“No…no...no,” Aria Blaze said to herself as she sat at the kitchen table and scrolled through her phone. “No…no…yes.”
Almost immediately after Aria uttered the word ‘yes’, a small and high-pitched yipping sound emanated from Princess Thunder Guts, who was seated in the chair to the girl’s right.
“What? You don’t think I should choose this guy?” The Dazzling asked Su-Z’s dog.
Princess Thunder Guts let out another small and high-pitched yip, followed promptly by about half a dozen more yips.
“Oh come on. This guy’s perfect,” Aria replied as she showed the petite pooch her phone. “Just look at him.”
For a few seconds, the pig-tailed girl held her phone down near Princess Thunder Guts’ face as the small pup stared silently at it. Eventually the dainty dog let out a cute yet intimidating growl, prompting Aria to bring the device back up to her own face.
“All right, all right. Yeesh,” The Dazzling capitulated. “If you feel that strongly about it I won’t go with him.”
At this, Princess Thunder Guts let out a high-pitched, happy-sounding yip.
Feeling slightly annoyed by her K-9 companion’s vehement disapproval of her choice, Aria reluctantly went back to scrolling through her phone in the hopes of finding someone else who would suit her needs. Someone else who would, in all hopefulness, also meet with the approval of Princess Thunder Guts.
As she scrolled, the Dazzling tried to recall how exactly it had come to be that she and the small dog had entered into their consociation together, but to no fruition. However, given the petite pooch’s uncanny ability to select propitious guys she didn’t really care. Favorable results were favorable results, and that was the only thing that mattered to her. Even if those results came courtesy of Su-Z’s pet.
“So this one is the bishop, right?” Sonata Dusk could be heard saying from the living room.
“Right,” Su-Z replied.
“And it’s the one I can only move diagonally, right?” The youngest Dazzling then inquired.
“Right,” Su-Z once again replied.
Intrigued by the conversation transpiring between her younger sister and the younger of the two PostCrush girls, Aria ceased scrolling through her phone for a moment and looked up from the device to peer in to the other room. Much to her surprise, she saw Sonata and Su-Z seated around the coffee table with a chess board placed between them – as well as Kiwi seated a little further away reading a book, but this wasn’t all that surprising.
“And what’s this castle-looking piece called again?” Sonata then asked.
“It’s called a rook. Though sometimes it’s just called a castle,” Su-Z answered as she picked up a black rook. “This is the one you can only move up, down, or to the side.”
“I see,” Sonata uttered fixedly as she brought a hand up to her chin.
As Aria continued to watch the scene between Sonata and Su-Z unfold, she tried to figure out the reason why it was happening in the first place, but couldn’t for the life of her discern what that reason was. It was no secret that Su-Z enjoyed playing all sorts of games – pretty much everything from Go Fish to Kropki – so seeing her with a chess board wasn’t too out of the ordinary. Sonata, however, wasn’t near as big a game-enthusiast by comparison. Her younger sister enjoyed the occasional game of cards or checkers as much as the next person, but never once had the girl expressed an interest in chess. Had Sonata asked Su-Z to teach her how to play chess? Had Su-Z simply asked Sonata to play the game with her? Aria had no idea.
“Now how do you move the horsy again?” Sonata asked as she put down the rook and picked up a knight.
Normally this sort of inane chatter from her younger sister would cause Aria to retreat to the quiet solitude of her room, though not this time. This time she remained right where she was. Not just because she was perfectly content sitting at the kitchen table, but also because she was all but certain the scenario being played out before her would soon turn comedic. If Sonata was struggling just to learn what some of the chess pieces were called then it stood to reason she’d lose a match in a spectacularly quick and hilarious fashion, and when she did lose that match Aria wanted to close by to witness it.
And so, the pig-tailed girl went back to scrolling through her phone but made sure to keep a fraction of her attention on Sonata and Su-Z’s conversation. Though that fraction of attention didn’t remain with the two girls for long, as soon it was diverted towards the hallway when Aria heard the unmistakable sound of aggravated footsteps emanating from within it.
“Aria!” Adagio Dazzle hollered as she emerged from the hallway, garnering not only the full attention of Aria but of Sonata, Su-Z, and Kiwi as well.
“Here we go,” Aria drearily said to Princess Thunder Guts as Adagio made her way over to them, knowing full well what it was her older sister was coming over to discuss with her.
“I thought I told you to go out and find a job today,” The eldest Dazzling heatedly said to her once she reached the kitchen table.
“Yeah, you told me that, Adagio,” Aria replied in a surprisingly calm fashion. “And when you did I thought I’d told you that I’d already found a job.”
The middle Dazzling then got up from her seat and presented her phone to her older sister.
“See? I’m working right now,” She added.
Adagio looked at Aria’s phone and studied it for a couple of seconds before giving a short, exhausted sigh and a facepalm.
“For the hundredth time, Aria: playing daily fantasy sports on your phone is not a job,” The poofy-haired girl told her younger sister as she removed her hand from her face.
“Says you,” Aria replied, somewhat haughtily, as she took her phone back and retook her seat. “Because in case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve won $446 so far this week.”
Almost as soon as Aria said this, Princess Thunder Guts let out a couple of piqued-sounding yips.
“I mean, we’ve won $446 so far this week,” The Dazzling corrected herself.
A couple of happy-sounding yips came from Princess Thunder Guts immediately after Aria’s emendation.
“Uh-huh,” Adagio then uttered, sounding less-than-impressed. “And how much did you bet to win that $446?”
“Uh, w-well…” Aria replied tentatively. “I think we’d bet somewhere around…$430?”
“$430, huh?” Adagio said. “So if my math is accurate, then in actuality you’ve only won $16 this week, correct?”
Aria just silently averted her gaze from Adagio in response.
The need to facepalm herself again quickly came over Adagio, but thankfully she resisted the urge to act on that need. The eldest Dazzling didn’t know which was worse; the fact that Aria believed playing fantasy sports with Su-Z’s dog constituted her having a job, or the fact that she believed she was truly prospering at playing said fantasy sports. But regardless of which fact was actually worse, she knew that she had to make a few different, more crucial facts clear to her headstrong sibling.
“Look, Aria,” She said levelheadedly as she took a seat at the table directly across from the girl. “I get that you don’t like the idea of having to find another job, but you knew that was going to be the case when you said you didn’t want to continue being the librarian at CHS.”
“No, I didn’t,” Aria replied irksomely without looking up from her phone. “I didn’t know that because when you said that only one of us would continue being librarian you never said anything about whoever said no having to find a new job.”
Adagio was 95% certain that she had mentioned that when she’d spoken with her sisters about their employment situation, but rather than argue with Aria about it directly she decided to address the issue in a more indirect fashion.
“If I didn’t say that you and Sonata needed to find new jobs after you both told me you didn’t want to stay on as librarian, then why do you think it was Sonata went out and got that job at Cybil’s Retro Candy Store?” She asked her sister.
“Because she’s an idiot?” Aria replied bluntly, still without looking up from her phone.
“Hey!” Sonata hollered from the living room.
“Well regardless, since you said you didn’t want to stay on as librarian you need to find another job,” Adagio informed her sibling.
“Why?” Aria inquired. “We got that venture capitalist person coming in a couple of weeks to invest in the farm don’t we? Didn’t you say that once we get money from them and access to their logistics network or whatever that we’d be fine?”
“If we get money from them and access to their logistics network we’ll be fine!” The elder Dazzling pointedly corrected her younger sister. “We don’t have any guarantee that they’ll want to do business with us!”
Feeling taken aback by Adagio’s sudden change in temperament, Aria finally looked up from her phone and made eye contact with her sister.
“And if it turns out that that venture capital firm doesn’t want to do business with us, then...” Adagio continued before cutting herself off and giving a dejected sigh. “…then we’ll most likely end up losing the farm before too long.”
At this, Aria put down her phone entirely and gave her full attention to Adagio.
“You heard what Sugarcoat said after she looked at our finances, Aria,” The Dazzling leader continued, though now very somberly. “If we don’t bring in more money soon then we’re going to lose everything. Believe me, I want this whole venture capital thing to work out just as much as you do, but we both know that we can’t bet the farm on that happening.”
Adagio’s words began to pierce Aria’s being like a dagger. Not just because of how dire they were, but also because of how truthful they were. She’d been there when Sugarcoat had explained how grave their money situation was and knew full well that their home was in jeopardy. But just because she knew this didn’t mean that she’d accepted it.
Every time Aria had thought about the possibility that she and her sisters could lose the emu farm she’d just downplayed it by telling herself that things would work out well in the end. After all, most times these sorts of things did. Facing down their mother at the Overlook, getting their job as CHS librarians after being let go as motivational speakers, even inadvertently using most of their money to buy the farm; all situations that’d had satisfying ends. But no matter how hard the Dazzling tried to convince herself that this was another one of those times she found it impossible to do so, in no small part because at the moment she couldn’t stop thinking about a time when things hadn’t.
The death of Glen, Aria’s favorite emu, still haunted the Dazzling, even after she’d had a long and bizarre conversation with Death herself about it. The fact that he was gone though wasn’t why his death continued to haunt her, it was the feeling that she’d failed him. She’d tried so hard to help the ailing emu overcome his sickness, but despite all her best efforts he’d still passed away. In the time since then she’d come to understand that, in all likelihood, there was nothing that could have been done to save him. It had simply been his time. But even still, the pig-tailed girl felt a sense of guilt over her beloved emu’s death. And she knew that she’d feel that same sense of guilt again if she failed the remaining emu under her care.
“We need money and we need it now, and that means all three of us bringing home paychecks,” Adagio went on. “Because if even one of us doesn’t pull her weight then we’ll probably wind up living back in that damn van.”
The dagger composed of Adagio’s words pierced Aria deeper and deeper with each sentence the elder Dazzling spoke, and it wasn’t long before that dagger reached the younger Dazzling’s core. As much as Aria hated to admit it, Adagio was right. She needed to find a job that provided a steadier and more lucrative paycheck, or risk failing both her emu and her family.
“All right, all right. Enough with the guilt trip, Adagio,” She said in her typical miffed fashion as she got up from the table. “I get it, okay? I’ll go out and find a job already.”
Wanting to get away from Adagio as much as anything else right now, Aria started making her way over towards the table by the front door where the car keys were laying. As she did, she began to think of places where she could possibly work given her lack of credentials. The first few options that came to mind weren’t exactly ideal, but before she could think of any better ones she found her attention diverted elsewhere.
“Hang on, Aria,” Adagio abruptly called out to her, causing the middle Dazzling to stop dead in her tracks before suddenly turning towards the living room. “Hey, Kiwi! Come here a second!”
Upon hearing her name called out, the elder of the two PostCrush girls looked up from her book.
“Sorry, what was that?” She hollered back.
“Come here a second!” Adagio reiterated.
Kiwi dawned a perplexed expression for a quick moment but did as Adagio had requested. She put her book down on a nearby table, got up from her seat, and quickly joined Adagio in the kitchen.
“What’s up?” She asked once she’d reached the Dazzling leader.
“You have any plans for today?” Adagio inquired.
“Not especially, no,” Kiwi replied. “Why do you ask?”
“I need you to do me a favor,” The poofy-haired girl answered. “I need you to go with Aria and make sure she actually looks for a job.”
“What?!” Aria retorted heatedly, so much so that it garnered the attention of Sonata and Su-Z.
“Um…I guess I could do that for you,” Kiwi replied hesitantly. “But, um, are you sure that that would be…necessary?”
“Unfortunately yes,” Adagio answered before turning to face Aria. “You see, Aria has this habit of saying she’ll do things and then only pretending that she did them.”
As much as Aria wanted to tempestuously refute Adagio’s claim, she knew that she had little to no ground to do so. She had, in the past, falsely claimed to have done things her sisters had asked her to do, like pay the electric bill or feed Sonata’s goldfish. But all of those instances had been before the Battle of the Bands, and since then she’d adopted a greater policy of being honest with her siblings that she felt she’d adhered to – for the most part.
So, needless to say, the pig-tailed girl felt that her older sister asking Kiwi to accompany her on her job search was completely and utterly unwarranted.
“If you’re so concerned about Aria actually looking for a job then why don’t you go with her?” Kiwi asked Adagio, a bit more confrontationally than she’d intended.
“I’m too busy today to go myself,” The Dazzling leader acutely replied. “I have to finish going over some paperwork for when that venture capitalist person comes.”
Almost defeatedly, Kiwi averted her gaze from Adagio.
The PostCrush girl had hoped that by pointing out the fact that the Dazzling leader herself could accompany Aria she would be spared the impossible choice of having to either refuse Adagio’s request or go with an irate Aria. One of the last things she wanted to do was get on Adagio’s bad side again by denying the girl’s request, especially so soon after they’d made-up. But at the same time she also didn’t want to get on Aria’s bad side by agreeing to the Dazzling leader’s petition. She knew it wasn’t wise to be around the middle Dazzling when she was upset, but more than that she just didn’t want it to seem like she was taking sides against her. Of all the Dazzlings, Aria was the one she felt closest to, and she didn’t want to jeopardize that closeness by going along with something she knew the pig-tailed girl was adamantly against.
“You really don’t trust me to actually look for a job, Adagio?” Aria then asked her sister, in a manner that suggested she was asking rhetorically.
“Like I said, you have a habit of being deceitful, Aria,” Adagio replied bluntly.
As much as Aria wanted to remonstrate her older sister, she knew that doing so would be futile. Once Adagio was fixed on something there was no changing her mind. The thought of simply dashing out of the house and leaving before Kiwi had a chance to follow her briefly crossed the Dazzling’s mind, but she knew this too would be a pointless endeavor. Even if she found a job while out on her own, Adagio would simply accompany her to her first day of work to confirm said job was real. And once she realized this she concurrently concluded that having Kiwi go with her now was ultimately the best option open to her, even if it was one that she still wasn’t happy about.
“Tch. Fine, whatever,” Aria acidulously capitulated as she once more headed for the table where the car keys were laying. “Let’s go, Kiwi.”
“Uh, um…okay,” Kiwi replied as she quickly followed behind Aria.
In no time at all Aria had the car keys within her hand, and once Kiwi was right behind her she aggressively flung the front door open and proceeded to step out onto the porch.
“Okay, so to win this game I have to get my king from my end of the board over to yours, right?” She heard Sonata say just before Kiwi closed the door behind them.
As Aria made her way over to the car, she silently wished that she was sticking around the house so she could watch as Sonata attempted to play chess. With the embittered mood she now found herself in, she really felt in need of a good laugh.
“Seriously, just…fuck Adagio,” Aria vented from her seat at Chaus’ bar as she slammed her now empty glass down on the counter. “I am so goddamn sick of her thinking she’s the boss of me just because she’s older.”
“I’m not sure being older has much to do with it,” Kiwi replied from right next to her. “I think she just likes being bossy.”
“Yeah, probably,” The Dazzling concurred before diverting her attention to the other end of the bar. “Yo, bartender! Another Negroni over here!”
Aria and Kiwi had been at Chaus for about forty minutes now, after spending approximately four and a half hours out-and-about Canterlot City seeking a job for the Dazzling. And within those four and a half hours the two girls had visited precisely twenty-two businesses within the city that, in one form or another, had advertised they were hiring. Of those twenty-two businesses, sixteen of them had turned Aria away outright. Only six had granted her an interview, and of those six interviews exactly zero of them had resulted in the Dazzling getting a job.
And so, after spending the better part of an afternoon visiting nearly two dozen businesses, Aria remained not only unemployed but also thoroughly pissed off.
“Here you go, miss,” The bartender said as she handed Aria her third Negroni of the day.
“Thanks,” The Dazzling replied before taking a sip of the Italian cocktail and then returning her attention back to Kiwi. “And fuck all those restaurant and store managers while we’re at it.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Kiwi said before taking a sip of her own drink. “I can’t believe how rude and inconsiderate some of those people were to you, especially that one woman who said she wouldn’t hire you because she thought you were suffering from, what did she call it again…‘resting bitch face’?”
“Yep, that was it,” Aria corrected her friend. “I hear that one a lot.”
“For real?” Kiwi inquired, sounding quite testy. “Geez, what the hell is wrong with people?”
“Beats me,” Aria answered before taking another sip of her drink.
“Just…why do people always have to judge others by their appearance?” The PostCrush girl then asked. “I mean, yeah, you do have a bit of a brusque expression most of the time, Aria, -”
“Gee, thanks, Kiwi,” The Dazzling cut-in sarcastically.
“But you’re one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” Kiwi finished her sentence, much to Aria’s surprise. “You were the one who consoled me after my awful first day working on the farm, you empathized with me when Adagio and I had that fight over how she handled things with Violet, and, well… overall you’ve just been a really great friend to me. So it just pisses me off that so many people would judge you without even trying to get to know you first, because you’re a really amazing person that anyone would be lucky to have in their life.”
Within seconds, Aria’s face became redder than a Santorini tomato, causing the Dazzling to quickly turn her head away from the PostCrush girl out of a sense of embarrassment. She wasn’t used to receiving such kind words from others, and despite the examples Kiwi had just given to support her belief being true she questioned if she was truly deserving of such high praise. Though regardless, she couldn’t deny the feeling of elation she felt from hearing those words given the shitty day she’d been having.
“T-Thanks, Kiwi,” Aria replied sincerely as she turned back to face the girl.
Kiwi couldn’t help but let out a small, closemouthed giggle when she noticed how flushed Aria’s face was, finding both it and the fact that the Dazzling was clearly flustered cute.
“You’re welcome,” She replied with élan as she raised her glass for a toast, which Aria swiftly reciprocated.
“Well, if it isn’t Aria Blaze and Kiwi Lollipop,” A familiar voice suddenly said from the Dazzling’s left.
Both Aria and Kiwi immediately turned their attention to where the voice had come from to see none other than Chaus’ owner, Lucy Beel, now seated at the bar with them.
“Oh. Hey, Lucy,” Aria listlessly greeted the woman before returning to her Negroni.
“H-Hi, Ms. Beel,” Kiwi then greeted the woman.
“Please, just call me Lucy, dear,” The club owner amiably told the PostCrush girl before turning her attention to Aria. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of you two dropping by my club today?”
“Just needed a drink,” The Dazzling replied. “And this place happened to be the closest spot to get one. So, yeah.”
“Oh, is that all?” Lucy then inquired, sounding facetiously disappointed. “Well that’s a shame. I was hoping you’d popped in because you’d reconsidered performing here. Especially you, Kiwi.”
“M-Me?” The PostCrush girl asked.
“But of course you,” Lucy affirmed. “I’d assumed that after Su-Z’s recent visit the next time I’d see you was because you two had talked and decided to take me up on my offer.”
“Wait, hold up,” Kiwi interjected. “Su-Z was here recently? When? And how come?”
“Sorry, I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss the details of our little meeting,” Lucy informed the PostCrush girl. “But at the end of it I’d asked her to let you know that my offer to have PostCrush perform here was still open. Though I’m guessing from this conversation that she didn’t do that.”
“No, she didn’t,” The PostCrush girl replied rather sourly, right before quickly downing a good portion of her drink.
“Well it was great seeing you, Lucy. Really,” Aria chimed in disingenuously. “But if you don’t mind I’d like to enjoy my drink in peace so I can try and figure out how I’m going to tell Adagio that I’m apparently unemployable.”
As soon as Aria brought up the subject of her employment woes, a brief smirk quickly crossed Lucy’s face. One that went unnoticed by both the Dazzling and PostCrush girl.
“In need of a job, huh?” The woman said. “You know, I might be able to help you out with that. It just so happens that I’m in need of -”
“My sisters and I aren’t performing here!” Aria cut the club owner off.
“Good guess, but no,” Lucy replied. “What I’m in need of is someone to act as a…courier of sorts for me.”
Both Aria and Kiwi’s ears spontaneously perked up when they heard Lucy say this, most notably Aria’s. The Dazzling had been all-but-certain that the help Lucy was going to offer her was having Adagio, Sonata, and herself perform at Chaus since she’d been trying to get them to do so for some time, so the fact that the club owner had brought up a different propoundment had thrown her for a bit of a loop.
Upon first consideration, working as a courier didn’t sound too bad to Aria. She’d get to drive a truck, be out-and-about town instead of being cooped up in a store or restaurant all day, and, most appealingly, she’d get to work alone. The whole thing wasn’t exactly what she would’ve considered a dream job, but it at least sounded like it was a job she could tolerate doing. However, there were a couple of factors about the position that made her feel leery about it; she’d be working for the notoriously scrupulous Lucy Beel, and the way the woman had described the position was, to say the least, perplexing.
“’Courier of sorts’?” Aria said. “Care to elaborate on that, Lucy?”
“My, my. Aren’t we feeling overly skeptical today,” The club owner replied jocularly. “What I mean by ‘of sorts’ is that you wouldn’t be doing many deliveries, mostly just pick-ups. And usually just one pick-up at a time.”
“Mostly just pick-ups, huh?” The Dazzling echoed as she raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like that’s more the work of a gofer than a courier.”
“Tomayto, tomahto,” Lucy uttered dismissively. “Regardless of what you want to call the job, I can assure you that the pay for it is extremely generous.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it is,” Aria replied doubtfully before returning to her drink.
“Now your skepticism is just hurting my feelings, Aria,” Lucy playfully told the Dazzling before grabbing a nearby cocktail napkin on the counter with one hand and pulling a pen out of one of her pockets with the other.
Within the blink of an eye the club owner scribbled something down on the napkin and slid it over to Aria, though the Dazzling seemed less than enthusiastic about assaying it. For a few seconds all she focused on was finishing up her drink, and when said drink was eventually finished she put her glass down and took a look at what Lucy had written on the piece of paper.
“This how much the job pays per month?” She inquired, sounding unimpressed.
“How much the job pays per pick-up,” Lucy informed her.
In that moment Aria felt a sense of relief that she’d finished her drink when she had, because if she hadn’t she might have very well performed a spit take. Almost instinctively, she looked Lucy square in the eyes with a stunned expression that silently asked the woman if she was being serious, and when Lucy’s countenance remained unchanged the Dazzling knew that she was.
“Aria?” Kiwi chimed in concernedly.
The pig-tailed girl said nothing in response but did slide Lucy’s napkin across the counter some more so that Kiwi could see what was written on it.
“W-Whoa,” The PostCrush girl uttered in disbelief.
“And just so you know, there’s usually somewhere around four or five things a month that I need picked up,” Lucy then said.
Both Aria and Kiwi could feel themselves becoming even more dazed after hearing this. They each did some quick mental math and deduced that four or five pick-ups a month times the amount Lucy had written down equated to quite a hefty sum of money. So hefty, in fact, that they were fairly certain that they wouldn’t need to worry about getting that venture capitalist firm to do business with them in order to become financially stable. Heck, they probably wouldn’t even need to worry about Adagio and Sonata bringing in paychecks of their own either. Neither one of them had to say it, but the Dazzling and PostCrush girl could tell simply by looking at one another that they were both thinking the same thing; this was an opportunity that needed to be taken advantage of.
However, despite the apparent earnestness of Lucy’s offer to her, Aria remained wary of the woman. Lucy had tried to screw her and her sisters over in the past with that performance contract, and she wasn’t about to agree to anything the club owner put before her without first getting a few things straight.
“Okay, I’ll admit I’m interested in the job,” She conceded. “But I have a couple of conditions I’ll need met before I agree to any of this.”
“Glad to see you’re finally starting to come around,” Lucy replied, almost mirthfully. “Name your conditions.”
“One, no contracts,” The Dazzling started off. “And two, I get paid by the pick-up; half before and half when it’s done.”
“Aaand we’re right back to being overly skeptical again,” The club owner said with a sigh, right before extending her hand out to Aria. “But very well. I agree to your conditions.”
“All right then,” Aria said as she took ahold of Lucy’s hand and shook it. “So how’s this going to work exactly? You just going to call me whenever you need something picked up?”
“Pretty much,” Lucy said as she and Aria ended their handshake. “Though for now you can just follow me.”
“Huh?” The Dazzling uttered.
“There’s something I need picked up right now,” Lucy clarified imposingly as she got up from her seat. “So if you’d follow me up to my office we can quickly go over the details and you can be on your way.”
The fact that Lucy had failed to mention that she’d be starting her ‘courier’ job right this minute didn’t sit well with Aria. It wasn’t that going on a pick-up right now was going to conflict with any previous plans she’d had, because she hadn’t any, but it was just the simple case that her new boss had waited until after she’d agreed to the job to share this information with her that left a sour taste in her mouth. That, and she didn’t care for how imperious Lucy was now sounding.
“Okay, lead the way,” She replied, sucking up her acerbic feelings, as she too got up from her seat.
“Um, I guess I’ll just hang around here until you’re done, Aria,” Kiwi suddenly chimed in.
Upon hearing Kiwi’s declaration, Aria silently chided herself for neglecting to think of her friend in this situation. In all likelihood she’d need the car to go do Lucy’s pick-up, which meant that Kiwi would, as she eluded to, be stuck at Chaus until she returned. The thought of getting the girl a ride through a ride-share app quickly crossed her mind, but after the horror story Adagio had told them from when she’d used a ride-sharing app to get to CHS one time she really didn’t want to do that. The Dazzling’s mind then wandered to the possibility of taking Kiwi with her to do the pick-up. She wasn’t sure if Lucy would be okay with that though, but she figured she had nothing to lose by asking if it was.
“Oh don’t be silly, Kiwi. You’re welcome to come up with us,” Lucy spoke up before Aria had a chance to say anything. “In fact, if you don’t mind there’s a job I’d like to talk to you about while Aria’s out doing her pick-up.”
“R-Really?!” Kiwi replied excitedly as she shot up from her seat, having a pretty good idea what job it was Lucy wished to discuss with her.
“Really,” Lucy affirmed right before turning around. “Now come, this way.”
Part of Aria wanted to tell Kiwi that she shouldn’t join her and Lucy in the club owner’s office. Much like the PostCrush girl, she also had a pretty good idea what job it was Lucy wished to discuss with her, and she didn’t like it one bit. One of the last things she wanted was to see her friend get screwed over by one of Lucy’s infamous contracts like she and her sisters almost had been. However, she chose to not to raise any opposition verbally for one very simple reason; she had no real right too. If Lucy wanted to offer Kiwi a contract then it was Kiwi’s choice and Kiwi’s choice alone to decide whether she would hear the woman out and then do whatever she pleased with said contract. The Dazzling wasn’t going to be like her older sister and tell the PostCrush girl what to do. Though she wasn’t going to just let Kiwi walk into the lion’s den without a friendly little reminder either.
“Hey,” She whispered to her friend as they both began to follow Lucy up to her office. “Don’t forget what Adagio and I told you about Lucy and contracts.”
“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten,” Kiwi whispered back.
Aria simply nodded in reply.
Within no time, the three women quickly crossed through the club, ascended to the top floor via Lucy’s private elevator, and found themselves walking through the attenuated antechamber leading to Lucy’s office. Though about half-way through the narrow vestibule they each heard a voice cry out from the room that lied ahead, causing them to give pause.
“Will you calm down already?!” The voice said.
“Oh terrific,” Lucy remarked sarcastically, arousing the curiosity of both Aria and Kiwi.
“Uh, who was that just now?” Aria wondered aloud.
“And why did they sound so agitated?” Kiwi added.
“That’s just an associate of mine,” Lucy answered in a very enervated manner before continuing onwards toward her office. “And I’m guessing she sounds agitated because she’s still struggling with the last job I gave her.”
Aria and Kiwi exchanged a couple of confused and anxious looks with one another that seemed to suggest both of them were unsure if they should continue to follow Lucy or not. Though since neither girl raised any such concern vocally, they each quickly disregarded their agita and proceeded once more to tail the club owner.
A few seconds later the three women reached their destination, and when they did the Dazzling and PostCrush girl initially found themselves in awe of Lucy’s office, so much so that they stopped dead in their tracks. Neither of them had seen a room so opulent and grandiose before. Even Kiwi, who had once owned one of the most expensive penthouses in Baltimare, found it hard to believe how lavish the room was. However, this sense of amazement at the room’s high-level of extravagance that she and Aria were feeling quickly became overshadowed by a sense of curiosity when they each noticed a white-haired girl wearing sunglasses near the center of the room who was clasping a large, jostling animal carrier in her arms.
“Problems, Justice?” Lucy asked the girl as she made her way over to her desk.
“No, no. It’s all under control,” Justice replied, though unconvincingly, as the carrier continued to jostle vigorously within her grasp. “I mean, he did get out of the carrier and I had a liiiittle trouble getting him back in it, but we’re cool now.”
A low and shrill sound unlike anything Aria or Kiwi had ever heard then emitted from the carrier, causing Justice to bring the front of it up to her face.
“We’re cool now, right?” The girl asked the mysterious creature within, in an incredibly stern and intimidating manner.
At this, a doleful-sounding whimper could then be heard coming from the carrier.
“Yep, we’re cool!” Justice informed Lucy as she lowered the carrier from her face and placed it on a nearby chair.
Feeling curious as to what it was that was inside the carrier, Aria and Kiwi both discreetly peered over towards it as they approached Lucy’s desk. However, the dim lighting of the room made it difficult for them to see the mysterious animal held within it. All they were able to see was a pair of eerie red and black eyes that soon met their own, and as soon as they did both of them quickly averted their gaze away from the carrier and picked up their pace ever-so-slightly.
“I suppose introductions are in order,” Lucy said as the Dazzling and PostCrush girl each took a seat in front of her desk. “Aria, Kiwi, this is -”
“I’m Justice, former High Prosecutor of Hell,” Justice interjected as she quickly made her way over to the group, took ahold of Kiwi’s hand, and began to shake it fervently. “Damn glad to meet you.”
“L-Likewise,” Kiwi replied, trying her best to maintain her composure as her arm was forcibly flailed up and down.
“Hey,” The Dazzling simply said as Justice ceased shaking Kiwi’s hand, causing her to swiftly place both of her hands in her pockets.
With Justice’s ardent and overly-aggressive salutation now complete, both Aria and Kiwi noticed a few things about the girl that they found…peculiar, namely the two small, black horns with rounded tips coming out of her head and the black arrow-tipped tail protruding from her lower back. Kiwi found these things to be perplexing but more so disquieting, so she chose to simply pretend as if they weren’t there. Aria, however, couldn’t help but find them intriguing. The Dazzling was no stranger to seeing such unusual appendages on a person, but it never crossed her mind that they might be real. She just assumed that they were really good accessories to some demon-themed cosplay Justice was wearing.
“Thank you for that spirited greeting, Justice,” Lucy caustically told her associate. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get down to the business at hand.”
“Okie dokie, Boss,” Justice replied as she hoisted herself up onto the end of Lucy’s desk and took a seat upon it. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Both Aria and Kiwi noticed Lucy give a not-so-discreet eyeroll before she started talking.
“So as for the pick-up, Aria,” The club owner began to say. “The package is at an office building about twelve blocks east of here. You and Justice will go up to the seventeenth floor of that building and -”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Me and Justice?” Aria cut the woman off before doing a double-take at Justice and then pointing to the girl. “You’re saying she’s coming along with me?”
“Well technically, you’re going along with her,” Lucy replied.
Needless to say, Aria wasn’t happy to hear this. It was bad enough that she was now going to have company on her pick-up after being led to believe that she’d be working alone, but add the fact that she wasn’t even going to be the lead woman performing the job to that and she was downright vexed by the slight she felt Lucy had just dealt her. So much so that for a moment she gave serious consideration to getting up and walking out of the club owner’s office right now.
However, the dollar amount that Lucy had written on the cocktail napkin crept its way into the forefront of Aria’s mind, and as the Dazzling thought about how much that dollar amount could help her family and her emu she knew that she couldn’t walk away from it, no matter how affronted she may be feeling right now.
“Really wish you’d said something about this downstairs, Lucy,” She told the woman, making no attempt to hide her discontent.
“I didn’t say anything about this until just now?” Lucy replied, clearly feigning ignorance. “Oh, well my apologies for that.”
It took all of Aria’s self-control not to shoot Lucy a very disdainful look upon hearing this.
“Though don’t worry, this pick-up should be the only one you and Justice do together,” Lucy continued. “I just need you to accompany Justice on this particular pick-up because she requires someone to help her verify the item you’ll be retrieving for me.”
Just then, the club owner looked over at Justice with an expression of pity and pique plastered all over her face.
“That, and because Justice has been having some difficulty picking up even the simplest of things for me lately,” She added.
“Aw come on, Lucy. You’re not still hung up on that coffee order from the other day, are ya?” Justice asked the woman. “I swear, I heard you say that you wanted a nice coffee.”
“Ice coffee! I said I wanted an ice coffee!” Lucy fervidly corrected her. “Honestly, Justice, I’m starting to think you’re blind and deaf.”
“Nah, still just blind,” Justice replied. “Though I do think all those thrash metal concerts I’ve been going to lately have been affecting my hearing a bit. Or maybe I just got a lot of wax build-up in my ears, hard to say.”
Despite her continued displeasure at having to accompany Justice for this pick-up, hearing that the girl was blind helped Aria at least understand why this was the case. If Justice was blind then it only made sense that she would need someone to help her make sure that she was picking up the correct item.
“Well regardless, you and Aria will be doing this pick-up together,” Lucy told Justice before turning her attention back to the Dazzling. “Now as I was saying, you’ll pick up the package from the seventeenth floor of an office building about twelve blocks east of here. It’s a place Justice is familiar with, so you don’t have to worry about knowing exactly where it is you’re going.”
The club owner then reached underneath her desk, pulled out a small, gray carrying case, and placed it atop the desk.
“Once you’re at the pick-up spot, you’ll hand over this case and you’ll be given the package,” Lucy continued as she slid the case over to Aria. “After that you simply have to bring the package back here to me and you’ll receive your money.”
“I’ll receive half my money,” Aria corrected the woman. “We agreed that I’d be paid half before doing the job and half when it’s done, remember?”
“Oh yes, yes. Of course,” Lucy replied dismissively as she opened one of her desk drawers and withdrew a good-sized stack of cash from it.
The Dazzling, as well as Kiwi, watched intently as Lucy flipped through the bundle of money in her hand. Each of them found it surprising that the club owner would keep such a large amount of cash just lying around in her desk drawer, even if that desk drawer was located in a room accessible only via a private, code-activated elevator.
“There we are,” Lucy said as she pulled a few bills from the wad of cash and handed them to Aria. “I believe this is half the amount we agreed upon.”
After a quick count of the money she’d just been handed, Aria confirmed that it was indeed half the amount she and Lucy had agreed to.
“Thanks,” The Dazzling said as she placed the money in her pocket.
“Well now that that’s all squared away, I think it’s about time the two of you got going,” Lucy then said to Aria and Justice.
“Yeah, probably,” Justice replied as she got up from her seat on Lucy’s desk and started to make her way over to the elevator. “Come on, Aria, let’s do this thing!”
Aria said nothing as she got up from her seat to follow Justice, though she did shoot Kiwi a quick look to try and wordlessly remind the PostCrush girl that she shouldn’t sign anything that Lucy might give her while she was gone. Astonishingly, Kiwi seemed to pick up on the Dazzling’s inaudible communication and gave her a small nod to indicate as such. In truth, Aria still didn’t like the fact that she was leaving Kiwi alone with someone as unscrupulous as Lucy Beel, but she knew that the PostCrush girl had a good enough head on her shoulders that she wouldn’t so easily be deceived by one of Lucy’s rose-colored contracts.
And so, with gray case in-hand, Aria started to follow behind Justice as she and the girl got their pick-up underway.
“Ahem. Justice?” Lucy called out to her associate before she and Aria got too far, gaining the attention of both girls. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Am I?” Justice replied confusedly.
Lucy then held up a small, black case that was no bigger than a pencil box.
“Oh. Guess I am forgetting something,” Justice said just before swiftly retrieving the black case from Lucy. “Sorry about that, Boss.”
“Just make sure you have Aria verify the item,” Lucy reminded the girl.
“Will do,” Justice assured the club owner as she put the case in her pocket and rejoined the Dazzling.
As Aria and Justice headed towards the elevator once more, the Dazzling chose to once again try and see what animal was within the carrier located on the chair as they passed by it. But just like the first time, she was still unable to determine just what it was inside the carrier and quickly averted her gaze from it when she made eye contact with the mysterious creature.
Once Aria and Justice reached the entrance to the antechamber, the Dazzling could hear Lucy say something to Kiwi but couldn’t make out exactly what. She then heard Kiwi say something back but just barely as they made their way through the narrow vestibule. By the time they reached the elevator she couldn’t hear either of them, and that was when she started to have second thoughts about accepting this courier job.
Between Lucy not telling her about Justice down at the bar, Lucy never once mentioning what exactly it is she and Justice are supposed to be picking up, and the fact that this whole thing was slowly reminding her of a gangland drug deal she’d once seen in an old noir movie, Aria couldn’t help but get the feeling that by day’s end she was going to regret having taken this job.