"I'm not going to stab him," Maggie grumbled. "Yet."

"You've got that look that says you want to," Dani teased. "You want to stab him in the face. Or punch him in the throat, one of the two."

"I would punch him first," Maggie said with a dignified sniff. "Besides, it's not entirely his fault."

"I'd imagine he sets a lot of people off," Dani said, glancing over to Cal and back at Maggie. "Or sets them on edge. Or both."

"Both. Definitely both." Maggie snorted. "I won't stab him, I'll be fine through my shift. But if he shoots anyone, he's cleaning it up."

Dani snickered a bit.

"I don't blame you," she said.

Maggie grinned and went to go make a few more drinks. Two more hours and they'd close and she could go and not deal with the Aupheling for a while.

Dani sat back to wait for Maggie. She had nothing better to do for the night.

Maggie helped Cal close up the bar for the night and headed outside to collect Dani and head back.

Dani waited outside for her.

"How'd it go closing up?" she asked.

Once the doors were locked, Cal headed back to the apartment he shared with his brother. He needed to check on Nik and make sure he was alright.

"Easy. Everyone knew when closing time was, no one gave us trouble." Maggie shrugged. "So far, job's easy."

Nik was sitting in the apartment with a book on his lap, although he wasn't reading it. He was just sitting.

"Good," Dani said. She grinned teasingly. "So I can leave you to it from now on and go get into mischief all by my lonesome."

Cal let himself into the apartment, making sure to make enough noise that Niko knew it was him.

"You here, Cyrano?" he called as he locked the door behind him.

Maggie snorted. "Only if you remember your keys," she said, taking out her own keys to let them in. "I'm not getting up in the middle of the night to let you in again."

"Yes." Nik blinked and looked over at Cal. Had that much time passed already? "You didn't have to stay late."

"I'm sure I can get someone to teach me how to pick locks," Dani said, grinning. "Maybe Robin, I bet it's a guarantee he knows how."

Cal shrugged.

"Figured we could use the extra hours' pay," he said. "Not like we've had many paying jobs recently." He went and grabbed a can of soda from the fridge. "You left pretty quick earlier."

"I'm quite sure the puck knows how to pick locks," Maggie agreed dryly.

"Yes." Nik didn't volunteer any information, though. Cal was going to have to pry for once.

"There you go, problem solved," Dani teased. "I'll ask him to teach me and you'll never have to let me in in the middle of the night again."

"Gonna tell me why?" Cal asked as he popped open the soda. "That girl can't have scared you off, she didn't look like she could scare a chihuahua."

Maggie shook her head, clearly amused, but didn't actually protest. "What you do with your time is up to you."

Nik shook his head a bit. She hadn't scared him off. But he didn't know if he was quite ready to tell Cal, either.

"You say that, yet you'll still send me disapproving looks later," Dani pointed out, a bit teasingly.

"Then what?" Cal asked. "That's not like you, Nik, you don't usually run off like that."

"I only do that once in a while," Maggie protested. "And, really, sometimes you deserve it."

Nik sighed. "She... said something," he said quietly. "'Promise, I won't bite unless you ask.'"

"Sometimes," Dani admitted. "I can't help it sometimes, though."

Inwardly, Cal grimaced. Yeah, that explained it completely. Outwardly, though, he growled a bit.

"I'll kill her next time if you want me to," he said.

Maggie just sighed, amusedly and fondly exasperated. "Yes, so you keep telling me."

"No," Nik said, shaking his head. "It's fine. I just couldn't stay."

"You're the one who says I flirt without meaning to," Dani pointed out, shrugging. "Hopefully this new job will help some."

"You sure, Nik?" Cal pressed. Because in his mind, that was the simplest solution. Someone hurts his big brother? Eliminate them with extreme prejudice.

"Hopefully." Maggie grinned. "Although if you start picking up cute boys, you can save one or two for me, I might be tempted."

"I'm sure," Nik said. "It wasn't her fault." And he knew how protective Cal was, so he wasn't surprised. Just trying to discourage that kind of reaction for now.

"I'll keep that in mind," Dani said. She grinned. "I'll make sure to share the wealth."

"She still hurt you, Nik," Cal said shortly

"Good. See that you do." Maggie grinned and stretched. "And I think I'm going to shower before bed."

"It's fine, Cal. Drop it," Nik said in warning.