Chapter Text
Blitz loved his f*cking job. There was nothing quite like the ability to beat someone up in a legal way. Getting paid to do it just made it even better. The day he'd started I.M.P. and become a bounty hunter was the second-best day of his life - beaten only by the day he'd adopted Loona. People who did anything else astounded him. Everything else was no fun at all.
He spun the pistol in his grip, showing off for Millie as well as the f*cker cuffed in front of him. “You know, running off on your wife after cheating wasn’t a good idea, buddy. You’re a special kind of stupid, ain’t ya?”
“Sir, why are you antagonizing the target?” Moxxie groaned. The short, freckled man stood to the side, finally hanging up the phone from his long-ass phone call. The usual look of disapproval covered his face as he walked back over to him and Millie.
“Because you just took forever on the phone. Who were you calling, your mommy?” Blitz pushed himself away from the wall, shoving his gun back into the holster at his hip.
“I was calling the client, sir. Like you told me to,” Moxxie defended. “And my being on the phone shouldn’t give you permission to insult someone we’ve already gotten restrained. There’s no point to it.”
“Shut the hell up, Mox. Let’s just get this loser back to headquarters for his wife.” Blitz grabbed the man’s cuffed hands, pushing him forward. They had a sh*tty van parked down the street that they brought to get targets. Not only did it provide a good space to put them, but it also gave a little bit more space to hold any necessary weapons. Like the giant axe Millie always seemed roaring to use.
“Don’t worry, Moxxie,” Millie said, patting his arm. “You know how he is. Just let it roll off your back. This is a good contract! Maybe we can go somewhere nicer for date night on Friday!”
The M&Ms trudged behind Blitz, toward the van. He could hear Moxxie’s put-out sigh. “As long as he doesn't show up at the date again.”
Blitz snorted. “Don't worry your pretty head about that. I'm taking my Loonie to Stylish Occult on Friday to celebrate her report card! She didn't have any F’s this time!” He looked back at them, grinning as if he'd said she had straight A’s and made valedictorian.
“That's great, Blitz!” Millie said, smiling kindly at him. She finally let go of her husband as they approached the old van.
“I know! My daughter’s a genius!”
Blitz shoved the grumbling target into the van, not caring about the extra bruises it gave the man in the process. Then he slammed the back closed and hopped into his place in the driver's seat. Moxxie got into his place as the passenger, and Millie took the second row so she could deal with the target if it became necessary.
The key went into the ignition. They all held their breath for a moment before the engine loudly sputtered to life. “f*ck yeah!" Blitz cheered. “Let's get back to headquarters!”
With a jerk that nearly sent Moxxie over the dashboard, Blitz reversed the car. Immediately after, he slammed them all back into their seats again as he drove forward onto the road. He grinned upon hearing his best friend cursing out his horrible driving.
Their banter continued as they drove through Pride City to the business park where they worked. It was nicer than he should technically pay for; but the influx of clients from the nicer location was worth the sh*tty van. Besides, Blitz was confident that one day they'd get a job that paid enough to get a better one.
For now, the van shook as they drove into their allotted parking spot.
“Alright. Let's get this bastard upstairs. Mills, go make sure that his wife is actually waiting for us. I'm sick of them walking up to us on the street and making a scene where I can't even properly film it!” Blitz said.
“On it!” Millie was gone in an instant, faster than Blitz and Moxxie combined. Blitz whistled, impressed by the small woman’s skill. He always knew how she was, but seeing it was always so much different. It definitely gave him more respect for Moxxie whenever he saw Millie single-handedly take down someone four times her size.
Blitz walked calmly to the back of the van, looking toward Moxxie as he opened the doors. “You really must be great in bed, Moxxie. I don’t know why else a woman like that would -”
A foot connected with Blitz’s shoulder. Something popped as he was sent sprawling on the pavement, barely missing his already-scarred face getting scraped to pieces. Pain radiated from his shoulder in a very familiar way - the target had dislocated it for sure.
“Sir!” Moxxie is at his side in an instant, looking between his eyes to check for any possible sign of concussion. This was protocol for them, at this point. Check for invisible injuries unless the visible ones were lethal. “Are you alright? Did you hit your head?”
“I’m fine! Get the f*cking target!” Blitz snapped. He got up to his feet, ignoring the sharp pains radiating from his shoulder. He didn’t have any time to deal with that right now. Their paycheck was on the line, and he needed that so he could take Loona out. And pay their rent. But that was secondary, ‘cause he could always persuade the landlord to give them a break.
He started running after the targe, herding him toward the building I.M.P. used as their headquarters. He managed to get the man backed up to the flower shop that took up the bottom floor - Via’s Greenhouse was painted elegantly across the large window.
“Come on, dude. I don’t have all day for this, and you’re stuck. Just come with us and face the consequences of what you did, alright? It’ll be better for all of us that way,” Blitz droned, his gun raised at him.
The man shook his head, frantically looking around for a way out. Unfortunately for him, Moxxie blocked the other side, with his own gun. “You don’t understand! I can’t go back there! She’s a psycho!”
Blitz shrugged. “Not my problem. So, what’s your choice? Come nicely, or meet the business end of our guns here? Because, let me just say, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to use it.”
All three of them stood in tense silence while he looked at the weapons and scanned the area once more. Blitz thought he was finally going to give up when, instead, he whirled around and crashed through the large, glass window of the plant shop. The entire thing shattered from the impact, sending glass shards flying in all directions.
“sh*t!” Blitz raised his arm to protect his face from the glass. As soon as it stopped flying, he ran and jumped over the shards that stood out of the window sill. Glass crunched under his boots when he landed inside the store.
In front of him was a sea of green. So many plants had been placed into the building that there was barely room for people to walk around to look at them. There were flowers, ferns, succulents, and so many other plants Blitz couldn’t even guess the names of. He probably wouldn’t know more than three of the flowers here, let alone the strange, spiky stuff in the corner.
He shook his head, searching the forest for the man who’d escaped them. Instead of finding him running, however, his eyes landed on the man being pushed against a wall by the tallest, skinniest man Blitz had ever seen.
His hair was a gorgeous silver and his amber eyes turned to look at Blitz and Moxxie curiously. Slender hands held their target in place effortlessly - though Blitz supposed being so much taller than everyone else must help with that. His legs alone practically reached Blitz’s chest. He had a green apron with the store’s logo over a neat, button-up shirt. The sleeves were folded up to his elbows, showing off well-muscled forearms.
“Oh, hello,” the strange man cooed, his British accent instantly calming. “This man must belong to you, I presume?”
Blitz cleared his throat, shoving the gun into its holster. “I wouldn’t say he belongs to us, but his bitch ass is definitely coming with us. And we might charge his bitch wife extra, too, for kicking my arm out of its socket.”
The man tittered a laugh, trying to hide it behind one of those beautiful hands. “Perhaps you should.”
He lit up instantly at the laugh, smiling. No one ever got his jokes. They rarely realized he was joking, let alone finding it funny. But this man, who had no obligation to be nice, thought he was funny. This beautiful, handsome man found him funny. And he worked below I.M.P.. Blitz was going to be in a lot of trouble.
Moxxie set a hand on Blitz’s arm, apparently unaware of the turmoil this man was causing to Blitz’s heart. “Let me reset your shoulder, sir. Then we can get this man upstairs before we come help Stolas clean up.”
Stolas.
Oh, sh*t.
The pain of getting his joint shoved back into the right place barely even registered. Blitz’s attention was instead on the tall man - Stolas, apparently. A British man who understood his jokes and had the same name as the single other British person Blitz had ever met.
“...Right. Let’s, get this guy up to his wife and collect our money.” As usual, Blitz shoved all of the complicated emotions down into a neat box that already had far too much in it. Then he put on his co*cky grin and walked up to who was probably a childhood friend and took over in restraining the target. “Trying to escape didn’t do you any good, did it? Come on, your wife is waiting upstairs to kick your ass.”
Blitz yanked the target back, shoving him toward the door. He still had a few minutes before facing whatever was about to happen. For now, he’d focus on his job. They needed this money so he could take Loonie out, anyway. And she really deserved that, after the hard times she’d been having with school.
-----
Stolas watched the three walk out - through the door this time - and co*cked his head. He’d met Moxxie shortly after acquiring this location for his shop. He had told him about the bounty hunting company above him and the owner, Blitz. The crass man with the scar who’d leaped in without heed for his injured arm must be him.
They had not met properly, and yet, he seemed so familiar.
The way he held himself and the shape of his face. The underlying tone of his voice, full of energy and life. Those dark brown eyes with little flecks of gold in them. Where had he seen such enticing eyes before? Surely, he wouldn’t forget eyes like those.
He absently began fixing all of the plants that had been displaced. Blitz… Blitz… It was a strange name. When combined with the man, it held the slightest bit of remembrance in his mind. Like the back of his brain itched within his skull. He must know him, yet none of it seemed to click enough to make a difference.
Shaking his head, Stolas walked behind the counter at the back of his shop. He grabbed a broom and proceeded back to the front to begin sweeping up all of the glass. The paint from his custom sign sparkled on the bigger shards.
As he began to gather all of it into a pile, the bell rang above the door. Blitz and Moxxie strolled back inside.
Stolas looked over at them, pausing in his work. Coppery skin shone caramel in the light streaming through the window. The marred skin on the side of Blitz’s face couldn’t detract from that skin tone, nor the glimmering in his eyes.
“Alright, what’s the damage here, then?” Blitz asked, his voice just as loud as before. He scanned the area, taking in the full extent of damage caused by the broken window. His shoulders twitched up slightly. “How expensive was all of that? Your decor thing’s gotta cost a ton.”
“Oh! I don’t want you to worry about that,” he assured quickly. “Custom work such as that can be quite expensive, and it’s not your fault that he broke through my window.”
Moxxie smiled up at him. “That’s very kind, Stolas. Can we at least-”
“No no no,” Blitz interrupted him. “I refuse to be in debt to you just because you feel bad. Do you think we can’t afford it? Because we can! We have plenty of f*cking clients just waiting for us to go catch somebody for ‘em. So, how much?”
Stolas shook his head, looking down at the shorter men. “I told you, you really don’t have to worry. I’m more than capable of handling this situation. You should use the money for yourselves. Heaven knows I can spare the funds.”
Blitz spread his hands, waving them back and forth across his body. “No. What is it gonna cost? I don’t want this to come back and bite me in the ass later just because you felt like being all noble now. Everyone has a price, so name yours and I’ll pay it.” The man’s jaw was set, his chin lifted in defiance.
Next to him, young Moxxie simply sighed. He walked around his boss to take the broom from Stolas, who was so shocked by Blitz’s behavior that he didn’t stop him. What kind of person insisted on paying for something unnecessary? He had the perfect excuse not to spend his money on this, and yet he almost seemed angry at the implication.
“Well, I don’t know exactly how much getting it redone would actually cost. It’s been a few months since I had it done, you see. But, perhaps you can repay me in some other way?” Stolas suggested, wracking his brain to think of what the ‘other way’ could be.
Blitz raised an eyebrow, his eyes briefly looking Stolas up and down. “What would this other way be? Because I may be offering payment, but it’s still just a fancy-*** window, not like I destroyed your whole store.”
“What? Oh! Oh, no!” Stolas flushed, his pale skin turning a deep red at the implication. It was his turn to wildly wave his hands in a desperate attempt to remove that idea from the air. “No no no! That is not what I meant at all! I am so sorry if I gave you that implication! I meant something more like helping out in my shop! Not - not that!”
How had he messed up so royally as to imply he’d want sexual favors in exchange for a broken window? Yes, Blitz was incredibly attractive, and yes, he was no longer married, but that would be absurd!
“Oh.” Blitz visibly swallowed, then squared his shoulders like he was preparing for war. “Alright, then. We can help out here sometimes. We don’t always need three people to get a bounty.”
“What?” Moxxie looked up from the pile of glass he’d just finished collecting on the floor. “What do you mean, ‘we?’ Stolas is great and all, but I know you’d pick to send me here every time. I may work for you, but my contract doesn’t say you can ship me off just because you don’t wanna deal with the holes you dug yourself!”
Blitz smirked and turned his gaze to his employee. “Oh, I have no problem dealing with holes, Mox. Though, usually I prefer someone else’s.”
Moxxie groaned, angrily snatching up the dustpan. “Just deal with your own stuff, sir! Please!”
“If this is going to cause so many problems, I’m sure we can figure out some other solution,” Stolas interjected, hoping to stop whatever strange fight was occurring.
“Ugh, fine! I’ll come help out in this store when I can! But I don’t know sh*t about plants, so you’re the one that’s gonna suffer for that.” Blitz pointed a finger at Stolas at this. “If you don’t like that, you’re gonna have to accept cash.”
Stolas shook his head, unable to hide the slight smile on his lips. Perhaps he could convince him to love plants like he did. That would be a lovely way to bond with this strange man. “I don’t mind that at all. I can always take the time to teach you.”
Blitz rolled his eyes, turning to leave. “Whatever. I’m going to go make sure the psycho is out of the office. I’ll arrange all of that later.”
It may have been Stolas’s imagination, but it looked as if his cheeks were a bit darker as he walked out.
