"Just wanted to stop by and give a rose to the loveliest elf in Port City~" - Captain Atticus
Eve blushed, the pink reaching far enough to dust the tops of her ears. She was speechless for a solid moment as she took the rose gingerly from the Captain’s paws. It was a lovely bloom, practically still glistening with dew, fragrant and soft but a deep passionate red that almost rivaled the fiery shade of Atticus’ braid.
‘Where did he even find a rose so beautiful?’ she wondered as she sniffed at the delicate blossom. ‘He does realize what a rose usually symbolizes… Right?’ That brought the pink back to her face.“Thank you…” she murmured, eyes mired in the petals soft as velvet. “Now… what do you want?” she asked with a flat stare that tried to hide how actually flattered she was and how easily he made her heart flutter with such a simple, yet sweet, gesture. She couldn’t help the smile though below the inquiring eyebrow tilt. Around him, she wasn’t sure she ever would be able to help but smile.
“Why madame,” He gasped, ear perking upward as he put a large clawed hand over his chest plate “You wound me.”
He grinned as his ears folded back, glistening pearly white canines that tweaked slightly to the left. It was soft on his chiseled jaw. A smile that won the hearts of many women instantly.
“It is mere coincidence,” he began, still smiling, “that I happened to hear on my way to deliver this rose that your lovely ears have heard some not so lovely gossip.”
Atticus leaned on the counter, his claw-like nails lightly scratching at the counter’s top as he let his emerald eyes softly gaze into Eve’s. She blushed furiously and he couldn’t help but think how utterly adorable it was. His grin faded slowly to a gentle smile that glowed on his bronzed skin.
“Should I have also brought chocolates?” He chimed when she did not reply.
Eve sighed. 'So, he's buttering me up for information? Figures.' A quick recovery with a smile tried to distract from the sigh and pink that still flared in her face. 'Maybe he really doesn't know the effect he has on people?'
"No," she answered as she squatted and rummaged through the bar for something akin to a vase, even a temporary one until she could find a proper one. "If you had wanted information," she spoke above the glass pinging as she carefully sifted, "you could've just asked." Finally, she popped back up within view from behind the counter with an empty and excellent vintage wine lifted from one of the many "lost" ships long ago. A quick tapping at the faucet connected to one of the largest water crystals she'd seen, and the rose now happily called the spent bottle of Pinot Noir home.
She fussed with the flower a little longer as she started. "The not-so-lovely gossip happens to be something I don't think you, personally, are going to like. Now, I don't know who exactly, and the source of this information isn't the most reliable... So... take it with a grain of salt, alright?" she warned him with a frown.
Any pretenses fell away from the man across from her. His attention was hanging on to her every word now. Strangely, she relished that fact, albeit briefly. "Rumor has it, that there's someone among your ranks that has fooled your good judge of character. Not a T.W.A.T. That's too high-profile... but not a grunt because they don't see or get to know enough as a grunt... Whoever it is has started making a habit and considerable amount of riches by selling information on the Watch to shady parties willing to pay. They've told them about operations still in planning, records, the layout of the facility as they know it, even some of the prisoners..."
This news didn't seem to sit well with Atticus at all and she didn't blame him. "There's a traitor in your midst. Maybe they started out as a decent person at first and joined for the right reasons, maybe they joined with the intent of being a mole all along, but they're reaping the benefits of fooling those around them. That's why you've had so much trouble catching the trail of some of the bigger gangs lately."
Atticus hadn't said a word, and Eve didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad sign. She tried to soften the news, "It is just a rumor..."
