The night was still young as bodies moved into the bar. The Valley wasn't your upscale bar, nestled in the more industrial part of downtown Tacoma heading into the highways and truckstops of Fife, but it wasn't a total dive either.
A keen balance, one that the bright-red-haired woman sitting at the bar appreciated immensely. Light shades blocked her emerald eyes, but nothing could dim the bright teeth behind her smirk.
Well, almost nothing.
The door to the bar closed, and an older man came marching down towards her. If people looked closely enough, they could spot some similarities between the two, such as their broader noses or square chins. Even their jeans and flannel shirts were worn in similar ways. But no one would notice, as all it took was a drop of her tell-tale smirk for the familiar to know to look away.
The man got right next to her, but she made no movement of recognition.
"So, we're back to 'Crimson' now, huh?" He said, gruffly and dismissively.
"Took you only a month this time, I'm impressed, old man." Crimson replied with a snicker and returned her smile, albeit with a more artificial edge.
The older man's brow knits tighter together as he sits beside her. "The hell've you been doing out here? City's a lost cause." The bartender began to move over with a stern look, clearly ready to give a 'Is he bothering you' display.
But he doesn't make it past a glower from the older man, nor a tell-tale handwave from Crimson. She can handle this. "Ah, ain't so bad really. There have been some fun new nightclubs, and the parks have been getting cleaned up better." She took a sip of her cider, as even she was beholden to the flavors of fall, using the chilled drink to ignore the colder glare on her.
"And are you so damn blind as to why that is?" Dear old dad could never watch his tone.
"I'm sure you're itching to tell me." His daughter couldn't either.
"It's rotting from the inside 'cause of those damn parasites. Not just the bloodsuckers either, the techno-bastards, the whiners, it's all gone to hell." His nose furled as if hot garbage had just passed under it. "This city always was pungent, but there's too much rot to salvage. Not now."
He looks around the bar, in an all-too-practiced fashion. "I can even smell two of the bastards right here."
"Don't." Crimson raised her own hackles.
"We could take this whole place if we wanted to. Like old times." He began to turn around, as if to get up from his seat, only for Crimson to whip him back down on his ass with a resonant thud.
"This ain't old times you curmudgeon bastard." The grip around his shoulder tightened. "I noticed them when they walked in, but one's a kid, barely a year 'old', and the other is one of the most passive people I've ever met."
His disgust only doubled at this, as if he was looking at something utterly eldritch. "You know them?"
"Only enough to say hello." She turned and waved, as the pair awkwardly returned the gesture. "She can only stomach bagged blood and works with local drives to make sure nothing gets taken that'd be missed. He's been taken under her wing, and is learning to do much the same."
"Yeah, heard it a million times before. The 'heroic' monster who is oh-so-benevolent. They end up the same."
"Maybe, but that's the future's problem."
"It's not the future!" He slammed his fist down, drawing in an ebb of attention that quickly flowed from fear. "It's all around you, but you're sitting here looking at plastic daisies and ignoring it!"
"Of course, because what I should be doing is killing everyone I don't like and burning down the rest?"
"What we should be doing is what our family has achieved for generations. Do you know how rare it is for a bloodline to have a warrior in every generation? It's-"
"Damn near unheard of and a gift from god itself yeah yeah you've been over this already!" A werewolf's rage was unmatched by anything else in the world, even when in their human forms, and the palpable tension was filling the bar to bursting, as even the empowered members of the crowd held their 'breath', lest they pop the bubble.
But instead, Crimson took her own deep breath in and returned to her drink.
"Look, not like this hasn't been lovely, but are you gonna muster up why the hell you're here, or should I just show you the door?" She glared up at her father, who had come down from his anger as well.
He had gotten a lifetime's worth of 'watch your tone' and 'Who do you think you're talking to' out years before this moment, so he knew to just accept it if he was going to get anywhere.
"Me and the rest of the House. We're going to be moving more towards Seattle."
"Really? You're actually giving up here?"
"It's not our damn choice, but there's more happening up there that we need to put our foot down on. Much more than the damn vampires. Pentex has been beating out Amazon left and right, and we need to put a stop to it. I'm here..."
Vulnerability bubbles up like acid reflux in the throat of a man who shouts to be heard. "Because I want you with us when we do it. So I know you're safe. So I know you're doing what's right."
"Pass."
"Goddamnit, Crimson, I'm serious!" His hat was thrown onto the bar.
"So am I. I ain't budging just because Rightful Justice gets bored. No matter what you or anyone else might think, I've got shit to do here." There was no spite or snark in these words, only genuine frustration and devotion.
"You want to talk big about Pentex up there? It's already here, using their subsidiaries to corner half a dozen markets, they even seem to be shoving out the vamps that're setting up down here. If everyone else is calling this a lost cause, I'm going to stick around and fight anyway." The daughter stood up, standing almost a head taller than the father, who took a singular step back in the process.
"Isn't that what our legacy should be?"
There is a terse silence.
"I clearly ain't gonna change your mind. But you ain't changing mine either." He stood back up straight, putting his hat back on.
"Tell me something I don't know." She scoffs and returns once more to the seat. She decided it wouldn't be left a third time.
More silence passes, with the daughter not even returning a passing glance. "If anything should happen. You know where to find me."
A nod was the only response.
"Just don't fuckin go off the grid for another month!"
"Alright, alright...I'll make it two." Her smirk finally returned.
"God! Why're you so difficult?" He asked rhetorically, heading towards the door.
"Not my fault I got the new moon, blame your timing!" She shouted after him.
Despite the remark, and despite her frustration, there was a longing there. One that could only increase, as she once again saw his back go further and further away. But, that’s just the kind of man he was.
Time would march on, and drinks would be finished, but a few concerned people would ask if she was alright. But this was nothing Crimson hadn't faced before, and she had the same answer for all of them.
"It's just the family business."
