[ Chapter 9 ]
"Jeez calm down it's not like I want to kiss you either." He scoffed as he slowly spots the casino they were going to go to, driving over to the parking lot he yawned softly before parking. It was not like he had a thing for the man he met two days ago but he saw there was no other choice, so as he got out he made sure he had his phone keys and wallet before opening the car door. "Alright, you have a weapon, or? There's one in the glove box if you don't." And with that he closed the car door and waited until Ray got out to lock it, turning to the building he yawned before getting ready to enter. "Welp, I guess this is it." He glanced over to Ray before he started to walk towards the building. For Lucian this was like a normal night he had done this many times before but with Ray it felt different in a way, he hadn't done it with a detective let alone someone like Ray so he would have been lying if he said he wasn't worried even the slightest bit.
the black haired man felt if the gun is still there. he accepted the plan to be together with luci, so he gets out and closes the door. "i have everything, we can start" raymond walks to the casino, his heart beats faster, inside he is aware that in this job he has a possible enemy right next to him. He has often had missions like this only in the role of a detective. when he arrives at the casino he opens the door to let luci in, he seems to have taken on the role of a lover directly and looks at the slightly taller one. his usual grin is now a gentle smile. he is aware that really every move is important, while he holds the door open the detective takes a quick look around. he quickly takes a picture in his head of everything to assess the situations and to recognize possible dangers. he is damn glad to put on rather classy clothes to more look like someone who can afford them. the fake glasses give him extra security as they make it easier for him to assume his fake identities. he would stay pretty close to lucian but still look confident.
Lucian adjusted his collar as he walked in, the place was definitely nothing short of fancy, taking a moment to take a look around he looks at Ray and then spots their prey, there was a bar accompanying the casino and as much as Lucian tried to stay professional he couldn't resist the urge but to order some alcohol, taking a breath he told himself later instead he looked at his now lover. "That's the guy in the red, the one with brown hair, curly." He almost whispered as he started to walk in a random direction since other people were coming in. "It looks like he's playing someone right now, we'll slide into the conversation but for now we need to blend in." He says as he looks over at the bar. "And I know a perfect way to do that." He shouted over the other people talking, there were many people here all talking so it was quite loud. Basically dragging Ray over he ordered two drinks, even though this was considered work he couldn't help but order drinks, sitting down at the stool he stared at Ray who looked to be deep in thought. "What are you thinking about, 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦?"
ray stays close to luci, he looks briefly at the man who is their prey but then looks back to the mafia boss, after all, really everything can betray them. he was standing rather sideways but still it was uncomfortable for him how many people were around her. his gaze follows lucians gaze to see what he is looking at and remains briefly at the bar, 'was clear' he thought to himself for a moment before he comes to the bar thanks to the mafia boss, his look already says downright 'be glad that we are a team'. raymond sits down next to his fake lover and thinks about what the white-haired probably has planned. he is pulled out of his thoughts by the familiar deep voice, the word love gave him a strange feeling but he looks at lucian and smiles "ah, sorry, but i was just thinking if it was really a good idea to drink? you're bound to overdo it again..." he disguises his voice so well that he seems softer towards lucian and even concerned. he looks briefly at the bartender and then back at lucian "i'll make sure you don't get drunk again, sweetheart".
The words played through his brain again and again, his heart changed pace, 'sweetheart' furrowing his eyebrows at the effect of his softer voice and the name he cursed himself before taking a breath grabbing the glass a little too harshly as the bartender placed it down he made eye contact with his assumed lover. "I'll be fine 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, I'm not a light-weight, like you that is." Chugging his drink he looked away and broke eye contact as he payed attention to the guy out of the corner of his eye. "If anything you should be worrying about yourself." With nothing else to do he ordered another drink out of impulse, looking back at Ray he almost laughed at how good at acting he was, he would have been lying if he said he wasn't impressed. The man they had eyes on had stood up and started to walk over to the bar, calling over the waiter that was making Lucians drink he ordered some whiskey, while Lucian didn't directly notice being behind him.
the hand which as always was to be seen with a glove takes the glass of alcohol in his hand and drinks a sip, he got used to the petnames quite quickly even if it confuses him a bit inside. however, that he was called lightweight makes him look down at his body for a moment, clearly it was a fact as well that he tolerates less alcohol than lucian or people that weight more than him. "that's mean, i've got a better handle on my consumption than you...and you have to drive us home, don't forget that" the detective notices that their prey is nearby, he looks to the mafia boss who orders another drink and touches lucian's hair, he touches it at the point closest to the man who is about to be killed hoping that luci will look there "babe, your braid looks messy, do you want to redo it?" raymond hopes so much that his sign will be understood. as detective it is actually normal that he is such a good actor, it is one of the first things that detectives learn, and they work on it as much as possible
"I- .." Unlike Ray he did not get used to the pet names quickly, he gets lost in thought as the other touchs his hair, cursing himself he finally sees that Ray was trying to get his attention, turning his head around slowly like he's looking around he spots the man and looks back at Ray with a grin as the man yells his order at his waiter. Lucian gathers his composure and gently takes Rays hand off his hair. "Great choice." He remarks nonchalantly as he was about to turn his attention away from him the man responds. "Oh yeah? Heard it was good never actually tried it." Lucian agreed and gave him a grin. "You won't regret trying it trust me." He grabs his own drink and makes eyecontact with Ray as like to say something. "You play poker?" The man asked as he waited for his order, he was a tall dude with great physique, he had short curly brown hair and green eyes and from what there interaction was you could guess he was a nice guy but behind his charm he definitely wasn't.
ray's eyes looks on the man's green eyes, he holds a short eye contact and smiles friendliy at him, he listened to the conversation and would slowly take his hand back to take another sip of alcohol. as they are both talking the black haired man says "i recommend a ball of clear ice in the whiskey, it will improve the taste a lot" he finishes his glass and puts it down on the counter, his gaze falls back to lucian and he smiles slightly at him to seem happy in the relationship, his smile is so well posed that you can think that it is a real smile. the brown-haired man's aura makes raymond's detective experience go out of the window, the man seems really strange to him but he doesn't let it show. raymond leans back a bit to observe the two men better, he let lucian have the upper hand in this conversation to not rush things. he has to admit, he's glad that there's alcohol here, at least it helps him to be more relaxed and to play his role better.
The man turns his attention slightly to the other in the pair and nods before receiving his drink and taking a good drink of it, Lucian taking this chance speaks. "I do, yes. Down for a game?" He asks as he almost sinks into the alcohol wanting nothing else to do but to drink, regathering himself the man answers returning him a grin. "How could I say no to that. How about the other one, he gonna play?" The talk man asks as he chugs the rest of his drink and orders another one for the game, Lucians gaze turns to Ray, not trying to tell him anything but he waited for the appropriate answer. Everything was going to plan which was as expected, he'd hoped it go that way for the rest of the night since the slightest amount of a slip up can ruin the whole plan. "You wanna play, 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦?" He asked as he put down his now almost finished drink, resisting to order another. The man inspects them both but doesn't expect them to be in any sort of relationship not yet any way, pet names was a part of some peoples second natural so it didn't seem off.
a small grin can be seen on ray's lips "i'd love to play a round, looks like an exciting game to me" the voice of the somewhat smaller man sounds satisfied and he looks at the two men. with a rather quick movement, the undercover detective would steal the glass from luci and drink it up in one gulp. he doesn't really care how luci will react to it, so he stands up after he put the empty glass down and slightly sticks his tongue out at luci. "are we playing as a threesome or is someone else going to join the party?" the black haired man looks at the man who is their prey. he is aware that luci and he are faking a relationship right now so he wants to try to interact more as if they have known each other for quite a long time. he is quite sure that everything is going according to plan so far
a small grin can be seen on ray's lips "i'd love to play a round, looks like an exciting game to me" the voice of the somewhat smaller man sounds satisfied and he looks at the two men. with a rather quick movement, the undercover detective would steal the glass from luci and drink it up in one gulp. he doesn't really care how luci will react to it, so he stands up after he put the empty glass down and slightly sticks his tongue out at luci. "are we playing as a threesome or is someone else going to join the party?" the black haired man looks at the man who is their prey. he is aware that luci and he are faking a relationship right now so he wants to try to interact more as if they have known each other for quite a long time. he is quite sure that everything is going according to plan so far
Lucian couldn't believe the audacity of the other as he chugged the rest of his drink, flicking him on the head, he rolled his eyes before getting ready to speak to the man, before he could though the man spoke instead. "Great and were playing alone this time around, if that's ok with you." Grabbing his drink he started to walk away expecting the two to follow them, Lucian gave Ray a look before following him. The man saw the relationship they both had figuring they were pretty close, taking a sip of his drink he sat down on the table that had a deck of cards on it and a bunch of chips they would gamble with, Lucian happily grinned knowing he hadnt forgot his wallet at home. "May I get your name?" He asked both of them while Lucian took a seat and cracked his fingers. His gaze lingers to Ray with a grin, about to answer but Ray beating him to it as he was about to say his real name he cursed himself and shook his head at his carelessness, biting his tongue he watched the man pick the cards up and start shuffling them around.
ray can't hold back a silent laugh when he sees lucian's face and expression he nods at the brown haired man with a smile and walks with the mafia boss to the poker table and takes a seat. "let me introduce myself first, my name is Ethan, could i know your name as well, mr?" he guessed that lucian would rather mess this up, so ray takes the lead. the answer came very naturally and without much thought. the black-haired man is quite glad that he doesn't have any of his documents with him, after all, it would be dangerous if his real name would be written somewhere. in addition, he is glad not to be a famous detective, otherwise he wouldn't be able to sit here safely anymore. ray's gaze falls on luci and hopes that he won't make a mistake now. "sorry bae, did you wanted to introduce yourself first?" he smiles, but his eyes seem to be warning lucian. he doesn't doubt the other's ability, but he can't take a joke in missions, no matter how important the mission is. thanks to his experience of working often with others, he can judge well when mistakes are made.
He listens to Ray and watches him answer as two pairs of eyes set on him to answer next, he blinks a couple of times at Ray at the name before attempting to answer. "I- yeah, uh my names Oliver." He said the first name that had came to mind he hadn't prepared enough for this, the man squinted his eyes trying to figure something out but shrugging it off he nodded and gave them a smile. "The names Gabriel." He answered before he set the shuffled cards down. Lucian bit his tongue and gave Ray a look, that was not his name he knew that because he had many documents on him, Lucian returning the smile. "Lovely, would you like to deal out the cards 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨?" He asked his gaze on Ray, looking down to his lap then at Gabriel he took a good look at the man and a mental picture of him, deep in thought he figured out a way to get the man somewhere isolated, tapping his finger on the table repeatedly he looked to be deep in thought, out of it almost.
ray looks at lucian for a moment before taking the cards. "sure, no problem" his eyes then stick for a moment on the man who introduced himself as gabriel. the black-haired man takes the cards and takes over the role of the dealer. he himself also has a plan which he wants to do, so poker comes pertect for him since everyone will pay close attention to the respective other to read something out of the behavior. when he notices that lucian is distracted, ray tries to make eye contact with the stranger to make clear that something is bothering him, his look to lucian shows that the white-haired man is probably not allowed to know this an that he is probably the problem. of course this is still not saying anything but it would be strange to give such signs out of nowhere so the detective builds them in directly. he shuffles the cards again briefly and deals each two cards face down and takes care that everything goes according to the right and everyone gives down the chip to start the round, when the preparations are all done ray lays out the first three cards face up and looks to lucian, it seems after the first signal as if ray is checking that he hasn't done anything wrong either. "then everything is ready" his eyes fall on the revealed cards.
Lucian snaps out of his thoughts as he notices Ray has dealt the card, looking down at the three revealed ones he picks his own up and takes a good look at them it isn't a great start but it's too bad either, two eights, looking up from his cards he checks to look at the others facial expression even if he was on a mission he was quite a competitive man. Gabriel noticed Ray looking at him and gave him a grin before picking up his own cards and staring down at this with an unpleasant look, suddenly Lucian spoke. "I guess I'll raise first." Sliding in a 50 chip token from his pile he turned to look at Ray. "So what brings you guys here today?" He asks as be also raises a 50 and 25, Lucian watched him as he looked back to his cards as rethought his decision, presuming he was only rethinking he thinks how to answer the question, keeping quiet a little too long he prayed Ray would answer instead, he wasn't the best at coming up at excuses at the spot which was surprising. Sliding his hair back so it wasn't exactly in his face he observed Ray when he really should have been paying attention to his prey.
((thank you :') ))
the face up cards are spades 8 hearts 6 and Clubs king. ray looks at his own cards which he holds are a king heart and diamonds 3. without changing his expression ray raises with 50. he silently runs the game and looks to gabriel when the question was asked. for a moment he looks at lucian and then back at his prey "back then oli and i met in this casino for the first time and since today is our half year jubeleum we wanted to celebrate it here more or less" his gaze slowly goes down to keep in the role from a man that doesn't feel safe here. inwardly it frustrates ray that lucian is so quiet, but on the other hand it gives him the opportunity to play his role without having to watch out for the others. he's a damn good liar, if you think about it, he's playing three different roles right now, one of a detective, one of a prospective mafia member, and one of ethan, of course, he plays also the role of a dealer sitting at the poker table. "and what brings you here? you seem like an experienced man in this field" a soft smile is visible on his lips. to keep the round going he keeps playing and when the time comes he reveals the fourth card. 7 spades inside ray knows he is not lucky in this game right now
"It's been a while since we've been here, brings back memories." Lucian added as he raised by another 50, waiting for his turn to come around again he presumed the best bet was to check while he was thinking he looked up at Gabriel. "Oh? You guys are together? I feel so stupid, I presumed you were friends." He chuckled as his turn was played and he grinned, Gabriel here wasn't all clueless, being a part of the mafia and a long time for that he had his own suspicions. "How about a kiss?" He looked at the two testing them with a smile as he realised it was now Rays turn, Lucian blinked as he heard the man, this would have been so much easier if he had more then one drink to start off with. "To answer your question I do this in my spare time, works got me exhausted this helps me relax, not the best choice financially though." He answers with a chuckle as he stares at them. Lucian turns to Ray giving him a glare full of words.
"well unfortunately there are still enough people who have something against our love, i don't like homophobic attacks on such a special day" ray doesn't extend his cue and now looks slightly uncomfortable, his hand taps gently on the table to make it look like he's thinking about his next move but on closer inspection he types 'sos' on the side where gabriel is sitting. as lucian looks to ray he stops directly and hopes gabriel has noticed. as he finishes his turn he looks to the brown haired man and smiles softly "i see, but i guess everyone needs to relax a bit, hope you won't have any financial problems" ray continues to check on the progress of the game and make sure everything is through. when ray notices that lucian is looking at him he also looks at him "but gabriel seems very nice, doesn't he oli?" ray is annoying himself, especially with the fake obsequiousness. he keeps up the role without any problems but he will need some drinks later when everything is through so he can approve of it. so makes the next move as dealer and plays the last card out. a diamond queen.
Lucian didn't like that Ray was leading the conversation, it annoyed him because normally he was the one to lead but he guessed he could play this off as seeing what Ray could do. "Ah that is true what a bummer." He brown haired man gritted his teeth at out of the corner of his eye he spots Ray write out something on the table, he looked down at his card and grinned, giving him a look as to show he saw it. Lucian though didn't he realised it was his turn and decided to check as he waited for the others now, as Ray asked a question he turned his head giving him
"Huh? Yeah, lovely." He gave him a sort of smile. Gabriel assessed the situation, there was nothing saying they weren't a couple, he got the impression that Ray was the one who talked more while Lucian preferred to stay quiet which if Lucian heard he thought he would have exploded, he definitely wasn't quiet. Lucian watches as Ray played his last card and he realised Ray had had a stronger hand then him, realising he should have folded he swore under his breath, putting down his own cards.
ray looks at the whole situation briefly and smiles slightly when he gets an answer to his sos from gabriel. he guesses that this is enough for now, now he just has to keep up his role. he's not a little bit sorry that he could put lucian in a more or less bad light with his plan, for him the only thing that counts now is to carry out the mission. in that case, he has to try not to get distracted so that he doesn't get any details wrong. but this is quite easy for him. at the end of the round ray also reveals his cards as the other two did and would look to see who won. normally he loves everything that has to do with cards but right now to stay in the role he has to set his priority on something else. his gaze now remains neutral again and is slowly sure that the brown haired trust's in the two roles. inside he still wonders what the mafia boss with the longer hair is thinking all the time
There was no real reason why Lucian was so out of it, he had an idea but he refused to believe it no matter what, blinking his attention got snapped back as they all put there cards down. The brown haired man put down two kings, staring at the cards Lucian gets ready for another round, planning to act after round two has ended he looked to Ray waiting for him to hand out the next set of cards. Waiting, Lucian picked up his brand new set of cards and tried to show little expression getting an eighth and a nine, it wasn't a bad hand so confident he raised two 50 chips and waited for the others turn. Gabriel looked down at his own with a grin and raised 50 before two pairs of eyes landed on Ray, this time cautiously Gabriel spelt out something for Ray. Unlike last time though Lucian noticed it this time, sighing at their immature behavior he ignored it and grabbed his cards firmly. Gabriel spoke. "So, you don't seem like average guys, what do you do for work?"
ray casually hands out the cards and looks at gabriel, he takes a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket and answers the question "i'm an IT manager, you seem like a average guy as well, what do you do?" ray looks briefly at lucian and then back at gabriel, he waits until the white haired man has finished speaking before standing up "i need to smoke first, is anyone coming with me? " the look falls to gabriel looking for some help, ray guesses that this could be a perfect moment now, he really hopes gabriel will take up on it, it's simple but sometimes the simplest things are the ones that work. ray had looked before where the smoking area is, luckily it's outside the casino. "i'm spending too" the black haired man adds. he realizes that it's also possible that gabriel doesn't smoke but even if he does, he really feels like smoking right now so he doesn't mind going alone at that moment.