All of Them People

Tawny wandered the halls, her head was still pounding, and the house was mostly empty besides the housekeepers who rushed around dusting and wiping everything down, along with all the other cleaning that the party left for them to do. She saw the looks they gave her as she passed. She didn't really care, either. They were paid to clean. Angry muttering caught her attention and she stopped in a doorway and stood with her hands on her hips, ready to defend herself to the works, but all she could do was stare at the disaster before her. The house keepers paused and looked up at her. The window was completely smashed, and the bed was drenched in blood. The floor was covered in shatters and the yellow carpet was covered in red.

She exhaled angrily, down the hallway, and was yelling before she even opened the door. "Adrien! For God's sake! Again?" She ripped the sheets off her passed out boyfriend, then bundled them up and threw them back in his face. "That bedroom is fucking terrifying to even look at!"

Adrien jolted awake as the warmth of his blankets disappeared. Looking up with squinting eyes he found the culprit; his girlfriend. "Babe, I was sleeping!" he whined at her as he tried to curl back up to sleep. "Besides its not as bad as last time. I finished her off in the woods this time." He then proceeded to mutter under his breath "It's the housekeepers who clean it up anyway so why does it matter?"

"Why does it matter? Because they look at me like I'm a freak! Imagine all the sick things they think I do in there, I can't have the whole city thinking I'm some sort of sick, sadistic, cultist! And the last thing I need is the cops knocking on my door." She changed her voice to a lower tone. "If your going to kill something, take it outside. Beginning to end! There was so much blood... " She trailed off for a moment, "I just don't want to see that, okay?" She sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her temples, the headache was worsening.

Sensing her distress he sat up and soothingly rubbed her back. "Hey those housekeepers don't know nothing about you. And if anyone says you're a freak or whatever then send them over to me." He leant his head over her shoulder and gently kissed her cheek. "I'll deal with them."

Tawny smiled and kissed him back on the lips and pushed him back onto the bed. "My big heroic killer," she mused, laying down against him. "What did you do with her? I didn't see anyone new come by for the body."

He grinned into the kiss, and put his hands on her waist. Laughingly he said "I pushed her into the river. No biggie." He nuzzled his face against hers, "And for your information heroes don't need sidekicks to clean up their messes." Then without warning he flipped her over, so that she was underneath him. "But now that I'm up, this hero is ready for breakfast."

There was a gentle knocking at the door, and one of the housemaids was standing in the doorway. "There are umm... some people from your school here, Miss."

Tawny groaned and lifted herself off the bed. She turned back to smile at Adrien before she left and went downstairs to find Steve, Ryan, and Chase waiting just inside the door. She stopped across the room and crossed her arms.

"Morning," Steve grinned at her.

Tawny's mouth tightened into barely-a-smile in response.

"Oh, what? That's it? That's not very lady-like of you." He walked over to her and picked her hands up in his, "just yesterday you greeted us with hugs," he muttered into them.

Tawny scowled and pulled away her hands. "Steve, I'm hung over as shit right now. What do you want?"

Just then, Adrien came down the stairs and stopped beside Tawny, putting his arm around her waist. "I haven't even had breakfast yet and you're making moves on my girlfriend? For shame." He tutted playfully.

Steve took on an expression of exaggerated shock. "We've been found out!" He cupped his hand to his mouth and whispered, "we should have been more carfulll."

Tawny wrapped her arms around Adrien and reached up to whisper in his ear, "Maybe you should punish me," she giggled.

"Once these guys go, I'll punish you all you want." He whispered back, a wide grin formed on his charming face. His eyes then darted to Steve and his crew, and although their banter had been in good fun, Ryan's fidgeting made him think there was something else to their little visit. "So, what can we do for you this fine morning?"

"Okay, all formalities aside," Steve began, "Tawny, you owe us... one, two, three," he counted looking down at his fingers, "three hundred for the reefer, well three hundred and fourteen, but I'll give you a discount."

"Hmm three hundred..." Tawny mused thoughtfully.

"Come on, Tawny, you carry that kind of money around in your bra!" And after a warning look from Adrien, "Umm, probably, anyways."

"Yeah, but maybe the product wasn't satisfactory." She purposely made an attempt to instigate a struggle for them.

"Are you kidding?" Chase spoke up, "That shit was dope," he smiled to himself in the use of the pun.

Steve glanced back to glare at Chase. "Com'on, Tawny, you have to pay up."

"Really? Or what?"

Steve inhaled heavily. They had to be cautious with Adrien here. "You don't have to worry about us. But our employers can be unpredictable at times. And very short tempered..."

Tawny looked him over, then looked up at Adrien, the decision would be his, she decided, and was curious in what he'd say.

Adrien studied the situation quietly, and when Tawny turned her head to him with curiosity in her eyes, he let out a small sigh. "As much as I'd hate to refuse an offer so grand as that, right now is not a good time for this." He stepped forward slightly and locked eyes with Steve. If he knew what was good for him (and the other two) he would let it go and come back later. If he didn't, well, it might get ugly.

Steve met Adrien's stare with a cool calmness that masked anger and the slightest bit of anxiousness. "It would be wise to deal with this now," his voice was cold, but he quickly reminded himself of who he was dealing with and the family that backed this guy up. "But," he cheered up his tone, "You're right, there's still time," he said as he backed up slowly with palms facing up on either side. "This was only admonitory, there's still time." With one wave of his hand he turned and head out the door. The other two looked at each other quizzically and wondered what 'admonitory' meant, then followed straight behind with awkward goodbyes.

Steve ground his teeth irritably. Sometimes he hated Adrien; sometimes more often than sometimes. He could get away with things no one else could and from Steve's point of view, Adrien lived a soft and protected life behind the walls of his family's power (How little did he really know).

"We'll get the money," he said, glancing over from the driver's seat of his car to Ryan, who always seemed to dib passenger. "She has it. Just needs to be persuaded. She's easy to persuade," he spoke to himself more than to anyone else. He started the car and put it into drive.

"Yeah, whatever, it'll come soon enough," Chase said, digging around for a joint he was sure he'd stashed in here some place...

"I don't-" Steve caught the anger in his voice and smoothed it out, "like to be played with."

"We'll figure it out," Chase reached over the driver's seat and behind the sun visor to pull out the joint.

"Your in the way," Steve hissed and pushed Chase back into the back seat. "And don't smoke that shit in here, my Dad would murder me," He grabbed the joint away from Chase and tossed it onto Ryan's lap, who quickly snatched it into his hoodie pocket.

"Hey, where's Cian?" Ryan piped up, ignoring Chase's protests of the joint confiscation.

"I dunno," Steve answered, "probably hung over."