Chapter Text
Lorelina looked up at the two men standing outside the restaurant she worked at. One wore a sort of grunge-style cyber-military aesthetic outfit while the other was wearing typical tourist clothes. This was unusual as they both looked Russian… and this was a Russian section of a big city. Although, the grunge looking guy could be considered a gopnik, or– to put it nicely a Slavic hooligan. They were both fairly tall and regarded her silently, like cats.
As she approached the entrance of the restaurant she freely made several popping and airplane noises, courtesy of a set of diagnosed Tourette’s. They were a little louder than normal since she was apprehensive of these two men, but nothing to worry about all in all.
“Hey!”
Wow, she was right. The tourist looking guy had a Russian twang to his abrupt greeting. Maybe it was a get up, or disguise of some kind. Lorelina made a surprisingly accurate bird call out of instinct and turned, her breath catching ever so slightly.
“Yes?” She was less than a step away from the double doors to the interior of the restaurant. If she could just get an excuse to walk through…
The grunge guy gave a sly and devilish smirk as his accompaniment glared at him.
“You work at this restaurant, right?”
“Who are you?” She asked.
“Belikov. And this is,” Belikov gestured to the grunge guy, “a pain in the ass if I’m being honest. You work here, yes?”
“Rude,” his friend remarked, “You can call me Devil.”
Belikov smacked him in the ribs harshly without a moment's hesitation, both of them wincing, but Belikov more so than Devil.
“Yeah… yeah I work here.”
Belikov lightened back up, “So you would know if this place of business is…” he squinted, trying to make out the words on the overhead sign.
“It’s Estonian,” Devil muttered.
“It’s not and you’re wrong.”
“I can read Estonian!”
Lorelina just smiled patiently as she watched them bicker and argue. In some regards it was better being outside, she could breathe in the salty air to calm her instead of being in the stuffy kitchen all day.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Devil is right.” His smile only got more crass and Belikov looked like he was going to smack someone again, and that someone would certainly deserve it.
“Is that all you boys came over to ask?”
“Yes,” Belikov said quickly.
“No,” Devil answered a second behind him, “Aw, what do you mean? It’ll be funny if we go with my plan.”
“Your plan always gets us arrested…”
“Third time’s the charm.”
“That saying doesn’t mean anything after you’ve said it for the eighth time!” There was clearly a lot of backstory between the two men, and Lorelina would have been willing to hear some of those stories if she had any time. Speaking of time.
“If that’s all then I have to get to work,” and she finally walked through those doors and into the Michelin Star restaurant, the first one of Estonian origin. Well, she wasn't Estonian but the owner was.
Moving towards the back kitchen, it was already bustling with the early arrived chefs. The restaurant didn’t open until 10 am, so they had two or so hours to get ready. When she pushed open the freely spinning doors she got doused in soapy water from a bucket perched on top. A classic prank. It startled her into silence but she turned around and marched back outside, just in time to see two figures sprinting into the distance.
Once she found out who they really were and where they worked, it was war .