// Max belongs to my friend, Phoenix belongs to me <3//
Boston...
Two legends were staring at each other. Two legends that were nothing but bruised bodies. She was stitching her leg up, her hazel eyes still staring at the handsome brunet who was patching the wound on his shoulder. He kept staring at her, wondering what her real identity was. She said her name was Asma but he smelled something fishy about it. It felt like a fake identity, forged in order to protect the truth. She pretended to be a mere social worker. Working to hell women at the shelter she worked for. But no social worker could fire a bullet and hit every single time her target. No social worker knew martial arts and moved like a professional. He knew she was more than meet the eye.
Truth was, The infamous Phoenix hated the city and the people living In it but she had plenty opportunities there. Scumbags enjoyed thriving in Boston and when mobs entered a competition it always left a trail of several corpses. Usually her own doing. She would take up juicy contracts and kill the target for a crime lord's benefit and all the money she got from these contracts she donated to charities and shelters, she was making amends this way. There was so much death and heartbreak in her life that the only way she had to feel better was to rid the world of the bad people and protect the innocents. So when she heard that Big Tony was coming to Boston with a new drug that would put the users -especially the youth- more at risk of a quick death, she decided to intervene. It did help that Kara Morgan, the famous reporter was missing while investigating the traffic. It motivated Phoenix to go after her and help her reveal the truth. That was when she met Max.
He was a legend too. Notable for the carnage he always left behind him when dealing with strange cases. Max wasn't per say a murderer. He was a vigilante with a vendetta against cartels, assassins, and monsters alike. He had lost everything he held dear, she could tell by the pain in his eyes.
Regardless of how rough and hard his exterior was, his eyes were the same as those of a man who lost everything. She knew... she lost that too. He had been tracking down Big Tony for half a year now, unable to find him due to the man's superstitious nature. It didn't stop Max who went after all of Big Tony's known associates and best down enough of them to learn where and when the mob boss would go. What was his surprise when he saw that woman appear from nowhere and wreaking havoc on the goons present there?
He didn't know she came before he did and investigated prior to killing the goons. They faced off and nearly shot at each other before they realized they were on the same side.
That was three months ago. Big Tony never came because he was killed. Another man Cesare Marconi took over and kidnapped the reporter to force her to write positive pieces about the mob and the job it was doing. The son of the bitch even taunted Phoenix and Max to come find him and when they did respond to it, it was a trap. Boston was compromised for the mob lords so they escaped the place.
"Are we good to go!?" -Max asked her, but Asma shook her head-
"Not yet. We haven't talked about me staying in Boston."
"Like you would."
He teased her. She looked up at him and gave him a hard gaze. She had a life here. As fake as it seemed to be, Phoenix enjoyed being Asma Jensen and care about these women. She enjoyed being a social worker because she could fix things and help people instead of killing them. Max put the gauze on the table and laid both his hands on it.
"I am serious Max. I consider staying here."
"I thought you wanted to rescue Kara Morgan and stop the drug traffic. That shit is already on the market, killing kids."
"You don't get it. I.... I need... I feel..." frustrated, Phoenix stopped talking and put the stitcher on the table.
"You want to go. I could leave without you But I saw you back there. We've been working together for months. You want to go."
She sighed and ran her hand through her curly hair. Her hazel eyes averting from left to right before she nervously grabbed her gun. He noticed she was conflicted and the growing chaos in her head made her panic. Phoenix hated when things got personal. She never really knew how to deal with them when someone else was involved and Max was shattering every effort she made to avoid getting attached to him. He was a partner in crime, one hell of a great fighter, the resilient kind and she could use some help. Working with someone was not something « the White Phoenix » was used to do. She never got to get close to anyone but Phaser years ago, and since his betrayal, refused to even acknowledge the existence of someone else. Max barged into her life, broke the defenses she built around her and now she realized she cared for him. She cared so much that she did want to go with him. WITH him... and no one else.
However, Phoenix refused to accept her feelings and that conflict had her fall back to her coping mechanism. In order to counter stress and anxiety, she would disassemble and reassemble her gun, cleaning it until it was shining. Max learned the hard way that if he did interrupt her when she was doing it, she would close herself off, to the point they would not talk. It was fine by Max, he enjoyed silence and they worked best when they were focused on the mission, however, once they were done he took a liking to talking with her. She was quite something. A mysterious woman with a past he didn't know and skills he admired -he came to admire her after a while-. She herself didn't know much about him, his past was still a black spot for her but she enjoyed guessing. They would share theories on one another, try and guess who they were beside the obvious -she was a mercenary, he was a good cop turned vigilante with serious skills.- They would sleep in the same bed without actually touching one another and Max would enjoy it and would enjoy it better when she was talking. So he started to copy her, clean his guns while she was cleaning hers and thus catching her curiosity enough to make her talk. He would make a mistake on purpose, so she would correct him and initiate the conversation again. He got pretty good at doing that. So when she did, he pulled his gun from his holster and started to disassemble it in front of her. Her hazel eyes nervously eyed him as he proceeded, watching his very moves and tracking the slightest mistake. Which he inevitably made.
« No. That's not how you do it. » She finally said, grabbing his gun and tilting her head to the side so she could stare at it. « Are you seriously not learning? » She teased him, a half-smirk on her plump lips as she finally looked up to his face. « Max. »
« Maybe I wanted to catch your attention. What did I do wrong? » He encouraged her to keep working on his gun, showing him the « right » way to remove the barrel.
« I want to go, you're right about it. » Phoenix finally said, while tinkering around with his gun. « I need to leave this city, these people...finish what I started. I was trying to prevent the drug from flooding the market and I want to save Kara Morgan. » She then glanced at him. His hard blue gaze was now staring at her, sending a shiver down her spine.
« Then what's stopping you? »
« I don't know.. » She quickly answered before looking back at the gun. « I mean.. I know. In here I was doing something good, Max. I was helping people. If I go with you, I would have to leave it behind me. I would have to return to being—- To do what I do best. » She then looked up to his face and put his gun on the table. « I don't want to be an assassin again, Max... »
« We sometimes have to do the things we're the best at. I understand you don't want to return to that old life of yours but. » He outstretched his hand and held onto his disassembled gun -brushing over her fingers and making her shiver.- « You want to do this. I want you to do this with me. I'm not going to force you. I leave tomorrow at dawn. »
« …. » She felt her heart pound into her ribcage, shivers getting more intense by the second as he was touching her hand. The contact was intentional, prolonged on purpose because that was something he had wanted to do for a while. She didn't slap his hand, didn't even blink when he touched her hand. The warmth softened her features and she gave him a faint smile. « This is... » She chuckled darkly and shook her head. « How considerate of you to give me a deadline. » She teased him, her body now more relaxed as she leaned into the chair but kept her hand under his.
« I can still go tonight. » He teased her back, making her shake her head.
« Not on my watch! I want to catch Cesare as bad as you do. I still don't know what you personally have against him, but I say that he's our common target and we'll finish the job. »
She didn't know yet the connection between Cesare and Max. Normally, he would have had stopped at Big Tony's death (because Big Tony was involved with the people who came after Max and killed his family) but Cesare's presence was something new. Cesare was part of the organization that came after Max's family. He was one of them so of course, he would come after him. He omitted to say this detail to the woman, who also cautiously avoided to explain why she was doing it. Washing the red that was on her hands, making amends because she felt guilty of the life that was forced on her. He had no clue as to who she was and what she endured.
The White Phoenix was known in all the criminal circles as being the most lethal assassin one had ever met. Nobody survived any of her assassinations, witnesses, however, (from afar) saw her in action, told the tale. She used to sign her crime scene with a card representing a white phoenix and word got out that she had been kidnapped as a newborn baby after it was proven that France was experimenting drugs on Cameroonians. Said drugs turned her hair an odd color (pink hair at that) and gave her a better durability and keen senses. The experimentation and abilities part wasn't the part she didn't want him to know. She didn't want him to learn about the torture she endured, the abuse, the psychological ordeal. That was her being vulnerable and there was no way on Earth that she would let him see her that way.
« Max... » She added, noticing her hand was still under his. «Your hand. »
« What's with my hand? I like it here, » He then added « On my gun. »
« It's over my hand, dummy. » She said, furrowing her brows before a chuckle crossed her lips and she bent forward to cover his hand with her other one.
« You're not really complaining. » He mentioned with a smirk. She shrugged and stuck her tongue out.
« Maybe because I like it. » Phoenix lifted a brow, surprised at her own flirting tone. « Maybe because I really do like it. » She added before bending forward him and over the table.
« Asma. » He said, knowing, unsure whether or not she was serious. «We still haven't answered the question I asked you. »
« I know.. » She removed her hand and scratched the back of her neck. « You're asking me a lot, Max. »
« I know. » Phoenix sighed and sat back in her chair. She tapped her fingers on the table and contemplated the options before her. She did want to make amends for what she did and following and stopping Cesare would do a better good than staying at the shelter. Besides, she had unique skills she had to practice. « I'll pack. »
He stood up and went to the bed that was near in order to pack his bag. She kept on tapping her fingers on the table before finally standing up and rubbing her hand on his naked shoulder. He could feel her breathing become more labored as she had not touched a man this genuinely in a while. She cleared her throat and turned her head to the opposite side.
« I was just. ahem.. checking on your shoulder. » She coughed again and then looked at him with a determined gaze in her eyes. « I'm coming with you. »
« Took you long enough! » He teased her, making her smack his shoulder with the flat of her hand before she returned to the table and sat back down on it. « Good. We leave at dawn. »
And they left Boston. That night changed several things for both Phoenix and Max in ways none of them actually realized. For the pair, it was a justice trip. They would find Cesare and kill him and his goons but there was so much more to come and none of them were ready for it.
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