Who: Midna and Lina When: Late July Where: The streets! What: Lina pulls Midna into an alley for a talk. Rating/Warning: Language, discussion about crime. Status: Complete
Lina had to be very careful and not get on Ganon’s shitlist. Not anytime soon, anyway.
But it was a little hard not to meddle. There was Xelloss, who was, well…Xelloss, and then there was Midna, who was in almost the same position Lina was all those years ago when she began this crazy ride. Lina’d seen her before in a few meetings back in the day - Ganon had kept her oddly close, and she hadn’t been sure what the girl’s role was in the entire thing until she did some snooping around. It reinforced the fact that, yes, Ganon was a big dick, and Midna needed to get away from him.
Network interactions would be too…obvious. She knew those were watched closely, even hers, so Lina decided to dabble into some stealth tactics she’d been taught, observed Midna and waited fire the right time. The right happened to be when Lina was in an alley and Midna happened to walk by.
In which she pulled her in, putting a hand over her mouth to muffle the sounds. “Hey. Don’t scream. It’s me. Don’t bite, either. Gross.”
It was probably a good thing that Lina was quick to identify herself. Good for Lina, yes, because Midna had definitely brought a skilled elbow halfway up to jam back and defend herself — but frankly, just as good for Midna too, who knew that Lina didn’t just know how to protect herself for survival’s sake, the way Midna herself did. Midna could hold her own on the streets, but Lina — Lina was a much different story.
Still, that didn’t stop the younger girl from tearing herself away from the sudden hold after it had registered in her mind whose voice was cajoling her. She twirled on the spot to face her friendly abductor.
“Are you serious?!” she hissed, eyes flashing but still grinning nonetheless. She let out a hollow laugh after a second, finding humor in how she imagined the scenario would look to anyone outside of the two girls. “That’s how you wanted to get my attention??”
“Sorry,” Lina said, shoulders lifting into a nonchalant shrug, but she matched Midna’s grin with a softer version. “Stealth’s never really been my thing, so I kind of pulled this out of my ass.” The understatement of the century. Poor thing - now that she realized how it might have seen, she actually felt bad. Getting a hand slapped over your mouth suddenly and pulled into a suspicious alley was a girl’s worst nightmare.
She motioned over to the oh-so secret spot behind a dumpster. “Let’s at least pretend we’re hiding. Long time no see, punk. Wish it were under better circumstances, but you know how it goes.”
Midna bit her tongue when it came to the retorting, all of the possible comebacks to Lina’s excuse dying in her throat, because suddenly the other girl was beckoning her behind a dumpster (of all places!!), and she sighed, rolling her eyes.
“Really? Stealth isn’t your thing? I never would’ve guessed!” Her jabs were good-natured of course — as good-natured as they could be after being shot full or adrenaline and then finding herself crouched behind the worst-smelling hideout in the world. Midna had always liked Lina; they had similar personalities, as much as Midna could tell, and it was an understatement that they lived in a total dude’s world. It was nice to have a likeminded female around.
“Better circumstances than near the trash?” she quipped, but of course she knew what Lina meant; it wasn’t as if Midna’s plight were top secret. She knew her father’s ‘disappearance’ had spread like wildfire in their unsavory circle. “What’s up?”
Lina’s eyes rolled at her little jabs, but nonetheless it still amused her. Sarcasm. Humor. She saw it as a coping mechanism in a really shitty situation.
Couldn’t blame her. Lina followed the same philosophy. Make jokes and insult people when you’ve hit rock bottom. Snarking was so worth it.
“I thought I smelled something shitty when Ganon rolled into town,” she confessed with a heavy sigh, turned her back to the entrance of the alley and crossed her arms. “I figured it was a coincidence. Lying low would avoid us crossing paths. Turns out he’s borrowed my ex-partner from my old boss, and suddenly whatever he’s brewing in that pot of his has thickened. And whatever it is, you’re involved by association. And you’re the right age of when he may start throwing you into some...shadier things.”
Honestly, Lina would love nothing more than to box Midna up and ship her away somewhere safe and sound. This wasn’t a situation for a girl her age. Sure, Lina herself survived the entire damn deal, but it wasn’t exactly the best way to reach adulthood, either.
“Shadier things,” Midna repeated, eyebrows quirked. Whatever that meant, with the pause Lina had inflected, she knew it couldn’t be good. Midna had seen her fair share of shady things in her relatively short lifespan, shady things that involved more women than men. If that’s what the other girl meant, Midna totally agreed; she wanted nothing to do with that shit.
Still, she knew better to press for information that wasn’t willingly offered up. That was essentially one of the first rules of etiquette in the types of lives the girls lived. Instead, she merely offered up her own few tidbits.
“Obviously Ganon’s behind the shit going down in my family, but I’m also pretty sure my dad’s right-hand man was the one who sold him out to begin with.” It would probably be a bit frightening, to anyone else, how detached Midna could speak of the whole mess, but hey. That was the way it went. “Sounds like our dear friend Ganon might be running out of free fingers to dip into pots where they don’t belong.”
Lina had an ulterior motive of speaking to Midna, aside from the casual talk and making sure the girl was actually okay. And she seemed to be doing okay, especially considering the circumstance. She still had a terrible taste in her mouth from it, but that’s the way the cookie crumbled.
“In a lot of situations he’s had someone play double-agent. Convince someone in the circle to fuck over the main guy, snake his way in, and put the new guy in charge because, hey - easier to control.” To be controlled or to be killed - that was the ultimatum when Ganon was involved. “And what I’m about to ask you isn’t...something I take likely.”
She took in a deep breath, and winced.
“I need someone on the inside. To see what’s going on with Ganon and Xelloss.”
If Midna was surprised by this turn of events, she hid it well enough. Quirking both eyebrows, she crossed her arms over her chest, considering Lina's request. "I haven't met Xelloss yet. He's your ex-partner, you say?"
Frankly, spying on agents on the inside wasn't really asking too much of Midna; after all, wasn't that more or less what she was doing herself? Biding her time, yes, and protecting her own ass, but also quietly watching and waiting, too. Still, she could see that it pained Lina to ask it of her, and generally in their lives it was hard to ask so much of anyone. Midna felt almost touched, in a strange way.
After another moment, she acquisced with a shrug. "Yeah I guess I'm already around too much for my own liking anyway. What do I need to know?"
It was a strange feeling, Lina observed to herself, to feel that tight clench in her stomach when Midna actually agreed. Part of her was hoping she’d decline. Because if she got caught sneaking her some information, it wouldn’t end well for her, and Lina didn’t want Midna’s blood on her hands.=
A lot harder than I thought it’d be.
“So far things are strangely tame, in the calm before the storm type of deal.” She shoved her hands into her pockets, fighting the release of a heavy sigh, not wanting to sound all that depressed about the situation. “If you haven’t met Xelloss, you will. He’s...not a bad guy. Not really. He can do bad things, but he does what he’s told to do, whether he agrees or not. And will dance along the lines of loyalty and fucking someone over in his own way. I’ll need to know what Ganon’s putting him up to. Any files you might peek at if Ganon’s around you would be beneficial. Names. Locations. Any little crumb of intel would work.”
Lina then paused, feeling like she needed to clarify something. “Don’t do anything stupid. If there’s a big risk, don’t take it. Doesn’t matter what’s on the line. Nothing he has is worth your life. Got it?”
Midna barked a short, soft laugh. "Lina, I like you okay, so don't take this the wrong way, but," she shook her head, grinning a cheeky sort of grin despite the situation, "you definitely don't have to worry about me sticking my neck out for you any more than I would for myself."
Regardless, what Lina was asking of her sounded simple enough, and fit in nicely with her own plans to retrieve information and hints as to what her own next move would be. It, in all honesty, wasn't really much trouble to Midna at all. "But anyway yeah, I can do that, no problem."
A pause, and then another crack: "Only I'm not meeting you behind a dumpster next time."
Lina snorted a laugh herself, her features finally softening and her lips quirked into a relax smile.
The humor made her feel a little bit better. At least.
“Good to know you’re still a little shit.” Lina gave Midna something of a playful shove and started walking towards the entrance of the alley. “Promise. No dumpster. Maybe somewhere that’s less creepy and not so infested with disease. But still, you know, not obvious, either. And make sure you encrypt any and every message you send me, understood?”
Midna rolled her eyes as they moved to emerge from the shadows, still smirking nonetheless. "Yeah, yeah, of course. Got it." And before she got to the entrance of the alley and set off in the direction she had originally been headed, she added, as a half-teasing afterthought, "And next time? Warn a girl before you abduct her; I've got enough stress in my life."