Kai sat down on the couch. He needed sleep, but he also needed a drink.
"I'm thinking of going to the Rage again" he pauses for a second and looks at Ankh anticipating her response, "This time as myself. I could really use a drink."


Ankh smiles at him. "Can I go? I promise not to kiss you again."


Kai looks over at Ankh and the looks over at West.
"Uh...I gotta go change."
Kai goes back to his room and changes into another suit.
"I'm digging this job at Avalon. I know I'm supposed to eschew all things material, but I make this look good" Kai smiles as he adjusts his cuff-links.
"You going?" he looks at West.


West listened to the beginning of the conversation with a smile as he cleaned his Five-SeveN at the table. Although listening, part of his mind was on having to clean pistols again --without having Circe around anymore -- and on replacing the Sig.

The smile was quickly replaced by a blank look as the exchange continued. Focusing on his pistol, he replied, "Uh... no. No thanks."


Realizing her mistake, Ankh bites her lip, not sure how to fix it.

Fuck it. She decides.

She stands and walks over to West, placing one hand on his shoulder so he knew she was there. She slid her other hand under his chin and lifted his face to hers. Leaning over, she kisses him. Deep and long.

She pulls away after a few moments and smiles. "There, now you're evn. You guys should go out and have some guy time. I'm gonna hit the sack. I am exhausted."


Kai pulls out his cell phone and calls a cab.
"You know West, you look pretty beat. I'm thinking I could use a night out on the town by myself anyway. You should probably get some rest as well." Kai chuckles softly to himself.
I seriously doubt rest is on the menu

He walks out the door and heads to Rage.


West looked nonplussed at when Ankh tilted his face, then shocked, and then he just savored the kiss. He looked at her as she stepped away and spoke and her words, as usual, left him unsure of what to think.

Then Kai spoke, reminding West of his presence, and then abruptly was gone. West briefly considered that Kai was lucky the Fabrique Nationale was disassembled.

Putting down the sear he'd been cleaning, he looked at Ankh again. Again, the puzzle.

"So... was that... just so we'd be even?" he finally asked.


Ankh blushes. "Well........no. Not really. I forgot Kai never really told you what happened and apparently shoved my foot very deep in my mouth. I needed to.....make it right."

She shrugs. "And no matter what I do you don't seem to get the hint, so I figured maybe the straight forward way would work?"


"Yeah," West said, thinking. "You know... Kai didn't have to tell me what happened. I'm not stupid."

Why is it that the 'lucky ones' answer to the Lunargent Thorn?

Thorns hurt. Sometimes thorns had to be pulled out.

"That's what I don't understand," he continued in a rush. "Why did you... do that? I told you how I felt..." he trailed off.

What he really wanted to tell her was that he wasn't going to be her in-house fuck, whenever she couldn't pick up a guy at a club... but she had said she cared about him, more than she should.

He was tired of this thorn of uncertainty.


Ankh stares at West like she's never seen him before. "Told me how you feel? What are you talking about? You told me that you're attracted to me. That when I dress like that it distracts you. That is not telling someone how you feel. That's telling someone how their body happens to affect yours. That's chemistry, not emotion. I told you that I care about you. I love you, dammit. That's how I feel."


If West were foolish, or petty, he would have pointed out that he had said the same thing to her, immediately after her words. They had spent a lot of time arguing. He got the feeling they would spend a lot more time arguing.

Not about this, though.

He reached out and pulled her close. "I love you, too. I just... I didn't know how things would be, after that afternoon," he tried to explain.

Well, fuck this.

He kissed her, hard, with all the urgency and frustration of long weeks of tantalizing proximity.

The whole chemistry bit? That wasn't a bad thing.