Chapter Text
One week after Ellie and Omega left Phoenix
Ellie was in the process of making soup when a portal appeared in the living room. Her alarm dissolved to relief as a familiar black clad figure stepped through, though the lack of a silver mask accompaniment still threw her for a loop. The close cropped dirty blonde hair and stature told her her visitor was Alpha but she wouldn’t be completely sure until he spoke. After all, she’d only just truly met him. Stepping away from the stove, she threw out her arms to hug him.
It was surreal, seeing him again. She’d spent three months mourning the Ghouls and then they suddenly reentered her life - human, obnoxious and lovable as ever. Whatever happened between she and Omega, she hoped she could become even better friends with the the others. They probably needed someone to keep them in line on occasion.
Ellie tried her best to glance stealthily at the highlighted symbol on his jacket. Yes, this was Alpha. “Alpha! This is a surprise.”
He chuckled as he pulled away from the hug. “It must be, considering you still don’t know who I am.” He winked roguishly and she knew she was forgiven. “I take it that no good Omega forgot to tell you I’d be coming?”
Her eyes widened in comprehension, then rolled hard enough to make him laugh again. “So that explains the booze run he went on.” She returned to tending her food. “I don’t suppose you’re going to get him all liquored up and then convince him to come back, are you?”
Alpha took a seat at the kitchen table, glancing around at the small things Ellie had brought from her home to the cabin. “The thought never crossed my mind.”
Ellie didn’t turn as she answered him. “Oh I’m sure it didn’t. Just don’t push him too hard, okay? He’s still kinda pissed.” When Alpha didn’t respond, she looked back to find him studying her with narrowed eyes. “Ah, sorry. I’m aware you know him better than I do. After everything that’s happened, I tend to get a little overprotective.”
He glanced at her things again, her Magic deck box in particular. “Yes, I can imagine you do.” Sarcasm weighed down his words. “I can see how comfortable you are here already.”
Her wooden spoon cracked against the counter as Ellie pulled the pot off the burner. “Gee Alpha, way to not-so-subtly call me a whore.” She sighed and abandoned her soup for the fridge, pulling out a six pack of beer to set on the table in front of her guest. “I should be thanking you for the power you’re giving me though, seeing as how he could bang any chick he wants and can kick me to the curb whenever the mood strikes him.”
Grabbing her Magic deck, she took the seat opposite him at the table and asked, “Considering you’ve known Omega for so long, I’m assuming you know how to play?”
Alpha nodded. “He keeps a deck for me here and makes me practice with his nerdy ass.” He cocked an eyebrow as he watched her crack open a beer and down half of it in one swallow.
She burped (none too lady-like) and jerked her chin toward a bookshelf. “Go get your deck. If you’re going to insult me, we’re going to be drunk and it’s going to be because I’m kicking your ass.”
An hour later Omega returned with his treasures. He really hadn’t meant to be gone so long but he’d gotten sidetracked at the record store. Ellie and Alpha had always gotten along just fine so it came as a surprise to hear shouting coming from the cabin as he approached. Balancing his music and beer in one hand, he shouldered the door open and found his kitchen looking like it had been hit by a natural disaster.
Beer bottles littered the counter, where the soup Ellie was making when he left sat untouched and growing colder by the second. An empty bottle of whiskey stood in the sink while half the cabinet doors hung wide open, their contents rifled through as though a horde of angry mice had swung by on their way to a rave.
“You stark raving lunatic bitch! There’s no way that's legal!” Alpha’s shout echoed off the walls, drawing Omega’s attention to the pair at the table.
Ellie was on her knees in the chair, a cigarette between her lips and one of those atrocious green poker visors perched low on her brow. She was jabbing an entire bottle of wine at Alpha’s shouting mouth, who sat in nothing but his undershirt and boxers. The table was covered in a veritable army of cards, the apparent source of their agitation.
Taking a drag from her cigarette, Ellie blew smoke rings in Alpha’s direction. “You have to do it.” Her words were more than a little slurred. “This card says I draw three cards, and this card says I draw three more. That means you gotta discard at LEAST twenty four cards from your deck.”
Omega interrupted the pair before more yelling could take place. “What the hell are you two doing?”
Alpha scowled at Ellie. “Your girlfriend’s a cheating asshole.”
Ellie let out an indignant squawk and threw her burning cigarette at Alpha’s cards. He yelped and snatched it away before it could do any damage.
Omega scooped Ellie up from the chair and took her place, settling her in his lap with her arms pinned by her sides. “I’m stopping this before you burn my goddamn house down.” He said, and glared at Alpha until he stuck the cigarette in an empty beer bottle. “Now, two questions. First – why is Alpha almost naked?”
“I dunno. He doesn’t have anything I wanna see.” Ellie growled and bared her teeth.
Omega looked to Alpha for the answer but the other Ghoul shrugged as if he didn’t know either. “Ooookay. Second question- why does Alpha think you’re cheating?”
“’Cause he’s a baby back BITCH.” She deepened her voice and said it the way a sports announcer would.
Omega hid his grin in her hair and smacked her thigh. “A real answer, honey.”
She shook her head as if to clear it and set her shoulders, jerking her arms from Omega’s grasp. She pointed to her cards and explained, “I p-played “Pour Over the Pages”. It lets me draw three cards.” She pointed to another card. “This one, Alhamm..Alhammerrr…Alhamburglars Archive says I get to draw two cards instead of one –“
Alpha held up a hand like a kid needing to go to the bathroom during class. “Why does the Hamburglar have an archive?”
Ellie cocked her head in consideration of the question and began to giggle. “Maybe he has the Krabby Patty secret formula.”
Omega could only stare as she and Alpha bumped fists and laughed themselves stupid over her ridiculous answer. Ellie came to her senses first, throwing up her arms to bring the attention back to the game.
“Shut up! Both of you. Shut. Up. You’re distracting me.” She picked up two more cards, both showing the same illustration: Sphinx’s Tutelage. “Now. Now. This enchantment means for every card I draw, HE,” she flung a dramatic hand to Alpha, “has to discard two cards from his deck. And I have TWO of them.”
Ellie wiggled her butt in Omega's lap, eager to finally reach her grand conclusion. “So if I draw six cards, that means he’s gotta discard twelve cards, and then another twelve cards. And, and, AND if they’re the same color and not land, he has to discard another two cards.”
Omega went over the math in his head, double checked the card stipulations and stared a little wide eyed at the woman in his arms. “That’s cold, babe.”
She let out an enthusiastically evil laugh. “Fuck right it is. Bitches.”
Alpha groaned in to the cards in his hand and threw them down in front of him. “I give up. She’ll wipe out my deck!”
Ellie bounced out a victory dance against Omega’s groin, causing him to grab her arms again to keep her still. “El, you have to stop squirming unless you want to give Alpha a show.”
Alpha covered his eyes and groaned some more. “Oh god no. Do not do couple things. That’s sick.” One of his eyes peaked out between his fingers. “Unless I get to join?”
Omega glared at his brother once more, until Ellie clapped her hands together and twisted to face him with a hopeful expression. “No!” His voice betrayed his alarm. “Tell Alpha no!”
Ellie stuck her tongue out at him and turned away. “Omega the Square says no. Sorry Alpha.”
Omega wondered how much alcohol he would need to drink before he would forget this conversation ever happened.