MAIZE

THE NEXT MORNING

Crash.

Laying in her bed within the guest room she had claimed as her own, Maize heard the sound and felt herself shoot awake instantly.

The sound had echoed loudly from somewhere on the lower floor, then followed by a rise in voices as somebody cursed and another began arguing. The exact words were hard to make out, but the volume carried well throughout the large house.

Fast reacting, Maize was up and out of her sheets in an instant, running in her leggings and shirt from yesterday out of her room and down the hall.

Banging and crashing was never a good sign. Especially first thing in the morning.

She flew down the stairs, her feet barely hitting the floor-wood as she descended quickly. An attack? The gang? Had they been found already? These frantic thoughts ran through her mind in a flash—only for her to come to an abrupt halt at the third last step.

At the base of the stairs in front of her, where the small space fed through an open doorway that connected to open ways through to the kitchen and the next room over, stood the source of the commotion.

The both of them.

And suddenly she recognized the yelling voices.

Alec and Ryder were both there, standing at odds with each other as they insulted shouted at each other. Mutual glares of murder were shared in the space between them as they stood like mirror images of each other with arms crossed; standoffish and pissed.

She noted a cooking pan the size of her head rolling out of place along the floor by Alec's feet. Whatever that was doing there, Maize had a bad feeling she was going to find out real soon—not that she didn't already have a general idea.

"Oh hey Maize," Alec cut through the arguments to greet her as her presence was noticed, though his eyes were still narrowed with traces of vexation and anger that was not directed at her intentionally.

Maize was almost afraid to ask—but she did it anyway. "Ryder what did you do?"

"What? Why do you automatically assume it was me?" Ryder asked crossly as he threw his hands up in exclamation. "I didn't do anything!"

"Didn't do anything? The first thing you did when I came down the stairs was try to throw a fucking pan at my head!" Alec roared.

Suspicions confirmed then.

Maize shot a half ticked off half exasperated look at Ryder, the look on her expression saying 'you agreed not to kill them' blatantly.

He threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, don't give me that look—it ain't my fault I forgot there were uninvited strangers in my house! It was a reaction of self-defence. Be glad I didn't accidentally shoot him!"

Alec scoffed disbelievingly, "Bullshit. How do you forget something like that?" he questioned.

Ryder narrowed his eyes and made of show of tipping his head back and tapping his chin mockingly. "Oh, I don't know...maybe because you're not actually supposed to be here in the first place!" he retorted.

Which of course, was the cue for another round of senseless arguing.

Maize brought a hand up to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Should have seen this coming...

She was still tired. It was still only six in the morning. And she was still not sure whether or not she had saved up enough patience to be able to deal with the two of them together.

Men, she thought with a roll of her eyes.

It was a wonder the agents hadn't heard the commotion come rushing down to investigate like she had—though notably, her room was the closest to receive the reverberation of the noise.

"What in blazing's name is going on here?!"

Or perhaps she had just spoken a moment too soon.

Maize dropped her hand from her face and crossed her arms over her chest as she looked over her shoulder to a still half asleep appearing Kishan and a baffled looking Maria standing on the top of the stairs and staring at the scene before them. Each of them were more or less still in the same clothes from the day before, as was herself and Alec—they would need to get new ones somehow soon. And the two agents must have met each other in the hall from their rush to exit their respective rooms and find out the cause of racket that had shattered what was supposed to be the peaceful silence of six in the morning.

Maize shrugged as she turned back to the other two. "I think the simplest explanation would be to say that the both of them are just idiots," she answered dryly.

"I heard that, Maize!" Ryder growled as he cut his argument with Alec to glare at her. "Watch what you say!"

"Coming from someone like you that seems funny," Alec retorted sarcastically.

"You trying to start something, huh?" Ryder growled as his attention went immediately back to Alec—who smirked without humour.

"No, just finish it."

Ryder suddenly growled under his breath as his steel eyes flashed and he took a threatening step forward to the cross-armed detective who didn't flinch back in the slightest, but bore down a matching glare of ice which only seemed to fuel Ryder's flaring temper.

Maize rolled her eyes. "Are you two going to stop?"

Her question was ignored by the both of them.

The bounty hunter sighed with heavy exasperation.

Ryder opened his mouth to say something and Alec looked geared for a full-on fight. But something stopped them before either of them could even move a muscle; two twin blades soared past their heads—their blades slightly curved like fangs and glinted with deadly sharp edges in the flicker of light as they seemed to move both as quick as lightning and caught in a single moment in time as each of the men froze where they were standing, too slow to react as they watched the twin blades fly past their eyes and ebb themselves into the wall opposite of where they had been throw, striking wood with an audible thwack.

Alec took a step back and cursed in surprise while Ryder stared wide-eyed at the blades in his wall before slowly turning to face the person who had thrown them.

Maize stood at ease, unbothered, and smiling slightly.

"Was that really necessary?! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Ryder exclaimed at Maize.

"Jesus Maize..." Alec muttered as he caught the breath he had lost, one arm hanging loosely at his side while the other ran through his hair.

"It got you two to shut up," she retorted without a hint of remorse.

Kishan and Maria were also staring at her from behind, Kishan looking completely baffled.

"Where do you even keep those?!" he exclaimed with disbelief.

Maize looked back over her shoulder and smiled, "You have your secrets, and I have mine."

"Dear god..." she heard him mutter in response. By which point she had turned back to the other two.

"Now are you two going to stop?" She repeated the question from earlier, shooting them each a look that threatened more danger if they didn't answer this time.

"He started it," Ryder muttered begrudgingly as he looked away.

"I'm not the one who attempted assault with the kitchenware," Alec retorted as his arms crossed in front of his chest once again.

Suddenly Ryder looked like he was trying his hardest not to smile. "Like I said, it was an accident..." He wasn't doing the best job.

"Yeah," Alec muttered with narrowed eyes, clearly unconvinced. "And like I said; bullshit."

Maize groaned and the arguing two noticeably flinched, as if they expected her to pull another set of blades out of thin air to launch at them again. Unfortunately, she had only had the two on hand, so that wasn't going to happen.

"Alright, we're out," Kishan grumbled as he yawned loudly turned to go back to his room. "Sort this out while I go back to sleep."

"It is a little too early for this," Maria agreed as she threw an expressionless look at the scene before following her agent partner back up.

The idea of more sleep sounded much appealing. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Maize would be getting any with Alec and Ryder continuing to cause a fight.

The next thing she'd be rushing down to stop would be Ryder trying to set Alec on fire—'accidentally'.

"Dammit, this is why I hate cops!" Ryder shouted to himself as he turned on one heel and stormed out of the room entirely.

"Something tells me they're not too fond of you either, Riley," Alec retorted as he left.

"It's RYDER!"

"Whatever."

Once Ryder was gone Maize shot Alec a look.

"What?" he asked.

"Are you trying to get us kicked out on day one?" Maize exclaimed. Alec rolled his eyes.

"Your ex-boyfriend is a real piece of work," Alec growled.

"My what—?" Maize blinked. Did the detective just say what she think he said? She and Ryder? She wanted to laugh, but she had another idea. "What makes you think he's my ex-boyfriend?" She asked with a slow smile, and noticed how Alec stiffened just slightly.

"He's not?" Alec raised an eyebrow and studied her. "Well, then I'm suddenly very questionable about your judgment."

"Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he's a bad guy," Maize said.

"Really? I thought that was how shit worked," Alec returned with a sarcastic roll of his eyes before he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. "Besides...you can do much better."

"Is that a compliment, detective?"

"Take it as a piece of advice."

"Well, you'll be glad to know then that he isn't my ex or my boyfriend. We've never been like that. Ryder's just an old friend."

"Anyway, your pal is kind of a pain in the ass," Alec muttered. "How did you two meet anyway?"

"I heard that, asshole!"

"Oh great, he's back," Alec muttered sarcastically as Ryder stride back into the room with Kota following at his heels.

Maize and Ryder then looked at each other.

"Well..." Maize started. Ryder was the one job Maize ever recalled failing in her life.

"She tried to kill me," Ryder stated openly.

"Can't imagine why," Alec responded with a sarcastic look.

"Shut up!"

"Yeah...but as it turns out, he sucks at being killable, so that didn't quite work out."

"You're so kind, Maize, to say that," Ryder answered.

"Bet I could do it..." Alec muttered under his breath with a challenging glint in his eye.

Ryder turned and pointedly glared across at Alec. "Yeah...I really don't like you."

Alec's response was to grin snidely,"The feeling is mutual."

Maize let out a resigned sighed. "Look, I'm not even going to tell you two to knock it off, alright. Just—the next time you feel like doing something childish, take it outside."

"Be careful what you wish for," Ryder muttered.

Alec raised an eyebrow and Maize snapped at him, "What was that?"

"Nothing!"