> "...I've honestly wondered what's in a Wonder Ball."

Did that...? Uh. No. Nope! Nonono. Noel's face twisted before she let it fall forehead first against the bar. She swallowed the whiskey down and heaved a sigh.

"As far as lies go, that's a mild tasting one." Like ketchup. Ketchup wasn't inherently bad, but it wasn't her favorite all by itself. Unfortunately, though, her taste buds were quite intact. Or maybe the taste was all in her head and tastebuds or a lack of tastebuds would never keep her from tasting lies.

Her chest rose and fell with one more self-pity sigh before Noel shook it off. It was visibly apparent that she decided there was no helping her or the oddness that was her mutation.

"Yeah, spicy tends to work. Really, really tooth rotting sweet can be okay that's why I usually go for the diet of the cokes. It's easier to find up here than good spicy food." Noel set her whiskey glass aside and went back to nursing her water.

Though, a man that could cook... Hm.

"I guess you like spicy because it's in your veins or something." He was quite the walking caricature: buff, former military, handled guns, liked spicy foods... "I suppose you ride cows and wear boots too?"

Noel's face hit the bar and then she claimed that his lie had been a mild tasting one. A mild tasting lie. Tasting lies. "You... taste lies?" She took memories and tasted lies, a strange combination. Though, the Ranger could toss cars and track people by heat.

And spicy food and sickeningly sweet food works. That must mean it masks the flavor of the lies.

"I guess you like spicy because it's in your veins or something. I suppose you ride cows and wear boots too?"

The Ranger laughed and stuck out one of his legs so Noel could see his footwear. A pair of black stingray cowboy boots with a rubber sole. "I don' ride cattle, but I do wear boots." He returned his foot, leaving it dangling was silly. "Yeah, back home in Texas spicy is the norm. Jalapenos are their own food group."

The Ranger finished his drink and motioned to the bartender for a refill.

It was good to get a laugh, but he was actually wearing boots! And that was more than enough to set Noel off too.

Yes, yes. Noel waved off the absurdity of her mutation. ”Walking, talking lie detector. I am without a doubt the cruddiest telepath I have ever met.” Noel went to take a sip of water and somehow got the whiskey instead. It was growing on her or she was getting a bit used to it. Either way, she didn't gag, but she did swap it back for the water after a sip.

”Don't get me wrong. I can do scary things to a brain, but nobody likes telepaths in the first place. Add in all the ways that I can call you out on your bull and now you know why I don't have friends.” She was joking. Kind of.

Noel waved over the bartender who, bless him, looked like he was just about as done with today as Noel was.

”Is there a drink that doesn't taste like paint thinner?” It was good that the bartender had good humor. He laughed all the way to the back where he picked out different bottles.

“Let's go with something mixed. You like slushies? Daiquiri? No one says no to a raspberry daiquiri.” And for him it was easy since they had a margarita machine with several flavors beside including raspberry daiquiri.

And thus, he earned his first tip from Noel when she was presented with a blushing purple slushy.

It was sour, sweet, and didn't burn at all. ”Try lying now.”

The Ranger noticed that though while speaking Noel grabbed her whiskey and drank it, she did not have a reaction similar to her previous ones. She was acquiring the taste remarkably fast.

”Don't get me wrong. I can do scary things to a brain, but nobody likes telepaths in the first place. Add in all the ways that I can call you out on your bull and now you know why I don't have friends.”

Nobody liking a telepath was something the Ranger could understand. They were the one type of mutant he legitimately feared having to stare down in a dark alley. Noel so far had been a treat to interact with. Also, they had been working together. Otherwise her power would be quite terrifying in a more clear and present danger sort of way.

"Jus' don't BS and y' got nothin' to' worry about." The Ranger began, not being completely serious. He took a drink and said, "If y're havin' t' call them on BS they don' sound like the best friends to have anyway." A little lie here and there or an embellishment was normal, but honesty is what friendships should be built on. The Ranger certainly had no patience for people who were dishonest.

”Is there a drink that doesn't taste like paint thinner?”

"Hey!" The Ranger exclaimed in mock offense, his smile and tone at odds.

The barkeeper whipped up a distinctly non-turpentine drink. One that left the Ranger thinking that were he not using drinking as a stand in for a pain killer he would have been drinking margaritas. Frozen. With salt.

”Try lying now.”

"Nashville produces the best music." A lie that almost hurt the Ranger to even say. He might as well have said something foul.

The truth was so much more of a sliding scale than Noel cared to admit. Sarcasm, even, registered as untrue because more often than not, it wasn't. But the person being sarcastic never meant to deceive... it got confusing real fast. No wonder her mind had chosen something equally qualitative to inform her of someone's truthfulness.

"For the most part people are honest, especially professionals." And she offered her glass for another clink after that because the Ranger, except for his refusal to go to the hospital, had been nothing but professional.

Noel wondered if she would ever get to that point. Her identity was flimsy, but for this kind of work, interestingly enough, they didn't always check thoroughly. Especially one-off jobs like this one. Raha-? Rham-? Her boss was a smart man. He'd sent her places where no one looked too hard.

She asked for a lie. Somehow, the Ranger's lies were more telling than his truths. Noel decided that when getting to know someone, she should start asking for lies like this.

And of course, he almost made her snort daiquiri.

"You kiss your momma with that mouth?" The drink was strong enough that it was definitely starting to become more difficult to pick out the weak lies, but that... that had been something of a doozy. "I am surprised at you, cowboy. Next you're gonna say you like ballroom dancing and rap."

Noel spared a glace for the dance floor. They weren't line dancing so she was going to go out on a limb and guess that Ranger wasn't going to go make a fool of himself with partner's dancing sans partner.

Noel held up her glass again, the Ranger obliged.

"Jus' don't hang around lawyers an' wall street types. They are professional liars." The latter might be a bit more of his Southern-ness speaking. Distrust for those carpetbaggers still runs deep.

This time it was Noel's turn to almost snort her drink. The Ranger was saved from snorting his drink by only having it halfway to his mouth. His sudden laughter almost sloshed his drink over the rim of his glass and he had to set it down.

"You kiss your momma with that mouth?"

The Ranger's smile faded somewhat, his mother was dead. She had died almost a decade ago. "Yeah." It was a lie in the present tense but truth in past tense. It would also be true if given the chance again.

"I am surprised at you, cowboy. Next you're gonna say you like ballroom dancing and rap."

"While I learned t' tolerate rap in the army, I woudn't say I liked it." He began. "Ballroom dancin' is another story. Dancin' is one of my all-time favorite things, an' while I prefer country-western dancin' I don't mind a good Waltz 'r Tango."

The Ranger turned his ears to the music. Some pop song he cared nothing for, but it was in 4/4 time with a decent speed. He slid off his seat and held out his hand. "Care t' dance?" Anything in 4/4 can be two-stepped to, and with a good enough partner it can look like an Aggie Wrangler showed up.

As if Noel had ever in her life had a chance to interact with a lawyer or stock trader.

She wasn't sure if it was the drink or the company or both, but her cheek felt warm. And somehow they were teasing back and forth like it was no big deal until the Ranger upped the game.

W-wait. She hadn't been hinting that she wanted to dance or anything! He was already off his barstool and offering her a hand. Noel chewed her lower lip and looked dubiously at the dance floor.

"You won't die from your stitches and you won't make me a fool, right? I can manage that well enough on my own." She searched Ranger's face next. Faces did not let her know a lie from a truth, but they'd established a baseline of trust already. She could trust him so far, so... for dancing, Noel decided that she could trust him too.

Oh heck. She was just breaking all the rules tonight.

Noel put her hand into the Ranger's and abandoned her drink.

She had to let him tug her to the dance floor as Noel's vision was mostly consumed with a panicked scrubbing through memories. Sebastian had danced many types of dances, but Noel didn't know anything about music. She was having a hard time matching what was playing over the speakers to something in Sebastian's repertoire.

Maybe she should go ask for a line dance instead...

"I-uh... fair warning. I don't really know what I'm doing."

"You won't die from your stitches and you won't make me a fool, right? I can manage that well enough on my own."

"I'll resist the urge t' Lindy Hop. Two-step should be fine on the stitches." And thanks to the whiskey the pain of his wound was down to a dull ache he could mostly forget about. "An' you can't look any more a fool than the people who've been doin' whatever they've been doin' on the dance floor." And after a moment he added, "I won' let y' look foolish."

Noel took the Ranger's hand, so he led her out to the dance floor.

"I-uh... fair warning. I don't really know what I'm doing."

"The two-step is easy." Holding Noel's right hand with his left he put his other hand on her back. "Women 're always right. Step, together, step, step. Y're goin' backwards."

The brief explanation provided the Ranger started sliding his boots along the floor he led with his left foot is proper for a male. He spoke on the beat for Noel, "Step, together, step, step. Step, together, step, step..."

She was nervous, but for all the wrong reasons.

Noel didn't like to not be good at something. Call it a side-effect of taking in memories from some of the best at what they did. Or maybe it was the one thing she took pride in, but she did not like to fail.

Yes. There was a body in proximity. That was fine except that their closeness made it difficult to see her feet. She would be lying if she didn't acknowledge that her heart wasn't doing funny things, but this wasn't a romantic excursion. They hadn't defined it as such and so she made sure to compartmentalize.

Sometimes, she wished that she hadn't hidden her tattoos. She would have liked to reference a few more than those on her forearms just now.

"You're not a bad teacher." They were closer than she was comfortable with. Noel made her shoulders, at least, relax. The constant commentary was good. She wouldn't have been able to pull it off otherwise. It not only let her know what he was doing, but what she was expected to do, and Noel was good at picking stuff up. Eventually she didn't have to look down.

Which meant eventually she would have to look at him.

"You do this often?"

How many drinks had he had? On his fourth? At around 190 pounds he was at the normal limit for his body weight. Having trained his liver a little he could maybe squeeze one more drink in before he was intoxicated. Regardless, he could feel the effect of his bourbon on more than just his wound. The nice thing is that two-stepping was made to be the dance you did while drunk.

This begged the question, was he having such a good time with Noel because they just hit it off or was it the alcohol. Likely both.

"You're not a bad teacher."

"Y're a quick study." Noel had stopped having to look at her feet. Which was good, it meant Ranger could add to the difficulty. "Now we turn. Clockwise." He didn't mean they would turn on the dance floor, they'd been moving around the floor counter-clockwise already. The Ranger held Noel closer and as he moved they began spinning clockwise as they walked around the floor.

Maybe they'd get lucky and a waltz would play, or a polka. The latter was not very likely. Those were the fun ones to spin to.

He might have to have a word with the DJ as people left.

"You do this often?"

"Not as often as I'd like." Which would be every night if he could have his way. "Not many people here dance like this."

His clockwise or hers!? Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. How did he make it seem effortless when he was hurt!? She was tempted to poke him in the stitches just to make sure it was still there and that this was the same day. What a long day it'd been.

This kind of dancing was okay. Respectful, almost. She'd felt like she had a handle on it at first but with the added spinning, somehow she felt inadequate. That was Dumb with a capital D. This disheveled suit was her work attire and this was after work. Not like she had a dress stashed in her car. Or a car, for that matter. And not even the Ranger, who wished he could do this every day, got to dance all that often.

The song faded into the next. Noel wasn't really listening. She was trying very, very hard not to step on her own feet.

"You're making this terribly difficult, you know." She shook her head, amused, which sent her long braid swishing against her spine. "I was going to go home and forget all about today." She raised an eyebrow indicating that this was all his fault.

"It's Blackforest, right? Or am I misremembering your name?" The Ranger was what had stuck. Noel blamed the accent.

The turn clockwise had thrown Noel for a loop. He could feel her confusion at the start in how she moved. Everyone had the same reaction when they were first learning. The Ranger knew Noel would eventually get it and smooth out her dancing.

As the song ended the Ranger didn't know if she knew how to do spins. "At the end of a song, the way y' thank y're partner is by spinnin' them." He raised his left hand, the one holding Noel's and opened and held it flat just higher than Noel's head. "As long as the hand is open you spin, you stop when it closes. Y' know which way t' go by which way I push with the other hand. If you've spun out and stopped I'll bend my wrist before I open my hand to indicate direction."


"You're making this terribly difficult, you know. I was going to go home and forget all about today."

"Y're welcome." The Ranger said with a smile. "I'm certainly havin' a much better time than I'd planned fer after the weddin'."

"It's Blackforest, right? Or am I misremembering your name?"

"Michael Hunter, Blackforest Tactical is my company."

The Ranger reached into his jacket pocket and drew out his phone. He got the DJs attention and tossed it over. There really wasn't anyone else dancing besides them. "Play some Cody Johnson."

He could dance to virtually any pop song the DJ could play, hell he could dance to rap and make it look good. Texas country artists though knew how to make a good song to dance to.

She wasn't sure if country was for her, but for this it was perfect. It was just so funny for some reason. "I thought country songs were all about your truck and somebody shooting your dog." But by the second song she was noticing references to pop culture and a general upbeatness that she hadn't expected.

And she got to twirl as a thank you. Which made Noel realize that almost everyone had vacated the premises. The DJ had plugged in Michael's phone and ditched his station to go to the bar. There was one old couple just starting to go grey and stubbornly swaying in an A-frame by the window.

She stepped back into the circle of Michael Hunter's arms for another dance.

"This place cleared out quick." Not to be rude, but she did try to notice if the security team had cleared out. She only saw one last straggler by the door that raised his eyebrows at her. Thankfully they turned away before she could figure out how to feel about that.

"Do you have a ride? Are you okay to drive?" His cheeks were pink, but they had been moving.

"I thought country songs were all about your truck and somebody shooting your dog."

"Y've been listenin' to the wrong country music. Texas and Red Dirt follow in the veins of good old Outlaw country."

The first song played, and then another. Interesting choice the DJ made, the pair had stepped out onto the dance floor at first with just half a song left. While they danced it became quite clear everyone was clearing out.

"This place cleared out quick."

"Was it the music? I bet it was the music. Cain't have somethin' people'll actually dance to." The Ranger said in jest.

He waved to the DJ and caught his phone when it came sailing back. It was clear everything was shutting down.

"Do you have a ride? Are you okay to drive?"

"My truck's in the garage. An' I should be fine in a half hour 'r so. I drank right up t' my limit." The Ranger replied as he went to retrieve his case before asking, "Do y' have a ride?" He hadn't seen how the rest of the security detail arrived.

Cain't. Noel tried not to. She really did. Instead she ended up pressing her lips together so that she could very, very obviously try not to laugh. "Cain't" was so quaint. And then that thought rhymed and the dancing was over anyways... Noel gave in to a little chuckle as they disentangled themselves. It was a smidgen disappointing without one last twirl.

"Not too much to do once the bride and groom are gone." That was a sobering thought, actually. She should take notes on the evening before she slept so that if Hye-jin ever came back for vengeance, Noel would be ready. She was pretty sure she could take her. She already wasn't afraid of Abe.

And just like that, they were back to reality. Noel smoothed her jacket and waved to the man at the door.

"Thanks, but there's a shuttle to town. From there I'll take the subway. Don't have a car. Not sure if I can drive anyway. Hey. Say cheese." Noel had pulled out her ancient flip phone and pointed it at The Ranger before he had a chance to protest.

Michael Hunter of Blackforest Tactical, ninja slayer and ballroom dancer. Met at Jang-Soo wedding.

She showed him the contact card along with his photo for approval.

"I don't brain so good," she joked, "this way even if I forget tonight, I won't forget you."