Chapter Text
“Bronya and Seele asked for us.”
Sampo startles at the sudden sound of Gepard’s voice behind him. It’s all the more shocking because Gepard almost never approaches Sampo without a warning beforehand― at the very least, a text preluding his arrival, if not the exact details of the event to avoid any unnecessary interactions beforehand.
But here he was― Gepard Landau, in all his stoic glory.
He turns his gaze to the blonde. “And what for, exactly?” He purrs as he turns back to the matter at hand, that being his customer. “If you can’t see, I’m already tending to my very important customer here―”
The young woman before him seems to take to the flattery, but Gepard doesn’t seem to respond as kindly to such machinations. Sampo can see how the captain tenses up in his periphery, and his brow arches. He chalks it up to him being affronted by his illicit activities, and he smirks at the thought of their bargain preventing him from doing anything about it.
“They… would like to arrange what’s called a ‘double date’.” The words tumble out of Gepard’s mouth like they’re a foreign language to him, and Sampo almost doubles over in laughter at how inexperienced he truly is.
“A double date?” He muses. “But this customer has charmed me~ it’d be cruel of me to leave her presence.”
The mercenary watches as a look passes over Gepard’s face. Something almost territorial , like the woman’s mere presence is crossing an invisible line between them.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Gepard’s voice holds its usual tone of respect, and he puts on a smile thats almost charming, but the tightness of it makes it entirely off-putting. “But me and my partner have business to attend to. So if you’d excuse us―” He makes an uncharacteristic show of grabbing Sampo’s wrist, leaving them bounding off in the other direction without Sampo being able to offer his client so much as a goodbye.
Sampo hisses as he tugs himself out of Gepard’s grip, rubbing where his arm is slowly turning sore. “Awful pushy today, aren’t you?” He huffs, and it hits him that Gepard would have to maintain his strength in his position.
He’s certainly doing a mighty fine job , he muses.
“I’m not pushy .” Gepard grunts. “You just weren’t listening. I asked you one thing.” He seethes under his breath, beginning to feel a little bit of honest to Aeons anger.
“Just because I agreed to pretend to be with you doesn’t mean that I’m going to upend my entire business model. This isn’t real, Gepard!” Sampo’s voice takes on the same note of seriousness it had the night beforehand.
Gepard can’t help the acrimony that rises in his throat and spills out off his lips. “Good. Because I’d never truly want to be involved with the likes of you, Koski.”
The argument ends there, a heavy blanket of tension hanging over the two of them like the aftershocks of a vicious thunderstorm. The silence lingers between them as they make their way towards the spot Seele had designated.
It isn’t much, but Bronya’s always had an eye for beauty where one can’t find it. She’s strung up the small, undisturbed alley with lights and a pleasant array of foods. She’s discussing something with Seele, fingers intertwined with the Wildfire member’s own.
The soft moment lingers in Gepard’s gaze and the tension between him and Sampo, somehow, grows ever-heavier.
“Ah, Bronya—“ Seele grins, gesturing with a flourish. “We have company.”
Bronya’s eyes light up, just a hint. “Gepard, Sampo.” She hums, clearly happy they’d arrived. Probably happy Sampo hadn’t flaked, Gepard muses, trying to justify his actions from earlier in his own head. “You came.”
Gepard offers a genuine smile, one only reserved for his closest friends. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He says. Out of the corner of his eye, he can make out Sampo and Seele speaking—
“All that desperation for him to take you down,” Seele snorts, playfully nudging Sampo’s shoulder. “I knew you had ulterior motives.”
Gepard chokes, then clears his throat as he turns back to Bronya. “Does she not know—?”
“Ah, I,” Bronya wrings her hands together. “I’ve yet to tell her. Forgive me.” She pauses, then— “how is it going, anyhow? The arrangement, I mean?”
“Tenuous,” Gepard grumbles. “But what am I to expect?”
Bronya laughs, then. “Ah.” She smiles. “Of course.”
They take their respective seats against the chairs Bronya had set up. She’d taken care to find comfortable and lavish furniture, clearly taking the event seriously.
“So,” she mutters, in between bites of sausage. “How are you two faring?”
The question is vague enough to pass as inconspicuous, Seele still none-the-wiser. Sampo prods at his own food, mind wandering. Gepard’s never seen him so quiet.
“The same as ever,” he suddenly snaps to attention, and it almost startles Gepard. “You know how I love to get on his nerves, and we all know he doesn’t take kindly to that.”
“Well,” Gepard’s grip tightens against his utensil as he speaks, “if a certain someone wasn’t so eager to flake on everything—“
Seele seems to quickly notice the rising tension, as she places a hand against Bronya’s increasingly tense shoulders and brandishes a bottle. “Who wants wine?” She says, and doesn’t wait for an answer as she pours two glasses for Sampo and Gepard.
The blonde notices how she doesn’t pour any for herself or Bronya, and wonders how their conflicting natures meld against one another with such ease.
Gepard’s a man who knows how to hold his alcohol, yet Sampo is not. Higher muscle mass, higher tolerance. His military training had paid off well for once, depending on who you asked, but he sorely wished he was inebriated, or that Sampo was still mad at him.
“And then,” Sampo slurs, and Gepard feels heat steadily rising to his cheeks as Sampo slings an arm across his waist, but doesn’t bring himself to tug away. “You’ll never guess what happened after he arrested me—“
Gepard, with a bit of guilt, squeezes his hand around Sampo’s arm to shut him up. “As lovely as this evening has been,” he says, tersely— “I think it’s time I take this one home.”
Seele frowns, but nods in assent. “Let’s make this a tradition, yeah?” She suggests, and Gepard tries to hide his wince as he nods.
“I’ll see them out,” Bronya whispers, pressing a soft kiss to Seele’s temple. She gestures for Gepard and Sampo to follow her, and Gepard has to practically sling Sampo over his shoulder to drag him out of the alley.
“He’s a pain,” Gepard complains, once Sampo is safely out of earshot. Bronya laughs. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” Bronya says softly, as she glances between the two of them.
“That’s just what I used to say about Seele.”