Chapter Nineteen - Under the Bed

Sharp and I returned to the Bloody Bat in short order, and when we went in, she was quick to rush to her room and stuff the bag under her bed.

"Not the best hiding place, but I suppose it'll do for now," I said.

"Yeah," she said as she wiped her hands. "Wow... I.. I feel like I can't spend any of that money though."

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's stolen, isn't it?"

"From... me?" I asked. "Sharp, I hereby give you permission to spend that money... in a reasonable and responsible way, as long as you're aware that it's very much a finite amount."

"Right, uh, I guess that makes sense," Sharp said. She laughed, but it sounded nervous. I think the presence of so much money was making her anxious.

I hopped up onto the bed and turned around to face her. "Ask Paris for a more reasonable schedule moving forwards. A few days off a week for training would be useful. Or... we could move to my place, but it's just outside of the city and I'm not entirely sure I can just have you show up."

"Huh? Uh, yeah, I'll ask Paris for some time off. What's that about your place?"

"I have a nice apartment," I said. "But you lingering around it would be suspicious. However, you could rent the place next door. As long as I can access certain accounts then I can make it a sure-thing that you'll be allowed in. And I'll even keep the rent reasonable."

I smiled, catlike and smug. If Sharp thought me being an assassin made me evil, then she wasn't prepared to learn that I was also a landlord.

Of course, I'd only charge her a reasonable rate. Something competitive and fair. Maybe I'd put a portion of that rent money in an account she could access later?

The other portion would go into maintenance, of course. I wouldn't trust a teenager to understand how much it costs to fix a roof and have the grass replaced every three years with new Arti-Turf.

"Go shower before work starts. If you're going to be begging Paris for time off, you might as well do it looking clean."

"Okay, right!" Sharp said. She ran out of the room, leaving me with not much to do.

I sighed. I'd forgotten to tell Sharp to buy a charging cable for the burner or the other that we'd gotten from the lost and found. Oh well.

I didn't feel like exercising too much at the moment, and I did need my sleep. So I hopped onto the bed, spun around a few times, and laid down to rest.

Sharp returning to get changed awoke me a little, but she just got dressed then ran off with not much more than a pat on my head.

Back to napping.

No, no, not napping. This was a proper sleep that I needed. I was in the body of what was at best a juvenile. Preventing myself from getting sleep was only going to worsen things for me in the long run.

So I slept... until Sharp slid back into the room, waking me up.

"Hey, Queen Regine Quirky Rufflewhiskers," Sharp said.

"I do like the Queen part of that. I'm very much not sure about all the rest," I said as I yawned. "Is your shift done?"

She nodded, but didn't move to be too much deeper in the room. "I uh... so, this is a little awkward."

"Then rip it off like a bandaid," I suggested while my mind raced.

Sharp tapped the pads of her fingers together, then took a deep breath. "Alyssa and Jenny are here. At the bar, I mean. They came in near the end of my shift, and I said hi, since... you know, I did work for them. And they told me to join them once they were done. What do I do? I said I would see, but I don't think they know I live here."

"Ah," I said. So the moth mage and the gremlin were here? It was very possible that they didn't have ulterior motives. They'd come here before for a meeting, and they seemed to know the Bloody Bat well enough. We'd met them in a local pawn shop as well, so there was a high likelihood that they were locals.

That, and sharp hadn't done anything too weird around them, other than talk to her cat a few times, maybe.

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Joining them might not be a terrible idea.

Sharp needed friends around her own age. And while those two wouldn't be good influences, I was going to be around as a moderating presence.

I barely had any friends, and I ended up killing people for a living. I could see why a lack of friendships might be a poor choice at day's end.

"Well then, let's go say hello."

"You're coming?" she asked.

"Do you not want me to? Is it because I'm a cat?"

"What? No, that's not why," she said. Then she noticed her mistake and slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Then why do you not want me there?"

"Uh, I mean, yeah, it's because you're a cat and it would be weird, no? To bring a cat out with you to a meeting?"

I stared at her.

She stared back.

Her cheeks reddened. "I, uh... got a level in Reflex from that."

I let out a sigh. "Of course you did. Let's just go, Sharp."

I didn't have the time, inclination, or will, to dig into Sharp's psyche to figure out what exactly she meant by... all of that. Though I had the impression that she was starting to think of me as the parental figure she'd never had.

It was nice, in a way, but also rather distressing that this girl thought of a kitten as a mother figure and didn't want to show up with said mother figure in front of her friend.

That, or I was entirely wrong and she just thought I was uncool, which was the height of irony considering our current circumstances vis-a-vis the Cool stat.

Sharp changed into a plain shirt from the lost and found that fit her more or less, then shucked on a large hoodie a few sizes bigger than what fit. I was unceremoniously slid down the neck of the hoodie to hang with my head under her chin like some sort of living pendant.

We exited out into the main area of the Bloody Bat. Music was thumping over the dance floor and lights flashed, but Sharp seemed all too used to it as she navigated along the edge of the room and then up to the floor above.

It was quieter there. Some trick of the architecture kept most of the bass-boosted noise at bay, and while it was still relatively dark, the lighting was enough to see by.

The Mage and the Gremlin were in a small booth off to one side. Sharp slid in, sitting next to Jenny and across from Alyssa. "Hi," she said.

"Hey," Jenny replied. She had half a meal left before her. Some synthetic-meat spaghetti next to a frothy beer.

"Welcome back," Alyssa said. Her own meal was a salad, but there was an empty plate pushed to the side. "Did you want to order anything?"

"Ah, um. I suppose I should," Sharp said. "Maybe just some fries or something."

"Yeah, gotta watch your intake," Jenny agreed. "I really shouldn't be eating this many carbs, but I am a bitch of little resistance."

Alyssa shrugged. "To each their own. Did you... have a good shift?"

"Oh, yeah! It was fine," Sharp said. "Uh, did you guys have a nice... whatever you do?"

Jenny snorted, then took a sip of her beer. The mug looked ridiculously large in her tiny hands. "Yeah. We had a great whatever today."

"That's good," Sharp said. "Would it be rude to ask what it is you do?"

"I don't know, how about you tell me your biggest secret and we'll see," Jenny said.

"Oh... well, I guess mine is that there's a heap of cash under my bed."

Jenny blinked, then laughed. "Saving up all that odd-job money the old fashioned way, huh? Nah, we're mostly working to try and build up our rep. Alyssa here wants to be a proper spell-flinger, and that takes contacts, cash, and... shit, Alyssa, think of something else that starts with C."

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Courage?"

"That works!" Jenny said.

"A spell-flinger?" Sharp asked. "I saw you do a bit of magic the other day. It was awesome." She leaned forwards, almost squishing me against the table. "Can you teach me any? Please?"

Alyssa stared at her, only glimpsing down at me for a moment. "You know what, sure. Order your fries, and I'll give you magic 101 while they show up."

Hmm, so the girl thought she could teach, then? Well, I wouldn't mind listening in.

***