Xena breathed out a heavy sigh of relief the moment she arrived at her apartment. It was only her first day working on this new case, yet; it was already leaving her exhausted.

She now looked around the penthouse suite that she was to be staying in, feeling her bare feet against the cold marble floor and admiring the furniture that was already put in place. Everything was to her taste.

Xena slowly walked around the apartment as she thought of Agent Fox. They had talked little outside of work, but then again, she didn't expect him to want to do much talking outside of work. That was simply how Agent Fox liked to keep things.

Xena thought back to her training days, it had been Agent Fox that had trained her. He had made her into the Agent she was today, but they hardly ever spoke about this or even shared this information with any of the other Agents they worked with. Xena knew that he didn't want the other Agents thinking that he was biased towards her because of this.

Sighing deeply, Xena bent down and began unpacking her small suitcase. She realized that her usual light packing was simply not going to fly this time around; it was now clear to her she would be in New York for a much longer period of time. She thought of the case she had before her. Sure enough, this case was a lot different from the other cases she had previously worked on, she was sure of it.

Throughout the course of the day she had constantly had the feeling that there was something missing, that they were all missing out on a crucial part of their investigation. It was just a gut instinct that Xena got, however, her gut instincts were usually right. Yet, she couldn't figure out what it was.

The apartment was completely silent as Xena unpacked which was probably why her mind was still preoccupied with work. Sometimes, it felt like her work was her entire life. For the majority of hours of the day, Xena spent it working, the few hours that she didn't, she spent it thinking about work. It could often be grueling.

Xena slowly got to her feet looking around herself, trying to find something to help take her mind off work. Searching for something to occupy her mind; but there was nothing.

"I'd go get some fresh air," Xena murmured to herself as she began changing out of her work clothes.

After all, she was in New York City. There was no way that Xena was going to spend her first night in The City worrying about work, it was a bad omen, not a good way to set the tone.

Xena's normal clothes were not much different from her work clothes. The dark vibes were pretty much still there all the same. She had changed into black jeans with rips at the knees, a plain black shirt and had kept on the black boot that she wore to work.

'Fuck it' Xena thought to herself.

She knew she really gravitated towards darker colors, sometimes it freaked her out when she realized the complete lack of color that existed in her closet. Sure enough, once in a while she tried to wear bright colors, but that was not her and she always ended up changing out of it within an hour.

The New York breeze slapped against Xena's face the second she stepped outside her building, and she instantly felt a relief wash over her. This was what she needed.

The streets were rowdy in the usual New York manner but Xena continued to walk, unfazed by this. She liked the noise and excitement that New York bustled with; it made her feel less alone; it rejuvenated her.

Being alone wasn't really something that bothered Xena. Sure, she felt the occasional burst of loneliness from time to time, but that wasn't something that she couldn't handle. Being a Secret Agent was often a very busy job that involved flying around quite often, hence, could often result in being alone for a good percentage of the time. That didn't change the fact that she still occasionally craved some stability.

Xena knew that work would probably become a lot busier over the course of the next few weeks, so she decided that she would make the most of the free time she had.

Xena continued walking along the street, arriving at a bar. She didn't think much of it when she made her way inside, squinting slightly in the dimly lit room.

Soft music was playing in the room, it was fairly packed but Xena was able to find space as she made her way over to a free stool at the bar. It was the stiff, uncomfortable stool that bars usually had and it took her sometime before she could finally get in a comfortable position.

"Hey, could I get coke?" Xena called out to the barman.

"What?" The barman responded, thinking he had misheard her.

"A coca-cola." Xena said, raising her voice slightly.

"Um, would you like that with anything?"

"Just ice, please."

The barman gave Xena a strange look but nevertheless went over to prepare her order, beside her, Xena heard a scoff.

The scoff was loud and obnoxious. It was clear that the person it had come from was not trying to be discreet in any way possible.

Xena turned her head and was overcome with mild surprise when she saw the woman seated next to her. She was a smaller woman with caramel brown skin and dark long locs that fell down her back.

She now sipped from the glass in her hands, a small smirk growing on her face.

"Did you just scoff at me?" Xena asked.

The woman next to her ignored her. She continued sipping from her glass as if she wasn't aware of Xena's presence next to her.

This only made Xena press on more.

"Excuse me," Xena now said, turning her body so it faced her fully, "did you just scoff at me?"

The smirk grew on the woman's face as she turned to face Xena.

"Who the fuck orders coca-cola at a bar? If you're gonna come to a bar and order such you might as well just stay in your house."

Xena was taken aback by this. However, rather than feeling annoyed or angry she found herself only growing amused.

"Is that something you feel strongly about?" Xena asked as she bit down on her lip, leaning forward to get a better look of the woman before her.

The woman rolled her eyes in reply and went back to sipping the drink in her hand. It appeared to Xena that signaled that she was done with the conversation, but Xena was not about to pull back now, just when she was getting interested.

"Are you often this rude to people?" Xena asked, intentionally pushing her buttons.

Usually, she wasn't bothered by the assholes she encountered; she thought herself to be a pretty level-headed person. Yet, there was something about this woman that drew her in. She wasn't willing to let her off the hook so easily.

Just as Xena expected, the woman didn't reply. She just kept sipping from her drink.

"Here's your drink." The Bartender said appearing beside Xena.

Xena thanked him as she took the glass cup, bringing it to her lips. She slurped loudly as she drank from it, purposely trying to get the attention of the woman next to her.

Xena honestly couldn't believe what she was doing. She was going out of her to grab this random stranger's attention all because she was rude to her? Why did she even want her attention?

Yet, Xena continued slurping on her drink, intentionally making her sounds louder as the seconds went by.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." The woman in front of her exclaimed, finally turning to look at Xena.

Xena instantly felt her heart quicken as she made contact with the woman's light brown eyes.

"Please, for fuck's sake, what do you want?"

"What's your name?" Xena blurted out.

She found herself wondering why she had even asked that question. What did she care about the rude stranger's name?

Xena assumed the woman was just going to ignore her like she had been doing before.

"Venus." The woman replied instead.

Once again, Xena was taken aback by the fact that the woman had even responded.

"Venus." Xena murmured to herself, enjoying the way the name sounded on her tongue.

"Anything else your honor?" Venus now asked.

It almost sounded to Xena like she was teasing her.

"Yes actually," Xena replied as a small smile spread across her face. "What do you do for a living, Venus?"

"Do you really want to know?" Venus asked, her voice lowering to a whisper.

Xena's eyes widened, instantly drawn in by the words of the woman before her. She didn't really care what she did for a living; she had just asked in an attempt to keep conversation flowing, but now she really wanted to know.

Xena nodded her head rapidly as Venus leaned in towards her. She was so close that Xena could feel her soft breath rubbing against her.

"I kill people for a living."

Xena laughed then. She had really taken on to the woman's strange sense of humor.

Venus pulled back then with a smile on her face. It wasn't a smirk, a genuine smile.

"Hey, can I buy you a drink?" Xena asked, she didn't know what had overcome her but she really wanted to have the woman's attention on her for as long as she could.

Venus looked at her for a few seconds. Xena couldn't make out the expression on her face, she did a very good job of concealing it, even for a professional Agent like her that was trained to read people's expressions.

Yet, hers was unreadable.

Venus smiled then. This time it didn't reach her eyes.

"Sure." Venus finally replied, causing Xena to fill with excitement.

Xena turned to the Bartender to call him over, but by the time she turned back to Venus to take her drink order the woman was gone.

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Arthur Note:

Hey All!

I realized I've been slacking in my interactions with readers so I'm going to try to do more of that through random questions at the end of select chapters? (:

Question for this chapter: What's the most trouble you ever got into?