Red Wine and Pink Hair

A nearly imperceptible smirk tickled Allison's lips as she started the car. Of course Poison would defer to Allison's judgement, it was only natural. Just looking at her, brash and sexy and so completely lacking in direction or refinement or any real authority, she might've guessed that this was a girl who had no idea what she wanted. It would've been unfair of Allison to expect her to be someone of similar quality to herself.

"Mmm, I wouldn't dare be so presumptuous as to bring you back to my place." She said with certain notes in her posh accent that indicated that she absolutely would do just that if it pleased her. "But... perhaps you'll enjoy the alternative as much."

She backed carefully out of her parking space and pulled up to the street. "Do hang on, darling. Don't scratch the leather."

She let out the clutch and with some strong encouragement from her right foot the car surged alarmingly into the road, the acceleration momentarily pinning Allison back against her seat. She drove as aggressively as her common sense would allow, just careful enough to avoid the attention of Tokyo's overzealous police force.

The only sound during the short trip was the deep growl of the engine, and Allison's eyes never left the road. Driving was something of an escape for her. Before long, they arrived in a small parking lot behind a row of shops. Without wasting any time, Allison grabbed her purse and got out of the car. While she waited for Poison to get out, she found a key on her key ring.

"Today is Monday. My shop is closed on Mondays. We'll have it all to ourselves. I'm sure you'll be interested in some facet of the business." She said dryly.

"Oh...we can go to your place later..." Poison said giggling and then she felt her body getting pulled back into the car seat as Allison accelerated. Poison laughed enjoying quite a bit how the blonde drove; she was used to fast cars, usually with the cops behind, but was still quite impressed with the performance of the Maserati...and Allison didn't drove that bad. Her desire to 'borrow' the car only increased.

Once the car stopped Poison got down and followed Allison. "Some facet of the business you say?" Poison said doing a cute imitation of Allison's posh British accent.

Allison unlocked the back door of the spa and entered a code on a keypad inside the door to disarm the security system and ignored Poison's attempt at impersonating her accent. Straight ahead was a hallway with several private rooms on either side. Another short hallway went to the right with a locked door at the end.

She flicked a few switches on the wall and turned on soft, ambient, soothing lights. She led Poison up the main hall and gave her a brief tour.

"These are private massage rooms." She said in a melodic and professional tone. "Hot stone massage is very popular in this room, as well as various skin treatments and wraps... And this is our water room." She pushed open the door opposite the first to reveal a luxuriously furnished and tastefully arranged room that prominently featured a large hot tub, nearly built into the floor and made to look almost natural. Scattered unlit candles and lotus flowers floated across the surface. On one side was a pair of chairs built so that the person's feet would sit in the water, in an area designed to accommodate a sort of pedicure. The air was thick and warm and smelled of sweet lotus blossoms and vanilla.

Allison continued on. "This is our sun room, particularly popular in the winter." She opened a door to reveal another immaculately furnished room, this one brighter and more open. It was arranged with skylights and mirrors and electric lights designed to mimic the effects of natural light in the absence of the sun. A small array of lounge furniture, comfortably spaced, would allow for the complete relaxation of the patrons while they tanned in the warm sunlight.

"And this room is for the Eastern-most end of our range of treatments. Acupuncture, acupressure, shiatsu, cupping, candling, et cetera. Not a terribly interesting room to look at. And through here is our salon, which I'm sure you would have no use for." She pushed open a pair of doors at the end of the hall and stepped into a similarly luxurious room arranged with several chairs and mirrors and the accoutrements of hair treatment, pedicures, manicures, facial treatments, and the like.

"Take a moment to acquaint yourself with your surroundings, darling, I'll return in a moment." Allison said and disappeared back down the hallway.

Poison followed Allison around very much as if she was following a tourist guide through a museum. She even pulled her cell-phone a couple of times to take pictures and every time the blonde ended introducing a new room, Poison would let out a silly gasp of amazement with varying vowels. "....ohhhhhh....ahhhhhh....uhhhhh..."

The cute pink-hared gangsterette had to give Allison credit, the Brit remained cool and completely ignored her taunts. Once left alone, Poison immediately went to one of the chairs and sat on it, pushing it with her feet to spin around in it. "Weeeeeeeee..."

Once the spinning stopped and notcing that Miss Important Bitch Sarah McRich hadn't returned she started to look around. There was surely some cosmetics or expensive perfumes that she could pocket, so she began to handle the bottles and stuff

Allison locked the door behind her and sat down in her plush, leather-covered office chair at her Brazilian rosewood desk. It had been a while since she'd been there, but all of her things were exactly as she'd left them. She smiled, slightly. Her employees certainly knew better than to interfere with her things. The only one with a key to her office was Cathleen, the manager, and if Allison thought for a moment that she would ever be a problem she would not have hired her in the first place.

She breathed a sigh. It was somewhat relaxing to be back at her business... All the time she'd spent working with AFW promotional materials and training had almost made her miss her old work. She wasn't in charge of anything at AFW, except for the sea of weak-willed people that surrounded her, but that was hardly official.

She looked to the side at a small collection of security camera monitors and saw Poison rifling through things in the salon. She sniffed a laugh. She supposed she'd better get back out there before she did any real damage, though that wouldn't be so bad either. She selected a bottle of wine from a small wine cooler behind her chair, picked up two glasses, and went back out.

The clicking of her heels signaled her arrival. "Anything you like?" She asked as she breezed through the double doors, wine bottle in one hand and the glasses crossed in the fingers of the other. "I've just the thing." She placed the bottle and glasses on a table and moved directly to a small rack off glass bottles of perfume and plastic bottles of lotion. She moved her hand across until she found the right one and picked it up.

"This should suit you nicely." She took Poison's hand and turned it palm up, and sprayed the perfume on her wrist. "It's floral and feminine, pronounced notes of ginger and quite bold. An appropriate amount of spice, I think." She pressed the bottle in her hand. "Please, keep it."

She looked Poison over, just once, all pink hair and black leather, and a faint, devious smile flitted across her face. "Come, now, let us relax and better acquaint ourselves with the other's idiosyncrasies. Is there a room you'd fancy? Perhaps... yes, you look like you could use some sun."

Without another word, Allison collected the wine and strode back to the sun room. The warmth of the room was noticeable immediately after passing through the doorway. She slipped off her wool coat and hung it up on a hook on the wall. Underneath she wore a black dress with a feminine drape. It fell above her knees, and her tall, brown leather boots, dark enough to almost look black, came to just under them. She looked back at Poison.

"Please, make yourself comfortable. And while you're doing so, tell me, have you planned to rob me? Mug me and take my valuables, or lift whatever you can fit in your jacket."

Poison was visibly startled by how Allison had returned but she quickly recovered and laid back in the chair, turning around and keeping her hands in her pockets as she smiled mischievously at the blonde. "Uhhhh...wine...sooo classy..." Poison said happily.

"Oh thank you very much... You are so generous..." Poison said giggling. It made her so happy to receive presents, and now she had two bottles of expensive perfume in her pockets.

She got up and followed Allison to the suntanning room and found a place to sit. She take off her leather jacket, carefully not to smash the bottle in it and looked back at Allison, checking her up and down.

"Me?!?... Rob? Mug? Lift?... I would never...I'm a lady... You offend me..." Poison said but the amused smile on her lips showed clearly she wasn't offended at all.

"Mm hm." Allison's face showed not the slightest bit of amusement. She remained silent while she deftly uncorked the bottle and poured two glasses of a deep red wine.

"For someone with such a loud exterior, you're quite meek. I must say, I'm a bit disappointed. I'd have thought you'd have a bit more fire in you than the repressed Japanese homemakers I find myself surrounded by." She glanced at Poison. "If you'd like to spend much time in here, may I suggest minding your tan? We've things for you to change into if you'd like. Or perhaps with your complexion it's best to stay out of direct light, and given your choices of profession, perhaps it's best to stay out of the light entirely."

Allison picked up one glass between her thumb and index finger, and laid back on a lounge chair. She pulled one leg up, bent at the knee in front of her, so that the hem of her dress fell and exposed her upper thigh.

"If you're not fond of wine, I'm afraid I can do little to accommodate. I'm fresh out of beer or malt liquor or whatever it is you people drink."

"Meek?..." Poison repeated dumbfounded as she blinked, and then she bursted into loud laughter. Why in the world would this woman be dissappointed of her? Unless she was expeting something. Well, everybody expected something of her. And she may be willing to give it... if the price was right. Somehow, Poison got the impression Sarah wanted her for some criminal endevour...one that required people. That weren't 'meek'.

"Are you trying to insult me, Sarah darling?" Poison said with a twisted grin. "Because I tend to break the noses of people that insult me... Steal their expensive Italian-made cars... And burn their fancy locales to ashes..." Poison said as her smile turned more and more wicked as she leaned closer to Sarah, her slender muscles tensing as if she was going to jump at her, but instead she just swung a hand trying to snatch the bottle of wine.

"Wine is fine and no sun, thank you..."

"Yes, that's more like it." Allison said with an inward smirk. Outwardly, she showed no discernible expression.

She ignored Poison's attempt to bully her, but raised an eyebrow at the notion that she would drink such a fine wine from the bottle. What a pity, both for the wine and for the girl's apparent lack of culture. She crossed one leg over the other so that they were both bent at the knee, causing the hem of her dress to fall a bit farther up. She took a sip of wine.

"So tell me, have you stolen many expensive Italian-made cars lately? Broken many noses? Arson? Truthfully, I'd love nothing more than to hear your stories. Perhaps you'd care for a massage while you tell your tales?" Allison looked over at Poison and held the stem of her wine glass between her index and middle fingers, twisting it gently back and forth. She took another sip and put the glass down.

"You may consider today to be my charity in appreciation for you and your distinctively extraordinary character. It goes without saying that you'd never be able to afford a day here otherwise." She seemed to not even notice any potential offense as she spoke. Either she was oblivious to it, or didn't care.

Poison took a sip of the wine from the bottle just to annoy Sarah, but seeing this didn't seemed to affect her she decided to pick a glass and pour some wine on it, holding it like Sarah did.

"Keep your hands to yourself, thank you..." Poison said, not liking the idea of having Sarah at her back with her hands so close to her neck. "And no... There aren't many Italia-made cars around her and I haven't been in the car 're-dealing' business for some time...although I'm considering making an exception." she said giggling.

"Noses get broken in Japan a lot and these silly papper and wood houses catch fire way to easy..." she added ...but...I'm curious... Why are you so interested in my... Credentials?" Poison asked as she refilled her glass. "You need someone's nose to be broken? Something burnt to ashes? What is it?"