In This Life...| (Irene) INACTIVE

[fagin]

It had been yet another ridiculously slow day in the shop. The hands on the battered wall clock never seemed to move and by the time seven o' clock in the evening rolled around Fagin felt as though years had passed.

He usually kept the main shop open until eight o' clock. But he'd only had two customers today, and they had both paid up and taken their things back. He wasn't likely to get any more. It was a Friday evening, for goodness sake. Even the lower classes tried to live it up as best they could with limited means on Fridays.

This thought in mind, Fagin proceeded to the front of the shop and flipped the sign on the door from 'Open - 8:00AM to 8:00PM' to 'Sorry, We're Closed'. This done, Fagin made his way to the back room, intending to tot up what little cash he had in the till in private, with a small glass of gin to boot.

In this life, one thing counts, in the bank, large amounts...

[IRENE ADLER]

www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFkRwMFo0VUIwM3hHazFETTBocmNNWWcAAAACaWQKAXgAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg

Irene lounged around the owners desk as she passed the pages of the paper across her fingers and started to notice the creak of the stairs.

Oh this was going to be good , she was terribly sorry that she had broken the back locks , she would repair them eventually when she made her exit.

Actually she was here to make a proposition if of course mister Fagin himself would hear her out ,but maybe not , she had investigated the man and he was a hard bugger to convince.

But alas she hoped that the man would not be to angry with her, she just needed someone who knew her life and understood the things that nobody else could, and also handle her affairs and he was perfect for it in every sense of the word.

But would he come in and be all surprised or did the man have no fear at all this was the thing that excited her more about the whole entry.

Placing her feet on his desk, she licked her lip and started to cross them one on top of the other as she studied her nails.

She wondered what he would think of her speciality and if he had heard of her at all or did he not at all also.

An yet , why did she feel that the man would just be a little crazy at the same time ,by what she had read on his file and all the things that she had heard about him from her other more profesionalized partners.

"Anyways Fagin I can hear ya!! come in ..." she yelled and ruffled her short locks.

[fagin]

What Fagin had intended to do soon went completely out the metaphorical window. As he turned away from the front of the shop to return to the back room, he noticed that someone was sitting at his desk.

This, of course, was completely unexpected, and the mere sight of the figure caused Fagin to start. Who was this person...and how on Earth had they got in without him noticing? He kept the back door locked at all times; he couldn't possibly have forgotten...

He approached the desk and studied the woman who had broken in more closely, eyebrows raised in a seemingly permanent expression of surprise, unable to form any words or questions at to her presence there at this point.

She was very strangley attired, it must be said...why, she was even wearing what looked like a pair of cat ears atop her head! Not to mention the fact that she had her feet up on his desk, in all their zebra-print shoed glory. It was bad enough when Eponine sat on the desk, let alone some stranger breaking in and putting her shoes all over it.

Fagin couldn't help a scowl. He debated inside his head whether it would be best to challenge this strange woman or simply attempt to get her to leave...but if she'd been so desperate to see him she'd broken into the shop then surely it wouldn't be a good idea to try and shoo her away.

"What are you meant to be then?" he asked, his voice not really threatening, more curious and shocked than anything. "A cat burglar?"

Normally Fagin wasn't one for cracking jokes, particularly with people who had, it seemed, broken into his shop. But for some reason he felt inclined to crack a joke for once. He'd never, in all his years of leading a double life, had the shop broken into before, not even by people he owed cash to. This was certainly not what he would have expected.

"More to the point," he continued, almost as an afterthought. "Who are you...an' how d'you know my name?"

[IRENE ADLER]

Irene smiled when she noticed the man enter his office as she started to tap her feet gently and bite her lip wonder if she was dressed to oddly ,but she did not really care he would get used to it she hoped.

"You hungry " she said and started to take out a mac donalds bag from under her feet and placed it at his reach and smiled, hearing him say that what was she meant to be she quirked her brow and giggled.

He was really all to clueless to what she was and who she was, "Ever heard of Archibald ..." she started to say as she took out her own bag of mac donalds and started to take out her milkshake, and wondered if the name would ring a bell to the mans ears and mind.


Laughing at his joke about cat burglar she only purred and dropped the shake and stood a little more erect in the seat, " No no darling I am just here to make buisness.." she smiled and started to get out a suitcase and grabbed her shake and leaned back smiling and sipped it nursing it ever so slowly.

But then hearing his grumpy voice and say more to the point she was heart broken and took off the cat ears and placed them on the table, "Right I want you to help me store some items mostly diamonds.. my names Irene Adler famous crook from the london streets, and I just hired a private detective to find a few things for me. "she whispered and sighed she hated men that took life way to serious.

[fagin]

"You hungry?"

His mysterious visitor then proceeded to produce two take-away McDonald's bags, offer one to him and take a milkshake out of her own. This was getting weirder by the minute. What sort of person breaks into someone's establishment to give them food? And so oddly attired too?

He was hungry, he had to admit, but he wouldn't accept her offer of food until she explained her purpose here. For all he knew she could be some sort of hired killer or something of that nature. She could have poisoned the food. Yes, he was being paranoid. But surely safe was better than sorry.

"Ever heard of Archibald ..."

OK, scratch the safe. Fagin had indeed heard of Archibald; he was sufficiently acquainted with him through his vast an varied network of criminal acquaintances, although he'd never actually met the man in question.

"Y-yes, I have," he said, with a shaky nod, now even more ill at ease. He knew what Archibald was capable of; what if he'd sent this woman to do his dirty work for him? Though what would a man like Archibald want with a small time buyer and seller of stolen goods like him?

"No no darling I am just here to make buisness...Right I want you to help me store some items mostly diamonds.. my names Irene Adler famous crook from the london streets, and I just hired a private detective to find a few things for me. "

At last Fagin recognized her! Irene Adler! He'd heard of her all right, she was famous indeed. But what was with her calling him darling, and what she'd said about a detective and-wait...diamonds?

"Hang on, hang on, hang on..." he said, raising his hands as if in a gesture of surrender. "Let me get some stuff straightened out before we go any further, my dear... You want me to help you store diamonds? I ain't runnin' a giant safety deposit box 'ere, Miss Adler! An' what's all this about a private detective? 'Ave you been, I don't know, stalkin' me or somethin'? Are you gonna 'and me over to the cops or did you just use this detective to find out who I am?"

Fagin was utterly bewildered; he'd made sure his shop was not registered by the government so he could buy and sell stolen goods as he pleased. He'd never been caught...what was going on?

[IRENE ADLER]

Irene produced a smile and threw the milkshake out the window and turned to face fagin, "Well I am his Right handed lady, meaning his girlfriend so called associate and he would love it
if you mister Fagin joined our little troupe" she told him and sat down on his desk again.

but then hearing him blabber of why she was having a pI after him of all people and what were the reasons for her actions and behavior she did not even have to give explanations to neither, she was just doing her job the man should realise that before he ask any other question.

"Archibalds men have been just snooping around, and oh with our propotision all policemen shall be kept away from your shop since we also control some of the cops" she mussed and started to take out the fries and started to gobble them up and splashed some tomato ketchup all over the desk and rubbed the fries as she chewed them happily and looked at Fagin.

She was now wondering what was going on in his tiny mind and if he would accept at her propotision of working with her and Archibald after all what did he have to refuse, he got money, he got a house, a better shop even all he ever dreamed of he just needed to sign.

[fagin]

Not only had the woman just thrown a perfectly good milkshake out the window, she was now giving him an offer to join her and Archibald...Irene Adler and Archibald, of all people!

"Well I am his Right handed lady, meaning his girlfriend so called associate and he would love it if you mister Fagin joined our little troupe"

"W-Well..." Fagin began to stammer, trying to think things through and give the right answer at the same time. "I...er...that is..." But before he could go any further Irene spoke again.

"Archibalds men have been just snooping around, and oh with our propotision all policemen shall be kept away from your shop since we also control some of the cops"

"Y-You d-do?" Fagin stammered, amazed and relieved all at once. Well, what else had he been expecting with these two? To align himself with them, he knew, would really boost him in the esteem of his criminal connections...but then, he thought, he was strictly a respectable gent by day...surely this double life of his couldn't continue if he joined Archibald? Surely he would somehow get found out?

It was as he was thinking this that Irene abruptly began eating her french fries, getting some of the ketchup on his desk. Fagin frowned but decided, considering who she was and her connections, to let it slide.

"Erm..." he said, eventually, still weighing the pros and cons of the proposition in his mind. "Would you mind if I...if I thought about it...and get back to you?"

[IRENE ADLER]

Irene dropped her last fries and the ketchup she had in her hands and licked her fingers clean when she heard Fagin start to make a coherent awnser to her proposal.

Was he going to say yes, or no , or maybe , it was only an opportunity that was not to be rejected, but fine then she would tell Archibald the news of mister Fagins descision Standing she started to take out the burger.

But quite suddenly realisd that she could not, since he would come here and force the man into accepting, she had to change the plans and tell just a lie once again.

So he was thinking things through this was never good, it never brought any good things, nobody had rejected Achibald offers not even her.

He had a rule of thumb punish those who do not obay you and do not use any weapons in the process.

" Why is your reason to actually think about the situation "she asked all serious now.

She was of course going to hide the information from Archibald but trully she really did not want the man in front of her to actually feel the pain or the grip that archibald had a hold of.

"You know I am going to get in trouble , but I wont tell him your offer yet.. but tell me what a respectable man like you might be thinking" she said and started to chew her burger and made pieces of letuce fall on purpose.

[fagin]

As Fagin spoke he noticed Irene eating the last of her fries, and thereafter licking her fingers clean. He wondered momentarily why she had decided to use his shop as a place to eat her dinner but then recalled there were more important things to be thought of and said.

As she stood up, however, he took a small step backwards, getting the impression, now only after having said it, that she wouldn't be best pleased with the fact he had to think about her proposals.

" Why is your reason to actually think about the situation? You know I am going to get in trouble , but I wont tell him your offer yet.. but tell me what a respectable man like you might be thinking"

"Well..." Fagin said, trying to straighten out his argument inside his head, praying it made as much sense when he said it. "You say you'll keep police away from my shop. I appreciate that. And I am honoured by the idea of working with the pair of you. It's just that...by day I'm a somewhat respectable, normal sort of gent...running the shop and minding my own business...I only really do my criminal work at night...surely if I joined you two this double life would end and I'd be a criminal through and through? I'm sorry, Miss Adler, but I only ever started pickpocketing to get some extra cash on the side...I don't think I'm cut out to be a full time criminal..."

He also didn't want to get her in trouble, it wasn't in his nature, but he wasn't about to tell her that for fear she might use this information to try and change his mind.

[IRENE ADLER]

Irene raised herself a little when she saw that the man. Fagin, as he was called in the underground was actually a little concerned with his reputation. She understood him perfectly well ,there was a chance that this man would indeed become quite famous. As well as very influential , and also rich in the medium that was their league of doing business. Which he would not be able to turn back ,and actually always feel sorry that he could not keep a shard of the man that he was before.

Yet ,there were people like her who kept everything bottled up and could very well live in the day to day hustle and bustle. That was the crime world, and yet she was not afraid either that she could possibly bribe the man. But she would not, he seemed well enough happy here and actually at ease as well.

Why should she, what would she grain out of it. But it just came over her, a pained look and also a face. Faces were the thing that suddenly made Irene Adler turn to much. She hated them because it reminded her of the maiden that she once was, a long, long time ago. Also that she was once oblivious to the facts that she could be devoured by dogs as well as men who wanted her to be in the mud.

She had only made one mistake in her life, a thing that had cost her a little bit to suffer the cold winter water of the Thames. Thus the act create a fear of water and heights on its own . She also could not sleep now because of it , the dreams would always return to her like if she had experienced them before hand. Now they were fresh in her mind . Which was the only thing that distracted her ,and made her life a living hell .

So Fagin, the guy was being very careful with being weary because it never cost him anything to be so careful, so precise that you never committed the greatest mistake in your life. She actually found a new respect for the man that was in front of her, not only was he being cautious in his ways of acting.
But he was actually making decisions , at the same time also saving his skin by not committing himself into something very serious like it was with business with Archibald.

Archibald was indeed a dangerous man, and not one to be so careless as to use every force he could to actually convince this man to join his merry crew. But the merry crew was actually one that was dangerous and not very trusting she should tell this to him, but would he listen would he listen to every word that she was going to say, and yet with which part should she start to explain how the man that she called boss worked. “ I quite understand you... I wish that my self I could escape him but I'm actually part of him now almost like another limb feeding its master, but ill tell you a few things most don't know about the man that is Archibald.” she breathed and started to poke his bag of food hoping that he would start eating since her tale would be a long one since it would date back to how she had arrived here and the arrangements she was asked to do but she would only tell it if he wanted of course.

[fagin]

“I quite understand you... I wish that my self I could escape him but I'm actually part of him now almost like another limb feeding its master, but ill tell you a few things most don't know about the man that is Archibald.”

Fagin nodded as Irene spoke, a look of concern appearing on his countenance as she said she wished she could escape from Archibald's clutches. This knowledge made Fagin feel a lot better in his current decision to stay away; what did a man like Archibald need him for anyway? Storing diamonds? Surely he had some acquaintances who'd be much better at the job than himself.

Irene's tone was somewhat more subdued than before, and it seemed she wasn't nearly as fervent as she had been previously about persuading him to join herself and Archibald; not now she'd revealed her true feelings to some extent.

He noticed her poking the untouched bag of food, the one clearly meant for him. Assuming now that, since Irene was trying to persuade him to join Archibald's gang that the food would not be poisoned, Fagin picked up the bag with a grateful nod (he'd been getting hungry, he had to admit) and, a little hesitantly, started to eat.

"I'm all ears, Miss Adler," he said, with what he hoped was an encouraging smile.