster parents when I was six," she said blankly. "I recognized this place from a few of the things they dragged me to."
"yikes. no kid should be here." he winced, looking around to see if linda was there.
"No kid should be in the streets, but whaddya gonna do?" She shrugged, not really worried about the woman anymore. She probably wouldn't even recognize the little girl she threw out in the snow.
"try to fix it, eventually. i have a plan." he paused, squinting up at the menu of drinks. "anything else, in particular, you want to do?"
"Nope. Why? You have something in mind?"
"nah. just wanted to know. i usually flit around flirting and gauging who's the richest. i've never had a chance to actually just chill here. kinda nice."
he waved over the bartender, ordering some sweet, brightly colored drink.
She smiled and bumped her shoulder against Nik's. "That's because you're chillin' with underworld royalty." Actually, she did have an idea… "Keep an eye out for Linda. I wanna mess with her head before we leave–if she's here."
"aye aye. what have you got in mind?" he received the drink, raised an eyebrow at her.
She knocked back her own drink. "Oh, nothing too dramatic. Just jog her memory and steal everything of value on her person."
he smirked. "sounds good."
eventually, he pointed her out. she was hovering near the food, next to some older guy. "there. go time?"
She looked exactly the same, and that just added more fuel to the fire. Tessa grabbed a pen and scribbled a message on it, the folded it up. "Mind distracting them both?"
"nope! one distraction, coming up." he pushed his empty glass over to the bartender, standing and walking over. he tapped the lady on the shoulder.
there were a few moments of indistinct conversation, linda and the man looking uncomfortable the whole time.
She stood and walked by, pausing next to Linda and pretending like she was worried about if she had forgotten something. Her fingers here featherlight and undetectable as she stripped Linda of every valuable she could find. Once done, she slipped the napkin into the woman's purse, heaved a sigh of relief, and winked at Nik as she walked away.
he discreetly winked back, and swiftly ended the conversation to hang around a few more minutes before joining her.
"so, what's the loot?"
She slipped on beautiful and extremely expensive rings, bracelets, and a necklace, and handed Nik a wad of cash.
"…wow. you're definitely good at this. let's say we get out of here, eh? she might call the watch, and we don't want a police chase happening." he smiled nervously. he had stolen before, but never in plain sight, and just the prospect of linda calling the watch scared him.
"I've been thieving for years. Street 'magic' is great to learn if you don't want to get caught. But yeah, we should book it before things get bad." She linked her arm with Nik's with a reassuring smile.
he relaxed slightly, smile softening.
as they exited the building, he heard a screech that sounded of an older woman and winked at tess. "she must've found out."
they kept walking, and he eventually spoke again, "do you want me to walk you home?"