Work Text:
The deep hum and thrum of the stuffy, humid metal box that Beau was in felt a lot like being trapped in a cage. People were dancing and jumping and lounging on top of one another, scarlet lights putting a red tint over everyone and everything.
Lying on a deep violet couch, Beau was trying to drone out a magenta tiefling who was draping herself on the other side of the couch. Something, something, her friend dragged her to this hole in the wall, something, something, got into a bar fight. Whatever she was going on about, talking to the wall at this point, Beau wasn’t interested in.
However, she was interested in the movement of a young half-elf man, wrapped in a sleeveless red tunic, who was dancing with his arms above his head.
She got up, hearing a huff from the tiefling, and walked over to the man. He was deeply tanned, with sunny gold hair that sat in ringlets, and the fabric he wore seemed like silk the closer she got.
“Hey, Senthrum?” Beauregard called out, having to shout despite being only inches away. His ivy green eyes turned to hers, mouth going into a playful smirk as he eyed her up.
“Yeah, who might you be?”
Beauregard wanted to smack that smirk off of him, but she kept her composure. “Tracy… You seem like fun-”
“What?”
“You seem like fun,” Beauregard shouted, louder this time and leaning in, “What to get out’a here together?” She did her best to bat her eyelashes and play sweet, despite her need to sting and swing. Whatever she was doing seemed to work though, as Senthrum nodded.
“Yeah, you and me and some friends?”
Beauregard took a step closer, putting a hand coyly on his shoulder. “Just the two of us is fine.”
The half-elf smiled and led her away with her hand in his, pushing and squeezing past the tight pack of people. The smell of sweat and alcohol and the muddied different colognes seemed to dull, slowly getting used to the stench of this place.
He led her to a small side door, one she had barely noticed when she originally scooped out the place, and opened it for her, the deafening sounds pouring out of the club. She went out first into the alleyway, and then him, shutting the door behind her and then having to shove his shoulder into it so that it clicked shut.
“So baby, where did you want to-”
Without a moment of hesitation, Beauregard’s fist swung out and collided with his fist. The half-elf slumped against the brick of the building, hands flying to his nose that was now bleeding.
“The fuck was that for?”
Beauregard stepped in closer, watching as his eyes darted up to hers. “That was for calling me baby. The next one will be for if you decide not to cooperate.”
The half-elf tried to grip the wall and stand, about three inches shorter than her as he sneered. “Tsch, you messed with the wrong-”
“I know damn well who I’m messing with,” Beau hissed out. “I need you to be honest, and to cooperate. If you don’t, then I’ll have to take the long route, and you don’t want me to take the long route.”
“I could lie to your face and you would be none the wiser,” he spat back, wiping away some blood with the back of his hand that was now trickling down his face.
Beau let out a humorless laugh, “You couldn’t lie to me if you had all the help in the world.”
“The fuck do you want anyways?”
“Just some info. You know a guy named Molly?”
“Molly?”
“Mollymauk- purple tiefling, ostentatious,” she sized up his frame briefly, “Could definitely drink you under the table. Sound familiar?”
Senthrum tried to make out any sort of emotion from Beau, but his shoulders relaxed a bit when he saw nothing but a steel front.
“Maybe, maybe not. Why do you care?”
“Why I need him is none of your business. Do you or do you not know him?”
Senthrum hesitated, and nodded after a second. “Yeah, yeah I do. Partied with my crew and I when we crossed paths a couple towns over. Never seen a guy hold the room’s attention like that. We split in the morning- only ‘member him ‘cause he and a buddy of mine got cozy in the night and now he’s lamenting that he didn’t join us in our travels.”
“That Molly didn’t join you guys?”
“Yeah, something about needing to find some friends?”
Beau leaned forwards, tense, “Did he mention who these friends were?”
“Not that I can remember,” the man huffed, crossing his arms. “Can I go now?”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“Like I said, I can’t remember!”
“Well, you better start remembering,” Beau threatened.
“All I remember is that he mentioned something about needing to find his angel. Guess that makes him a cheater and a player I suppose,” the guy shrugged, and Beau pulled back.
“No, no actually it doesn’t.”
“Tsch, what, you some expert in this guy?”
“Something like that.”
“Can I go now?”
Beau sighed and took a few steps back, the guy glaring as he ran back into the club, music enhanced to headache-inducing proportions through some magical means. Beau kicked a spare bottle at her feet, hearing it shatter across some wall and she turned her back and walked away.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Did you find anything?” Fjord asked as she opened the door to their crummy hotel room, where the nein were sitting around in separate positions. He was the first one to speak when she walked in, and she closed the wooden door behind her with a sigh.
“Other than enough perfume in the air that’s going to stick on me for days? No, nothing new.”
“I’m sorry Beau,” Jester said, lying on her stomach on a bed, her notebook opened in front of her.
“Whatever, the guy seemed half-drunk anyways. Not sure how reliable he would have been if he had given us any good info,” she said, plopping herself down on the ground in the misshapen circle that Caleb, Veth, and Fjord made on the ground.
“What did he say?” Veth pressed, scooching closer to her.
“Something that they met a few towns ago- which must be Alfield then. Which means Reina was right,” Beau explained, thinking back to the human she interrogated a couple days ago, and the one who tipped off that Senthrum had also seen the mysterious tiefling.
“Well, there’s good in crossing sources, no?” Caduceus said, seated on the other bed next to Jester’s, polishing his shield delicately.
“Yeah, chin up Beau!” Jester said.
“He was a dead-end- he mentioned some friend of his that slept with Molly, but Reina also mentioned him. And he’s already making his way to Rexentrum.”
“We can leave Zadash if we have to hunt him down,” Fjord pointed out.
“Yeah, but Molly’s a weaver of tales of grandiose proportions. He riddles everything he says with lies, half-lies, half-truths, and a pinch of wisdom. Who knows what he said to this guy,” Beau countered.
“Anything else?” Caleb prompted.
Beau’s posture suddenly picked up, as if she had been zapped. “Actually, yeah, he did say something important.”
The whole room seemed to be silent, inching forward and waiting for what she had to say, so she continued.
“Molly talked about needing to find his angel,” Beau said, looking over to where Yasha was standing next to Fjord, cards in her hands and on the windowsill where the both of them were playing some card game.
With that, Yasha looked right at Beau with eyes that made her heart flutter.
“Holy shit guys,” Jester said, tailing wagging, “He remembers us. At least, he remembers Yasha! He has at least some of his memories!”
With that declaration, Beau felt her body relax as Yasha put her cards down and Jester started talking again, at a hundred words a second. All Beau could focus on though was the wonderful woman who joined her on the floor, behind her, and enveloped Beau in a warm hug, the kind that she didn’t know how she went most of her life without.
Beau let her head rest on Yasha’s bicep as Yasha brought her legs out, her torso pressed to Beau’s back. She smelled like wild flowers and slight pine musk and everything that could make her feel like she was floating in heaven. An infinitely better smell than that crummy club.
“Oh my god you guys, Molly remembers us! He’s looking for us!”
“I bet you he’s already on his way to Zadash! If he remembers us, he must remember being with The Gentleman and… Oh, I bet you he remembers meeting Cree again! He’s definitely coming here-” Jester went on and Veth joined her in her chatter, excitedly talking about all the ways that would point to Molly trying to find them again.
With all the talk, only Beau could hear Yasha’s low voice whisper in her ears, “He remembers me. Beau, he remembers me.”
Beau took Yasha’s hand and squeezed it. “Yeah, yeah he does. He’s looking for you.”
“He’s looking for me,” she repeated back to herself, as if in prayer.
Beau closed her eyes as she snuggled into Yasha’s chest, hearing the distant chaos of Veth and Jester using their detective skills to deduce where Molly might be headed towards, and Caleb occasionally pointing out that since they met in Trostenwald, Molly might try to retrace his footsteps to there.
“He’s out there, he’s near us. Out of all the places he could have gone when that soul shattered, his soul went to us. Close to us,” Beau mumbled.
“I think he sensed us, sensed that he needed to be here,” Yasha quietly replied, squeezing Beau’s hand affectionately. “He’s out there. He’s out there and looking for us.”
“Not all hope is lost after all,” Beau said, words barely able to tumble out of her mouth as she yawned, aching from the restless day she had. It had to be far past midnight by this point, and spending all her notes back hunched over her notes and recollections of their travels could not be earning her brownie points in the wellness department.
“Sleep,” was all Yasha instructed as she placed her head gently on top of Beau’s, careful not to squash her with her chin. “You deserve to rest too you know.”
Beau could barely utter a grumble in response, too cozy here to want to move or say anything else. Molly was out there, and he was looking for them.
Molly was trying to come home to them.