Huh, a woman’s voice? NO. That’s not quite it. 

Elias turned to see another individual—a young man, similar in age, who reeked of alcohol that permeated from him like a premium cologne. His hair looked like he had just woken up. His clothes were disheveled and riddled with holes, dirt, sweat, and…blood. Bruises and cuts plated his face, as well as a nasty slash that rested near his stomach. All that plus the squeal. 

Ewwww, were Elias’s initial thoughts.

The platinum blonde-haired oddball stumbled up, trying to get his footing. He looked like a baby deer on ice as he grabbed onto his hero to steady himself.

Ewwwwwww, he’s touching me.

“That was so cool!” Yelled the homeless in an elated tone. “Ow! The way you did that thing and the whoosh. And the wham! Oh my gosh, that was incredible!”

He’s still touching me.

“Hey, could you teach me that? Ahh, wait. Do you train or something? Workout? Capoeira? I must say you’re quite impressive. But truly, thank you. You saved my life back there. Ouch—Heh-heh. I should really get this checked out. I was trying to get home, but one thing led to another, then those guys came out of nowhere, and here we are…”

Oh, so he’s not homeless.

“Anyways, thank you again. You are truly my hero. My knight and saving grace. I have to repay you somehow.”

Yeah, by not touching me.

As Elias tried to pry himself away, the backdoor opened. It was the bartender. “Oh, there you are, Elias.” 

His gaze fell from surprise to confusion as it shifted from Elias to the pal in his arms. “We decided to open up late today… Help me clean up and bring your… friend along.”

“Friend? I don’t even know him.”

***

After cleaning up, the bartender brought the frazzled stranger a simple meal. His mouth was watering as he bit into the delicious breakfast sandwich.

Elias, who was too tired from all the mental fatigue, sat at the bar. A few glasses were left that the bartender took to polishing before adjusting to the next order of business. 

“Didn’t recognize him at first, but… that’s the guy who was going on last night.”

“Really?” replied Elias.

“Seems a bit of an eccentric. I think he is into method acting. You should have seen him. He started to do this thing with his hand. Pointing at the other customers. Yelling SPIRIT GUN! And you can’t beat a D20 roll… I don’t know what that means. I had to cut him off. Mate had to go.”

“He was bothering other customers?” Elias questioned with a skeptical look. “You know, this place doesn’t really get much attention like that—”

“Shhhh… If Connie hears you...”

“And?”

Elias’s comment left the bartender only to roll their eyes.

“Anyway… a good thing you found him when you did. We should probably install some security cameras around here. By the way, he should really go and get that cut checked out.”

“Yeah,” Elias sighed as he turned his barstool to shift his attention. “Yo! Blondie.”

“Yeeshh.”

The blondie in question turned with his cheeks puffed, clearly stuffing his face in the meal that sat before him.

“You going to be alright, getting to the hospital and all?”

“Oh, this? Yeah. Not a problem at all, But I must thank you, my knight.”

““Knight?”” The two at the bar seemed to cringe. Where was this conversation going? It needed to be put to the guillotine before it could continue.

“I know this might be presumptuous, how you saved me an all. But I was wondering if you can continue to do so just a bit—”

Elias raised his hand in retaliation. “I’m going to stop you right there.”

“But—”

“Nope.”

 “You seem talented enough—”

“No means no.”

The platinum-haired individual hung his head. He seemed to be quarreling with some thoughts before finally pouting. “Well, right.” 

He finished up his meal and asked for the check, but the bartender said it was on the house. They simply wanted him to get to the hospital as soon as possible. His mere presence might invite an image to their establishment that they did not wish to. 

Despite their lack of clientele, they didn’t want any prospects for new ones to be turned away by the smell or sight of him.

Insisting that he wanted to pay, he pulled out a credit card, the sight of which made the bartender’s eyes go wide. He couldn’t fight his curiosity. Why did such a young individual have a card? With the change to spare, you could buy an entire flat on the upper foothills with an extravagant view of the sea, and here he was trying to pay for a little homemade meal on it.

The bartender leaned over the countertop as he held the card to cash the meal, “hey, what were you going to ask of him?”

“Oh, I have a job opportunity that I need done. He seems qualified. I wanted to pay him back, and this much is all I can offer. Pays quite well, but it seems your friend is not interested.”

“Curious, how much does it pay?” The bartender asked with a shimmer in his eye.

“Hmm… I only need his assistance for a few hours. You see, my job is recruitment. I suppose it would be…about this much.”

The number of zeros the young man wrote on a scrap of paper nearly caused the bartender to fall backward. 

He held firm to the counter, using his strength to keep his legs steady. “Only for a few hours, you say…? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Wait outside for a minute, please.”

He blinked at the bartender in confusion but followed his words and stepped outside.

“YO! ELIAS!”

“Why are you yelling? Everyone’s been yelling. It’s too early for that. What do you want?”

“Take the job.”

“What?” Elias replied while wearing a blank face of confusion.

“Take the job!”

“What job? What are you talking about?”

“TAKE. THE. JOB.”

“Did that guy say something to you about a job? Hey, are your eyes working? Did you not see how sketchy he looked? What about your nose? Smell ’em?”

“He only needs you for a few hours. He is a recruiter of some sort.”

“Some sort? Huh, a few hours? Recruit? Are you daft? I found him lying up in the alley, cuddling his bloody shoe with three other men. Who knows what he will have me do? Selling myself? No way.” Elias stood firm on his beliefs, and he currently believed the young damsel in distress was nothing more than a weirdo who had just gotten a free meal.

“I don’t care how many alleys he will have you working. Do you know how much he offered?”

“What? Did you sell me off?”

“Everyone has a price,” the bartender said, taking a deep breath. He was bracing himself to impart wise knowledge to a young man who was still inexperienced in the troubles of the world. “You’re an independent individual capable of making your own decisions. The money he is offering can cover our losses from last month. Sometimes, as an individual, you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet.”

“If you didn’t experiment and mess up so many drinks—”

“Hey! That’s here nor there. You haven’t been helping out. It might not look like it to you, but there are stressful nights here.”

“Yeah…?” Elias scoffed as he looked around at the empty venue despite it being brunch hour.

“Look, I didn’t want it to come to this, but…you can replace the money you didn’t pay for last month’s rent as well as this one’s. Also…the loot boxes you have been buying in that bloody game with the money from the register… No one has to know, not Connie, that’s for sure.”

Elias’s face went pale. He had thought he had been sneaky in his late-night activities, but that was far from the truth.

“Here, look. This is how much he is offering.”

With his arms crossed, Elias peered down through the corner of his eye. He even had to admit that there was quite a series of zeros attached that he had to consider.

“I suppose it won’t hurt hearing out the details.”

Not a moment later, the front door chimed as it usually did, and the young man clutched his side, noticing his knight in shining armor exiting.

“So what’s going on, mate? This job of yours?”

The platinum-haired youth couldn’t stop smiling. He truly found his front-running man for his new party. It was best to start things slow; thus, he introduced himself as Sebastian Nox.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Sebastian said. “Only a few hours of your time, that’s all I need. Let me explain while we walk. Obviously, I need to get this checked out, but with your skills, I am sure you will save both our butts.”