First Fight

Today, Saturday 20th.

Roméo opens his eyes and stares at the ceiling for a moment with an indifferent face. He gets out of the couch but his vision is still blurry from yesterday's hungover. He doesn't walk straight and struggle to get dressed. In the meanwhile, Michael was sitting at the kitchen's counter, sipping his coffee while watching Roméo still quite dead drunk in the living room.

- Need a hand?

Roméo gasps and turns his head to the kitchen. When he sees Michael, he startles and trips over his clothes scattered on the floor.

- You sure are clumsy when you're drunk.

- Sorry..

He gets up and sits back on the couch while sighing profoundly. Michael drops off his cup on the counter then walks to Roméo while holding a leaflet in his right hand. Roméo raises his head to him even though he's feeling embarrassed to death that Michael is seeing him in such a pitiful state, and looks at what he's holding.

- I guessed you won't stay over for a few days only, will you?

Michael sighs deeply.

- You told me you were a law student in your country, no? Well, I do have some contacts in the law school of the city. If you're interested in joining it in the meanwhile, tell me and I'll bring you to him.

Roméo seems confused.

- Don't get me wrong. It's not an act of kindness, I don't know what you're up to recently, sneaking out of home early to meet secretly with your girlfriend but when she'll leave you, I don't want to have a depressed youngster wandering in my living room forever. This would keep you occupied.

"More like.. I could get a good use of your law skills." is what he thought. Roméo coughs and stands up.

- That is very kind of you but for now, I'll focus on another task. I'll probably go to that school though..

Roméo takes his clothes and walks to the bathroom but before entering and locking the door, he sticks out his head of hallway.

- ... And just so you know, she's not my girlfriend at all. I don't even have a lover here nor in my country. It's you who mustn't get me wrong!

Then, he gets in and locks the door. Michael rolls his eyes and puts the leaflet on the living room's table. After that, he walks to his room to get dressed.

Some minutes later, Roméo walks out of the bathroom, puts on his shoes and coat and leaves the house without even a goodbye.

Arrived at the warehouse, Stella was waiting for him at the usual spot in training clothes.

- Tonight is THE night! Our first real fight against a true opponent! How do you feel like?

- Urk. I feel like crap right now.

- Is that so? Aww, do you want a hug and a kissie kiss on your forehead? I could bring a little warm chocolate for youuu~

Roméo chuckles.

- Cut the crap!

Stella laughs out loud while walking up to him.

- We're going to war tonight. Whether you feel good or no doesn't matter here! Your opponents won't be acting all sweet and kind just because you feel like hell. You gotta overcome all of your issues and deal with them one way or another! Do you get that?

- Yeah..

Stella gets into a fighting stance.

- If you understood that then come on to me! We'll see if you'll stand a chance tonight!

Roméo throws away his coat, cracks his knuckles and runs to her, ready to fight. He throws a huge punch in her stomach thanks to his run-up and tries to kick her in the ankles but Stella giggles and headbutt him. He almost trips but he managed to stay stood up, then, he tries to arm lock her but it fails. Stella tackles him against a wall and starts to pull his right arm harmfully behind him as if she wanted to break it but with his left arm, he manage to grab her hair and turn them around. Now she's the one against the wall and Roméo kicks her hips while holding very her wrists up.

After that, he pins her down to the floor, still holding her wrists, and smirks with a proud expression.

- So, what do you think of that?

- Huh! Not too bad cowboy but managing to pin down a really skinny weak girl doesn't make you particularly strong, you know that. Our enemies will be a hundred times stronger than me, it's gonna be really hard.

- .. I know.. but we still have cards to play, no? This wasn't even a quarter of our strength, when we'll be on the ring, it's gonna be different.

- That's right!

Roméo releases her and Stella gets up quickly then both walks to their chairs and the table. They sit and Stella hands Roméo a water bottle, he takes it while smiling and then, drinks a lot. Stella watches him and giggles.

- You sure got a lot of strength though. You told me you've been doing some sports back in your country? Damn, I bet you've been working out everyday.

- Yeah well hm.. you can say that. When I was bored, I would whether sleep or work out. Didn't have much to do back then.

- And what about now? Do you like this city? Have you met other people yet?

- Other people you say..

Roméo's cheeks turns a little bit red and turns his look away.

- Not really.. I hardly ever talk to other people than you so..

- Hmph! You are TERRIBLE at hiding it! Who have you met? Some spicy girl huh? I bet you met one! Is it your type? Woah, didn't know you were so dirty~

Roméo scoffs and smacks her head gently.

- You really have a wild imagination. But what about you? You must have a boyfriend or something.

- Well, I only have an ex-boyfriend, that's all. In matters of love, I'm not an expert, that's why we broke up. But still, he was at fault too.

- Looks like a complex story, I don't really want to step in, it doesn't concern me anyway..

- Yeah.. it was.

Stella sighs and stays silent for some seconds. After a while, she raises her head to Roméo.

- But anyway. What happened yesterday night?

- What do you mean?

- You skipped practice early to go somewhere, no? What was it?

"Crap. I can't tell her. She doesn't look like the type of girl who likes police and justice.." is what he thought.

- I was at a sort of meeting.

- A meeting? Tell me more!

- Uhm well! Since this story won't be settled in a few days.. I thought of maybe enroll in a college in Boston.. to uhm, go to school in my free time.. that sort of thing..

- You are so decent. You may die in fights and first thing you think about is studies? Oh my god and here I thought I could introduce you to my friends- I gotta find you some geek friends to hang out with instead!

- Well, if we assume that we'll survive all this crap, better think of my future afterwards. It makes sense to me!

- Yeah but I mean, NOW? This side of you is so cute yet damn funny to watch!

- W-what side?

- This unbelievable innocent side of you! Sometimes I feel bad to bring you in this dark world, where you don't belong at all. Even physically! Your outfits scream that you're not suited for us.

- Wha- even my outfits? I mean, I don't think I dress badly?..

- That's not what I meant. You're always wearing nice and CLEAN clothes, guys from my world barely wear clothes this expensive~.

- Expensive? This? Oh come on, do I really look like the cliché of the cute delicate boy who's trying to enter the world of thugs even though he knows he stand out like a sore thumb?

Stella rolls her eyes while laughing but says nothing. Roméo grunts.

- Really? Is that how you see me?

- Nah, that's not how I see you but other people might. In my eyes, you're just a desperate foreigner student lost in the woods.

- My god, why do I always look like a harmless guy to you?

- Hmph, isn't it the case?

Roméo takes his bottle and splashes her a bit with it. Once she got wet, whilst Roméo was laughing, she went silent and started to stand up really slowly with a shocked face. Roméo felt guilty and took one step back but.. Stella suddenly laughs out loud and then takes her bottle to splashes him back.

After their water fight, both were exhausted and panting like a racing horse. They sit back to their seat and collapse on the table. Stella taps on the table and signals Romeo to resume training. He stands up, drop off his bottle and gets back to training with her.

Meanwhile, Michael is ending his shift at the police station and starts to pack his stuff in his bag before leaving his office. It's already 5PM and Michael yawns quietly. Quinn walks in and leans against his door.

- How was your day Michael? Not too tiring?

- It was okay.. like everyday.

- .. There's something I'd like to talk about with you.

- If it's about Maddie, don't. I'm interested in apologizing to her, I did what I think was right.

- What? No, it's not about her!

- Then what?

- It's about Carl.. and his girl.

- Ex-girl you mean.

- Yeah, whatever! I think it's getting really worse. Have you seen him yesterday at the ceremony?

- No? Or rather, I don't remember so.

- And I guess you didn't heard the latest gossips?

- ...

- Yeah, typical. I heard that she was asking for money and she threatens to sell him off to some weirdos, maybe to Him..

- Him?

Michael sprints to Quinn, grabs his collar and pushes him against the door forcefully.

- Have you finally been able to localize him?!

Quinn scoffs.

- Urg, yeah yeah, we've found some new things on him!

- What when where why?!

- U-urk-- could you please uhm..

Michael sighs and releases him.

- So?

Quinn tries to catch his breath. He pants a lot.

- If.. If I tell you, you're going to go look for him right away and.. get us in trouble as well..!

- Obviously. You know how important catching him is for me.

- Yeah yeah, I know it is but uh.. promise me not to get carried away by your rage please? I know he did terrible things to your sisters but that's not a reason to be unreasonable!

- Yeah yeah.

- For the time being, just go home for now. I'll text you what I know just.. go home.

Michael nods, walks back to his bag, takes it and walks out the police station. Whilst walking in Boston streets, he looks up to the sky and grunts loudly. He grits his teeth and almost rip off his bag's strap while holding it. "Sisters? Huh, what a fat lie. I don't even have siblings. I can finally take him down.. I can't wait." is what he thought.

Finally arrived home, he throw his jacket on the kitchen counter and rushes to his room in order to get ready for Quinn's upcoming message. When he comes out, he finds Roméo lying down on the couch, Michael almost feel embarrassed not to have noticed him earlier. He scoffs and walks to him.

- You're.. back early. What's the matter? Got dumped?

- What?

- Don't know, you seem kinda off tonight.

- I uh.. yeah no, I'm fine, don't mind me please.

- Okay.

Michael seems skeptical but doesn't ask any more questions. He walks to the kitchen counter to take his jacket to put it correctly on the backrest of a random chair in the kitchen. Then, while Roméo was covering his whole face with his tiny yet soft hands to think and drive to despair, he receive a text from Stella. It says :"Hey gentle boy, I'm on my way to your place. Be ready to open the door for me." When Roméo reads it, he almost dropped his phone on the floor due to panic and stress, he gets up really quickly and heads to Michael mechanically with a nervous expression on his face.

- H-hey hm, how about I give you the rest of my money aand you go out to eat some things? I bet you'd find many junk food out here!

- Are you trying to kick me out of my own house?

- What? No no! I mean, tonight's a great night! You should enjoy it to it's fullest, don't you think?!

- ..

Michael grabs suddenly Roméo's right wrist with force and bring him closer to him in no time. Roméo's heart is racing, one misstep and it's over. He could kick him out of his house or even worse. Then, in the hollow of his ear, with a soft yet authoritative voice, he almost whispers some words.

- You're not lying to me, are you?..

The echo of his voice through his ear is running down Roméo's spine to his feet, he feels like Michael already know all, he knows that he's doomed. He turns his head to the side and Michael clicks his tongue. He puts forcefully his forefinger and his thumb on Roméo's chin and makes him turn his head to him himself.

- You are not a very good liar.

Roméo gulps but he can't help staring in Michael's black eyes for while. Michael could almost feel Roméo's heart jumping out of his chest, it's like he was yelling at some poor and weak cat on the verge of tears. Somehow, he feels guilty.

And then, without giving him some seconds to apologize, the door is ringing. Michael glances at the door, still holding Roméo, and sighs deeply. His warm breath gets to Roméo's body and with just that, his whole body gets warmed up in a few seconds.

- Sorry. It must be my colleague.

- ..

Michael releases Roméo gradually reluctantly and then walks up to the door. Roméo inhale and exhale few times in row and takes a step back. He raises his head to the door.. Michael opened it but it wasn't Quinn behind. It was Stella.

- Hey?

With a cold and indifferent expression, Michael inspects Stella's body from head to toes and then, scoffs.

- May I know who you are?

- Hm, I'm just Roméo's friend, that's it.

"Is it the warehouse girl? So he hangs with that kind of girl. Unexpected." Is what he thought. Roméo, who's finally able to catch his breath, rushes to the door and pushes Michael aside gently.

- Y-yeah! I'm here, sorry!

Michael doesn't say anything and stays behind the door.

- Woah damn, your face is so flushed! What were you up to in there ?~

- N-nothing much! Just stressing about tonight!

- Is that soooo..

Stella rolls her eyes with mischief and giggles.

- But never mind that, are you good to go? The fi-

Roméo's puts quickly his hands on Stella's mouth to keep it shut. With his mouth, he mimes words :"Michael doesn't know. Not a peep!" Stella giggles and nods.

- H-haha, anyway! I'm ready so we should go!

Michael puts his hand on Roméo's shoulder. When his body comes into contact with Michael's coldness, he startles.

- Go to where?

- We have a movie to watch, didn't I tell you already?

- Hmph, I didn't know, you hardly talk about you or what you're doing.

- Well.. now you know!

Roméo rushes to his jacket on the couch, runs back to the door and grabs quickly Stella by her arm.

- Whatever ! I'm off now! Have a good night, we'll see in the morning!

And then, way before Michael has a chance to say it back, both youngsters are already on their way out of the building to this tournament. Michael sighs deeply and leans on the door frame. He takes out his phone and records a voice message.

- Quinn, I won't be able to reach you for a moment. I have some things to deal with.

In the darkness of the building's hallways, only Michael's door was bright open but his terrifying figure is enough to scare off anybody. He's up to something.

Boston streets may look clean and classy from the outside but when you enter a certain district, rules are dead and buried. That's where Stella and Roméo are headed, the corrupted side of the city. While walking, Stella takes a moment to think.

- I was wondering.. who is that?

- That's um.. well, I needed a place to stay and my cousin proposed to let me sleep in.

- Your cousin looks like the rude type. Did he ever make a move on you?

- What?! No ! He's my cousin, why would he? Stop thinking about twisted things. He wouldn't lay a hand on me!

With an erased and soft voice Stella says,

- So you didn't notice..

- Noticed what?

- ..

Stella sighs and laughs.

- Nothing! I'm just surprised you hang on with this kind of guy, that's it.

- Hmn yeah well, you don't get to choose your family.

- True..

Some minutes later, they finally arrive in a narrow street that leads to a giant and a classy room in the middle of burned houses and junkies lying down on the floor. They walks to the door of that room and on the top of a beautiful rostrum, a man is raising his hands to sky with a big smile on his face. The crowd goes wild. They scream, they even jostle among themselves to be on the front line, some brought expensive wine, others came with huge bags of popcorn and the rest are dressed as fighters.

- WELCOME NEWCOMERS, Misses and Misters! I can't show how much seeing you all here is making me feel like! Tonight is the beginning of a great, entertaining and SPECIAL tournament! There's gonna be BLOOD, DRAMA, DRUGS and also BETRAYAL!! But, I'm not spoiling you anything, do I? Because if you're here tonight, it's not to sit and eat some cookies with Granny, you're here for action, fright and passion! I'm going to offer all this on a silver plate, trust me.

Some bodyguards starts to open wide the two big doors facing the crowd. These doors were hiding a brand new world behind ; there is a hallway leading to an enormous cage at the center, bleacher with an uncountable number of seats all around the ring, yellow, green and red lights are traveling the whole room and obviously, there is another raised platform for the boss and his associates to watch and comment this tournament.

Amazed by the quality of the room, Roméo feels like it's a terrible fall when you turn your gaze to the outside and see junkies almost dead on the floor, barely cleaned streets and tagged walls.

- Now that the doors are open, it's time for you to shine my friends! MAY THE FIGHTERS COME ON THE STAGE PLEAAAASE!

The man jumps off his rostrum and, surrounded by heavily armed men, walks fast to his other raised platform, even more sumptuous and expensive looking than the first one. While walking back, other men working for him are gradually taking off the rostrum in front of the door to put it aside and let people in. When Stella and Roméo step in, it's like being on another planet. Everything is different, it's a mix of a costly life and a lawless lifestyle. The stage is the most ruthless place. People are here for drama and entertainment, they would do everything to get this need satisfied.

In the bleachers, every social classes are mixed, same goes the age groups ; you can see rich elderly sat next to broke children watching average teenagers fighting well-trained adults under the gaze of wealthy old men watching them from above, sat in comfortable chairs ordering around not so well-paid maids who're struggling to watch their sons and husbands fight to almost death.

When everybody is finally sat on their chair more or less comfortably, the fighters are gathering at the center of the cage. The king of the tournament, from the top of his platform, takes his mic out and shouts. Around him, people are screaming his name.

- HERE, ON THE STAGE IN FRONT OF YOU, ARE A BUNCH OF RUTHLESS, CRAZY ASS CRIMINALS AND FIGHTERS! And tonight for the opening fight, let me introduce you the two outsiders who're going to confront the Beast of the Depths, Tommy and Lyra!

Stella pushes Roméo to the center of the cage, where the light is shining to welcome the duo.

He whispers loudly,

- Wai- that's not our turn! He didn't call us!

- It is! I paid some guys a huge amount to be the opening fight tonight and we changed our names. Now stick to the plan and man up!

Roméo panics and grunts when they're both under the sharp light of the stage with an incalculable pair of eyes staring at them. Most of the people are mocking them, seeing such amateurs fighting against a huge guy is a lost battle. Even so, Stella doesn't get dispirited and just ignore the laughs and bad remarks towards them. When Roméo sees how much Stella is keeping her cool, he imitate her and stays stoical. The rest of the fighters heads to the backstage to wait for their turn.

- From what I heard, these two shrimps doesn't belong to any gang or secret organization, OOOH ! They might be COPS, watch out guyss~, this first fight is going to spice things up!

Suddenly, in a thunder of applause, The Beast of the Depths is showing up. He walks proudly to the center, with a fierce aura surrounding him and spreading all over the room, this huge amount of self-confidence is crushing every hope that the duo had. The crowd went to shouting down the duo to cheering up the Beast. The bodyguards close the cage behind him, there's no issues for Roméo and Stella.

- From his actual name Joshua, the Beast of the Depths is finally out of prison! After 5 long years locked down in a cell with pedophiles and drug addicts, he's back on the stage! I don't want defeatist but you shrimps don't stand ANY CHANCE against that man! Good luck for surviving him!

Joshua gets closer to the duo and smirks devilishly.

- I don't know what you guys are doing but you're not on the right stage. You can still give up and walk away, nobody will blame you for that, it's not like they were expecting you to win against me.

Roméo chuckles.

- Too bad, here I thought you needed a lawyer for your poor mother~..

- WHAT?!

The tension is heating up on the stage. When the boss is about to announce the beginning of the fight, Joshua lose patience and grabs Roméo by the neck to pin him down really forcefully. He can feel and hear the frightening grunt of Joshua on his face. Unlike Michael, Joshua's breath his way more aggressive and direct, it's clear that Joshua is already on the verge of cracking his neck and tearing his flesh on the floor. At this moment, Roméo realizes. And then, Stella, who was in the dark since the beginning, appears from nowhere and manage to push Joshua far away from Roméo.

The boss looks very surprised.

- LOOKS LIKE OUR FRIENDS DIDN'T WAIT FOR ME TO ANNOUNCE THE BEGINNING! LOOK! THEY'RE ALREADY AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS ! HOW AMAZING!!

The crowd sounds very satisfied of the show.

Joshua's attention is now directed on Stella, he gets up and runs to her. He catches her neck and tries to break it with his two hands. Roméo caught his breath and sneaks behind Joshua. He puts his arm around his neck and, hidden in his sleeve, shoves a tiny knife in Joshua's nape. Roméo get his mouth closer to Joshua's neck and whispers.

- If you think wining this dumb contest will be enough to pay to good lawyer, you must be hell of a idiot, man.

He shoves his knife deeper, Joshua grunts in pain.

- Take a look around. Does this business sounds clean to you? Honest? Are you maybe expecting them to ACTUALLY give you what you want and just send you off? How childish of you..

Joshua gets even more stirred up and pushes Roméo violently away. Without noticing, he released Stella at the same time.

- You don't know ANYTHING! You think you understand life and it's complexities but in reality, what you think the truth is is only half of the lies that they made you believe!

Roméo scoffs.

- Because you think that THIS place is the reality, that they will tell you the truth? You say that I don't know anything, then how about you explain to EVERYBODY why you really went to prison?!

Joshua clenches his teeth with rage and jumps on Roméo to immobilize him. But, Roméo is smart. He knows that he's no match for him, everybody knows. With the few breath he has left, he whispers in Joshua's ear. What he said to him was enough to make him suffer from the inside. Around them, the crowd keeps on cheering for Joshua, they hear the boss screaming their names, to give details of every move they make, they can nearly feel the gaze of his associates glaring at them, glass of wine in their hands.

- H-how.. HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ALL THIS?!

Roméo smirks. Without feeling it, Stella was on Joshua's back, holding a hidden knife at his throat. She chuckles and grabs forcefully his neck with her other arm.

- In this world, money can do anything. That's how we know.

Joshua clenches his teeth and grunts loudly.

- What.. What are you waiting from me?!

- Let us win, give up.

- WHAT?! I will never-

Roméo manage to kick him in the stomach while Stella is pressing her knife deeper in his nape. She gets to his ear.

- Unless you want to bleed out in front of everybody, you got no other choices. I won't mind going to prison again if it's to kill you.

Roméo gasps and glances at Stella. Joshua closes his eyes and hesitates.

- How can I can be sure that you're not fooling me..

- You can't. That's part of the game, cutie pie. You can't know if we're clean or rotten to the core, it's your judgement.

Then, he opens his eyes and stares intensely in Roméo's eyes for some seconds. He looks at his tender eyes then lower his gaze to his pointy nose, his tiny mouth, his hairless chin, his soft yet weak collar bone.. Roméo gulps in fright and Joshua begins to release him little by little..

- I trust you.

Roméo, very surprised, nods to Stella and together, with the complicity of Joshua, manage to pin him down and immobilize him.

-MY GOD! HAVE YOU SEEN THAT?!! THE LITTLE BONNIE AND CLYDE MANAGED TO TAKE THE BEAST OF THE DEPTH DOWN?! IS THIS REAL LIFE?!

The audience is on fire, nobody expected it and everybody's shocked. Bathed in a round of applause, Roméo can't help but feel guilty. He lower his face to Joshua's and whispers.

- Thanks. We're saving you.

Joshua almost smiles. Stella cracks her knuckles and whispers.

- Sorry man, this one is gonna be hurtful.

Joshua chuckles.

- Go on girl, I'm not scared.

Stella eye contact Roméo and after some seconds, they hit really brutally Joshua's head. They managed to knock him out. After that, they get off of Joshua and walks to the center of thering while holding hands. A sort of referee comes out of the dark and checks on Joshua. He noticed that he's actually knocked out and then, he whistle to the boss while nodding his head.

- Oh my GOODNESS! The referee just signaled me that The Beast is defeated! WHO EXPECTED THAT?! Two outsiders coming out of nowhere knocking out a monster like him?! This tournament is gonna be SPICY, BELIEVE ME!

The audience is screaming their fake names and it even ends up in a standing ovation. People from outside of the room, who heard about two youngsters defeating a colossus, are gathering in the hallway. There are as many people at the entrance as in the bleachers, it's unhinged.

Among all the gazes of the audience, all the face and people staring at them, Roméo notices a very familiar one. For a moment, Stella cross her gaze with the same person. She notices that Roméo is staring at them with a bright smile. From the palm of his hand, she feels his heart racing like crazy, what's disturbing her is that his heart never raced so fast when he was training with her or fighting Joshua. His body is hot, he's panting and even sweating a lot.

"Have you noticed? Your way of acting changed around him. You're not being the same boy I met. At the sight of his figure in the crowd, you're heating up. When he puts his hands on you, you startle. You even feel distraught when you have to face him. Have you noticed how much this man holds power on you? I don't know who he truly is for you nor why he's the one that makes you feel so but one thing's for sure, you're such an airhead for not noticing it." is what she thought.

In the crowd, it was Michael.

Next Chapter: Strategy.