Chapter 1
“Ugh, I feel ridiculous in this”, Tasha huffed as she looked in the mirror. She was wearing a light brown tunic, matching color skirt, a wide black leather belt, high black leather boots and a dark brown cape with a hood, fastened at her neck by a silver broach in the shape of a snake. “Where did you even get this stuff?”
“I got it at a cosplay store”, Patterson said. She came up behind Tasha and smoothed her cape, then lightly twirled a lock of Tasha’s hair before putting her hood up.
“I can't believe there are stores that actually sell this stuff, specifically for people to wear to these silly events”, Tasha said, incredulous.
“Well, there are”, Patterson said matter-of-factly. She turned Tasha around to face her, then looked her over and smiled. “And you don't look ridiculous. You look great.”
Tasha rolled her eyes and looked forlornly over at her duffel bag, wishing she could put her regular clothes back on. “What am I supposed to be again?”
“You’re a rogue thief”, Patterson said, excitement glimmering in her eyes.
“Wow, okay. A rogue thief”, Tasha rolled her eyes. “And what are you again?”
“I’m a gnome cleric”, Patterson said proudly. She was wearing a long grey dress, grey belt and grey boots. She smiled and then handed Tasha a plastic toy sword. “Your sword, my brave rogue thief”, she presented it with a smile.
“Really?” Tasha asked.
“Yes, really”, Patterson said. “It’s an important part of the outfit.” She smiled as Tasha sighed again, and then grabbed her own accessory, an intricately decorated glass vial about the size of a beer bottle.
“And what is that?” Tasha asked.
“It’s a glass vial. I’m going to fill it with healing potion”, Patterson said.
“Oh my God”, Tasha said, incredulous. Patterson went to the fridge, grabbed a pitcher of ice tea and filled the vial halfway full. She walked back right in front of Tasha and smiled, holding up the vial.
Tasha rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Unbelievable”, she said. “Look, do we really have to go to this? I mean, can’t I just take you out to dinner or somet-“
“Hey”, Patterson said, looking Tasha in the eyes. “You agreed to go with me, remember? That was the bet.”
Tasha stared at Patterson. She wanted to protest, but Patterson was right. Two days ago at work, in the locker room after the morning sparring session, Patterson had told Tasha that she was going to a Dungeons & Dragons cosplay event this coming weekend.
“What? Are you kidding me?” Tasha said, laughing in Patterson’s face. “How old are you, Patterson?”
“Whatever”, Patterson scowled. “Why, what are you doing that’s so much better?”
“I’m training for the Tough Mudder run, so I may go run along some muddy trails, then maybe go salsa dancing at night.”
“Getting muddy and grinding hips. Sounds really thrilling”, Patterson said and rolled her eyes.
“Whatever, nerd alert”, Tasha smirked.
“Whatever yourself, you hip griding, dancing, muddy…whatever you are”, Patterson said back.
The two glared playfully at each other until Kurt’s voice boomed through the locker room, ordering everyone into the office. A few hours later the team was working on a case involving tracking down some hackers and deciphering some code. Patterson was having trouble cracking the code, so Tasha volunteered to help, and then bet Patterson that she could crack it first. Patterson had initially resisted taking the bet, since she knew that gambling was a sensitive issue with Tasha, but Tasha had kept pushing. Patterson knew that they needed to crack the code, and that meant that Tasha needed to be at her best, so any motivation to get Tasha to perform at her best to help crack the code would be good, so she took the bet. The stakes: if Tasha won, Patterson would have to take her out to dinner at a restaurant of Tasha’s choosing. If Patterson won, Tasha would have to go with Patterson to the D&D cosplay event. Patterson cracked the code first.
“I know, I know, fine”, Tasha said. “How long does this thing last, anyway?”
“Until I decide to leave”, Patterson said, smiling.
“Well, can we at least maybe fill up that vial with something stronger than ice tea? Like maybe tequila or something?”
“Tasha-“
“Please, Patterson? I mean, I’m gonna need something if I’m going to make it through this.” She looked at Patterson with her dark brown eyes. “Please… Think of it as like…healing potion…for me.”
Patterson looked at Tasha. She knew that being dragged to this event was painful for her, and even just the anticipation was probably killing her as well. Truth be told, she was kind of enjoying playfully tormenting Tasha, especially since Tasha had laughed at her at the mention of the event. But, she didn’t want Tasha to suffer entirely through it. In fact, if she was honest with herself, she wanted Tasha to actually end up enjoying it, and maybe in the future Tasha would want to go to another one, together, with her. She decided to throw Tasha a bone. “Fine”, she said. She walked over to a cabinet and opened it up. “I’m not a big drinker so I don’t have a large selection of alcohol, and sorry – no tequila, but do I have bourbon and vodka.”
“Bourbon, please”, Tasha said, and exhaled a sigh of relief.
********
The taxi dropped them off at the event and Tasha looked around. The event took up an entire city park, one block by one block. Several hundred people in costumes were milling about. Tents and outdoor exhibits like smithing that Tasha assumed were supposed to represent the fantasy land were set up. Horse drawn carriages slowly cruised the park. Tasha sighed, and Patterson looked over at her and smiled.
“Ready?” Patterson asked, nudging Tasha with her shoulder.
“Oh boy”, Tasha said as she looked around. Then she looked down at her sword and then her outfit, then looked at Patterson. “I feel utterly ridiculous”, she said.
“Like I said before, you look great”, Patterson said. She stared at Tasha for a moment and then moved a bit closer to her and in a faux accent said, “The most beautiful rogue thief in all the land.”
At that Tasha laughed slightly. She had slammed some of the bourbon in the taxi ride over and was still feeling self-conscious but had loosened up a bit. She looked back at Patterson and said, “Thank you. And I guess you look pretty good too, for a dwarf.”
“A gnome cleric, my beautiful rogue”, Patterson came back playfully. Tasha smiled, and then Patterson grabbed her lightly by the arm. “C’mon, let’s go.” Tasha resisted a bit so Patterson pulled a bit harder. “C’mon, my beautiful Rogue”, she said. She felt Tasha give in and follow her, and in the process her hand slipped down Tasha’s arm and locked with Tasha’s fingers. The two of them began to stroll through the event, Patterson looking around with delight, Tasha self-conscious but taking some comfort in the whiskey she had drank, and, somewhat to her surprise, Patterson’s hand locked with her own.
********
“So, what did you think?” Patterson asked. “Honestly.” She and Tasha were back at Patterson’s apartment.
“Uh, it was, um…”
“Pretty fun, right? Or funner than you thought it would be? Or something like that?” Patterson finished for Tasha.
Tasha stared at Patterson. To be honest, it actually hadn’t been that bad. The people had been really friendly, the food had been decent, and some of the events had been fun, like the archery range and the smithing class. “Yeah, it was not that bad”, she said in an admitting tone.
“See? I told you”, Patterson said, as she started to remover her outfit.
“Okay, don’t be smug”, Tasha said, as she started to remove her outfit as well.
Patterson came over to Tasha. “I’m sorry”, she said smiling. “I didn’t mean to come off like that. Look, I really…I really just wanted you to enjoy it, and I’m just, I don’t know…kind of excited that you did”, she said with a warm smile.
Tasha smiled back and said, “Yeah. I did kind of enjoy it. Plus, the healing portion helped”, she said. She looked at Patterson and then wobbled a bit.
“Whoa”, Patterson said, putting her arms on Tasha’s to steady her. “You alright?”
“Yeah”, Tasha said. “Just a little…unsteady”, she said and then smiled. Tasha had drank all of the whiskey in the vial and was feeling pretty tipsy.
“I gotcha”, Patterson said, holding onto Tasha’s arms. She stared at Tasha for a moment and then said, “Well, I’m glad you enjoyed the event…my beautiful rogue thief.” At that Tasha smiled, and grabbed Patterson’s arms in return. The two of them stood there, half dressed, staring at each other, and then Tasha’s eyes started to drunkenly wander, and Patterson cleared her throat. “Well, um, since you’re kind of drunk, do you want to stay the night? I mean, I have a couch, or you can take the bed and I can take the couch…”
“Bed”, Tasha said. She removed the rest of her outfit, down to her bra and underwear, and then climbed into Patterson’s bed.
“Okay…I’ll take the couch”, Patterson said, removing the rest of her outfit.
“No”, Tasha said. “It’s your bed…share it with me”, she said, reaching over and grabbing Patterson’s arm.
“Tasha”, Patterson, now also in just her bra and underwear, said, as Tasha pulled her onto the bed.
“I wanna sleep with my dwarf”, Tasha said, then rolled over onto her side and passed out.
"I'm not a dwarf. I'm a-“ Patterson started, then stopped when she realized Tasha was out. She stared at her for a moment and then smiled slightly and smoothed Tasha’s hair out of her face. She pulled back the sheets and tucked Tasha in, then grabbed a t-shirt from her dresser, turned out the lights and climbed into bed with Tasha. She stared at Tasha in the near darkness and then curled up next to her, running her fingers through Tasha’s hair. There was something, she thought to herself. Something about her, and maybe even something between them. She had been through a lot with David’s death, but after her abduction in the antique shop and subsequent rescue, she had told herself that it was time to move on. True, she was hesitant to get involved with someone again, since it was her job that had put David in danger in the first place, but then again, David wasn’t a federal agent who knew how to protect himself. Tasha was different. She didn’t need to worry about her job being a danger to Tasha. In fact, Tasha was the field agent out of the two of them. She knew Tasha could take care of herself. And in the past month or so she had found herself thinking about the dark-haired agent more and more. Tasha liked computers, being second only to Patterson in technical knowledge on the team. She was driven, a trait that Patterson understood. She was fearless, a trait Patterson admired. And yes, she was beautiful. Patterson thought about all of these things as she continued to caress Tasha’s hair for another moment, and then in a soft whisper said, “I’m a gnome cleric, my beautiful rogue thief.”