The bar wasn’t loud with warm wood and low amber lighting. Notori was already there when Lili arrived, leaning against the far side of the bar, drink glowing in his hand. His eyes lit the moment he saw her.
“You’re late,” he teased, but his smile softened it into something tender.
“I debated showing up,” Lili said honestly.
“Yeah,” Notori replied, tilting his glass toward her. “But you didn’t.”
At a table near the back, Lukas and Adam sat shoulder to shoulder—suspiciously quiet for a pair known more for friction than reflection. They both glanced up as Lili neared, and she met their gazes without flinching. Katika was last to arrive.
Notori slid a dark drink toward Lili.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Trust,” he said. “In liquid form. Easy going down. Rougher later.”
Lukas chuckled under his breath. “He gave me that same speech once. I threw up after the third round.”
“Lightweight,” Adam muttered, earning a glare and a quiet smirk in return.
Lili stared at the drink. Then at all of them. Her new teammates. Her new future. She raised the glass slightly. “To Cova,” she said.
They all echoed her—some quieter than others.The clink of glassware softened with each round. The first few drinks were solemn—a tribute to Cova, to the bruises both visible and buried deep. But after that… the ice began to crack, and something lighter slipped through.
“So,” Adam said, leaning back in his chair with a grin that was just slightly crooked, “who thought we’d all end up drinking together without someone getting set on fire, stabbed, thrown or shadow-choked?”
Notori raised a brow. “There’s still time.”
“Please don’t,” Lukas muttered, half-laughing, half-praying. “I don’t want to explain another bar incident to Mike.”
Katika rolled her eyes and tossed a peanut at Lukas’s head. “Grow up. Or at least learn how to dodge.”
Lili, watching them with a strange warmth stirring in her chest, finally smirked. “Says the woman who walked into training and told me I had ‘no damn clue what it meant to be part of a team.’ Real subtle introduction.”
Katika didn’t miss a beat. “And yet here you are. Still clueless.”
Notori nearly choked on his drink. “What—?”
Lili laughed. “You know,” she said after catching her breath, “I’ve never had this before.”
“This?” Notori asked, gaze settling on her, gentler now.
“This,” she repeated. “The teasing. The banter. The… not watching my back every second like someone’s going to plunge a knife in it.”
Lukas lifted his glass. “That’s because we only aim for the front now.”
“Cheers to honesty,” Adam added with a snort.
Katika glanced at her, serious just for a breath. “You earned a seat. Doesn’t mean we’re soft—but we’re not stupid either. We fight better with you.”
Lili swallowed hard, and not from the liquor. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Katika smirked, waving to the bartender. “We’re doing shots.”
Lukas groaned. “Oh no. She’s in that mood.”
“Last time we did shots, I woke up in the laundry room,” Adam grumbled.
“You’ll be fine,” Notori said, already lining up the small glasses.
Lili looked down at the shot glass in front of her, its contents. “Alright,” she said, lifting it. “To not being weapons.”
“To being wild,” Katika corrected.
“To surviving each other,” Lukas added.
“To maybe even liking each other,” Adam offered with a wry grin.
“To bad decisions that don’t involve explosions,” Notori finished.
And they drank.
***
The morning light was far too bright for Lili’s taste, slicing through the hallway and stabbing straight into her skull. Her steps were less like walking, more like surviving. The aftertaste of too many drinks still clung to her tongue, and her head throbbed in time with her heartbeat. Hangover was a gentle word. This felt more like a full-body betrayal.
She pushed open the cafeteria door and immediately regretted the noise.
At a table near the window, she spotted Katika, Lukas, and Adam already deep into something loud and suspiciously joyful. Laughter erupted in intervals, wild and unrestrained. Notori sat with them too, but his expression was anything but amused. He was hunched slightly, arms crossed, glancing between the others and the table like he’d prefer to be anywhere else.
Lili grabbed toast, eggs, something green she’d probably ignore. She slumped into the seat beside Notori with a grunt.
And then she saw it.
Katika, with a smug glint in her eyes, held her phone up for Lukas and Adam, who burst into another round of howling laughter. The screen clearly showed a photo. A frozen moment. Lili. Notori. Mid-kiss. His hand on her waist, her fingers curled in his shirt, both of them entirely unaware of the camera or the future consequences.
Lili froze. Then blinked.
“What the fuck!?” she screamed, voice louder than she intended, drawing a few glances from other tables. “It wasn’t a dream?! Shit…”
Notori’s hand lifted slightly like he might offer an explanation or apology, but her attention snapped to Katika. “Delete it. Now!”
Katika grinned. “Nope.”
Lili’s eyes narrowed, voice low and dangerous. “Katika.”
“I need something controversial on you,” Katika replied sweetly, sliding the phone away just out of reach. “Besides, Cova hasn’t seen it yet. She’ll love it.”
Lili’s jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would,” Katika said without hesitation, biting into a piece of fruit.
Notori muttered under his breath, “I told you not to take pictures…”
“No, you told me not to post them. This is private blackmail,” Katika corrected, winking.
Lukas coughed into his drink. “She’s got a point.”
Adam smirked. “Best part of last night, hands down.”
Lili dropped her head into her hands and groaned, dragging her fingers through her hair. “I hate all of you.”
Notori leaned in a little closer, his voice softer, just for her. “For what it’s worth… it wasn’t a bad kiss.”
She didn’t lift her head, but she did reach out, blindly smacking his shoulder. “Don’t make it worse.”
He chuckled. And despite everything—the embarrassment, the headache, the humiliation—Lili couldn’t quite hide the twitch of a smile ghosting across her lips.
Katika’s phone buzzed sharply, slicing through the table’s laughter. She glanced at the screen, then slowly raised her eyes toward Lili—mischief gone, replaced by something more serious.
“Your breakfast will have to wait,” she said, slipping the phone back into her pocket with a sigh. “Mike wants us. It’s about that assignment.”
Lili, mid-bite of toast she wasn’t even sure she wanted, paused with the crust still halfway to her mouth. She let it fall back onto the plate with a groan, rubbing her temples like she could press the hangover out through her skull.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered, glancing at Notori. “He knows we were out last night.”
“That’s probably why he’s calling us now,” Katika replied, already on her feet and smoothing her jacket down like the hangover hadn’t dared touch her. “If you’re sober enough to make out in public, you’re sober enough to get to work.”
Notori tried and failed not to snort into his coffee. Lili shot him a glare before reluctantly rising, gathering what was left of her pride and brushing toast crumbs from her shirt.
“Fine,” she said, dragging her feet toward the hallway. “But if I collapse on the way, you’re carrying me.”
Katika was already striding ahead, calling over her shoulder, “You survived the mafia, a bar crawl with us, and kissing Notori in public. You’ll survive this.”
As the cafeteria doors closed behind them, Lukas leaned back in his chair and muttered, “I give them three missions before they either kill each other or become best friends.”
Adam laughed. “Nah. Two.”
Lukas leaned back in his chair, the smug curve of his grin growing wider as he lazily sipped from his mug. His eyes flicked toward Notori, sharp with mischief.
“So,” he said, drawing out the word, “when are you going to state the obvious to Lili? About what you feel?”
Notori’s jaw tensed as he set his cup down with more force than necessary. “I don’t need love advice from someone who attacked her,” he snapped.
The table went quiet for a moment. Even Adam stopped mid-chew. But then Notori exhaled, the edge dulling into something closer to pain than anger.
“And besides…” he added, his voice quieter now, almost thoughtful. “I better not. You don’t even realize half of what they did to her. What she had to become just to survive. They tried to break her, Lukas. Bit by bit, piece by piece. Every time she stood up, they found a new way to shove her down. A relationship?” He shook his head slowly. “That’s the last thing on her list. Really trusting someone? Especially a man? That’s a whole different war.”
Lukas’s smirk faded. He looked down at his hands, suddenly more sober.
“I didn’t know,” he said after a beat.
“No,” Notori muttered. “You didn’t.”
Adam looked between them, then leaned back with a quiet breath. “Guess we’ve all got a lot to learn about the people we share a battlefield with.”
Notori nodded slowly. “Yeah. You do.”
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