text: “I’m honoured that you agreed to have me for dinner, darling.” “You mean take pity on a lonely old jerk? You and mommy dearest raised me better than to leave the sad and pathetic out in the cold.” “In cold blood, dear. We also raised you to own your action- well, she’d say that if she and your brothers weren’t six feet under.” Nicholas Baudelaire looked into the young woman’s eyes across the table, seeing only the indifference in her eyes. Not an ounce of remorse, of guilt. Empty? No. Pride. The warmth wafting from the freshly prepared meal between them had no effect on the chilling breeze that manifested between the father and daughter. Her eyes were green. Green. The colour of nature, serenity, generosity - well, unless you’re a Baudelaire - then it means nothing other than greed, envy, ambition, wealth. Of course, Nicholas knew that. He had that exact same glint in his own eyes. Odd how a single name could have its own meaning, but that’s what words are, right? A mess until given meaning. “I learnt from the best.” The brunette said, her lips curling into a smirk as her hands rested on the table before her. “But no, father, I’m not here to make amends - surely you know that I’d know better than to have the leader of the rival group in my own home proximities just to say sorry for a little... slip of the knife.” Nicholas’s mouth opened, only a name slipping past his lips before his hostess held up a hand to hush him, shocking him into a silence he would never usually forgo to anyone - a woman no less. “You have no heir.” Blunt. Straight to the point. “And without one, the empire you’ve risked everything to build will fall into shambles. You’re not getting any younger, you know? What would your enemies think when you finally join your beloved boys in the fiery domain below?” Her sly eyes gazed over the white intertwined with her guest’s slicked back dirty blond hair; your textbook look for a morally grey businessman who may or may not be the majordomo of the local mafia. There was silence. The tension in the air made it hard to breathe. Nicholas suffocated, but he couldn’t tell whether it was the stupid tie he had put on just to make a good impression to a face that had been erased from his life... or perhaps it was the face itself that made his throat clench - wanting to choose death over the peaceful façade they were putting up. Yet, his own smile made an appearance, leaning back into his seat. He would- no. He could not show any weakness in the presence of such a foe. Who else could build up a rival faction to his in half a decade if not his flesh and blood? “Is this your way of asking to join back the family, my dear? Because, I must say, not your best negotiation at work, seeing as you’ve gotten your lazy cows to take out the very people you grew up with.” The young boss’s smirk faltered when she listened to her father’s words, a twitch in her eye giving away the resentment she felt. “I never understood why mother stayed with you. She should have joined me.” “Would you have spared her then?” “A magician never reveals her secrets.” “Kayla-” “Kai.” “You’re still using that stupid street name of yours?” Nicholas looked at her, revolted. His daughter merely looked away, picking up the butter knife to prepare her bread though Nicholas knew she would much rather stick it in his face as how she had to her own brother. “I gave you a perfectly good name, fit for any little girl, and you replace it with a man’s name but spend like no tomorrow on those unbridled dresses you so carelessly flaunt around. Explain to me the logic, dear, because I see none.” “Unbridled.” Kai scoffed, taking a bite of her bread, “What am I? A horse? Come now, we both know riding isn’t my top priority, but if you must know, Kayla is reserved. Kayla is the inner circle. Kayla is friendly. Kai, on the other hand, is business... and this, father, is business.” Nicholas clicked his tongue, rolling his eyes at the creature of a child he had raised. His head shaking, his eyes just savoured the room. Luxurious. The waist coating of the room made it look bigger than it actually was, an illusion to trap all those who enter to think they have freedom when in reality, they were about to be trapped in a corner. He would not give his daughter the satisfaction of that reality. He didn’t bother turning back to her when he heard her familiar laugh echo through the room, “Shocked, father, that I have business? Well, if you had given me a shot instead of pushing me aside because ‘little girls can’t play with the big boys’, you would know... Ironically, it’s your precious boys who felt the shot, though.” Her laugh mocked the dead. It made Nicholas sick in the stomach to hear her amusement. He failed to hear the hollowness of her laughter, the sickness she too felt. Kayla Aurav Baudelaire was not a heartless monster. She was not one to kill for sport; that was exactly what she wanted to avoid when she stepped away from the family. She did not want to be like her brothers, her mother, her father. She wanted to be different. Not ruled by the ingrown patriarchy of her family’s legacy, not bound by the ‘traditions’ her predecessors had set to deal with... complications. But she could not deny the lives she had taken. Most recently, 4 members of the Baudelaires. The matriarch Oriana and her beloved princes; Harry, Ethari, Kaede, Jack. “I didn’t want to do it, you know.” Kai put down the bread, her finger tracing the rim of her glass, “They made me. They pushed me. And...” She stopped. She frowned. She remembered the night. She had come in peace- a meeting her eldest brother Harry had arranged away from their father, knowing full well about the mess that would happen if he was there. Word on the street was that the two biggest factions were to merge, and Kai was intrigued. She was a fool. She was weak. She, shamefully enough, was lured by the idea of her biological family. Unlucky for them, though, she is not stupid. You know how girls say they’re not mad when really, they are? Well, Kai may or may not have put that to practice when she said she came unarmed... and alone. She watched their every move, letting one wrong move slide. Then another. Then another. And then, impatience truly does end great plans. And lives. Kai snapped out of it; she could not show any weakness in the presence of such a foe, not now. Not when she is so close to obtaining the power she had been denied purely because she’s a girl. She leaned back in her seat, crossing her legs as she picked up her glass. “Tell me, father, how much would you want your little empire for? Name a price, any price, and I’ll assure you I’ll take care of your little world. It’s what Jackie would have wanted... or maybe Kaede, the only Kae in your life- I mean, my apologies, ‘was’ in your life.” Bam! Nicholas slammed his hand on the table, making the door of the room swing wide open as two of Kai’s members rushed in, weapons drawn while a petite male rushed in - a male that earned a somewhat confused look from the brunette holding the champagne glass. She looked at her women, holding her free hand up to dismiss them without even using words while the young man walked over to Nicholas, alert as ever. His small stature stood to attention beside Nicholas’s chair, ready for anything. He was shorter than someone his age would usually be. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties - the age of deception, some would say since one’s twenties is what they look forward to when younger and will miss when they are older - but when in the moment. Hell. Yet, had he disguised his face with a mask, Kai probably would have assumed he was younger just from his voice. The male leaned near the mob master, asking if he was alright - his voice wasn’t high-pitched like a girl’s, but it sounded like he had yet to go through puberty. Nicholas nodded, slipping off his coat and passing it to the brunette male with blonde highlights - telling him to ‘be a dear and hang this up, Apollo’. Apollo, as Nicholas called him, complied without question before returning to his side like a loyal dog. He stood there in silence, eyes locked on Kai’s like a hunting hound. Though having a certain puppy dog softness to the rest of his face, his eyes were sharp, just about as sharp as his eyelashes - a pretty boy. “How shocking? You got a K-pop idol to join you.” Kai sneered, “You going to entertain me with a little dancey-dance, boy.” Apollo stayed calm - so well trained, pleasing his boss who smirked at his daughter, “You shouldn’t be talking like that... to the heir of your rival empire. Bom Apuro or, as he goes by in business, Apollo Robbins.” “What?” Kai nearly dropped her red wine, almost staining the white table sheet masking the mahogany they ate on. “You can’t just name some random Jeon Jungkook reject - he’s a runt!” “But he has been by my side for years, far more than you have, Kayla.” The brunette grimaced, her teeth sinking into her inside lip so hard she herself was surprised she didn’t draw blood. She listened to her father go on about how Apollo’s entry into the empire started with a show of loyalty, unlike Kai, who walked away from family. He saved Ethari from being ambushed, unlike Kai, who instead stole her brothers’ lives. He made hard decisions for the greater good of the empire, unlike Kai, who was doing whatever she could to take the Baudelaire legacy. “And he’s a guy.” Tersely Kai added, “Unlike me.” The brunette’s eyes drifted to the young male, looking him up and down. Her expression amused her father - it was screaming out with questions about how a soft outsider boy beat her to her own blood father’s will for the empire. “Sir,” Apollo suddenly spoke again, turning to the aging male, “The rumour on the streets, however, believe that our two factions are to merge. If I may, sir, perhaps your daughter would be more... compelled to work for us if she knew what was at stake.” “At stake?” The young male nodded, “The word is that the other factions are planning to band together - to stop two powers from coming together. Thus, ma’am, the longer you wait to submit to your father, the one with an actual empire and resources to stand against a united opposition, best case scenario only one of the two Baudelaire led names will survive... and I know which branch I’d place my bets on.” There was silence. Shock setting in, it seemed, slowly. “Oh, did you not know?” Nicholas asked, mocking. “That’s surprising. Aren’t you always the first to intel, or so you boast to be? Seems like Apollo does beat you as the best candidate for my replacement.” “I am your daughter!” “You have not been my daughter since you walked out on our family just because I told you you could not take the positions your brothers earned!” “That’s because you never gave me a chance, and when I did, you shot my boyfriend!” “He was a spy!” “He saved my life because you deadass aimed for my head instead! Admit it, you wanted to kill me! Then you lied and said I tried to kill you! You turned everyone agains-” “You turned everyone against yourself!” Nicholas swung his arm, sweeping the table, dropping the food to the floor. The man was on his feet, his breathing heavy, “You left. You chose to leave. Then you made this stupid girl scout of a club to take your whole family down.” Kai was silent as she heard the door open again, her girls coming in to see the chaos before instantly cleaning up from a silent glance from their boss. “You’re not my family. They are. I gathered girls whom society turned their backs on and trained them to be forces to be reckoned with - forces fools like you would underestimate and overlook until it’s too late.” “I don’t want your empire.” She said, picking up her fork and knife to cut into her steak that was surprisingly still warm, “But I don’t want this rivalry to continue. I have better things to do than try to kill my own father.” Nicholas stared at his daughter, who began at her food before sitting down. Just as he did, another young lady walked into the room to bring him a fresh glass of wine and steak, still warm, newly cooked. He looked at it suspiciously as his server provided him with a fork and knife. “I didn’t poison the bloody cow,” Kai said, not even looking up from her plate. Still, Nicholas was stoic, just glaring at the cut of meat. “For the love of God,” Kai exasperated, putting down her fork and knife, “Boy wonder, taste the God-forsaken steak to show the old man it’s safe.” Apollo looked surprised to even be addressed by the very much frustrated young woman, just looking at her before warily glancing at the steak - making the girl groan in annoyance. “Go on, show your devoted loyalty to my father. Maybe he’ll give you a treat and belly rubs if you’re a good boy.” The mocking kept going in the background as Apollo turned to face Nicholas, who hesitated... then nodded. The young male picked up the fork and knife and sliced the tender meat, enjoying the warmth that projected from the meal. Taking a bite, he savoured the flavour of the food, the gentle feeling that overtook him from the insides like a loving hug. “It’s good, sir,” Apollo said with a small smile, covering his mouth as he spoke with a lady-like etiquette that made Kai scoff from the other side of the table as she resumed her own meal. Some of Kai’s girls were still in the room, ready to attend to any of their needs. Yet, after having put his proclaimed heir at risk, that seemed to have convinced the man enough... except. “Apollo, get my coat. My silverware’s in there.” The man said. The young male headed over to the coat rack in the corner of the room, taking the coat that had been untouched since he himself had hung it up. Nicholas put on his outerwear before taking out a velvet case - inside, his own silverware. “You still carry your own fork and spoon,” Kai asked, her tone laced with annoyance as she took another bite of her food, just watching her father’s every move. Her eyes turned to her food, almost as though she couldn’t bear to look at him. The room filled with silence for a moment, just the breathing of the inhabitants and the clinking of the plates when they were met with the knife. Then. Struggling. Choking. Begging. Thud. Kai looked up, her eyes blank as she looked across the table. The man once considered her closest rival was face-first into the very piece of meat he so very much feared. “Hm... Waiter, there seems to be a body in that meal.” “Come now, is that how you talk to your favourite K-boy? I mean, sure, half a decade is a little long, but you always know where my loyalties lie, Kayla.” “Still can’t believe you went with that name... Apollo Robbins, deception specialist. Spoiler much?” The newcomer walked over to the ex-mafia boss, his hand squishing the older man’s face to look at him - checking for any signs of life. “Pity... Seems like boss forgot to make sure his precious personal set wasn’t laced.” “Poison?” “Better.” Apollo mused, a mischievous glint in his eyes, “Peanuts.” A sweet laugh escaped Kayla’s lips, setting down her own utensil to motion to the seat across her, “Care to join me, old friend?” Apollo scrunched his nose with a playful pout, “The seat seems to be taken though... Oh, wait.” With a single raise of the leg, the once feared Nicholas was drop kicked to the ground. The young mafia member pulled a shocked face, as though surprised the seat opened up before giving a playful bow to the hostess, “It would be my pleasure to dine with you, Madam Baudelaire- must be great to have your surname back... at least, once I give it back to you.” Apollo reached into his pocket and pulled out a recording device, and with a single touch of a button, Nicholas’ voice filled the room, naming Apollo heir of his empire. “Unless, you know, I decide to keep it for myself.” Kayla rolled her eyes, holding up her glass of wine to the Korean across from her. “To you, my best partner in crime.” Her guest picked up Nicholas’ untouched wine glass, holding it up with a smirk as his other hand ran through his hair... or at least, her wig. Beautiful black hair fell to her shoulders with a single pull, highlighting her femininity that was so well concealed before - perks of her own naturally sharp visuals. “I’ll drink to that.”