Chapter Text
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”
Two rocks and an enthusiastic pair of scissors that quickly fall limp.
“No! Not again! I did it last time!” Nekomata stomps, realizing the odds hadn’t been in her favor after all. “Best two out of three!”
“We already spent five minutes debating how this game even works with three people. Let’s not waste any more time. The commission is yours.” Anby incorrectly thought she was doing a good job of keeping the smug note out of her typically emotionless tone. She fought down a grin as Nekomata stamped again. Billy, however, didn’t hold back his laughter as he handed her a marker.
“Get up there, Nekomata! You were the one who suggested we play rock, paper, scissors in the first place!”
The feline loser groaned as she swiped the cherry red marker out of Billy’s hand. She approached the commission board and scribbled her name by a commission labeled “Simple Item Retrieval: One Agent Needed” in Nicole’s flowy cursive handwriting.
The commission board of the Gentle House hideout: a whiteboard/corkboard/calendar hybrid packed to the edges with ink stains, newspaper clippings of job openings, and doodles ranging from cutesy to simple to cool to crude jokes reminiscent of a high schooler, each set of drawings coming from a different bored Cunning Hare. The heavy board hung from the wall by only a few pushpins that had fallen out enough over the years to leave the surface peppered with tiny holes and lined with scratches from the metal back. It had sat on this very wall since Nicole pulled it out of a dumpster three years ago and fell in love at first sight.
Whenever Nicole accepted a commission, she agreed on a deadline with the client and put it up on the board. It was up to the ragtag team of misfits themselves to volunteer for jobs, and the good ones—rallies, busting raider outposts, catching video of in-Hollow combat—went fast. All that was left were the tedious jobs, such as the one Nekomata had just (angrily) signed up for: searching a whole ten square meters… for a single wedding ring… alone.
“And it’s due in two days!” she groaned as she collapsed on a squeaky recliner missing an armrest, as if she were already exhausted from imagining the task alone. “There goes my trip to Godfinger tomorrow…”
Anby hummed as she sat on a rickety couch that had peeled up so much the foam had become the dominant color. She hid her smile behind a finger to her chin, faking a thinking look. “Think positive. I believe this is a good opportunity for you to get some exercise. With how much you’ve been lazing around Sixth Street, I almost mistook you for Inky the other day.”
The marker Nekomata had been holding bounced off the wall behind Anby’s head, narrowly missing the nimble soldier. Anby’s eyes narrowed in the direction of the offending thiren.
“I think you accidentally dropped something. Don’t worry. You’re allowed to apologize.”
“Make me~.”
Anby was halfway across the room to Nekomata when the door to the hallway swung open. The feuding girls turned to look toward the sound, and Billy quickly put away the phone he was about to record with. He lit up to greet their boss before his voice quickly died in his throat at the look on her face.
Heavy platform boots slowly thumped down the wooden floor, crossing to the small kitchen. Her briefcase is gently lowered to the floor as the pantry is ransacked, producing a granola bar and a bag of nacho chips.
Her eyes were distant, as if she were deep in her thoughts. Her jaw was working, going over seemingly the same silent words over and over. Something about her projected an air of frostiness, making it clear that interruption was uninvited. Nevertheless, she was halfway through the bar when Billy nervously spoke up.
“Is that your lunch?”
Nicole barely looked up as she responded. “I’ll eat more later.”
It was Anby who managed the courage to speak next. “Are you… going somewhere, Nicole?”
Nicole finally looked up, snapped out of her thoughts. She was indeed fully dressed, with her makeup done perfectly, and equipped with all her accessories and weapons, a practice she reserved for particularly important occasions. Her bubblegum pink hair also looked freshly dyed, shimmering under the dim kitchen lights. Nicole shifted awkwardly on her feet for a moment before answering.
“Well, look at the board, Anby. I have somewhere to be.”
All eyes were turned back on the board. Sure enough, for that very afternoon, there was a commission reading “Solo Mission, Classified Hollow Operation, Nicole Only—NO FOLLOWING.” Nicole had dropped the cursive for that last part.
“Well,” Billy scratched the back of his neck as he tentatively engaged. “Yes, you do. But, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s up with these top-secret missions you’ve been sending yourself on? Why can’t we know anything about them?”
Nicole stared, her gaze almost making Billy take a step back. With an eerily calm grace, she slowly kneeled and picked up her briefcase again.
“Do you know what the word ‘secret’ means, Billy Kid?”
Billy flinched at the use of his full name. Anby could see the growing tension and quickly stood, stepping in to play damage control.
“Billy’s out of line, Nicole,” Anby cut in, always the first to rush to her boss's defense. “He only meant to comment on how unusually… icy you become when the topic comes up.”
“Yeah, and what Hollow are you going to where you always have to look like you stepped off a runway, nyah?” Nekomata, being much less concerned with decorum, had draped herself over the couch, taking Anby’s seat. “You look too serious for that makeup.”
Nicole huffed, trying to remain calm. If I lose my cool, they’ll get even more suspicious. Act natural.
“Nowhere.”
She immediately internally grimaced. Smooth.
Despite the neon glowing lie, nobody spoke up. It was clear this conversation was going to lead nowhere but bad places. It was Nicole’s watch that bravely shattered the painful silence with a pitchy trill indicating the turn of the hour.
“And I won’t be late. So if you have any more comments, make it snappy.”
Billy shrank. Anby studied her shoes. Nekomata watched the dust motes swirl in the air. Nicole fought down a feeling of shame even though she wasn’t being watched.
“Great. I’ll see you later this evening. Goodbye, everyone.”
Silence.
“Guys..?”
There was an overlapping murmur of subdued farewells. Nicole took in a shaky breath and left without responding. Nobody stopped her.
Behind the small, bordering-on-decrepit building Nicole owned, she started up the van the Cunning Hares used for business. Her thoughts lingered on her friends for only a moment before she thought about her destination. A soft smile broke across her face. She hummed an elegant-sounding tune as she pulled out of the alley behind the HQ. Just before pulling out onto the main road, she took out her phone to send a quick text to an unsaved contact.
“Princess Soteria is on her way.”
“So who’s gonna follow her?”
Anby’s jaw dropped at Nekomata’s casual question. She asked it as if it were the most obvious question in the world; a menial task she was dumping on somebody else instead of a major betrayal.
“Absolutely not. Under no circumstances. No.”
Nekomata looked surprised at Anby’s refusal, only adding to her bewilderment. “Really? I thought you’d be first to volunteer, nya~.”
Anby had to bite back a heavy sigh. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. This clueless cat… “I can see the board, same as you. No. Following.”
Nekomata held up her hands in defense at Anby’s sharp tone. “Whoa, hey, calm down! I’m worried about Nicole, just like you two. I’m just not terrible at hiding that from her. Think about it: she runs off to some mystery Hollow every two weeks, and she never tells us what’s going on. She comes back exhausted but unharmed and in a significantly better mood than when she left.”
“Sounds like she’s doing just fine without us butting in.”
“I’m not done yet! But right before she leaves, she becomes a whole different person. She turns into some kind of ice queen and treats us like we’re nosy children. She’s even mean to Billy! Granted, it’s not exactly hard to be mean to Billy…”
“Hey…” Billy’s gaze fell to his shoes. Anby squeezed his metallic shoulder with a reassuring look before turning back to Nekomata with her prior sharp gaze.
“You have a point. Something about this is very suspicious. But I still don’t approve of snooping in Nicole’s business.”
“Of course you don’t,” Nekomata said slowly, like a hunter trying not to startle prey. “But I can see the wheels turning in your head. And I saw your face when she brushed by us like that. Something about this unsettles you. You’re scared, just like us.”
Anby turned away, trying to shut out Nekomata’s creeping influence. She knew how skilled of a manipulator her ally was. She just had to ignore her… even if she was right.
Nekomata, on the other hand, took the cold shoulder as a sign to keep pressing.
“And come on, are you just gonna ignore Nicole after everything she’s done for you? She’s crossed boundaries plenty of times to make sure we’re okay. I still don’t know whether she was joking about microchipping me in my sleep or not. And it’s you, Anby. We all know you’re kinda her favorite. She trusts you with things nobody else knows. You’re the only one here who can check in on her without making things worse.”
Anby’s hand clenched into a fist, shaking with the restraint of someone who knows they have no good retort. That was true: she had discovered Nicole’s donation records to orphanages, seen her buy ice cream for a whole crowd of children, been with her at her darkest moments, and she had never told a soul any of it. Her lip twitched. Nekomata’s keen eyes picked up the almost imperceptible tell instantly. Just a little more pressure.
“Plus, with how skilled of an agent you are, there’s no chance she’d see you,” Nekomata had stood, now slowly circling Anby. “It would be such an easy operation. If she’s fine, you come home quietly and she never has to know. But if she’s not? Then I think she needs you to help her more than she needs you to listen.”
The silence that followed was deafening. The silver-haired soldier took deep breaths in and out, trying not to expose just how deeply the words struck her. Seeing the perfect opportunity for the killing blow, Nekomata got on her tiptoes, whispering directly into Anby’s ear.
“When you vanished, Nicole was so worried that I had to hold her hair back when she threw up. She tore the city apart looking for you. She was ready to throw everything away. And now, when faced with Nicole drifting away, becoming cold to us, you do nothing? Is that really how you’re going to repay her?”
The AC unit in the window coughed, sputtering as its rotor ripped up whatever airborne debris had ended up inside. The fridge hummed, the sound like screaming in the silence. Billy shifted on his feet, wondering what the consequences would be if he intervened now. He was about to reluctantly attempt to tell off Nekomata when Anby spoke.
“Fine.”
Billy looked up, eyes wide. “Wait, that’s it? Seriously? You’re gonna do it?”
Anby nodded, avoiding eye contact. “I will follow her to see where she’s really going and what she’s hiding from us. And then I alone will decide whether or not to tell the rest of you.”
Nekomata giggled, delighted to see her plan work perfectly. “Of course! It’s all you now, Anby. Have fun~.”
After a short meal (the duration of which she spent glaring at Nekomata’s smug grin), Anby walked out to the back alley where the van left from. Once she was gone, Billy turned to Nekomata with a low whistle.
“Very impressive, Nekomata. Y’know, you scare me sometimes.”
Nekomata didn’t respond, but she grinned at the compliment, stretching out over a sunny spot on the couch. She was about to relax when she saw the commission board again and remembered what she had to do tomorrow. Her mood instantly soured.
“Dammit.”
Back in the alley, Anby leaned down to examine the asphalt where the company van had been sitting mere moments ago. Nicole had turned off her trackers, and the van was equipped with tires designed to leave as little of a trail as possible. Plus, Nicole had built the habit of driving evasively, even on a casual trip. Any ordinary person would be totally unable to find her.
The soldier slowly stood, tracking the path out to the road.
It was a good thing Anby was no ordinary person.