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What it takes (Candira and Jugger)

"You don't know that." He said ominously to her last sentence. He smirked and winked to her before standing up. "I'll be leaving town then, seeing as how there isn't any work for me here. This pub's dead when it comes to gossip or some temporary jobs for quick cash. I'm gonna run up to the room and grab some of my stuff before I head out, alright Marlowe?" He said, snickering a bit as he began upstairs, hoping that what he said to her concerning his knowledge of her would stick.
 
She raised an eyebrow at his ominous words and crossed her arms. Was it a bluff or was he a creep. Well there was something to think about. At the very least, she knew she could take him if she really wanted. Too bad she didn't have much motivation. "You've been here what, a night? Why move on? Besides, I don't recall you interacting with a good many people last night. If you're looking for a job, there are plenty to be found." The other customers at the bar nodded eagerly and she went back to cleaning.

"But, if you're set on leaving, that's fine..." She watched him head up the steps and she wondered again what he meant by that weird statement from before. She'd ask him before he was gone for good.
 
Eventually he came down with a ruffsack on his back...which was somewhat odd as he didn't have it on his persons before, but his lazily closed bag revealed clothes similar to his inside of the unzipped bag. "Oh, and Marlowe, I've been here longer than you think. Think of me as the shadow of this town for the past...oh...week maybe. But I've been here before, a long time ago when this place was founded...but thats another story. Lets just say...your daddy was a great guy." He snickered a bit and rubbed his nose with his thumb before he began to head out, but he stopped at the double doors before looking out to her. "And by job, I mean...something that pays well. Not really something that'll only afford a few of your drinks." He said with one last tease before he turned to leave and head to the town over, which wouldn't be very far, but the path was littered with wild animals ready to attack anything that traveled. Caravans always went over to the town beside them with heavy protection.
 
She raised her eyebrows and followed him to the door, curious as to what he meant by all that. What was his deal? And where did that bag come from? It just didn't make sense. Marlowe could tell when a not-so-subtle hint was dropped into her lap. She pointed to the others at the bar to hold down the fort. They were regulars.

"Ok, Darian. I'll bite. What do you mean you've been here before? How did you know my father? All that jazz." She stood next to him and tilted her head, wondering what he would say. The blonde watched him, curious as to what he had to say .
 
Darian turned to the girl and smirked, his eyes now hidden by the glasses once more as he spun his odd revolver around his finger as he began to speak to her. "You can call me someone from your past...someone you should know very well, but it seems you've forgotten me. Boohoo. Whatever." He chuckled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You could say I'm someone who's been...an aquaintance of yours since we were just kids, but only for a year. Man...I heard that was the most hectic year of your life when I was here causing you trouble, especially since we were living in the same place for a bit. Are you sure you don't remember this little lightning storm?" He said as he pointed to himself, a smirk on his face. "Of course...back then, people used to call me 'Daring' rather than 'Darian'."
 
She frowned and crossed her arms, considering the hints he was dropping. She knew him? Well that couldn't be right. Marlowe wasn't one to forget faces. Caroline looked him straight in the eye and wondered just how he know her and her father. Then it came to her. Daring. Of course! She smiled and laughed. "No kidding? Daring Darian? No wonder I don't recognize you. Is that how you're going to play it? Insult an old friend and then just leave without catching up? Besides, I thought you said you've never met anyone like me." She nudged his leg with her foot gently.
 
"Exactly. Even now I've never met another woman like you, compared to you back then." He said snickering. "You finally figured me out. Took you long enough and it seems now I've finished my job, though sadly there's no reward for giving you back an old memory, no matter how good or bad you may think it is." He said before taking his glasses off and looking at her. "So...how've you been Marlowe? Its been ten years hadn't it?"
 
She shook her head. He hadn't really changed much as far as his sense of humor went. He was still teasing her at every chance he got. Caroline had refused to believe that it meant he liked her then, and the same stood for now. But now, at least, he seemed to appreciate her more than he had. His comment about there not being any like her, she slapped his shoulder and fixed him with a warning look. "You better watch yourself, Darian. I don't have quite as much patience for rudeness as I used to. You can thank yourself for that."

She considered his questions and said, "I inherited the property you see from my dad and made it into a successful business. Well, successful enough. Been healthy enough, though I can't say as though I've had the best luck with rotten customers from the mob." She frowned. "There's a reason there's no law out here, hun. Maybe it's best you leave after all..." She looked him in the eye with a worried expression for just a moment before waving her hand. "But you're right. It's been about ten years. What have you been up to?"
 
"Killing. All of that stuff." He shrugged as he grappled the revolver now, having spun it this whole time and he aimed it at her head, though the barrel was hanging out of the slot to keep it safe and he made the notion of shooting her between the eyes. "Like I said...you should go into bounty hunting...with me. At least now I'll have a partner that isn't a pussy...even though she has one." He said looking up and down her body with a small smirk. "Anywho...I can't just leave now, knowing there are...'mobsters'...in my favorite little village in the west. Point me in the direction and...I'll take care of them for you for free."
 
She watched, amused at his antics. She didn't bat an eyelash as he aimed at her head. She tilted her head a little as he pretended to shoot her, curious as to what the point of his display was. "With you, huh? Well I dunno. I'm just as liable to hit you in the jaw as someone who's not on your side if you keep teasing me. You know how I hate to be teased," she said pointedly.

His comment about mobsters in the "village" made her stiffen a bit. "If it were easy as killing a few, the problem wouldn't be such a big thing. It's like trying to kill a cockroach or cutting off the head of a hydra."
 
Darian smirked and moved closer to hear, whispering in her ear so that the other customers of the bar couldn't hear. "Yeah? That was back then...I bet you like to get teased...a lot...in this time period..." He said snickering before he barreled back before she could hit him or something. "And besides...one of two of my bounties are in this one. This mob boss is my first bounty...as for my second, I'll tell you about it later. So...are you in or out with helpin me clear out the mobsters?" He seemed to have ignored everything she said about how hard they were to kill, by the way he was speaking of how easy it seemed.
 
Caroline would have punched him in the jaw again if he hadn't moved. As it was she merely threatened. Since when did he go around talking to women this way? He was certainly never interested in her like this when they were little. She frowned and listened as he went on about how he wanted her help and it seemed as though he'd totally ignored her.

"Listen, Darian. I'm only telling you this because I really don't want to see you get hurt. Better men than you have tried," she said, referring to her now deceased father. Her face took on a very serious quality. "If it were as easy as you make it sound, I would have done it by now. We wouldn't be having this conversation."

She frowned and thought of losing someone else or the damage those people could do to the townsfolk and her property. She seemed to have thought about this sort of thing before quite a lot. "As much as I'm tempted, it's just not that easy."
 
"Fine then." He said shrugging. "Wouldn't want that body of yours getting hurt anyway. Cause you might just use it against me to save yourself one day." He said before giving her a wink before going over to the double doors. He stopped and turned to smile at her. "Now then...You gonna tell me where these assholes are or am I going to have to tear this town apart hoping I find the right house they live in huh?" He said taunting her, actually somewhat threatening the town with that statement, even if it was for 'justice'...though there was never any justice in bounty hunting, for as most lawmen would say 'They only care for the money'.
 
She frowned and followed him, taking his hand when he stopped. "You don't have to look very far, Darian. Anyone can tell you where they are. They don't exactly hide." Marlowe sighed and came up to his level. "Why won't you listen to me? You don't think I couldn't take care of the men that were bothering people? It's not that they can't be killed. It's how they counter it. I'm worried about you...and all the people you're connected to." She frowned and then sighed. "If I can't make you forget it, I'll back you up when you really need me. I'll let you stay here free of charge."
 
"This'll be over in an hour tops." He said smiling to her gently as he placed his hand on her head. "I'll drive em out, in a body bag if necessary. Either way they'll leave town...Go and just make sure people are safe and then come and meet me out in the...'battlefield'...when you thikn I'll need your help." He smirked and pulled up his sleeve to reveal his mechanical arm. "Tech of the east. Not as good as a real arm, but at least I'm able to pull a trigger with this." He said, holding out his hand which was stiff, just metal with the trigger finger the only one being able to move at all. The hand was fashioned in a way where he could just slip a gun onto it and fire. "I'll be fine. Trust me...This revolver of mine has as much power as it looks awkward."
 
She didn't like the way this was heading. "What do I have to do to convince you not to do this?" she asked with a little sigh. The revolver was a tad bit unsettling, as was his arm and she wanted to know immediately how he'd gotten it and why. "You know, you don't have to do this right now. You could stay awhile. I haven't really seen you for such a long time...I'd be disappointed if you left so soon." She wasn't lying, but she was saying it because she really wanted him to cool his jets and really think about this. She'd help him if she had to, and she probably would, but Marlowe didn't want to think of that.
 
Looking at her, Darian shrugged. "Normally I'd say this: 'Do you doubt my abilities as a bounty hunter?' but then I thought, 'wait, I haven't seen her in so long...I doubt she even believes I'm a bounty hunter even though I told her.'" He chuckled a bit and turned to walk to her. "Alright fine...I'll play it your way for today...I'll stay with you the whole day if you're worried I'll die. So then...Marlowe...What exactly did you want to do with your old friend. I assume you have something in mind for stopping me?"
 
"I honestly hadn't thought that far ahead, but my bartenders will be coming soon enough to keep the place rolling without me. I can take the whole day off and just be with you. We can catch up and talk, and I can try and convince you to not do this..." she shrugged and watched him. "Anything you want."
 
He listened to her offer with a blank look on his face, but upon hearing her last words, he smirked and tilted his glasses down to look over the top of them to see her without any color difference cause of the lens, and so she could see his eyes. 'Anything?" He said smirking. He would just be joking, though he would surely try...especially with someone whom Marlowe had become.
 
Despite her attraction to him in her younger days she held no such flame now, being older and wiser. And as he teased her about her offer, she just rolled her eyes and gave him a rather bland look. "Are you finished? If you're staying, you may as well take the bag back upstairs. And if you're going to be childish about my offers I'll have to put limits on from now on. And then who'll be sorry?" She smirked and then started to move aside for him. "So, what'll it be?"
 
"Well, lets see...One, I think you've got more of a chance with me actually on your side rather than pushing me over to the mob where they may just get one more hired gun. I'm a bounty hunter, but I'm also sort of like a merc...if I get paid enough, I'll switch to the 'winning' team...and Two, You don't want to see number one happen, or me dying for that matter do you? You actually seem to worry about my life. Lighten up a bit Marlowe. You were always so serious."
 
"Of course I don't want you on their side. And I would never want you to die, no matter how much you pissed me off." She frowned and watched him as she was told to lighten up. "You know, I'm only so serious because you're never serious enough." She crossed her arms. "And you're not exactly giving me a lot to relax about, Darian."
 
"You really shouldn't care too much about me. After all, you admitted out loud to me that you hated me the day before I left...or rather...it was what drove me to leave." He said before putting his glasses back where they were to cover his eyes as he spoke to her. "I'm rather surprised that you care so much for a man you drove away, and had recently just come back into your life no less than twenty four hours ago, and he's still the same bastard as before."
 
She sighed. "Well, I would hope that you would have changed a little." Marlowe watched him carefully as he replaced his glasses. "Maybe you are a bastard, and maybe that's the way I felt at the time, but I don't want you to die. Honestly...I sort of..." she sighed and left the sentence where it was. "Anyway, I'm glad you're holding off for now. And if you stick around, maybe I'll find some reason to like you again," she teased.
 
"'sort of' hated me." He finished for her, whether that was what she meant or not. "I left because I felt like I had no reason to be in town...so poof...I was gone like the wind." He smirked to her. "Though for you to like me again is not my intent...because to be honest..." He pulled out a paper from his pocket and began to look at it. "Remember when I said I was here for two bounties? The mob boss is one bounty...but he has also put up a warrant on your head as well, which I'll be tempted to take if the big mob boss doesn't pay up more enough to make me tempt myself to even spill a drop of your blood."
 
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