forum OxO with @menace-to-society

Started January 17, 2023 by @Emmrii

tune

"Oh goody," Magnus said sarcastically. "A road trip with my favorite cop." He frowned, looked down at the pictures. He didn't recognize the first two, but the third was a man that he had dealings with before. He didn't want to admit anything, though. Not unless he had to, and for now it didn't seem like he did. He'd also noticed how Mercy had hesitated before saying 'criminal ridden,' and had rolled his eyes. She could just have said that without the hesitation, like it was dirty. Perhaps it was, to those who stayed on the good side of the law. Well, she would have to get over any hesitations if she wanted to pursue this case. If he knew anything about those who were affiliated in any way with this gang, it was that they weren't fans of the police either.

And sure, Magnus knew more than he let on, but he didn't want to tell someone he didn't trust some of the darker things. Some of the things he had been a bit more complicit in. It wasn't as if he had taken part in any of the gang's dealings, of course, but some of the things he had done…well. If Mercy didn't already hate him for his job as an assassin, she would definitely hate him by the end of this. That wasn't his problem, though. He didn't care if she hated him; that would just be another person to add to the list. Magnus was a shitty person, so what did it matter? He had accepted that fact long ago. Besides, some of the secrets he held weren't his to tell. These people who escaped the gang's clutches, they had lives too, and he wasn't interested in telling a cop their business. Besides, what he had said earlier was mostly true–he really didn't have anyone with ties to the gang that he would turn to. He could probably get one or maybe two to speak with him, not with a cop, but he had not ended things on good terms with the few who had the capacity to meet with them in any way. Magnus didn't exactly have a wealth of friends, even in the criminal underground.

“Oh, come on. It won’t be that bad.” She let out a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest. “Besides, I’m not exactly looking forward to it either, so it’ll be the last visit on our agenda. Plus, the last man has had plenty run ins with the police before, and he isn’t too fond of me.”

Her eyes flitted down to the floor. That was an understatement, to say the least. After everything that went down with the man a year earlier, Mercy had no doubt that he wanted her dead.

“We’ll start with the man who owns the hotel. I’ll pick you up at your home tonight to drive you there. And be sure to wear something formal. As I said, it’s a more fancy hotel,” she said. “The whole ordeal shouldn’t take long. We’ll find the guy, get what we need out of him, and leave.”

Mercy stood up, gathering her files up and sliding them back into her bag. She had anticipated that she would be with him longer, reviewing the details of the case and speaking about the assignments, but she could tell he wasn’t very keen the idea of working with her. Much less cooperating.

But, even with his obvious disdain for her, she still had a question to ask him. It was a question she knew he likely wouldn’t like, but it had been lingering in the back of her mind since their last meet up.

“Magnus, I know you’ll hate that I’m asking this, and you don’t have to answer. I’m just curious, that’s it.” She dared to look up at him as she spoke. “Why did you agree to come to my house yesterday? I mean, you knew I was a police officer. Was there a reason for it…?”

Magnus gazed back at her coolly, not saying anything for several moments. His expression stayed stony, giving away nothing except perhaps that he didn't want to give away anything. He honestly wasn't sure himself, not usually taking risks when it came to that sort of thing. Maybe it was because he had been foolish enough to take an interest in her, maybe because it seemed the less suspicious thing to do at the thing. But whatever his true intentions, he wouldn't have told her. Especially when he wasn't sure himself. This case was going to be an interesting one, but he would not enjoy it. As soon as everything was over with, he was heading out, somewhere far away from here. He had never liked this city much, and this whole endeavor was the tipping point for him.

"Maybe there was, maybe there wasn't," he said, glancing down his nose at her. "Now we're clearly both eager to go, so let's. I do have a life, you know." Well, that wasn't entirely true, but Magnus had decided to be an asshole today. He would cooperate, but he would make it known this whole idea of a cop and criminal working together was not something he would enjoy, especially when said cop had pretended to feel something for him first. He was used to deception from those he worked with, so it really shouldn't feel as disappointing as this did.

She felt like saying something rude back to him, but she managed to hold her tongue. She knew she would likely never get him to like her again, much less trust her like he did at the bar. But, she had to remind herself, she wasn’t here for him. She was there because of her investigation. That was it. And if he wanted to be rude, so be it, but she would have to hold back her own comments in order for this case to run somewhat smoothly.

“Well then.” Mercy picked up her coffee and quickly downed the rest of it before she headed towards the door. “Feel free to leave. I’ll see you tonight.”

Mercy didn’t wait for him to respond with another one of his remarks. Instead, she left the room and headed back into the coffee shop. A few of the customers gave her a glance as she passed by, many of them noticing her police uniform. It’s funny how they paid more attention to her— a police officer— than the murderer walking out behind her.

For the rest of the day, she tried to act like the meeting hadn’t gone on. After getting dinner at a fast food joint, Mercy went back home, worked on some of her overdue paperwork, and fell asleep on the sofa for an hour or two with her cat. However, when sis rolled around, she knew it was time to get serious. She had a job to do.

After texting Magnus that she would be by his house at eight, Mercy changed into a small black dress, curled her hair, and did her makeup. While she did enjoy being fancy from time to time, she hated wearing a dress to an occasion like this, knowing that it would be a bother if she had to chase someone down. However, she made sure to hide a weapon down in her purse, just in case.

Once she finished getting ready, she began the trip to Magnus’s house. It wasn’t too far from her’s— maybe a ten to fifteen minute drive— and she ended arriving there a bit early. So, she waited for eight to roll around before she finally got out of her car, walked up to the door, and rang the doorbell.

Magnus himself was annoyed with the whole "fancy dress" thing. He felt that he cleaned up well, but despised putting actual effort into dressing fancy when he would rather not. Or really dressing fancy in general. He could dress nice, wearing the jeans that didn't have stains or some slacks and a sleek button down or sweater, but that was different than dressing fancy. Dressing fancy was a chore, something that reminded him of funerals, seeing as that was one of the main occasions he dressed up for when he was younger. His parents had never been the church-going sort, and they weren't close to much of Magnus's extended family, but they did feel the need to attend any family funerals, regardless of the relationship between them and the deceased. It was a practice Magnus hated; only seeing his cousins when it was time for mourning, and they surely thought him a weird kid. He hadn't spoken to any of his family in years. His parents had already burned enough bridges to ensure there was no reason to.

He swallowed the feelings that had always come with dressing fancy and shook his head. It wasn't as if this was the first time in his adult life he dressed up this much, otherwise, he wouldn't own any sort of suit and tie. He had showered since meeting up with Mercy at the coffee shop, making himself dinner (a simple spaghetti because he couldn't be bothered to cook anything more intensive), and then combed through his hair as it dried. He rarely cared enough to give it more than a passing brush through just to keep it from getting knotted, but he might as well play this part thoroughly to ensure the police had no reason to go back on their word. Or, Mercy's word. He couldn't be certain that the rest of her colleagues would agree, but at least she seemed honest enough. The irony of that thought nearly made him laugh. She had already lied to him a substantial amount, why wouldn't she be lying about this? Well, for now he would cooperate, but he was a slick one, and he was already making a backup plan in case Mercy decided to arrest him after all. At least he would be able to buy himself some time, hopefully.

This whole endeavor, or rather, his whole life felt like a game of chess. A game with hidden pieces being shown to the light at any given moment, but Magnus had always been an adept chess player. He could roll with the punches while keeping his mind in the game.

Magnus stared down his reflection in the mirror. He looked so much different than the kid who had sat numbly in the pew next to his parents during the various family funerals (how did he have that many extended family members?). It had felt like so many funerals, though it was possibly the drudgery of his childhood that exaggerated it all. Now, though, few traces of who he had been as growing up remained. His shoulders had broadened considerably, and he had gained some musculature from working out regularly. His gaze was more empty, more cavalier than it had been in childhood, blue eyes piercing. Even his features seemed sharper, icier then they used to. He rolled his shoulders, putting these thoughts aside before he tied up his hair into a half ponytail, keeping it neat. He often did this since his hair wasn't long enough to tie into a full ponytail without a good chunk falling out.

The doorbell startled him, though he quickly recovered and laughed at himself, checking the time on his phone. Of course his companion was right on time. She was so predictable. He stretched, giving himself one last glance in the mirror before heading to open the door. His house was no great mansion, merely a more modest, but comfortable, place. It was clean enough, though disorganized, with little in the way of decor mostly because Magnus didn't care enough to decorate. He honestly didn't care what Mercy thought of it, and he was certain it showed in his expression as he opened the door to her.

"Come in," he said simply, boredly. She did look nice, but he was not about to give her the satisfaction of admitting that.

For a moment, Mercy dropped her guard, allowing herself to look over him for one quick second. She had to admit he looked pretty nice. Handsome, even, but she wasn’t going to say anything. Instead, she regained her neutral face as she ducked her head and walked into the home.

“What a gentleman, inviting me into his home.” She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “I can’t say I was expecting you to let me inside.”

Mercy glanced around the living room of the home, somewhat surprised at how clean it was. Sure, there were a few items that looked a bit more disorganized, but it was mostly well kept. It should’ve come to no shock since knew Magnus was a fairly tidy person, but she also thought that his job would take up a majority of his time. Murdering another human being was no easy feat, after all, so she figured his house would’ve been more on the messy side because of his limited time.

Mercy glanced over at his sofa. Part of her wanted to sit down and rest her legs from a hard day’s work, but she figured he wouldn’t like that. So she continued standing.

“I guess I should go over the details of the case with you before we head out to the hotel,” she said. “I stopped by there once earlier, and it was pretty busy, so we may have a hard time getting him alone. One thing about our target is that he, apparently, is quite the womanizer. Maybe I can flirt with him, flatter him, I dunno, and lure him away. You’ll be waiting, and… boom. We’ll knock him out, drag him somewhere else, and interrogate him.”

At her first comment, Magnus snorted. "What else would we do, converse on the porch? I may not like you, but I'm not an animal, for god's sake." He could be quite fastidious for someone of his profession, oddly enough.

As Mercy continued speaking, Magnus listened, nodding along with her words. He tended to do that, he had realized, make little gestures or nods to show that he was listening to someone. He had always hated being ignored when he was younger, so perhaps that was why. At any rate, it seemed like a simple enough plan. Some of these guys overestimated their own importance and tended to have somewhat of an ego–they were oftentimes the easiest to lure away and kill. Of course, this wasn't that sort of mission. He was playing by the rules for now, it seemed. It wasn't as if he was chomping at the bit to end another life; he had never enjoyed it, just gotten numb to any sort of emotion that he had first felt. This would certainly be different for him, and he wasn't excited for it by any means. Excited to be done with this mission, with the police, with Mercy herself, yes. But more than anything, he only felt a hot anxiety creeping into his stomach, sitting there like acid.

"Alright," he agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. It was a defensive stance he subconsciously took around most people when he wasn't feeling inclined to add to the conversation. He didn't care too much about this mission beyond getting the job done. It didn't matter that the dress Mercy was wearing was very flattering or that she was pretty, this was higher stakes than simply spending the night together. He would have to live this life for a bit longer if he wanted to not be constantly looking over his shoulder for the police.

If he were honest, Magnus was relieved that his companion didn't decide to settle on the couch or one of the chairs in the quaint living room. He had already stress cleaned today; he didn't need to re-clean. He hated having strangers in his home for any reason. Even the one night stands that he had had were at the other person's house or a hotel. There was something a bit too personal about having anyone enter his house for him, besides just his secretive nature. He didn't like it, but he would have hated talking on the porch more. At least Mercy's shoes were clean enough, though he would probably mop the floor again whenever he had time. He was usually fairly busy between researching those he had a target on and actually doing the deed.

“Just alright? No further ideas, no questions?”

Mercy cocked her head, but she knew already that he likely wouldn’t say much. After all, this wasn’t a mission he was getting paid to go on, and it definitely wasn’t something he wanted to be involved in. Part of her wished that she wouldn’t have spoken to him that night at the bar, but it had been the perfect set up. Her suspect had walked up to her, and she had the chance to lure him in. It was a situation oddly similar to the one they were about to get themselves in tonight.

“Well then, if that’s it, let’s go ahead and head out to the car.” She sent him a faint smile before she walked towards the door. “We’ve got quite the night ahead of us.”

Mercy led Magnus out to her vehicle parked in the street, and it wasn’t long until they were off, headed towards the hotel. She was glad Magnus was with her since she had quite a big fear of driving alone at night, but the silence that filled the car felt incredibly awkward. Eventually, she cleared her throat, wanting to break this dense silence.

“Try to at least pretend that you like me in here, okay?” She let out a small laugh. “I know you hate my guts, and you don’t have to be best friends with me, but at least act you like you don’t despise me.”

What did she want him to say? Mercy already had a plan and she clearly had an idea of what the two of them were doing tonight. She could do the flirting and the playing coy or whatever, and he would take care of the part he knew about. All she had to do was get him alone, in a dark corner of the place, and Magnus could easily swoop in and knock him out. He had a lot of experience with that sort of thing, after all. So no, he didn't have any further comments. He rarely made much conversation with those who sought his services, save to flirt if they were attractive or make unnecessary comments that often ended up getting him underestimated, which he was fine with. If someone underestimated him it made them that much easier to impress–or to kill. So yes, all he had to say was 'alright.'

He walked out of the car behind her, locking his door carefully. A trick that he'd had for a while was to own six locks but only lock three of them. That way if anyone tried to unlock his locks to break into his home, they would be locking three of them. If they were the sort to destroy the locks entirely, then Magnus most likely had bigger problems. At any rate, he sat quietly in the car as Mercy drove, mind wandering. He wasn't particularly feeling like conversing tonight. He usually would be a lot more light-hearted with dialogue even on such an important mission (well, important to her, at least), but after their last few encounters Magnus didn't have much to say to her.

At Mercy's words, Magnus glanced over at her. She clearly wasn't a fan of silences. Magnus wasn't either, if he were honest, but he also knew how to use them to get what he wanted out of a person. And what he had wanted was to not speak first. Whoever spoke first lost all power in this sort of situation, though Magnus had to admit he wasn't entirely certain what sort of situation this even was.

"What, you miss my flirting?" he teased, turning slightly to smirk at her. "Or would you prefer that I pretend to be your friend? Are you saying you want to be frenemies? Like two middle school girls?" He laughed. "Sure thing, bestie." He gave her a comical wink and then chuckled again at that, clearly finding himself amusing. So the usual.

Well, at least he still had the same fun, witty personality from when she’d first met him. After that evening when Magnus figured out her true intentions, Mercy had been scared that he would lose that certain spark of his personality. Maybe he would even ignore her completely.

“Pssh! No! I swear if you call me bestie, I’ll knock you out instead of our target.” She laughed softly. “Just don’t act like you hate me.”

She went silent for a moment or two, staring out at the road before them. Eventually, she decided to speak up again. “And as for the flirting, maybe I do miss it. But only a little. I did kinda enjoy it.” She smirked back at him, pulled her blonde curls over her shoulder. “But I mean, I did do most of the flirting.”

She sent him a discreet side glance before she had turned her attention back to the road. She wasn’t planning on flirting and getting him to trust her to begin with. In fact, she had planned to go the straightforward route; she was going to bring him in, interrogate him, and threaten him into working with her. However, her plans changed, and she was somewhat glad she did. While her current plan did have flaws, it was much better than bringing him into the station. After all, his fellow criminals could hear about it, and they could easily kill him if he was too much of a liability.

Magnus smirked at her reaction, rolling his eyes. He doubted that she meant it, and honestly might continue that antic throughout the night to annoy her. Despite his distrust and dislike of the cop, it did feel a little better to have the tension gone from the car. Joking around with her was preferable to the stony silence from earlier, but Magnus wasn't about to admit that. The day he said how he was feeling was the day that hell froze over. So he didn't add to her reply.

As Mercy spoke back up, Magnus glanced over, raising an eyebrow. He couldn't tell how honest or serious she was being, though her remark about her doing most of the flirting make him snort. Maybe that was what she thought. His version of flirting was as much body language as words, and he had definitely been doing the small stuff like pointing his feet towards her, making sure his whole body was facing her as they spoke, leaning in slightly, and on and on. He was fairly adept at reading body language, which could be in part due to his profession and why he was so damn good at it. But he was also just interested in psychology. Maybe in another life he would be a professor or scientist studying the brain and psychology. That wasn't really a major concern at the moment, though.

"If you say so," he responded with another smirk. "So you just plan on flirting this guy into a corner or what? Because the way I was envisioning it, I jump out of the darkness like Batman and hit a pressure point to knock him out or something. Also, why are these assholes always straight? Never gives me a chance to show off my flirting prowess."

“Your flirting prowess, huh?” She laughed softly. “Well, I’ve got not clue on how straight he is, but I do know he’s a bit of a creep and likes to flirt with as many women as he can in one night. And as for our plan, I think I’m gonna try to lure him to somewhere else. Maybe a room, maybe outside…”

Mercy didn’t have a specific place that she wanted to bring him. She had been into the hotel multiple times to set up this plan of hers, and she had noticed many places than could be used to discreetly knock someone unconscious. It was just a matter of getting him there without drawing in too much suspicion.

She pulled up to the hotel and parked in a spot that was close to the building but hidden by the shadows. It would make it easier to get the unconscious man into the car without being noticed.

“Be careful, alright?” She smirked faintly as she glanced over at Magnus. “There are plenty of interesting characters in here, and we don’t your pretty face getting damaged.”

She snorted at her comment as she got out of the car. She knew he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself; he was an assassin, after all. But it was still fun to tease him from time to time.

Mercy leaned against the car, waiting for her partner to get out. Once he did, she walked to his side, looped her arm through his, and began to walk towards the building.

Mercy did have a point. There was no way to actually know if the guy they were looking for was straight, but considering what little Magnus knew about him (mostly thanks to Mercy), the man was a womanizer and that was basically the same thing in Magnus's eyes. Either way it meant Mercy was the best choice to lure him into a corner or whatever. Maybe eventually one of these guys would be interested in men, or just as good, be a straight woman instead, so Magnus could show off his flirting abilities. If there was one thing he did enjoy, it was showing off. He hadn't really had a chance to do that in a while, though, because a successful assassin kept the shadows. Showing off would be a completely foolish thing for an assassin to do, so obviously Magnus had kept that sort of thing to a minimum. It also felt odd to show off when it came to his actual job, as killing people wasn't exactly something to be proud of (though those people were never good people, so Magnus refused to feel ashamed either).

Mercy's flirting brought him back to the present moment, and he chuckled as he got out of the car. A badass looking scar wouldn't be the worst thing, though he had to agree. He didn't want his pretty face getting damaged either. As she looped her arm through his, he couldn't help the smirk that creeped back onto his face.

"I know you said that you hate it when I call you bestie, but this seriously feels like we're two middle school girls going to the mall right now," he teased, poking at her arm with his free one. "That or two high schoolers going to prom together. All we'd need to do for that was sneak some alcohol into the punch and take embarrassing photos."

If he were honest, though, he actually didn't know much about prom other than what he'd seen in movies. He had not gone to a single school dance, having despised the whole idea. It was just a way for the popular kids to grind on each other to bad music and the nerds to stand awkwardly to the side. Plus, he hadn't liked anyone in his school enough to ask them to go to a dance with him, and the dance wasn't an alluring enough prospect to make him care to go alone. High school had been much too clique-y and awkward for him to enjoy much of it.

“We would’ve made such a cute high school couple,” she teased, resting her head on his shoulder. “You with your murderous tendencies, me with my interest in crime and justice. The perfect pair.”

She grinned at him as they walked into the building, arm in arm. Mercy felt weird acting this way with him; after all, she knew he was a murderer, and he could easily take out her if he wished. But, at the same time, she was working with him whether she liked it or not. She was better acting flirty and goofy with him for the entire time than trying to push him away.

As they entered the bar off to the side of the hotel, the strong odor of cigar smoke and alcohol forced its way into their lungs. The bar was crowded that night, but Mercy managed to find a table near the center of the room. She sat down next to him at this table, and while she tried to act normal, the whole situation clearly bothered her. She was gripping his hand tightly, and she seemed bothered by all the people around them.

She took in a shaky breath. “We just gotta get this over with. The sooner it ends, the sooner we can get out of here.”

Magnus rolled his eyes at her comment. She acted as if he wasn't paid to kill the people. It wasn't as if he did it for fun. Everyone did things they didn't like for money, didn't they? Sure, this was clearly different, but still. Something about her saying that sort of thing annoyed him a little. Not that he would admit that either.

As they entered the bar, he blinked away the sharp tang of the smoke. Magnus had never smoked, and he hated having to ingest second smoke either. Smoking would make it harder to take down his targets, giving him a distinct scent and dulling his functions. No, he avoided that shit like the plague. That was the one thing that had stuck with him from the middle school anti-drug assemblies. No drugs and smoking. Weird that someone so careless with human life cared so much about maintaining his own fitness (minus the alcohol he consumed).

He did notice that Mercy got noticeably more uncomfortable as they entered, glancing over at to see that she was clearly trying to hide how much this situation bothered her. Her grip was like iron, squeezing the blood out of his hand. He was not enjoying that, but he decided he would let it slide for now. His companion was obviously not excited to be here at all. It occurred to him that maybe she hated this mission as much as he did, but she had her own reasons for undertaking it, maybe not that different from his own. Sure, he was criminal, and she was a cop, but maybe she had been blackmailed into doing this as well. Or perhaps it was some sense of justice that had urged her to do this, which must be strong if she was willing to endure all of this and the worse things that were certain to come. This was why being pure of morals or whatever was highly overrated.

"That's true," Magnus allowed in response to her statement. "You ready to do this? I can always take your place, you know. I bet I could do a better job at flirting him away, anyway." He was teasing, but he did actually feel the slightest twinge of concern for her. Why? It wasn't as if she would care about him in that situation, and he wasn't supposed to care about others, anyway. It was why he had survived as an assassin this long, after all.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m ready.” She forced a small smile. “Give me- give me just a second.”

She realized how hard she was squeezing his hand and released it, instead grabbing ahold of her purse and pressing it to her stomach. Great. Just great. She didn’t want this happen here. Not now. They had a mission to be on, and she didn’t have time for a mental breakdown. It was just that the smell and the feel of this place brought back too many memories. Memories that she wished to erase but were stained in her memories.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m gonna go step outside real quick. I don’t see him in here, so maybe he’s out there…”

That was a straight up lie; she could see him sitting across the bar alone. But she couldn’t go up to him looking like a wreck. She had to get away and calm herself.

With her hands shaking, Mercy stood up and headed towards the door. She tried to keep her head held high, but on the inside, she knew that she was crumbling. She needed to pull herself together before she ruined yet another mission.

Magnus tried not to make it obvious that he was watching her closely. This was not the time to freak out. How had she managed to do her job all this time if a little smoke and noise made her so anxious? He would chalk it up to lack of experience in the field, but she'd said that she had seen him near several crime scenes, so she had obviously seen some shit. Maybe it was more personal. At any rate, Magnus was starting to get the tiniest bit anxious. How was he supposed to do his job and therefore get amnesty, if Mercy didn't do hers? He wasn't here for fun.

But underneath his annoyance with her and with the situation, there was the undercurrent of concern. He tried to tamp it down, to ignore it, because that sort of thing was deadly when one's job required not caring. It shouldn't be a big deal. He brushed it off, though he couldn't completely ignore the hollowness that followed the brief internal struggle. By the time he was fully paying attention again, his companion was heading out the door. What was with her tonight? She had been just fine at the other bar.

Maybe she had some sort of personal problem with this place specifically? Magnus had no clue, and it only added to his annoyance. Should he follow her? That was what he would do if it were a movie, or if he were someone who cared about anyone other than himself. But he was the morally gray one, the criminal, and they both knew it. Any help he tried to give would only make things worse. He was not good at comforting. Teasing, flirting, making light of a situation, that he could do, but helping others was never a strong point for him. Besides, this was her job anyway, was it not? She just needed to suck it up. Magnus shouldn't involve himself. He didn't care. Maybe if he kept repeating that it would be true.

At that time, Magnus wasn’t the only one having an internal dilemma. Mercy was having one as well, though her’s was about something entirely different.

It had been a long time since she’d had her last panic attack. So long, in fact, that she thought her days of struggling were over. She was a police officer now, after all, and she couldn’t let her little episodes ruin the little reputation she had left. But, here she was, huddled up near the entrance to the bar like a coward. She was focusing on taking long, deep breaths when suddenly, a voice came out from beside her.

“Is everything alright, miss?”

Mercy looked up, and at first, she didn’t recognize the man. However, when she did, a small smile crossed her face. It was the very man she had been looking for. Her target. Despite her screwup, things seemed to be falling perfectly into place.

She straightened her posture and pushed back her hair as she looked up at the man. It was hard to contain her raging emotions, but she tried best to hide her internal struggles.

“Yes, of course. I’ve just had a bit too much to drink.” Mercy smiled up at him. “You know, I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Mm, I believe you’re right. We don’t see many young women come to this establishment.” A small smirk crossed his face. “I’m Jakob, miss. Jakob Melrose.”

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Lillian. Lillian Winters.”

Jakob and Mercy stayed outside for a while, chatting, before they eventually returned to the bar. She mostly avoided looking at her partner, but once, when Jakob looked away, she glanced over at Magnus and winked. Things were going well. At this rate, they should be on their way in a half an hour.

Magnus was honestly a bit surprised to see Mercy walk back inside with their target. His internal debate was still running, though it was slowly turning into a tirade of self-hatred instead. Luckily, his companion's reappearance got his mind to shut up for a few minutes. Things seemed to be going well for now, with him looking interested in her and the fact that she felt okay enough to shoot him a brief wink at one point. Well, that took the worry off his hands. Mercy was clearly capable of this, and whatever had happened earlier must have been shoved aside for the time being. At any rate, it had led them right to their mark. It seemed like things were going more smoothly than Magnus could have guessed.

While the two of them chatted away, Magnus tried to watch them inconspicuously. Due to his past experience as an assassin, he was great at tailing people without them realizing it. It had taken a lot of practice and messy failures for him to eventually get to the level he was at, and now he discreetly sat at the opposite side of the bar, glancing over out of the corner of his eye towards the two. He had ordered a club soda, non-alcoholic, but it looked enough like a vodka soda that Magnus's sobriety wouldn't be immediately obvious. He sipped at his drink, watching the other bar patrons out of the corner of his eye as well. It wouldn't hurt to strike up a conversation with someone nearby, a sharp-looking man who was probably a decade older than Magnus himself.

He spoke to the man about his job, which seemed pretty cushy to Magnus. The man worked at a well-known law firm, and he was clearly a bit tipsy. He began to tell Magnus all about his wife and how annoying she had been recently with her increasingly demanding requests. Magnus didn't particularly care about this man's personal life, or his obvious misogyny, but he listened along as if he understood. He was mostly just talking to look less suspicious to any onlookers, or especially their target himself. As soon as it appeared the two were heading out to go somewhere alone, he would excuse himself to go to the restroom and slip around to quietly tail them. This could work.

At first, Mercy wasn’t sure if the conversation was going anywhere. It seemed like she had been doing a lot flirting, and she didn’t know if he was going to flirt bad. But luckily for her, he did, and she began going through the steps that it took to bring her plan to completion.

It took at least ten minutes to convince him to leave with her, but when he did, she made sure to give a brief nod to Magnus. She then stood up and began to lead him out of the bar and back into the hotel. Normally, the hotel would’ve been pretty busy, but with the bar open, most of the residents were in there. This made the hotel hallways the perfect place to knock someone unconscious.

Mercy led Jakob up a few sets of stairs, praying that her partner was following them. She wasn’t sure what she would do if they made it to the top of the hotel and no one was there, but she figured she would decide what to do if and only if it came to that.

Luckily for her, Magnus had noticed the subtle nod. He was suddenly glad for how good he was with tailing people, though the route to that particular skill, like many skills he possessed, was a pretty gory one. He politely excused himself from his current conversation, saying he needed to use the restroom, and stealthily followed the pair back to the hotel. If one were paying close attention, they might notice that Magnus took a wrong turn for the toilets, or that he was making sure to keep Mercy and Jakob within a short distance of himself, but by Magnus's estimation most people were too drunk or too busy to care. That was perfect for him.

His footsteps were as light as a cat's, since agility was another thing he had practiced a lot (the practice for that was a lot less gory than for his tailing ability, mostly involving him moving around his house as silently as possible). This was the final moments of Mercy's act before they could corner the guy. Magnus was curious how the man would react, but could guess from his disposition what it would be like.

Again, Mercy looked a bit nervous, but this time she looked less like she was about to run away. She was more in control now, more determined, and Magnus bit back a smile to see her doing so well at this. It wasn't as if it really mattered. What mattered most was the end goal of him being free, and this was merely a means to an end. He would make sure of that.

Mercy took a glance back on her way down one of the hallways and a slight smile crossed her face. There, just as she’d hoped, was Magnus, silently trailing them as they walked further down the hallway. He was definitely good at his job; he followed them discreetly, and if Jakob happened to look back, he would likely think Magnus was simply searching for his room.

Finally, when they made it up to the third door, Mercy walked up to one of the rooms and pulled out a key card. Mercy had stopped by and booked a room under her fake alias— Lillian Winters— to make it easier to tie Jakob up and interrogate him without having to get his unconscious body out of the hotel.

As Mercy opened the door, Mercy looked at Magnus and sent him a look that told him he was good to go through with the plan. After this, she sent Jakob a smile and walked through the door.

Well, he assumed her look meant that he was good to knock this man out. If not, then she really needed to work on her facial expressions and also stop glancing in his direction unnecessarily. But he was certain he was correct. Why else would she open a room door and walk through it like that? She had mentioned cornering the man inside of a room or something, and this definitely fell into those parameters. He quickly stretched before hurrying down the hall and appearing behind Jakob as the man stood in the doorway.

"Hey," he said with a wink. As the man turned around, Magnus swiftly grabbed the guy's shoulders and forced him down before delivering a knee to his nose. Magnus saw Jakob slump as he passed out, glancing at Mercy as if to say 'well I did my job.' He hauled the man from the doorway into the room before shutting the door behind him. "So do we wait til he comes to or what?"

Jakob's nose was clearly not in great shape. It was possible that Magnus had broken it, but it was far from any sort of life-threatening injury. The man would be fine, though his nose may not be quite as straight as it had been previously. Mercy had said she wanted Magnus to knock him out, so he had done it. There wasn't exactly a super clean way of knocking a person out unless you had chloroform on you, so physical injury was the next best thing. Magnus might think it was a shame to damage a pretty face, but he really didn't think that Jakob was a good-looking man in the first place. Something about him just looked, well, weasel-esque. He really didn't see how this man got so many women–it was probably the money.

(lol idk if this is correct bc i got my info from google but let's pretend it is)

(( Haha me either, so we’ll trust it 😂))

“Nice job, my love. That was impressive, maybe even slightly attractive.” She giggled softly and winked at him. “But as for this guy, I say we carry him into the room, tie him to a chair, and wait until he wakes up. Hopefully it won’t take too long.”

Mercy didn’t even wait for Magnus to help her before she began dragging Jakob’s unconscious body into the room. Once they got him inside, Mercy bolted the door shut and pulled Jakob up onto a small sofa. She then took a thick rope and bound his legs and arms to the chair. She also made sure to gag him, just to make sure he wouldn’t start screaming when he woke up.

Mercy sat down on the edge of the bed next to the sofa the man was bound to, pulling her blonde curls over her shoulder. By the way Mercy looked at Jakob, it was clear that she had the same opinion of him as Magnus; she was rather unimpressed by his looks.

“Next time, no flirting. At least not on my part,” she said. “Flirting with you was fun, but with him? Nope. Not even close.”

Magnus chuckled at her comment, trying not to think about how flattered he was by her first response. Knocking the man out had been fairly easy, and Magnus would be lying if he said it was the first time he'd had to do that. He'd had a lot of practice with that sort of thing. Rather than taking a seat, Magnus had leaned against the wall near the sofa, studying Jakob for another few moments before looking back at his companion. He smirked, raising an eyebrow with amusement.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, trying to goad her a bit. He was genuinely curious as to why that was. Perhaps it was just that he was that much more interesting and attractive. Though he didn't want to flatter himself too much; Mercy had only flirted with him in the first place as a why to achieve her goal of dragging him into this case. "What was he like? A piece of shit, I'm guessing. There are a lot like him in this line of business–a lot of total assholes, I mean."

He crossed his arms across his chest, once again his mind briefly going over the events that had led him to be here. God, he could not have predicted this at all. But maybe it wouldn't be as bad as he was fearing. This had gone smoothly so far. And if every encounter could be so lucky as this, then they could clean up quickly and Magnus could be on his way.

“Oh, totally. I mean, he has his good qualities, but…” She snorted softly. “He probably has even more bad ones.”

She glanced over at Magnus, her mind going back to what had happened earlier. She had had moments like those before in the past, but they never ceased to get any less embarrassing. He likely thought she was terrible at her job, and she didn’t blame him for it.

She stood up and walked over to his side, leaning against him slightly. For the first few moments, she didn’t say anything about it. She figured it might be something she should just let go. But eventually, she spoke up.

“Magnus, I’m really sorry about what happened earlier.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “That- that was really unprofessional of me…”

Well, if she was honest with herself, she knew all to well what caused that panic attack. It was something that had been bothering her for years, but she wasn’t going to talk about it with a man she still barely knew.

For a moment, Magnus wasn't sure what she was talking about before he remembered her hurried exit earlier. He wondered what it was about, but didn't want to pry. It wasn't as if he had any real stake in the matter, so long as Mercy did her job. He didn't really need to know anyway. So he merely studied her for a few moments before letting his features relax again.

"It's no big deal," he responded. "You got the job done, so that's what's important." And he meant that. As long as she could do her part, then he didn't care what else was going on. Mostly. There was no real reason for him to care anyway. So it wasn't a big deal. He glanced back over at Jakob, wondering how long he would be out. Everyone was different, and that had been a pretty solid crunch he'd heard as he kneed the man in the nose earlier, so he wasn't entirely sure how long this awkward conversation had to last. He also was curious to see what happened when the guy did wake up. How good at interrogation was Mercy?

She stood next to him for a few moments, looking up at him as he studied her. When she’d first started her investigation into him, she never thought they would end up in this situation. But, here she was, standing with her partner as she waited for their target to wake up.

“You know, Magnus, I’m really glad we—“

Oh, shoot. As she looked back over at Jakob, she realized something was wrong. She had completely forgotten to blindfold him. Without finishing her sentence, Mercy dug a blindfold out of her purse and began to tie it around Jakob’s eyes. He would likely recognize Mercy by her voice; after all, they had talked for a long while. But she didn’t want him to see Magnus’s identity. Magnus didn’t seem to know Jakob, but in the criminal community, they could easily end up crossing paths again.

Only a few moments after Mercy had blindfolded him, Jakob began to wake up. At first, he remained oddly calm, but it wasn’t long until reality settled in. Jakob began thrashing about in his chair, trying to escape or call for help, but Mercy knew that he would eventually realize that it would do him no good. So, she stood back and waited for him to start to calm down. It took a while, but when he began to calm himself, Mercy dragged a chair in front of him to start the investigation.

“Mr. White, I have no intention of hurting you today, but that’s only if you cooperate,” she said as she took a seat in the chair. “I’m going to take off the gag, but I need you to promise not to scream or do anything to draw attention. I do have a gun, and I will not hesitate to shoot you if you choose not to obey. Do you understand?”

Jakob gave a stiff nod, and Mercy took off his gag. Little did he know that she didn’t actually have a gun on her; it would be hard to sneak a weapon into a place like this, and she was not allowed to shoot suspects. But, even with this, the threat was still enough to keep Jakob from acting out.

“I’m sure you already know why I’m interrogating you, so let’s cut straight to the chase.” Mercy leaned back in her seat. She knew he couldn’t see her, but her gaze still sharpened as she spoke to him. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions, and you’re going to answer them. I’ve done more researching and investigating than you realize, so don’t attempt to lie to me.”

Jakob nodded slightly in acknowledgement, and Mercy began the interrogation from there. She started with simple, surface level questions; she asked him about his job, his family, his life outside of the gang. Anything to give her an idea with what kind of man she was dealing with. But, not long into the investigation, she began digging deeper into his gang affiliations.

“So, I’ve heard some rumors about the Devil’s Den,” Mercy asked, scribbling down notes for later research. “It’s where the leaders of your organization meet, correct?”

Jakob gave her yet another brief nod.

“And where is it located?”

“Psh, as if I know,” Jakob replied. “They change it every year.”

After Jakob finished talking, Mercy stayed quiet. She knew that he wasn’t telling her everything, and she was planning to sit there in silence until he continued. It was long before he spoke up again.

“Look, lady, I’m not in the top leagues, so I know nothing about these meetings of theirs.” He let out an exasperated sigh. “There are plenty of businesses around here owned by people in the gang. It would probably be at one of them.”

Mercy scrubbed a few more notes down before she continued. “Do you know who’s attending this meeting?”

“Nah, no clue. Valiencia is about the only person I know will be there.” A slight smirked crossed his face. “She’s here tonight, if you wanna talk to her.”

Mercy raised an eyebrow. “And why are you telling me this?”

“Mm, thought it would be helpful, I suppose.” He chuckled softly. He was acting strange for someone tied to a chair. “But, just to warn you, Lillian, she’s hard to catch. Every two steps you take, she’ll always be one ahead.”

Mercy opened her mouth to speak, but a noise coming from somewhere in the room caught her attention. At first, she brushed her anxiety off, but when she heard it again, she froze. Something— or someone— was in the hotel room.

Magnus had been mostly silent as the investigation went on, glancing between Jakob and Mercy as they spoke. He did seem to have some information, though not nearly what higher-up gang members likely had. Hopefully Mercy was getting the information that she wanted out of him, otherwise this would have turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. He was interested by that last bit of information when a noise caused him to quickly glance in that direction, eyes widening. His companion had clearly caught on as well, and he looked to her for any sort of comment before speaking.

"We can hear you, you know," he said loudly, scanning the room for any sort of human life. There was definitely someone in here, and Magnus was not going to let them just disappear. He wasn't entirely surprised about it if he were honest–these were some dangerous people, after all.

She was somewhat glad when Magnus spoke up; it gave her a strange sort of affirmation that she wasn’t the only one hearing noises. But, at the same time, it made her anxious that someone could be in the room with them. Sure, maybe the noise wasn’t coming from an intruder, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.

After making sure Jakob was still secured to the chair, Mercy wandered around the room, checking any spot someone could be hiding in. She began trying to dismiss her suspicions as she searched, but it wasn’t until she reached the closet that all hell broke loose. As she opened the closet door, a shot rang out, and Mercy immediately felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She barely had time to react before a woman lunged at her from the closet, a gun in hand.

Mercy’s heart pounded furiously as her and the woman tumbled onto the ground, both trying to get the upper hand. Everything was happening so fast, and while Mercy did manage to get multiple good strikes in, the woman still managed to pin her to the ground and put a gun to her head.

Her eyes darted up to Magnus. “Untie Jakob,” she said. “Any wrong moves and I shoot.”