𝐒𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍 #1

𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐈 𝐌𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐒

✧

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BOUNTY.

That was the life that Spike had occupied himself with. Bounty after bounty, and yet he still found himself broke by the time a new bounty appears. He was tired of these small fries, but every time he was close to catching something big, it would slip right through his fingers.

The card that held the money he received from this week’s job twirled lightly in his thin fingers. The other hand was occupied with holding a lit cigarette. The whiff of smoke would enter his nostrils along with actual smoke entering his lungs. This was a much needed remedy after a long day.

As he walked through the empty hallway of the Bebop, he could hear a young female’s laughing blending in with Jet’s. He rolled his eyes with a mental groan thinking that Jet had invited some girl over for the night.

Oh well, at least he’s getting some.

The laughter finally reached his ears as the door to the main room slid open. The cigarette in his mouth lifted as he pursed his lips looking out at the scene in front of him. Jet was leaned against a chair that stood across the bright yellow couch. His metal arm lifted against the chair and held his head up. His eyes glanced up at Spike making his lips curve into a lighter grin.

“There you are, Spike!” Jet’s husk voice put all the attention on the slender man. “I was just telling our guest about you.”

The so called “guest” whipped her head around and Spike finally got the full view of her. The top of her head was blanketed with curly strands of pale gold tied back into a low ponytail. Her eyes were as bright as a blue summer sky. Her skin was more tan than his was and her cheeks even had a small sunburn. Her face was littered in freckles and when she smiled at him, he saw that she had a small gap between her teeth. She wore big overalls with a strap hanging off her shoulder. A black tank top sat underneath her overalls along with some goggles tied around her neck.

She stuck her hand out as her eyes glimmered in excitement, “Hi!” He stopped for a moment and thought about the way her voice sounded. “I’m Val.” Upon further realization, he noticed that her voice had a strong french twang to it.

He raised an eyebrow and reluctantly took her hand, “Spike.” He leaned his head over to make eye contact with Jet. Once their eyes met, he motioned towards the blonde.

“Oh!” Jet clapped his hands together and pushed himself up from his chair. “Spike, Val has offered, herself, to be our official mechanic.”

With his eyebrow still raised high, he took his hand back from her, “Why?” He stopped and turned back to Val. “I mean, I’m not complaining or anything, but this is just out of the blue.”

Jet opened his mouth to answer, but she already had one ready, “So that I can have a place to stay.”

Spike was taken aback by her answer, “What? I’m sorry,” He held his hand up and performed a fake laugh, “correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we supposed to come to you?” His eyes panned over to Jet. “I wasn’t informed we’d be getting a permanent mechanic.”

He walked over to Spike and slapped his hand down on his shoulder, “I didn’t need to ask you because she came in and she said she would do it for free!”

His friend’s smile plastered all over his bearded face. Spike faked a smile and gently pushed his hand away, “I still would’ve liked to have been told about this, Jet.”

Spike’s eyes narrowed on Jet as he copied his fake smile, “Well, Spike, I shouldn’t have to remind you who’s ship this is.”

Now their eyes were having a competition on who could perform a more nasty glare. Tension was obviously bubbling between them. Val jumped off the back of the couch and pushed the two men apart.

“I can leave if it’s going to be a problem,” Her big blue eyes shot a guilty look at Spike causing him to growl at her.

“You’ll be just fine, Val,” Jet pushed her behind him so he could whisper/yell at Spike. “Listen, she says she’ll do all the work for free as long as we give her a bed and some food.”

He looked back at the girl, who gave him a quick smile before he turned away again, “How do you know this isn’t a scam?”

Jet turned to Val again who gave him the same smile. She wasn’t even a foot away from them so she could hear everything that was going on, but pretended not to so they could have “privacy.”

He turned back to Spike, “It could be yeah, but I don’t want to risk it. You’re too reckless, Spike and I’m tired of paying so much to repair your ship along with mine.”

He glared at Jet and then pointed to the girl, “She is not touching my ship!”

“Hey listen! She gave me plenty of references and they all were praising her. I promise you your ship is in good hands.”

“She could’ve made up those references!” His voice grew louder now.

Val stepped in between them with a smile, “You can fake references?”

Spike watched her for a moment not sure how to respond. Having a woman on their ship could easily put things out of balance. He’d have to deal with the constant whining and her complaining about boy problems. It would ruin the peaceful cycle he had just gotten into and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. But when he looked into Jet’s eyes he knew that there wasn’t much he could do in this situation.

He groaned lightly with an eyeroll, “Fine. She can stay.” Her eyes lit up again behind his hand, but before she could celebrate he continued. “But, don’t bother me, because if you do I’ll kick you to the curb.”

Val’s warm hand wrapped around his wrist to pull it away from her face. Her smile lit up the room once more as her happiness grew more evident on her face, “Oh my gosh! Thank you so much!” Her eyes kept going back and forth between Jet and Spike then finally landed on Spike. “I promise I won’t bother you at all. You won’t even know that I’m here.”

But even Spike knew that was a lie.

✧

Hi! Thank you for choosing this book to read!

This is a little bit of a mess for the first chapter and I apologize for that. I had ideas, but as soon as they came to me, they disappeared so I had to work with what I remembered. I hope everything made sense and I hope you enjoyed reading this!

Feel free to give feedback!