Into The Casino

Ch9

The next few days were what she could only describe as complete and utter suspicion. Or more accurate the war of the paper and closets. Lou wasn't kidding when he said there was not one not two but FOUR other closets full of boxes and tots and cabinets full of papers and random date books galore. Cyber had taken Disease up on a favor he owed her and had him help her carry all of the stuff into one big older office Lou has given permission for her to use for the whole thing. The amount of the stacks made her stomach drop but the smile and red eyes assuring her he just couldn't wait to see what great job she would do was enough to get her motivated in fear of any consequences that might've been thrown her way. Thank goodness by what ever miracle she talked him into giving her giant filing cabinets to hold all these massive piles of papers and books. It took her minutes of careful reading of each one before she could even decide which small pile ever growing it would go in. Every couple hours or so Cyber or Disease would bring her some food, which was very much appreciated... But they found the hard way a stressed and overworking woman was not one they'd want to mess with. When Disease accidentally knocked over two piles accidentally mixing them together after spending two whole days rummaging around to get them perfect.

...The angry shout from the frazzled lady and the few white sparks that emanated from her horn was enough for the bumbling serpent to hightail it out of there. She thought Lou was going to send her to an painful second grave when he found out, but to her surprise he was actually rather calm about this whole thing. Even going as far as to lightly scold Disease for ruining her day's work, but she couldn't help but notice the almost excited tone behind all that. And when the next day came Cyber rolled around with her lunch as usually but with the resident witch no less. Midnight if she remembered right. The small fox pulled out a tape measure from no where and forced her to hold still as she measured the length of her horn, and shined a light into her eyes. Before writing something down on a piece of paper she had with her and left without another word. ...When asked Cyber casually shrugged it off.

"Eh. Lou's just having her check up on you. No big deal."

Well, that wasn't suspicious at all. But she was too tired with all this pile up to even think about what was going on, and so she pushed on with whatever she was doing. She wasn't exactly sure how much time had passed with her emptying boxes, and tots. Putting old dates books on a bookshelf provided to her and stuff the newly alphabetized papers into different drawers. But she noticed Cyber had kept taking certain documents, mostly ones with random and different names written at the bottom of them all. She claimed they were certain deals with clients and business partners Lou had been working for and wouldn't want anything happen to them in fear of loosing good deals. She could kinda understand that, but the fact that they seemed to be making a majority of the whole papers was kinda questionable. Even if he was a demon. Maybe a day or two after that, she was finally done. The benefits of already being dead was that she didn't need a lot of food or sleep, but my gosh did she feel like she could hibernate for a whole year by this point. By now she had long forgotten how long she had been up or when she finished, but she remembered vaguely Cyber patting her on the back and telling her to take a load off.

"Lou should swing by to check out everything later. Until then I guess you get a free few hours, Newbie."

She didn't need to be told twice. She stumbled to her room and immediately plopped herself into that sweet, sweet bed. Almost instantly falling asleep once she got comfortable. Too bad she wasn't aware of the scheme that was currently being hatched right under her nose almost the whole time.

Now. Lou had always prided himself on being a man of ideals. A man of opportunities. When he saw something good he would always find ways to get it, and good luck was always a gamble that seemed to favor him. Sure he had a couple bad deals and things that could've gone better, but a newer and better one always seemed to throw itself at his feet, begging for him to reach out to them and take them in his sweet, sweet grasp! And it wasn't just opportunites he had luck in. Brains, judge of character, not bad looking if he should say so himself~, and of course his many, many wonderful riches. And it just seemed to be getting better and better and BETTER. He was intoxicated on the idea of the power, only brought down by his rational thinking and on occasions Cyber. Already this naïve little horsefly had proven herself useful in more than one way, for one he finally had someone who could take care of all that pesky paper problems and one who could be molded into a weapon.

AH! Speaking of the pony- Cyber had kindly been keeping him updated on the whole situation and now seeing the amount of the work put into one simple task...He could barely contain his excitement over how much work she could put into better use, if pushed in the right direction of course.

"Well- Fuzzy, did a decent job. Eh, Boss?" Cyber was currently flipping through one of the drawers randomly and when she didn't receive an answer she turned her head over her shoulder to stare at the taller demon. Lou seemed to be staring off into space, one hand behind his back and the other covering a part of his face, his red eyes narrowed in thought. Uh oh. She knew that look all too well. Lou. Was calculating something. He always saw his choices as a gamble. Through the dice right and you get the bigger prize. She just wondered what it was this time. "Uh, Boss? Whatcha thinking about now?"

Instead of answering her question he asked a question of his own. Walking towards the bookshelf and glazing his eyes over all the books before taking one out and looking at the cover. ".....Cyber. You observed her. How smart would you say she is? On the IQ level."

She stared at him but her brain quickly processed the question asked thanks to what her name referred to and she shrugged. "About average. A little over Disease if I say so."

He hummed and put the book back only to randomly pick another. "And IF I were to try a contract?" He turned his head to her. "How would you say she would most likely react?"

She stood there silently. Confused at the question but also quickly got the answer for it. "Well...The way she moves and the way she acts, plus with what we know...I don't think she'd really be up to it." She gave him a matter of fact look. "She's not up to date with the modern era just yet, but she's pretty careful about most things surrounding her. I think being roped into a soul binding deal would be the last thing she'd want to do. She'd just see it as another form of prison."

His eyes slightly narrowed and looked back to the book. Now this was something different she had seen. He was thinking of a back up plan to the gamble. Sometimes he'd use the back up plan instead of the first plan but what the winner don't know the gambler understands. And he understood the game better than anyone she knew, alive or dead.

"What would you say would be her biggest weak points?"

"Well, her limited knowledge on modern things and her emotions I would say."

....His lips slowly curled up in a smile. "How long has it been since I last had interest in someone?"

Her head tilted, before slowly a look of realization came over her. "About ten years ago. Boss...Are you going to do what I think you're going to do?"

His smile widened. "There's more than one way to be legally bound now isn't there?~ Go see to it she has a good view of me before I do anything. I have something I need to take care of."

"Are you sure you want to take this route?" She thought of the possibilities in her head. "This seems about five percent more likely to succeed but with what really landed her here in the first place, I don't think she'd be ready to hop back into the saddle so to speak."

A chuckle and those red eyes flashed at her. "Five more points is all I need to make it to the top ranks! Trust me. The prize winnings would be to die for!~"


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It was almost mid noon when she felt something shaking her awake and out of instinct she jumped up and blinked her blurry vision up at the person above her. Light electric blue hair came into view and the face of a metal skinned appeared before her. She stared up at Cyber for a few seconds before her voice came out.

"Hey, Newbie. Brought you something curtesy of the boss. I think you'd like it." Something sweet smelling hit her and she tiredly blinked down to the plate she just now noticed Cyber was holding out to her. She blinked and stared at the small round sweet smelling thing on the plate with confusion. "....W-What is it?"

"It's called a doughnut. It's kinda like a car tire shaped cake without all the heavy icing. Boss said you probably never had one before and you should have one before Disease ate them all." She smiled and continued to stay on plan. " He acts like a big bad wolf, but if you get to know him, you can find out he can be pretty generous."

The fuzzy bed headed pony stared at her, before slowly sitting up and staring at the offering still placed in front of her. ...Slowly taking it from Cyber and giving it a couple more tired but weary blinks. Her nose twitched a couple times still filled with the unfamiliar sweet smell. Cyber stared patiently as Fuzzy took her time picking it up and taking a small nibble off the top of it. Her eyes slightly widened and Cyber smiled when she began eating this new sweet food with vigor. Guess she liked it huh? She must've because it was soon gone and she turned to her with a thankful smile.

"T-Thank you."

"Hey. Don't thank me. Thank the boss. And speaking of which-" He nodded her heads towards the door. "He's been wanting to see for for a few hours, but he decided to give you a few extra hours sleeping. Wasn't that nice of him?"

....She blinked those purple eyes. "W-Why? D-Did I do something wrong?"

"What? Are you kidding me?" She gave a playful smile that came naturally to be honest. She didn't mind help Lou with playing these games. "He and I both thought you did a decent job. Surprised your brain didn't turn to mush." She gave a nod towards the door and turned to walk away. "He's waiting for ya in the office down the hall. Make sure you wear something nice ok?"

She rose a brow but if her boss wanted to see her then she had better get up and see exactly what he wanted to talk about. She just hoped it wasn't more paperwork. With a sigh she tossed the blankets off and forced her tired bum up and out of the bed. Ten minutes later she was all prim and proper and heading to where she hoped was where he was waiting for her. When she did come to what she hoped was the door, she took a deep breath to calm herself, reached up and just laid her hands on the door once- It swung open suddenly, and she gave a startled squeak taking a few steps back from it. On the other side was the taller slender form of the plant demon. He smiled down at the frazzled unicorn and chuckled. Before giving a slight bow.

"Oh, so sorry. If I would've known that would've happened, I wouldn't have spooked you." He straightened back up and stood aside. "Please. Come in."

She stood there for a moment, but slowly and wearily began walking into the room he was holding open. Folding her ears back when she felt those red eyes following her, and when the door closed behind her she looked back to him. He was wearing that same smile of his but it seemed more ...what was the best way to describe it? Studious. She watched silently as he walked past her and gestured to the seat in front of the small desk. She slowly sat down into the seat offered and watched as he walked around and sat down right in front of her. Clasping his hands and giving her that smile.

"Now. You are probably wondering why I wanted to speak to you yes?"

"...I-..assumed I did something wrong with the work I did."

"No, no. Of course not," he assured her in a sweet tone, "The work you displayed was splendid! Exactly what a top notch secretary of mine needs! But I wanted to speak to you about a more....Important topic other than work."

He hesitated but eventually asked, "W-What do you mean, Sir?"

He was hoping she would say that. So he took a breath and gave her the sweetest most charming smile he could muster. "Miss Amalfia, do you remember how long you've been working for me?"

She tilted her head curiously, wracking her brain for the answer. "I-I think almost three months."

"And in those three months I couldn't help but notice how marvelous having you around has become.~" She opened her mouth to say thank you but he beat her to it. "If I may say so myself you are quite the rarity down here and someone who could complete many-.."His eyes slightly narrowed. "-many things in my afterlife I have planned and just couldn't ever hope to achieve without you, my dear.~"
Her eyes followed him as he adruptly stood from the desk. "...Y-You want to give me a promotion?"

He laughed genuinely. "Something along those lines. But no. What I want is far more better than more benefitial to you. No. What Im asking from you, is your unwavering loyalty and affection for me."

There was a small silence, as her wide eyes and shocked brain wheeled around in hyper speed as his words rammed around her skull over and over. Processing what he had spewed out at her and he took his in shock chance to walk around the table and stop right next to her. When he shifted his movement she finally snapped her head up and looked at him like he was absolutely crazy.

"W-WHAT?!"

"You know. Partners. Husband and wife. Joined in unholy matrimony. Whatever term you prefer to use. Shh." Her held a red talon to her mouth before her terrified face even got the chance to speak. "Please. Let me finish. You see- Ever since I laid eyes upon you, I couldn't help but find your presence interesting.~ And I do have an eye for stunning people if I do say so myself. Now before you give a yes or no to my question- " The talon was taken away and he leaned down to her form squished against the chair. "Think about the benefits.~ A roof over your head. Food you wouldn't even imagine on your plate." His hand grabbed the back of the chair and swung her around with a startled squeak to face him. "And of course all the luxories you could ask for....Within reason of course. And of course you'll have me." His grin widened and he reached a hand out to run the length of her left cheek. "I think you'll find that I can be a very generous lover.~ And Im not the worse looking man down here.~"

She flinched away from his touch and shrinked down further in the chair. She could feel the walls closing in and him standing right in front of her with those red eyes staring down at her like a spider to a fly...Similar to...She turned her head and closed her eyes to stop staring at the red eyes.

"....N-n-no. P-Please."

OH! He had her in a corner, now this could go two ways. He could use more force and scare her into it. Or he could play the safe route, which is much more appealing in the long run. So he backed off and straightened back up. Putting on a mock sad face. "Oh my. Perhaps I was too forward in telling you my feelings. Please forgive a foolish man like me." She opened her eyes but didn't look at him. "It wasn't my intention of making you feel so uncomfortable. But I can promise you protection if you want it."

".....yes?"

His smile returned. "As my employee you get protection within my establishment as it is, but as my partner. You would get gaurenteed twenty four hour protection all year round.~''

"....T-This isn't h-h-how it's done."

"Beg pardon?"

She sucked in a shaky breath and swallowed before daring to look up at him. "...T-That isn't how c-c-courting works. Y-You have to give it time."

"...Oh. Oh of course! How silly of me to forget one of the most important customs of our times." He had to remember how things were done back at their time. A small set back, but one that could be turned around to his advantage as well. Blow the dice for good luck. And roll- "Please, allow me to start courting you then. Starting with this."

With a flip of his hand a small black box appeared in his hand and she looked down to it wearily with confusion before looking back up to him. "...W-What is it?"

"A gift. A courting gift to be precise." His thumb flipped open the lid and reveled the small round treasure it held. A small silver band ring with an even smaller rose branded on the front. "Take this as a show of my interest and a show of what I may be able to provide. Of course I don't expect any single thing in return except your blessing to court such a beautiful lady.~"

She didn't say anything, but she stared blankly at the little box that was offered, he nudge his hand forward a little....And she slowly took the box from him silently. Not saying a word she slowly looked up at him,...and he gave an almost too sincere smile to it all. What was she supposed to say? Yes? No? Thank you? Which is why she hung her head and sighed.

"....Ok. B-But please. Take it slow."

"I wouldn't want it any other way. May I escort you to lunch my dear?" He offered his hand out to her with a smile. "Im sure you'll absolutely adore what the cooks threw together. It's to die for.~...Figurtively speaking of course."

She still just stood there with a semi confused face ....before reaching out and- And having Lou grab her hand almost instantly and pulled her to her hooves, luckily she didn't drop the small box as he placed her onto his arm and he gave her that same widened smile as he began to lead her away to the door.

"Now- Tell me, what exact tastes do you have in wine? Perhaps a fruity cocktail would be more suited for your stomach?"

"...W-What's a cocktail?"

His laughter echoed throughout the room.

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"Well? What's your brilliant analysis, Midnight?"

The small witch scowled and looked over her giant book to give it to him. Lou had immediately rushed in as soom as all was set and down and suddenly thought she would know all the answers of the universe right now. Which she didn't! Much less know a lot about the subject as it was you know. But she rolled her eyes and took a break from cooking up the poison she was working on to entertain the smug weed.

"Well! If you simply just must know!," she said in a sweet sarcastic tone. "I really haven't found anything really useful beyond what my books already said." Her natural voice came back. "Do I need to give you a run down of everything I already told you?"

"Yes, actually that would quite helpful." He smirked.

She groaned but rolled her eyes. Leave it to him to be the smarta$$ that would do these things just to annoy people. "Ok. Basically barely anything was jack sqwat known about them!" To make a point she turned behind her and pulled a book out, whirling back around and waving it at him. " You see this? It has endless information on about every creature you could possibly think of. And all it has on magical pretty unicorns is legends and fairytales." To prove her point she opened it and flipped to somewhere in the middle. " Habitates? Unknown. Vaires prefers lucious forest. Lifespan? Unknown. Likes innocent things like children and young maidens. Pure magic. Horns and other parts were used to be made into powerful potions to combat evils. Oh! And look! A whole slew of the recipes and fairytales with princesses!" She flipped a whole bunch of instructions and a couple of pictures before she closed it and stared at him. "Face it. Unless you want me to somehow use her meat to create a hellfire resistant potion, or a lotion to cure diseases, then there's nothing more I can do about anything."

A serpent poked his head around the corner. "Someone say my name?"

She groaned again. "No. Go back to sleep."

"I still can't believe she actually agreed to any of your speels," Cyber rose a brow at the exchange from the wall she was leaning on. She knew it would've been very unlikely for either of his plans to work, but she guessed she shouldn't be too surprised. This was Lou they were talking about. His plans usually worked or partially worked liked now.

But he turned to her with a giant smile. "Patience, Cyber. The turtle beat the hare because of it. As does the spider with the fly.~ After all. When one gets a knew toy, you have to break it in gently.~"