Chapter Eighty-Two - An Enjoyable Bit of Torture

Torture was ineffective. That didn't mean it wasn't fun.

At the moment, Ivil was enjoying torture quite a bit. She was sitting on a simple seat in a nice enough restaurant a floor above the arcade they'd been at. The place was nice enough. It wasn't a high-end restaurant, exactly, but it wasn't a franchise either. The sort of place where the cook was also the owner, and where while the decor wasn't the best, it was still thematic and clean enough.

This place in particular had a large bay window looking out of the side of Driftwood, with a dock in the distance where they could see ships slowing down to come in for their final approach.

The restaurant was cargo-ship themed, which Ivil found to be a strange choice with the sitting areas all taken from actual ship lounges and the walls covered in blueprints and screens showing ads for ships that hadn't been sold since the end of the second Intersystem war.

Twenty-Six loved it, though, so Ivil found herself enjoying the space via osmosis.

The girl was sitting across from Ivil now, bouncing in a booth with her feet tip-tapping on the grated metal floor.

Next to her, Pixie was sitting on her hands no not meeting anyone's eyes. Her feet didn't quite reach the floor.

She was the current target of Ivil's torture. "So," Ivil said. "How long were you around the arcade?"

"Ah," Pixie said.

"Do you enjoy arcade games that much? Which are your favourite?" Ivil asked. "Are there any spy-themed games there that you particularly like, or are you there for the dating sims?"

"Ah," Pixie continued.

"Evelyn is just teasing you," Twenty-Six said as she placed a hand over Pixie's. Ivil noted the gesture. Twenty-Six was quick to touch and grab onto people when they were close. It was kind of her, though the touch seemed to make Pixie start a little. The woman stared at Twenty-Six's hand over her own and her already flushed face only grew warmer. "If she's being too mean, let me know, and I'll tell her to calm down."

"I can hear you, you know," Ivil said.

Twenty-Six grinned so hard her cheeks were pinching together. "I know," she said. "But it's true, isn't it?"

"A little," Ivil admitted. "I do enjoy playing with my food. And doesn't Pixie just look like a delicious little morsel?"

Pixie choked, then sat up straighter, almost as if trying to seem more intimidating. She didn't remove her hand from under Twenty-Six's which defeated the entire point. "I'm not a little morsel or a snack," Pixie said. "I kill people."

"Ah yes," Ivil said. "I'm certain you have, but your kill count is a little anaemic if you're trying to use it to scare me."

Pixie's eyes narrowed. "Just count yourself lucky that you're so attractive, otherwise that kind of talk would just make you sound like an idiot."

Ivil snorted, but Twenty-Six stepped in before the insults and the flirting could continue to fly too quickly. "Evelyn, Pixie, please don't fight," she said.

Ivil relented, for the moment. She had the impression that this kind of 'fighting' was exactly the kind of thing that Pixie enjoyed. But Twenty-Six was right, it was a little inappropriate for the middle of a restaurant while in the company of others. "You're right, forgive me," she said. The forgiveness was aimed at Twenty-Six, but Pixie nodded all the same.

"And I'm sorry too," Pixie said. "For accidentally spying on you. It wasn't what I was aiming to do, but I saw the two of you and I just followed along."

"As one does," Ivil said.

"I've done that before too, when I see someone very pretty," Twenty-Six said. Then she looked up to the two of them as they stared at her, and her cheeks slowly reddened. "Isn't that normal?"

"No," Ivil said.

"Oh."

Ivil wanted to reach over and pat Twenty-Six on the head, but she wasn't sure if they were quite at that stage of their relationship, yet.

Actually, to be quite honest with herself, Ivil was a little conflicted about where, exactly, she was in this whole relationship thing.

In her soaps, there was usually a period where the lovers made eyes at each other...

She looked to Twenty-Six and their gazes locked. Ivil smiled kindly, and Twenty-Six returned the smile almost on reflex, her dimples were showing and she looked quite pleased.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

So yes, that was one thing she could check off her list. Next, the soaps usually had the lovers become more intimate. It was usually quite carnal, though half the time it was off-screen and merely implied. Ivil was quite looking forward to that part.

Her issue came with the bit after that. In her soaps, the characters were either in an established relationship already (in which case the breaking of that relationship, the death of a character, or some steamy b-plot would mess with said relationship, all things she was keeping a keen eye out for) or the characters were in the process of falling in love.

There was nothing about the actual... post-early dating bit.

Ivil was aware that there had to be a step between falling in love and marriage, but none of the media she consumed so avidly covered it in any details, and as she was slowly approaching that stage she could admit to herself, in the privacy of her own mind, that she was quite nervous.

It was a little early to be so nervous, however. She still hadn't revealed her true identity to either Twenty-Six, or Aurora, and Pixie was just as clueless. That was her own fault for being so good at restraining herself and keeping things subtle.

For now, back to teasing. An auto-waiter arrived and listened to their orders before zipping away, and within a few minutes a flesh-and-blood waiter came and set down their drinks. Since this was a themed restaurant, they were served in squeezable, no-spill drink sacs, the kind of thing used in a zero-g environment when there were no other options.

Twenty-Six, at least, seemed to enjoy the novelty. "We could never afford these around Saturn. You just need to get good at splashing whatever you're drinking directly into your mouth. There's a trick to it though." And so she went on for a while about how to make liquids roll into small, swallowable balls.

The conversation didn't become any smarter. Pixie complained at length about the rations she could eat onboard her ship and how she desperately wished for enough room to fit a better kitchen space within it, and Ivil added her own mostly-forgotten stories about military-grade rations. It had been a long time since she'd had to suffer through those.

The evening was progressing quite well, in her estimation. The girls were laughing, the tension that Pixie had started with faded away, and they traded gossip and banter without any real issue.

Which was why Ivil was instantly irritated when she felt Pepper slipping closer. Not because she didn't like the MINT operative's presence, but because the woman was twiddling her hands together and had the kind of tenseness to her that only came from someone under a lot of stress who didn't think they were being observed and who were walking to deliver some bad news.

Ivil had long ago learned to notice that exact walk. It reminded her of someone walking up to their own gallows.

"Forgive me, a moment," Ivil said as she carefully stood up.

Pixie patted her lips with a napkin. "Want us to come with?" she asked.

"No, it's fine. Stay here and enjoy your meal, I'lll be right back," Ivil said with a dismissive little wave.

Twenty-Six eyed her for a moment, then smiled and nodded. She could be surprisingly perceptive at times, Ivil knew.

Or maybe she'd just realized that Ivil never used the washroom and so if she was standing up now, it was definitely for something else? In either case, the Saturnian continued to chat with Pixie while Ivil made her way out of the restaurant and towards Pepper.

They met in the middle of a long corridor, the spy stopping in her tracks as she finally noticed Ivil coming to stand before her. "Your majesty," she said on reflex.

"Yes," Ivil replied. "I take it the news isn't good?"

Pepper at least tried to hide her wince. "I do have some... bad news, yes," she said.

Ivil let out a breath through her nose. "Well, lay it on me," she said.

"Is this place... private enough?" Pepper asked.

A faint twist of will and it was. "Go on," Ivil said.

"Yes ma'am. MINT has noticed some movement across the system, particularly movement heading towards the Uranus system. All the ships have ties in one way or another to the Earth Alliance. Ma'am, we think that the Emperor of Earth might be trying to steal the newly discovered cores."

***