a proposition

who: Lucas and Chie
where: Chie's shop
when: late afternoon

Lucas had spent the morning at his desk, chain smoking and going over the files he'd nicked from the journalist who'd done the write up about the bodies and their O'Malley connection. Nothing had been jumping out at him directly, no hints about who'd killed them, or who even why they died.

Frustrated he checked his watch. There wasn't enough time to wander his way into O'Malley territory before the opening tonight, but he did have time to make another stop. There was one person who might be able to give him a little bit of information, she had before, or at the very least rule out one theory that had come to him. Grabbing his coat, cigarettes and the file he left the Echo, headed for Chinatown.

The shop he had his eye on was behind a tea shop, but there was a door in the back so he took the alley way next to the building, skulking up to the door in his rumpled shirt and half done tie. Not wanting to intrude, and knowing full well what lay beyond the door he knocked a few times, waiting for an answer.

The back rooms of Lucky Moon Tea was largely Chie's domain. Doing the Jade Lotus's tattoos, handling the opium quotas; Chie got her herself elbows deep in the Lotus's business so her mother and father didn't have to. They'd already gone through all of that in Japan, and if Chie could keep them from getting any more tangled up in it than they already were, she would do exactly that. It didn't mean she liked it at all.

She sat in the back room going over her records--inventory of tattooing inks and supplies, lists of customers for body art and opium, how much more she needed to sell to meet the week's quota, scowling over the work she'd done for the Lotus that should have cost fortunes that they'd done for free, as per the shop's "contract." If they actually paid for all the business the shop was getting now, Chie and her family would be beyond wealthy, but now they were only butterflies pinned under glass.

At the knock, Chie shuffled all of the files away, hiding them away in a drawer. The heavy metal door that led out into the alley had a sliding peephole (that Chie had to stand on her toes to see out of) but when she saw it was a paying customer, she opened the locks and swung the door open. "Back already, Lucas?" she asked, the L in the journalist's name more like a rolled R on her tongue.

"Sadly not for more work, you about ran me dry on the last one," he told her with that playboy grin that seemed to get him into trouble and out of it. She'd done more than one of his tattoos, the most recent being a complicated design that ran up his calf, for which he'd gotten more than one compliment. Chie would know, just as well as he did, if he did want more work, then he'd find the money, he was a DiGiovanni after all. "More of a social call, can I come in?"

"I don't think I'd like your kind of social call," Chie said, arching an eyebrow at Lucas. She had a fairly decent idea of the sort of man he was, and for the most part it was difficult for him to hit on her when she was repeatedly digging a needle into his skin. Either way, getting involved in his DiGiovanni mess when she had the Lotus looming all around her wasn't something she had a single iota of interest in. Still, she inclined her head into the shop, shutting and locking the door behind him.

"I'll keep my hands to myself," he reassured, though if the opportunity presented himself, he very much doubted that he'd give it a shot. She was lovely after all. Moving into the small shop he took a look around, like he always did. "You read the papers lately?"

"No," Chie said, taking a seat at the ornate desk where she was secretary, manager, and receptionist. "But I've heard." There were a few extra chairs for people who would be waiting, but tattoos took so long, waiting your turn would be better spent elsewhere in the city. The only other place to sit was the low, flat table where you would lay while you got your work done. "Something about bodies, something about O'Malleys. I try not to listen too much."

Lucas took the flat table as his own place to sit, laying out flat and tucking his arms behind his head while he talked to the ceiling. "But you hear things in here too right?"

Chie was quiet for a few moments, looking at Lucas with narrowed eyes. "What are you going for, Lucas?" she asked, her accent mangling his name a bit. "I give you information for your paper and then the Lotus comes after my family for talking when I should have kept my mouth quiet? I don't think so."

Sitting up a little, Lucas propped himself up on one elbow watching her. "They'd never know it was you Chie, that much you can be certain of." Lucas was a good reporter and he was true to his sources. He'd go to jail to keep them confidential. "But I'm not looking for information about them, not now. I'm just wondering if you've heard something here. If someone's got a big mouth."

"Certain. Sure." Chie crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Lucas with a dubious stare. There was very little to be certain of in this world, and DiGiovanni reporters with tattoos and big smiles was one of those many uncertain things. "And what is the point of me telling you anything? You word aside, why should I risk me or my family for your big break?"

"Because you know I'm telling the truth. You know I'd protect you." Lucas said leaning back, tucking his hands behind his head again. "And I can guess your miserable here too. I know how much you charged me for the work you've done, and I know how busy you are. But your place doesn't seem nice enough." He was observant, and quick to put things together.

Chie was sure he thought he was telling the truth, confident as he may have been in his ability to protect her and her family. Chie knew that the actual truth was pretty different, that if the Lotus decided to come down on her head, there wasn't a thing he could do about it, nevermind all of his swagger. "We have bills too," she said, shrugging her tattooed shoulders. "There are expenses to be taken care of."

"There isn't a single building on this side of town that's worth that much sweetheart," he told her with an air of confidence that said he knew he was right.

"I didn't say just the building," Chie countered, drawing up the sleeve of her kimono with an air of sophistication. "My family has expensive taste. We buy the best where it matters to us. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not the truth."

Lucas rolled his head to the side, raising an eyebrow at her without a word. He had to wonder if she was telling the truth but he didn't directly comment on it. "So whadda ya say Chie. Anyone one on your end off those O'Malley boys?"

Chie was lying through her teeth, but she was good at it so it wasn't terribly obvious. The shop was getting a lot of business, but because most of it was from the Lotus, who rarely paid since they "owned" the shop now, there actually wasn't a lot of money floating around at all. There wasn't a single expensive thing the Tsukino family owned now, and they cut corners wherever possible for their own living. But Lucas didn't need to know any of that. "I say my Chinese isn't all that good these days."

This time Lucas sat up, feet trailing on the floor as he leaned on his elbows looking towards her. "That I don't believe either," he told her, because he didn't. It was understandable that she was worried, Lucas had written more than one piece suspecting the Lotus of all sorts of nasty.

"Maybe you shouldn't believe it," Chie said, looking at Lucas with a smirk. "Maybe my Chinese would be better if I had something to motivate me. Since you're taking my time and not even getting any work. Fair, you think?"

"I can make it worth your time," he told her with a smirk. "What's your poison?" There'd be quite a bit he was willing offer, though if he gave her the chance to tattoo more of him he'd run out of skin.

"What's everybody's? Cash." Chie shrugged nonchalantly. "You smoke?" If she could get a sale out of this as well as some extra cash, that would be even better. The week would nearly be up and she was dangerously close to not meeting her quota.

Lucas reaching into his coat pocket for his pack of smokes, pulling one out and offering it to her if she wanted one. "Cash can be worked with," he told her around the cigarette in his mouth. He'd paid informants before.

Chie smirked, shaking her head. "Not that kind of smoke," she said, quirking an eyebrow at him. She was careful about what she said--at this point she could be asking or offering, not quite obvious that she was making him a business proposition.

Laughing he shook his head. "I have enough vices already lovely. You were the one who didn't want to let me in remember?" That was an interesting twist though, that she was dealing out of her shop, or that was his guess.

"You can never have enough vices." The desk and its chair faced away from the table, so that Chie had to sit sideways and twist her upper body to face him. Her arms curled around the back of the chair, legs crossed so that her robe fell open and exposed one long, lean leg. Every action, every position of her every limb of her body was deliberate. She wanted him to see. She didn't want him to touch her, but she wanted him to see. "Are you sure?"

He didn't need enough vices, she was showing him one he definitely had. Just as she showed it off he took it in, every inch of it in long detail. "Oh I am definitely sure," he said as he finally met her eyes. "Though you seem to be offering something more my style," he teased taking another drag on the cigarette.

"Can't be helped then," she said, ignoring his mention of her "offer" as she drew her robe back around herself, the fabric once again covering her legs. "You want to know what I know? Cash, you say we'll be safe, but how can I believe you? Why should I? I think you'll be too busy trying to cover your own ass if you write a story like that."

He knew a tease when he saw one, and he handled her pulling he clothes around her again rather well. Straightening he reached into his coat pocket again, this time retrieving a few crisp bills and his card. "Because you want to believe me," he told her standing and setting the cash and card on the desk in front of her.

Chie chuckled, running her fingers along the crisp edges of the bills. She picked up his card next, holding it up in front of her. Her spoken English wasn't the best and she could read it even less, but she got the gist of it. Her eyes flickered from the card to his face, eyebrow quirking. "And what makes you think that I want to believe you?"

"What makes me think you don't?" Lucas asked with a sly grin. "Call me when you're ready to believe," he told her with a nod. "I'll see myself out." The grin was there again, and then he turned, sauntering to the door.

Chie watched as Lucas left, and once the door had been shut, she leaned back in her chair, licked her thumb, and counted the bills he'd left behind. The ego on that man. It was pretty clear that he thought the world of himself but surely that couldn't be all there was. She was going to have fun dismantling it... and if she got a bit of money in the process, all the better.