Badass Ch. 04

"You guys are all still here? Why? What's up?"

"Nothing's 'up' Erykah" replied Stephanie.

"Yeah, we're not here under the capacity of members of The Hand of Aegis." Said Steve; his mouth still full of pizza; although much of the contents of his mouth were escaping, and falling onto his clothes. When he saw this, he would just pick up the piles of gray mush, and threw them back into his mouth. That move should've grossed her out, but having known him for the majority of her life, it didn't.

"That's right. Right now, we're here as your childhood friends, who have known you for close to 15 years. We're here to keep you company, and to cheer you up." Amy said, flashing a genuine smile at Erykah. All of them then proceeded to nod in unison, and smile as well. This made Erykah look at them with what seemed like warmth, and this was more than enough for them. For Erykah, this was the equivalent of a smile, and that's all they wanted to get from her.

"Thanks guys. This'll be a welcome; albeit short reprieve from being an Alpha. It's been a while since we all just hung out like this." She said, joining them, and grabbing a slice of pizza, and some beer. This made the 4 of them look at each other.

"WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAA!!" they all said in unison

"What?" Erykah said, slightly annoyed.

"If you're drinking beer, then you KNOW it's time to let loose!" Amy said, and they all laughed. Erykah just shook her head, and took a swig of beer.

They all sat there, talking about current news, the status of the turf war, reminisced about the good ol' days, and such. The room was filled with boisterous laughter, and nothing but positive vibes. Erykah sat there, watching her friends, and felt her shoulders relax, and her body melt into the seat. She hadn't been this relaxed in months, even when she hung . Then she heard Don speak.

"Hey Erykah, seeing as we're all relaxed here, I gotta tell you something."

"Sure Don, go ahead."

"Man, you REALLY got fucked up! That was the worst condition I had ever seen your face in!" they all laughed, and she once again shook her head.

"That Buffalo bastard had me pinned on the floor, and he punched my face like 100 times Don, of course it'd be messed up! He even dragged my face through the floor tiles, which broke against my face. It should've been much worse. I should've looked like you."

This caused everyone in the room to shut up, and look at each other. Then they all burst out laughing.

"Holy shit! Not only are you drinking, but you've even made a joke/insult! You really need to get fucked up more often!" Steve said, as he wiped the teas from his eyes.

Although Amy nodded along with everyone else, she knew that getting beaten up hadn't caused Erykah to suddenly relax.

"Or maybe, you need to get saved by silver haired men more often." Amy said to herself, more than Erykah.

"What was that?" Erykah asked.

"Oh, nothing." Amy said, waving away her friends' question.

After many hours, and like a bajillion beers consumed between the 5 of them, Erykah was getting up to go take a piss. After announcing that, Steve and Don got up, and announced that they were heading back to their place.

"Hey...thanks guys, I mean it. It was nice to hang out as friends, and not The Hand. I really needed it."

"Sure thing Erykah. Just rest up, and we'll see you tomorrow at Zees', so we can discuss strategy, and how to get that guy back." Said Don."Hey Steve, maybe we should stop by Temperance, pick up some women for what's left of the night?"

"Yeah, good idea Don. See ya Erykah." And with that they left.

"Bye guys." She said, also looking towards Amy and Steph. Then she went upstairs to her bathroom, and took a piss. After washing and drying her hands, she walked out of the bathroom, and saw Amy and Steph in pjs, sitting on her bed.

"Huh? What are you two still doing here? And in pjs? Aren't you leaving?"

"Well, we decided to spend the night." Amy said with a grin.

"Yeah, besides, Amy already knows everything that has to do with this situation with Zdenek. I'm still completely out of the loop, which has to change. You're going to tell me everything before you go to sleep."

Before Erykah could argue, she saw the two of them climb under the covers of her giant bed, leaving space in the middle for her. She sighed as she conceded defeat, and climbed over Steph, and settled in between them, and they snuggled close to her.

"Well, it started last night, at the club..." Erykah started, while Amy flicked the light switch next to the bed, switching the lights off.

Zdenek sat there on the roof, with his Corruption Vision activated. He had been watching the entire evening, and saw the whole thing. How she had been interacting with her friends, drinking, and now, as she lay in bed with Stephanie and Amy. Satisfied with the how her night had gone, and with the fact that she and the other two seemed safe, he deactivated Corruption Vision, and stood up. He could basically hear his joints creaking, and checked to see the time. He had been there, sitting in that position for hours. He stretched his arms and legs, and shook out the cobwebs.

"I should've brought some oil, to grease up my joints. Fuck." He then looked over at Erykahs' bedroom window.

"Well, you seem to be safe enough. Sleep well, and rest up." As he turned his back to her house, he looked back one more time."I don't know what happened, for you to have hardened your heart up like that, but it's unfortunate. I suspect you actually have a nice smile, but not even your closest friends get to see it. I wonder why." He sighed, and with that ran, and jumped off the roof, making his way back to his apartment.

Erykah looked out of her window, and focused on the spot that Zdenek had just vacated.

"Something wrong?"

"No. I just thought I heard something. So anyway, then I see this coat zip past me, and..."

15 minutes later, Zdenek was back on the roof of his apartment building. He walked through the door, and made his way down the stairs to his apartment.

"Why the hell did I go there? I spent way too much time there anyway."

He walked into his apartment, and took the dish that housed the mashed potatoes, and polished off the rest, before disrobing, brushing his teeth, and then lay down on that slab of rock he called a mattress. He knew it was hard and uncomfortable, but it was his bed, so to him, there was no bed more comfortable than it. He was slightly restless, but eventually calmed down, and fell asleep.

Morning came, and Zdenek broke out of his coma. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He looked down at his pillow, and it had a huge wet patch, with a long stringy thing that was connected to it. The stringy thing rose up and eventually ended at the side of his mouth.

"How long was I out for?"

He checked the time, and saw it was 10:35. He then sat up, and the stringy thing snapped. He got out of bed, and lumbered towards the bathroom, where he then turned the knob for the hot water. He adjusted the heat, and took a shower. He brushed his teeth, and looked at his face in the mirror. Giving his cheeks 2 quick slaps, he woke up fully. He dried himself off, and got dressed in a dark blue form hugging tee, black jeans, and black boots. He went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. He then put on his coat and gloves. He remembered his hair, but decided to try something different. He tied it up in a low pony tail, and hooded himself up, with only a few rogue strands falling on his face. Once that was done, he left his apartment, and set out for Zees', for his usual burger and milkshake. He was too lazy to make breakfast, and it was almost lunch time anyway.

As he approached the door to Zees', his stomach growled in anticipation. He looked down at his stomach.

"Shut up!" he scolded, as he opened the door and walked inside.

He headed over to his usual table, and sat in his usual seat, with his back facing the Aegis booth. After he sat down, and waved at a free waitress, who looked around to see if he was waving at anyone else. When she found that there was no one else, she pointed to herself, while looking at him with a confused look on her face. He just nodded, so she briskly walked over towards him. When she reached his table, he looked up at her.

"Excuse me, is Jennifer here? The blonde waitress."

"Yes she is. She's in the back though. Would you like to or—"

"No thanks. I'll just wait for her to finish. If you get the chance, please tell her Zdenek is here. Thanks."

"Um, sure thing." She replied, and ran off towards the back to tell Jen that her exclusive customer was here.

Zdenek sat there, waiting for Jennifer to appear. After about 5 minutes, she walked out from the back, and walked straight towards him, with her usual bubbly smile.

"Hey Zdenek! How you doing?"

"I'm fine thanks, how about you?"

"Yeah, I'm good, just really tired. Been working every day, and my day off just can't come soon enough. Anyway, you didn't come here to listen to me whine. The usual?"

"Yes indeed, the usual" He said with a slight smile."And make the portion as big as possible, as I skipped breakfast, and came straight here."

"I'll see what I can do." She said, and left.

In the Aegis booth, everyone was sitting with their heads close together, as they were talking strategy, and trying to figure out how they could find the Buffalo Alpha who drugged Erykah. As usual, Amy just feigned interest. These kinds of meetings usually bored the shit out of her, so she never really listened. She looked up for a second, and almost fell out of the booth. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but they weren't. There he was, sitting at a table in front of them. She recognised that custom made coat with a built in hood. She couldn't believe it, Zdenek was in there regular lunch spot. She sat there, and wondered what she should do. Should she tell Erykah? Should she just ignore him? Should she pay attention to the strategy meeting? The 3rd option was deleted from her thought process almost as quickly as it got there, so she was left with 2 options. What to do? What to do?!

"Guys, I need the loo. Be right back."

Everyone knew how she hated these meetings, so they just let her go without any fuss. She then started walking towards Zdenek.

'Guess I'm going with option 2' She thought to herself

Zdenek sat there in anticipation, waiting for his giant burger to arrive. All of a sudden, he felt a hand hit his left shoulder.

"Hu—"

"Yo Zdenek! What's happening man?" Amy said, as she walked and sat down in the chair in front of him. "I didn't know you ate here!"

"Please, have a seat. Join me." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. She laughed at that, and he joined in. After a minute or so, the laughter died down, and he flashed her a tiny smile.

"It's nice to see you again Amy. What you need?"

"Oh nothing, I just saw you from our booth, and decided to come say hello. So you made it home safe?"

"Nah, I got attacked by a pack of rabid bull toads, and they croaked me to death." Amy laughed again, and smiled.

"You're alright you know that? I never had you down as the type to tell jokes."

"Yeah well, I'm usually not. I'm just in a good mood, as I'll be eating soon. I'm fucking starving, and I just woke up. So I wasn't really in the mood to make breakfast. Anyway, what you doing here? Are you here with everyone else?"

"Yeah, I am. We're sitting at the booth, having some sort of 'Strategy' meeting. Those things bore me to death, so when I saw you, I said I was going to the toilet and escaped."

"What? You're part of the hierarchy of Aegis. You should pay attention at these kinds of meetings Amy."

"Shut up! They're so boring; it's hard enough acting like I care!" Zdenek chuckled slightly.

"You're an awful example of people in positions of power, you know that?" This time Amy laughed pretty loudly, and wiped a tear from her eye.

"I hear that!" and Zdenek joined in, laughing softly. As the laugher calmed down again, Amy suddenly had a serious look on her face.

"But on a more serious note, I gotta apologise on behalf of Erykah. She was really rude, and in the end, she didn't even offer you a lift home. She...she's just closed her heart off to everyone who's not in our little group. Heck, even with us, only a small portion of her heart is open to us. We haven't seen her smile properly in years. She didn't always used to be like this you know. She changed when—"

"Whoa." Zdenek said, lifting both hands up, palms out. "That is really none of my business. My food is coming, and unless you want Jennifer to hear your Alphas secrets, I suggest you stop right there. Besides, if I'm supposed to know about her past, she'll tell me herself. We all have our own baggage." Amy looked at Zdenek, and smiled.

"You really are alright, you know that?"

Before Zdenek could answer, Jennifer appeared at the table.

"Here you go Zdenek! I also bargained with the Chef to give you a larger portion, and here it is!"

Zdenek marvelled at the sight before him. This burger was massive. It was twice the size of the normal one, and he was sure it was larger than his head. There was a mountain of fries as well, and the milkshake was in a small vase, rather than a glass. His stomach growled, and drool escaped out the side of his mouth.

"Thanks Jennifer. I owe you one!"

"It's my pleasure Zdenek." Jennifer said with a bright smile, before looking over at Amy.

Amy was busy looking back at her booth with a slight grimace, as she saw everyone looking directly her, with Erykah glaring at her, with murderous eyes.

'Shit!' she thought, and then she looked up at Amy, who also seemed to be glaring at her. 'Damn! Erykah is glaring at me because I ditched the meeting, and lied about needing the bathroom. This Jennifer girl is glaring at me, because I'm sitting with Zdenek. This guy just gets me into trouble with people.'

"Well Zdenek, I'm going to head back to the meeting now. If you leave before us, come say hello."

"I don't want to interrupt your meeting, but we'll see."

"Ok cool." With that, Amy got up, and went back to her booth, ready for the tongue lashing she was sure to get.

Erykah watched as Amy made her way back to the booth, with a guilty look on her face. She also avoided making eye contact. She heard Steph asking the brothers.

"Who is that guy Amy was sitting with?"

"That's the guy who saved Erykah. He's the same guy who completely overwhelmed us and the guards, without so much as lifting a finger." Steve said.

"Oooooh, so that's Zdenek is it?" Steph asked, adjusting her glasses.

"Zdenek? His name is Zdenek? That's...that's quite a badass name, aint it Don?"

"Sure is! No wonder he's so strong!"

"How on earth did you get that from his name?! What does his name have to do with his being strong?!" Steph asked.

"Well, because his name is badass, it makes sense that, that's the reason why he's strong doesn't it?"

"It sure does!" replied Don.

"NO IT DOESN'T!!!" yelled Steph, clearly annoyed at the two. Just then, Amy sat down, and looked at Erykah. Erykah was ready to scold her for ditching the meeting.

"He's not angry." That completely melted away any and all anger that Erykah felt with regards to Amy escaping.

"What?"

"He's not angry at you. Go talk to him."

"What? Fuck that, we're still in the middle of the meeting."

"Go talk to him Erykah. Fuck this meeting, it can be resumed or continued at any time. Right now Zdenek is sitting at that table, eating. He won't be eating forever. Go talk to him."

"Yeah, go talk to him already Erykah. This meeting hasn't been productive in the slightest. Go talk to him." Said Steph

"Yeah, yeah, go talk to him Erykah. We're not so sure why you should, but go anyway." replied Steve and Don.

"But the mee—"

"GO!!" they all said in unison.

"FINE!!" she said back, getting up, and stomping off towards Zdeneks' table. "I thought I was supposed to be Ms Composure. They pressured me into doing this." she mumbled to herself.

As she stood up, all the people in cafe suddenly started speaking softer, with their heads bowed down, as they saw her scowling. They all wondered where she was going, and discreetly followed her with their eyes. When they saw her stop at Zdeneks' table, they all felt a glimmer of happiness, especially the guys, as they thought she was going there to kick his ass.

Bite! Crunch! Sip!

"Mmmmm!" Zdenek said while eating his meal, which he was enjoying more at this point, than anything he could think of. Next thing, he felt a presence stop next to him. Looking up, he saw Erykah standing there, with a scowl on her face.

"Hi. Can I sit down?"

"Sure." He said, nodding slightly. Erykah then sat across from him, and looked down at the table. There was silence at the table. No words were spoken, as Zdenek continued to annihilate his meal. He looked and saw a slightly different scowl on her face. He then turned his plate, so that the fries were facing her, dried his hands using a serviette, gripped the vase, and started sucking on the straw, and the milkshake flowed into his mouth. After having his fill, he tilted the vase over towards Erykah, who looked at him, with the scowl still on her face. It finally clicked; he was offering her some of his milkshake.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"19. Why?"

"You're 19 years old, and you're still drinking strawberry milkshakes?!" her scowl intensified. Zdenek suddenly started to stare into space, his eyes unfocused, and a small, yet bitter smile formed on his lips.

"Well, that's because for 19 years, strawberry milkshakes were the only form of light that could be found in that darkness..."

Erykahs' scowl then slowly disappeared, and turned into a look of guilt. She had come over, although forced to, to actually apologise, and instead was rude to him again. She even touched on a sensitive area; strawberry milkshakes. 'Fuck!'

"Anyway, what do you need?" he asked, his face suddenly back to normal.

"Well, I just wanted to say thanks; for saving my life and everything. I really would've died if you hadn't come along and stopped that bastard, so really, thank you. I'll find some way to pay you ba—"

"I don't need payment or anything. Besides, I helped you because I wanted to." He then took a bite out of his burger. Unconsciously, Erykah took one fry, and started eating it. Then she took another, and another, until she was happily eating them.

"Yeah, well thanks. Also, I was really rude to you right after you saved me, as well as when you came to my house. Sorry for that as well. I'm just not used to socialising with people. I usually only stick to talking to my small group of friends, the ones who form The Hand."

She was looking Zdenek in the eyes while talking, and didn't even notice when she took the remainder of his burger, and started eating it. Zdenek just carried on eating his fries, wondering if she knew that she had started eating his meal. She then reached for the vase with her free hand, and stuck the straw in her mouth, sucking on it and drinking the milkshake.

'She just scolded me for drinking for still drinking strawberry milkshakes at my age.' He thought to himself.

"Yeah, well its ok. I'm not mad. Don't worry about it. Anyway, I heard from Amy that you guys were having a strategy meeting. How was it going?"

"Well, we were trying to decide what our next step is. We want to find out who that guy who attacked me was, but we also have to move forward. We just recently broke into the Top 3, but I want to be at the summit. If you climb Everest, you shouldn't be satisfied almost reaching its peak. You should keep pushing until you reach top that way, when you look down to see where you came from, the satisfaction will be that much more fulfilling."