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The humid bay with its intermingling scents of sea, sweaty bodies and cigar smoke was the first thing to greet her. Captain Fortune was home again after a long stint on the mainland. As deep as her wanderlust may be, nothing beat the feeling of stepping onto the docks and looking at the smoky, bustling city in front of her. The creak of the buildings in the sea breeze, the cries of the gulls floating above, the rowdy calls of groups stumbling from pub to pub - all of these welcomed her each time she returned. Her favourite dive would be busier tonight than other nights, but she knew how to unwind even in the midst of various offkey karaoke attempts and occasional scuffle or two. Maybe she would even be able to sweet talk her way into a corner card game since she had some extra gold to throw around.
~
Holding a surprisingly clean mug of ale above her head, Fortune squeezes and jabs her way through the pressing crowd towards the back of the bar. The tables were smaller and the lighting was abysmal but most times you never really needed to see your opponent's face unless you were planning to land a punch on them for cheating you out of your money.
If you were sober enough to notice in the first place.
After carefully hanging her feathered hat on a nearby hook, she slides into the closest unoccupied seat in a table for four, leaning back to sip her drink while the dealer begins shuffling a worn deck in preparation.
"Standard?" A deep, accented voice inquires from underneath a wide brimmed hat.
"Guts."
The hat lifts and an attractive smile is all that appears before a flurry of cards slide across to each of the three players. Fortune takes another leisurely pull of her cool ale and checks out her opponents.
One is a dark eyed woman with a crisp bandana covering the top of her hair; dark, short and contrasted by a bright red streak near the front. Her wrinkled face is set in a focused expression and across one cheek are a line of deep scars that almost look like gills.
Definitely not one to underestimate.
The other player is a younger boy, his hopeful eyes under a head of shaggy hair. He flips a large silver coin through his fingers while the dealer finishes sorting the hands. He catches Fortune's stare and smiles, revealing a few shiny, silver teeth and many gaps in between. Pleasant demeanor, not too full of himself yet. Easy to read, easy to play around. He flips the coin onto the table, giving the bounty hunter a wink before leaning towards the dealer.
"One silver start."
~
Poor boy, Fortune thinks to herself as he raises two fingers and tosses his cards down. After a five round losing streak, she couldn't blame him for wanting to keep a few coins in his pocket at the end of the night.
Only the two women were still in. She could feel a quietly growing tension between them as they lay their current hands down, hers the better one this time.
Bandana woman's dark eyes lifted in challenge as a pouch of gold coins fell onto the table.
Fortune pushes her empty mug towards the silver toothed boy, nodding her head towards the bar as she meets the ante, tossing her own small bag down.
"Twelve hundred current."
The cards swish across the table.
~
She doesn't break her gaze as she lifts two fingers and sharply pushes her losing hand away. Thirty-six hundred in total that will not be going home with her tonight.
She extends her hand.
"Well played, Captain."
~
She knows better than to walk back to her ship with a bag full of clinking coins, so after speaking with the bartender, she locks her winnings in the backroom's safe till morning. She was no dragon; she had no need of a bunch of gold in the middle of the night when all that was left for her to do was sleep.
The image of herself as a dragon gave her a sudden fit of giggles, and she chuckles the rest of the way to the docks, picturing herself trying to fit through her cabin doorway in dragon-form but only able to stick her head in.
Laughter tears still in her eyes as she opens the door to her room means she misses the shadow seated at her writing desk.
Leaning on the door frame, she wipes her eyes and lets the faint moonlight stream in, squinting into the open, dark space.
"Care to share whatever it is that's made ya cackle all the way up the docks?" The chair scrapes against the floorboards as the shadow rises from it.
The unexpected voice catches Fortune off guard and she automatically reaches for her guns, only to remember she took them off before departing for the bar. Of course, she mumbles to herself, of course the one time I decide to leave them here is the one time some jackass breaks in.
"Some jackass, huh? That's how you thank the man who came all this way to make sure none o' ya winnings from tonight were mysteriously gone in the morning? Though I s'pose lurking in the dark like this ain't doing me much good." The shadow finds the small reading lamp on the desk and clicks it on. Fortune blinks at the abrupt burst of light, catching a familiar wide-brimmed hat before looking away to allow her eyes a moment to adjust.
"You don't have to pull this damn mysterious act every time, you know. Gives me a heart attack and I am too glorious for such an embarrassing end like that, Twisted Fate." She glares at the man as he removes his hat and tosses a patchwork bag on the desktop.
"What's embarrassing about swoonin' over a handsome, honest dealer like myself?"
Fortune finally moves off the door frame and closes the door behind her, her glare deepening as she walks over to the desk to pull open the strings of the bag. Even the small tug gives her an idea of its weight, but she won't know if he's skimmed until the morning count.
By then, he'll be long gone, well out of reach of any wrath she may direct his way for dipping into her share.
"Amazin', ain't it? What a little touch of magic can do over the course of a night? A little slip here, a little pair there," Twisted Fate had moved in behind her, one arm wrapping around her waist and the other prodding the side of the bag, causing a few gold coins to spill out onto the desk. They roll in small circles before falling flat underneath the lamp, shining gold.
She leans her head back and lifts her hand to tangle in his thick, dark hair. "Certain touches can be quite surprising in their effectiveness..." The arm around her waist tightens and a quiet sigh brushes along her neck.
"And with all I know you're capable of doing with those magically inclined hands of yours, I hope trying to sneak away with more than your share isn't one of those," Fortune's hand grips Twisted Fate's hair and tug his head back a little, emphasising her words. A groan emerges from the dealer and after a moment, a smaller bag of gold plops next to the larger.