| Fan Fiction |
by x.shuang.dao.x
2 Years Later
“Hey pretty, can I buy you a drink?”
Ashley turned. Then she smiled. “Hmm, let me think about it. I’ll get back to you.”
“Aw geez, you’re a difficult woman, Ash.”
“You’re quite the same yourself too.” She said, as her pursuer landed a light kiss on her lips before taking his seat on the tall stool beside her.
“So how’s work today?” The guy, whose face was masked in silhouettes thanks to the minimal lighting in the dark pub, said as he signaled to the bartender for a mug of beer.
Ashley sighed. “Crap. We had to release this murderer because we didn’t have enough concrete evidence to nail him.”
“But you are pretty sure he is the one?” He asked as he casually draped his arm around her shoulders.
She reveled in the comfort and security of his large biceps which she was already so used to. “Yes, Quan and I are a hundred and one percent sure about this.”
“That’s really sure.”
Ashley laughed at Monkey’s incredulous expression. That was what she liked about him, he could be really serious and mature at times, yet totally naïve and childish at other times.
Monkey Xie Fu Cheng, whose name was actually Richard, was three years older than she, and he was working as an Art Director at Snoop Ads. That probably explained why he was a little crazy and funny. People who worked in advertising firms were usually typecast as having a screw – or maybe a few – loose. Monkey never believed it until he entered an advertising company himself.
The way he and Ashley met was either downright clichéd or just plain cute. He moved in next to her apartment about a year ago. And everything started to change when his dog became best friends with her cat.
Ashley got her cat two years ago; he was a lovely tabby with bright, blue eyes that bore right into you. He was actually a stray she found at her lift lobby looking forlorn because he had hurt his left front paw. To be precise, Owodog was the one who found him. He thought the cat looked so miserable and he didn’t know what to do so he just brought it with him on his way up to look for Ashley. Ashley took one look at the kitty and immediately decided she was going to take care of him.
Owodog wasn’t sure what he was doing bringing a cat to Ashley. Dogs and cats just didn’t seem to mix very well. True enough, Sam liked Owodog well enough, but wasn’t a fan of him.
Sam, however, took a liking to Monkey.
When Monkey was moving in next door a year ago, Sam was watching him through the cat-flap because he was bored. Then Monkey said ‘hi’ to Sam and started talking to him like Sam was his old friend. (Maybe because Monkey was also bored. Ashley preferred to think that Monkey was just crazy, like most advertisers. No one, in her opinion, talked to animals they didn’t know.)
Then came Luna, the wolf-like Siberian Husky that belonged to Monkey. She was bounding to Monkey, initially, then seemed to find Sam interesting. She trotted slowly towards Sam and Sam had come out of the cat-flap. Finding Luna fascinating as well, he walked up to her and lifted his paw tentatively at Luna.
Monkey was watching them with much delight when he heard an accusing voice asking him, “What are you doing with my cat?”
That was the first time Monkey saw Ashley.
In the duration of a year much had happened.
Of course Owodog and Fabien were killing themselves over Ashley exclusively dating a guy called Monkey, of all names. Fabien had then reverted back to his old self; having one-night-stands like there was no tomorrow. He especially disliked the fact that Monkey was somewhat in the same industry as he was; only Monkey was in an advertising agency but he was in the advertising department of a company. Owodog on the other hand, decided he might just stay married to his work all his life but occasionally attempted to work on his social life. They did, however, still secretly harbour the hope that Ashley would break up with Monkey soon. That was why both of them weren’t making any commitments to anyone else for the time being. They certainly hoped their wait would be worthwhile.
Ashley didn’t want to focus too much on the both of them. Ever since two years ago, she had chosen to not choose between them and elected to treat them as just friends instead. Monkey came into the picture a year later; and he managed to charm Ashley so much that Owodog and Fabien problem disappeared from her mind completely.
Monkey was completely devoted to Ashley; he had to sacrifice love for work sometimes but none of them were too bothered over it. After all, they were next-door neighbours. In fact, it had become ambiguous who lived where. Occasionally Monkey would be in Ashley’s apartment; at other times Ashley was seen entering and leaving Monkey’s apartment for up to days in succession.
Both of them had irregular working hours, and they both understood perfectly so no one complained about not spending enough time with each other when he was rushing for project deadlines or when she was working day and night to find evidence to apprehend suspects.
Ashley liked Monkey. A lot. But she wasn’t sure if anything as permanent as marriage might ever be on the cards for them. She was happy with the relationship they had right now and she was afraid it would crumble if she so much so as thought about marriage. Monkey didn’t seem like one to settle down so soon.
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Of all the things that happened in the past two years, the one thing Owodog hated most was that Ashley had to make Wolf’s Tooth her favourite pub. Because that meant nine out of ten times he and Fabien went there, they would see Ashley. With Monkey.
On top of that, Brian (the boss of Wolf’s Tooth, who was also Owodog’s longtime friend) kept asking Owodog, “I thought you were with her?” To that, Owodog never failed to reply, “I wish!” And that, in turn would get a snort from Fabien.
In short, Owodog and Fabien were two best friends turned love rivals turned fellow rejects who were nevertheless the best of friends.
That night Owodog left the office later than Ashley and so he arrived in Wolf’s Tooth after she did. If he had known earlier she would be there with Monkey on that particular night at that particular hour, he would have avoided it at all costs. The last thing he wanted was to walk in on yet another making out session featuring Detective Ashley Wu and Mr Art Director Monkey Xie.
Owodog was sure he had to have offended the whole palace of deities to gain such bad luck.
Picking a table that was far away from them, Owodog sat back-facing them to be doubly sure that he would not even be subconsciously able to steal glances at them without breaking his neck or something. Then he ordered a drink.
The bartender on duty was girl named Crystal. She was 24 and Fabien had had a brief fling with her in the past year. She was very independent and didn’t bug Fabien like some of his other one-night-stands had. Owodog liked her fine; she liked him quite fine too. In fact, she shot flirtatious looks at Owodog whenever he was alone. This night was no different.
“Alone?”
Owodog nodded.
She placed the mug of beer on his table. “Still thinking about her?” She made a little gesture that seemed to point in Ashley’s direction.
Owodog looked in the direction in which Crystal was gesturing, though he already knew what she was talking about, before turning back to look at her. Then he sighed. “Crystal, I’m in a foul mood today. Sorry.”
“ ‘S okay. Call me when you need a refill.” Crystal stated professionally and strutted away in her ultra-high stilettos.
He watched her sashay into the crowd back to the counter. The girl was hot, but she wasn’t his type. He sighed as he returned his attention back to his beer.
Owodog had been in as bad a mood as he could possibly be, of course; just that day they were forced to release a murderer on the basis of having insufficient solid proof. It was probably the third or fourth time he was getting away because he was too clever to leave any traces behind when he killed someone. God knows just how many people he had really killed but had just not been found out. Owodog hated that smirk on his face that he had become familiar with.
When Kale Chou passed Owodog on his way out that afternoon, he had said in a whisper to Owodog so no one else would hear, “Good luck, Detective.” The tone was obviously mocking.
Owodog had been fuming but he wore a nonchalant expression as Kale exited. Then he went back to his office, shut the door and punched the wall. His knuckles were still hurting from hitting the wall too hard. He rubbed his aching knuckles absent-mindedly.
‘It was a bad day,’ Owodog thought as he downed yet another mug of beer. ‘Tomorrow will be much better.’ But, in fact, he knew tomorrow wasn’t going to be better. He didn’t expect much from his future. Unless some miracle were to happen.
A tap on his shoulder jolted him back to reality. Owodog turned to his left and saw Fabien.
“Hey bud.” Fabien said, and sat down in the chair opposite Owodog.
Owodog sighed as Fabien finally caught Crystal’s eye and indicated to her that he wanted a jug of beer.
Fabien’s attention was reverted to Owodog. “What’s wrong?”
There were so many things wrong. But he presumed Fabien hadn’t seen Ashley and Monkey when he entered. So Owodog decided he wouldn’t talk about that. Then he told Fabien about Kale Chou, hoping that getting it off his mind would aid in relieving his rotten mood and perhaps make him feel better about the whole thing. He didn’t normally tell others about his cases and criminals, at least not in great detail. For one, it was confidential. Secondly, he felt that he did not need to burden his friends with his own problems and troubles.
Fabien listened intently to Owodog’s recount. He wasn’t sure what he could help his best friend with; but what he could do was to share his troubles with him. That was what best buds were for, right?
Owodog had inadvertently let slip the part of the story about him pissing off at Kale for being touchy-feely at Ashley.
Fabien glanced uneasily at Owodog; both of them had an unspoken agreement that Ashley was a taboo topic. But obviously Owodog was too engrossed in his telling of the Kale Chou story to think of that.
Sometimes Fabien thought he was a little luckier than Owodog; at least he didn’t have to face Ashley everyday. Owodog had to live with the heartache of seeing the one he loved in front of him everyday, yet knowing that he could not be with her and knowing that there was someone else whom she loved and loved her.
“He’s a piece of shit that shouldn’t even exist on Earth.” Owodog said, concluding his whole recount.
Fabien looked at Owodog. Owodog was staring blankly at his mug of beer.
“Hey waiter, give me another jug. Thanks,” Fabien told a waiter who was passing by their table. The waiter nodded and then returned a while later with Fabien’s order. Fabien thanked the waiter again and pushed the jug to Owodog.
“Quan, this jug’s on me. After tonight, you forget about Kale Chou. Maybe just hope he dies a terrible death when his murdering projects backfire on him,” Fabien said. ‘And we forget about Ashley.’
Owodog, however, seemed to hear the thought in Fabien’s mind while he ignored Fabien’s spoken words. He snorted, and shot a look back at Fabien that said, ‘fat chance’.
Fabien chuckled somewhat bitterly, “Well, we could always try, can’t we?”
“Uh-huh. And the keyword’s ‘try’, bud.” Owodog replied.
“Then try harder.” Fabien deadpanned.
And the both of them clinked their mugs together and drank up.
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He thought she was wonderfully perfect. She was just the right height for him and she was slenderly built. Her voice was sweet yet bore a tone of authority. Her hair fell slightly below her shoulders and had big, voluminous curls at the end. The blonde streaks in her hair shone in the light. She had beautiful brown eyes that spoke volumes; long thick eyelashes that would bat against his face when he kissed her... He felt a shudder pass through him. Yes, he wanted to know what that felt like. He just knew he would like everything about her in time to come, after he knew everything about her.
But the thing that attracted him first, was her attitude. She was feisty and had a lot of spunk. He especially liked it when she told him he was free to go, and he said ‘thanks’ to her and she glared at him with such indignation that he was totally turned on by. The scene of her hitting away his hand forcefully when he attempted to touch her face replayed itself in his mind unceasingly and he couldn’t help but smile to himself as if she were a secret to be known only by him.
He sat in the exquisite leather sofa that complimented the classy interior of his home, twirling a wine glass in his hand, thinking about her. What wouldn’t he give to be able to kiss those pouty lips of hers? But she didn’t like him now, did she? He would have to get into her good books first. Then he would win her heart and she would be all his. Forever.
He had to find out all about her to impress her. But that was no difficult task for him; he made a living out of knowing everything his victim did. From the time they left their houses daily to which television programmes they watched to the friends they had. He made it a point to be very thorough in all his research so he would not make any silly mistake and get caught for being inattentive and careless.
He knew that dumb detective liked her too. It was so blatantly written on his irksome face when he told her she was pretty and wanted to touch her face. He thought the detective might have just landed punches on him if not for the fact that she held him back and shot him a look that said he would get into trouble if he really did punch him.
He looked at the picture of her that was lying on his table. He traced his fingers longingly along her jawline. “You’ll be free from those disgusting cops, baby. You’ll lead a much better life with me. Ashley Wu, you will belong to me and me only.”
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->shuang.dao
i never thought i'd do a sequel to ACA but i did! lol. so far i'm rather happy with where ACA2 is heading... hope you guys like it too! (: