A little fun

“You wanna do something fun?”

Kate let out a yelp of surprise when those words came directly behind her, nearly jumping away on instinct of hearing Daniel’s voice behind her so suddenly. Despite being a victim to his constant attempts to scare her to death with more and more elaborate appearances, part of her felt honestly impressed at how dedicated and resourceful he was when doing so. 

Something inside of her told her it was like a master of the craft gracing her with his disappearing acts… though it certainly put the fear of being hunted down so easily with the way Daniel just seemed to pop up out of nowhere, almost as if following close behind her. 

Looking around, a few other workers and attendants gave them a quick glance before returning back to whatever it was they were doing, everyone all too familiarized with their antics while the tall brunette gave her a wide stupid smile as she calm her rapidly beating heart. 

“Told you that you need to always have to be aware of your surroundings.” The clear joy in his voice paired with that knowing look of his made it all to easy for Kate to smack him in the back of his head with all her might as soon as he’d walked up close enough. The dry slap was a bit much in hindsight, but god did it feel good doing it. 

Laughter erupted from all around them, with Daniel being the loudest of them all as his hand tenderly caressed the patch of skin still hot with the fury the strike. Before long, her voice soon joined the laughter echoing across the main lobby of the Decadence. For the first tike in her life it felt like things finally starting looking up for her, like she had power over her life, even if that power was used merely to retaliate against Daniel’s incessant teasing and pranks, she could finally think for herself. 

… and it was all thanks to him.

“So what do you have in mind?” She asked, watching with a bit of glee how the man that helped her to her feet winced ever so often from the pain. “The fair should still be up by the time we clock out, maybe we can barely catch a show or two?”

It was a strange feeling to finally look forward to something other than the end of the day, she had no idea how long it had been since she actually felt excited about anything at all, more so if said thing demanded for a lick of social interaction, and yet… looking at him, how carefree and honest about who he is made her sought that same freedom. 

Daniel tapped his finger on his chin, a slow rhythmic fall of his index following some tune inside his head as if the question posed was something far more complicated than it really was. “Why not just bounce? If we leave now we can catch a barely descent spot or go to all the rides!” 

However that freedom didn’t always translate into reason or smarts…

“Yeah… look, I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but we are in the middle of work.” Kate tried not to sound sassy, she really did try, but quite possibly getting one over Daniel was just subconscious at this point. Still, he didn’t seem to mind at all, it was almost as if he was waiting for her to point that obvious flaw. 

It was rather terrifying seeing the way his face nearly split in half with a wicked grin that ran across it like some sort of monster about to devour its prey, almost as if the idea of utter superiority, regardless of at what level it was, gave him a high. 

Kate… tried to push that idea down. She really shouldn’t think of people like that anymore, it wouldn’t be fair to him since he had always been honest about who he was.

Staring at his eyes, dark and cold as the night sky, she forced herself to bury that sudden primal fear as she strained a smile so practice and perfect that has always fooled the world. “Y-you have something planned… don’t you?”

Her words weren’t meant to have come out so fearful and shaky, there had been no intention at all to reveal the slightest hint of weakness to the man before her, and yet it seemed as if that fear within her heart was even greater than what she had expected. She only hoped that her nervousness would have been mistaken as nothing more than just disbelief for what she was hearing instead of being taken for what it really was. Utter dread.

Without a moment of hesitation, or not caring at all about her reaction, Daniel’s hand suddenly appeared in front of her, a pair of colorful tickets held between his fingers. “I always do.” And just like that, whatever dark cloud hanging above him dissipated and quickly made way for that lightheartedness she knew him for. “The boss gave me tickets and pretty much permission to just leave.”

If her eyes could have comically turned into large saucers, there is no doubt in her mind that would have been her reaction upon hearing that. 

The fair is a free entry event, however, tickets had been sold two weeks before it even started for special treatment. In other words, they were extremely sought out, and terribly expensive for anyone else who wasn’t birthed into wealth. 

“H-how?” was all that she could conjure from the initial shock of what was in front of her. “These things were sold out on day one!”

By that point she genuinely felt a rush of excitement course through her, something that she never expected to feel if it had been her from three weeks ago. That same excitement seemed to be shared as well with Daniel, as he merely waved the tickets around with very little care for consequence. “We are the only resort in this city, so there’s bound to be people who want special favors around here.”

“So you exhorted them out of their tickets?” Kate snorted, picturing Daniel, a rather short man, picking on people out of their wealth like some cheesy 80’s movie bully. It was utterly ridiculous thing to imagine, thought part of her mind couldn’t deny that he would rock the jock look easily.

“You could say… but I prefer seeing it as demanding from the rich what was promised to the poor. A favor for a favor, and from what I heard, they were very happy with me when helping them out.” Without missing a beat, he handed her the spare ticket and smiled sweetly in her direction. It made her heart jolt in anticipation. “So how about we share this little bit of wealth?”

For a moment, she said nothing and only smiled at him, letting herself go with just the rush of the moment. “You really are something else, huh?” 

Leaning closer, pushing the little piece of paper closer to her, he seemed to melt easily into her pace and aura around her, merely replying with a confident. “I try.”

And just like that, the two of them left, waving goodbye as they left, ignoring the knowing smiles on everyone’s face. It was nice feeling like she belong, that everything was and would always be fine as long as she was part of The Decadence, as long as he was with her. 

“So what favor did you do for these guys anyway?” was the first thing she remembered asking despite a long while of talking about everything and nothing at the same time, but for some reason it felt like it was something that she shouldn’t ask, almost as if it was like doubting him. 

That feeling only grew as he became quite, pensive, a darkness swiftly passing his face for a brief moment that made Kate doubt if it was there to begin with. “Nothing much, just… some things that they kinda screwed up on and needed fixing.” She knew that there was something more behind those words, something he really didn’t want to disclose with her, and with every tap of the steering wheel with his fingers, she knew that Daniel’s anxiety was growing. “Someone had to take the fall for them… so I did.”

“… sorry I asked-"

“Don’t be, you know what they say. What comes around goes around, and I’m a very patient man.”

For some reason, whether it was a threat or a promise, Kate knew that he not only believed those words, but was very confident that something would certainly happen.