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Anna couldn't believe it. How could her sister had done such a thing? Instead of choosing to help her poor, dear sister that she adored so much, she threw her to the wolves!
Then again, Esmea didn't have a selfless bone in her body. It was a dog-eat-dog world in her eyes.
Zaeed glanced down at Anna's hand which had been curled into a fist. The appendage was shaking furiously, like she was on the verge of exploding. With another look at her face, though, he couldn't tell if anything was really wrong.
Taking her wrist in his hand, he held her fist between them as they walked alongside one another. "Relax," he commanded, his brow furrowing together to form a crease.
"I will when I find that bug-eyed freak," she snapped and jerked her hand to get away from his hold. "When I see her, I'm breaking her neck."
Esmea always did that; she always threw her under the bus when it came to little things. Like this circumstances--like all the other circumstances! It only made her hand shake further when Zaeed wouldn't let go of her goddamn arm.
"Let go of me," she seethed, speaking through clamped teeth. Her feet had pulled them to a stop in the middle of the hallway, her person turned to face his own.
"What's the deal between you and her? This is ridiculous; you're supposed to like each other," he retorted, his head leaning down to face her own.
Anna seemed to have forgotten about his advantage over the past few weeks. He was clearly looming, trying to intimidate with the use of size. It wouldn't work with her, obviously--she'd keep telling herself that until it worked.
"I like her enough," retaliated the other mercenary. "I just can't stand when she pulls shit like this, and-"
Her lips formed in a hard line while her eyes averted elsewhere. She couldn't be mad when a displaced emotion rang in her head. It swirled around her brain like butterflies in a glass jar and crawled up her skin like small spiders. The way he looked at her clouded her thoughts so much so nothing could clear it. Every time he breathed it distracted her more than she liked to admit.
Anna disliked it; more than disliked--she hated it.
"And?" he pressed, his grip loosening around the bone. He seemed interested in the issue between herself and her sister; it made her feel sick.
"You won't get anything out of me," she retaliated and slipped her hand from his grasp. She stormed forward and turned around a corner, only to come face-to-face with the room she desired to be in.
Tapping in a code to the door, Anna stamped her way into the one-bedroom complex and scanned her eyes around for her sister. She found her standing in front of the mirror, drawing her hair into a braid for sleep. She noticed her sibling's armor laying off to the side, as well as her heels and gloves.
"I've got a bone to pick with you," Anna growled whilst storming toward her sister.
"What kind?" she said, her tone nonchalant. "A femur? How about a rib? Ooh~ Maybe a finger?~"
"Why the hell did you give me a room with this.. This thing? You couldn't have taken one for the team, Esmea, really?"
"Where's the fun in that? I thought you liked a challenge?"
"Not that kind!"
Zaeed leaned his shoulder against the doorframe and crossed his arms. His quirked his brow as his eyes darted between each sister, one shooting an insult while the other came back with something to match.
"Why don't you just-" he started, but lost his voice within a few seconds.
"You're not in this!"
"This doesn't concern you!"
Each sibling seemed to shout at him at the same time, leaving their words both jumbled and clear. Zaeed pushed himself off of the doorframe and walked forward to take his place between the two of them. It wasn't like he hated arguing, he rather loved to watch feuds go down in front of him; just not when they were over ridiculous, trivial things.
"Why don't you just sleep with each other?" he spoke above their voices. "Problem can be solved if you'd just get over yourselves."
"You don't know her very well," Anna retorted and crossed her arms across her chest. "She sleeps with a dagger under her pillow."
Esmea gasped like Anna had revealed a huge secret and hugged her hand to her chest. "And I trusted you with that information!" she yelped. "I wouldn't tell a stranger that mumble and talk to no one in particular about anything and everything when you're dreaming!"
Zaeed pinched the bridge of his nose as a small breath left his mouth. He knew it wouldn't get anywhere; he'd worked with a pair of twins once in his life and knew for a fact the only thing that would resolve their problems would be themselves.
Turning on his heel, he started for the door. "When you finish, I'll be in our room," he spoke toward his comrade.
The sound of that sentence leaving his mouth sent a shiver down Anna's spine. She quite liked that term. Her head turned to watch as he left the room, while the blood seemed to rush to her face.
Esmea crossed her arms and leaned on one hip. "That is why I did that," she exasperated. "It's like you don't trust me."
Anna snapped her head back over to Esmea. "I don't," she scoffed and mirrored her sister's stance. "What made you think I did?"
Esmea feigned a thinking motion, then dramatically shrugged her shoulders. She turned back around and began inspecting her face and hair once more. She had a knack for her appearance; it was the only thing that she truly seemed to care for.
"Run along with your boy toy," she commented and waved her hand toward her twin. "I just know he's a fun time."
When Anna's face bloomed in red, the assassin giggled and winked from the mirror. Her sister let out a low growl from her throat and stormed out of the room, muttering, "He's not my boy toy.."
*Comfortable* would've been the word Anna used to describe how she felt.
For such a hard, metallic bed with a single sheet, it felt surprisingly warm and snug--almost as if she'd been hugged. She couldn't remember the last time she'd ever received one of those. The thought had her sinking further into that sort of comfort.
*Why was she being hugged?*
Anna's brows furrowed together. Something was amiss; a hard, cold mattress in a hard, cold room shouldn't have been warm or snug. It should've been freezing, since they were in space. She'd been on a ship similar to the one they inhabited; of course, she knew what it felt like.
Slowly, she peeled her eyes open. In her view stood a large wall with bolts screwed into the plates that separated herself from her neighbor. They climbed high, until reaching a ceiling and curving back down into another wall.
The mercenary's eyes ran over the plates of the wall, then to the floor in thought. A shift of someone's hand brought her out of her own mind. She stiffened, before it finally clicked.
*Oh, my Gods. This can't be happening.*
Anna widened her eyes slightly. She'd never been in a situation she couldn't handle; something as simple as being trapped in a man's arms in an unfamiliar bed could easily be fixed. She had reasonable ability--worst come to worst, she'd just.. end his misery.
Looking back over her shoulder, she eyed Zaeed who slept quite peacefully against one of the pillows that had meant to be their wall.
Neither could compromise on which side they wanted, but had bickered about the other taking their side in their sleep. Their solution was to make a wall of three pillows down the middle. They'd each ended their conversation with words of their choosing--albiet, neither were kind--and moved into their respectively places with their backs facing one another.
It didn't hold up very well, she observed. Zaeed, along with the one under his head, had another tucked between her back and his chest. She held her own under arm.
Anna slowly turned her head back forward and let out a slow exhale. She felt an arm under head, while the other had wound itself around her waist. While the action was most repulsive physically, she didn't exactly mind it.
She snapped at herself mentally. She'd have a talk with her subconscious later. For now, she needed to rid herself of a man and go elsewhere.