"Oi!" Trix threw a balled up tea towel at my face from behind the bar.

His earlier foul mood seemed to have abated, and att.i.tude towards us was back to his tacky casualness.

"Hey! Git!" I threw it back at him. "What's your problem with us anyway?"

"Problem with you? I don't have one." Trix innocently answered.

"Bull! You basically threatened me back at the Stasis Theatre with the whole, 'I'm gonna watch you like a hawk' bull c.r.a.p!" I snapped at him. "The whole time you've been cranky as h.e.l.l."

"Oh. Is that how you saw it?" Trix scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I guess I was testing for your reaction."

"Say what?" I blinked, nonplus.

"You're an easy squeeze when it comes to getting a heated reaction. So, emotionally charged." Trix flashed me a tacky smile and his bad excuse. "If you were mine, I'll make sure to see all reactions from you."

"Since he isn't. Don't tease him any more." Leinard stepped into the bar area with a glare directed to his brother. "You don't have the privilege to push Famine's b.u.t.tons."

"Privilege? What?" I was looking confused by the minute. "What the heck is wrong with you brothers? Do you have something of screw loose?"

Trix chuckled, turned and found his eyes locked in with Death's intense glare.

"How's it going Big Brother?" Trix tried to change the subject and found himself gulping at Death's continued silent stare.

Death opened his mouth, leaned suggestively forward towards the man and let out a ripper of his second voice that made the tacky captain recall backwards with an instant hit of pain to his temples.

"Okay! I won't tease him any more!" Trix bellowed with pain.

Death stopped his voice. I felt smug and proud of my big brother's intervention.

War groaned and helped himself to a mug of ale. He caught sight of Saku and the others of the squad ambling down the leaf stairs towards the bar area; took his mug of ale to greet them.

Death and Trix began a heated conversation about what it meant to being model citizens and dutiful big brothers.

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I was left with Leinard who sat next to me with a pouting expression, obviously still p.i.s.sed about the note Colin gave me.

"So, those kisses." His voice was deep and seething.

"Oh come on! Colin was damaged, we were fighting banshees, in the past mind you, and I just realised I could heal by kissing. I needed him to get me out of there. So, I did what I could." I defended my honour. "Besides, we weren't even something back then."

Leinard sighed. "I guess you need to learn how to heal without kissing. Trix can teach you that."

He flashed me a coy look. "You think we're something?"

My heart raced with yearning for him. I nodded and downed my ginger beer. Leinard leaned over the counter to pour a gla.s.s of ale from the tap. He placed it before me.

"I'm not drinking that. I'll pa.s.s out."

"Fine." Leinard grabbed the gla.s.s and downed it in one go.

I gawked with my jaw dropping at how perfectly fine he looked. The rest of Trix's squad entered the bar area, making the place a smaller fit.

"Hey Famine." Lita patted my back as she took the other free stool next to me. "Want me to make you a drink?"

"h.e.l.l no!" I instantly blurted that sent the entire squad laughing.

"Spoil sport." She pouted and turned her drink offer to Ryoko who was unable to say no.

All the knights became loose and chatty as the drinks were going down their bellies. A short while later, more rowdy noise of chatter and people entering the area made me turn my head.

I saw the seating areas beyond the gla.s.s part.i.tion filling up with other knights. Amongst the approaching party was Captain Sewell Hunter and his merry squad. He entered the bar to take a seat next to Leinard and accepted a drink from Trix.

"Hey, Famine. If you ain't drinking, you're serving." Trix called out to me.

I sighed and shuffled off the stool to take over his bartending work. He a.s.sumed my seat next to Leinard.

I found myself preoccupied with mixing and serving drinks to what seem the entire order of knights who weren't on duty at h.e.l.l's Labyrinth.

"If you're all here getting merry, who's looking after h.e.l.l's Labyrinth?" I blurted out my curiosity.

"Teagan and Gavin's squads are on duty tonight." Leinard answered.

"The Map is?" I looked at Trix's eyes free from a mapgla.s.s. I hadn't seen him wear it for a while since his recovery from the Primary Core.

"Andy's playing my second fiddle." Trix burped, getting merry with drink.

He restarted a pa.s.sionate conversation with Death, no doubt trying to annoy my brother to the maximum as his retaliation to the earlier incident.

The entire night I was stuck behind the bar with many knights calling out for seconds. It made me question on how much content we had left on the shelves. I gawked with amazement at the shelves of bottles refilling themselves to the brim.

"Magikali refilling." Trix hiccuped to my questioning stares at the bottles. "Stolen family heirlooms."

A sober mood fell on Trix and Leinard.

"Ha! Well, have some peanuts to cheer up." I shoved a couple of bowls before the downcast brothers.

"Maybe now's a good time to talk about the Exemplar plans." Sewell broke through the tension with matters of business.

This ironically seemed to lift the brothers' mood. Leinard and Trix started downing ginger beer to sober themselves up as they listened to Sewell's clever hypothesis. The show off smarty pants.

"What do you think Famine?" Sewell asked me out of the blue as I was shaking a Martini.

"About what?"

Sewell gave a sinister chuckle. "Yeah, I figure that would be your answer. You don't think do you?"

"Excuse me?!" I slid a triangular gla.s.s filled with Martini down the counter. Luckily it was caught by Jensen who was finding interest in our conversation.

"Psst, Lita. Five daro Sewell makes Famine go for a punch." I heard him whisper to Lita.

"Oi! You! No creepy bets at this bar!" I yelled at him.

This set a roar of laughter from the knights.

"Seriously, Famine, what are you even doing here? Your brothers are impeccable academics. You, I don't get anything special from." Sewell continued to push his opinion about me.

"Like I wanted to be here. Do you even know anything about me?" I came at him.

"Yeah, you were smuggled in. Since you're behind this bar serving drinks makes me think your specialness stops there."

I scratched my head, confused by his insult or maybe that was his twisted form of a compliment.

"Um, thanks for the compliment, I guess." I innocently answered and flinched at Leinard and Trix's hearty laughter, surprising Sewell and shutting him down.

"Anyway. Colonel, Captain, we need to address the matter sooner rather than later." Sewell cleared his throat and resumed on his earlier conversation.