Vegas AU

Okay okay okay.

So this may not have been an ideal situation that Juliette was in, but it was fixable.

Right?

She carefully edged away from the person beside her, grabbing her phone, pants, and what she thought was her shirt before going to the bathroom quickly, shooting her boss a text.

‘I have no idea where I am.’

‘No shit. No one knows where your dumbass went! You’ve been gone for nearly a whole damn day! We had to leave without you!’ Was the gist of what her boss sent back to her, only the original was more... angry. And more vulgar.

Juliette rubbed her chin slowly, considering what she was going to do before she went to find her group. She knew where they were, and how long they’d be there. Knowing one of her other bosses, he’d keep them in place for a bit longer than that.

As she yanked on her pants and the shirt she still thought was hers, she glimpsed the ring.

Her heart dropped.

What she thought was a plain wedding band, common in Vegas weddings when couples were desperate to be quick with their wedding, was actually much more than that.

The person in that bed had money, and quite a bit of it, judging from the gems she found when she flipped the ring around on her finger.

“Shit.” She could return the ring, right?

No, that wouldn’t wash her hands if this mess. If there was a wedding ring, there must’ve been a wedding, and for that to have happened, they would’ve most definitely had had to have a wedding certificate.

Which means she likely had another name added onto her own, or the person in the bed had her name.

What the hell even happened last night?

Her mind racing as she looked around the bathroom (finding her socks and shoes), she could remember glimpses of a girl with blue hair. The girl was mean, but too young to be in the bar Juliette was occupying.

“Don’t worry, I’m not drinking.” She’d said with a shrug. “My mom is, I’m just making sure she’s alright and gets home safe.”

She girl had handed a drink to Juliette, suddenly behind the counter. Her smile was... off. But Juliette has been too tipsy by that point to notice.

“She put something in my drink.” Juliette hissed to herself, wanting to stomp her foot. A brief noise made Juliette pause to listen. Shuffling, then a flop and silence again. The person was alive, most definitely.

Maybe this person would think the ring was a mistake?

Now that was a true issue. Judging from the gems, the feel, and the look of the ring in general, this wasn’t a cheap ring. It was the real deal, and she’s sure the person in the bed wouldn’t appreciate being conned out of thousands without realizing it.

“What do I even care? I have to go.”

She shoved her socks and shoes on, creeping out of the bathroom. The person wasn’t awake, thankfully, and Juliette was able to grab the rest of her stuff without much fuss.

Pausing by the door, Juliette studies her possible new spouse. Long brown hair. Must be dyed, because a portion at the bottom was a different color, although Juliette couldn’t tell which one. Not blue, thankfully. That much she could tell. Dark brown skin, with quite a few scars here and there. Juliette dares not to test her luck and simply gets out of the hotel room, making her way down the hallway to the main entrance.

A call to her boss got her 1) multiple threats of termination, 2) yelled at until she was nearly deaf in one ear, 3) a lot of whining from her other boss about how he wanted her to stay, and 4) a very clear agreement that if Juliette could behave for the rest of the move, she wouldn’t be terminated and she could get a nice taxi to bring her to them. Once the taxi had arrived, Juliette hopped in, sure she had put this mistake behind her. After all, this person wasn’t someone she knew, and it was unlikely that she’d ever meet them again.

Right?

No.

Nope,

Her luck basically said a huge fuck you to her good fortune she’d been having since she’d left the hotel.

She’d been behaving (as best she could, which wasn’t much but still). She’d watched her bosses like a hawk. She’d endured the 10-minute-turned-an-hour walk that she’d be dragged on by the nicer boss.

Yet on her final day of the trip, she’d been standing silent at the corner of the room her bosses were currently in.

The air was stoic and deadly, and judging from the whispering that was occurring on the other side of the huge doors, it wasn’t much better on their end. Juliette’s main boss, Gretel, huffed, tired of waiting for the nonesense that was sure to follow.

“Open the doors.”

Two guards opened it, quickly revealing just as many people donned in black clothing and masks. Gretels reaction was less than enthusiastic.

“Care to tell me why we were stopped on our last strip by you?” She addressed the tallest figure, who calmly took off the mask. It seemed Gretel wasn’t that scary to this woman. Knarly scars covered the entire left side of her face, and her one good eye was used to glare down at Gretel.

“You’ve trespassed.”

“We’re passing through.”

“You didn’t gain permission.”

“And I don’t need it. We won’t be here long, you’re keeping us here longer than I planned.”

The two bosses began to bicker, while Juliette fiddled with the ring. Why hadn’t she taken it off? It’s been nearly three days after the incident, but any attempt at removing it felt like she was betraying something. She briefly shook her head, snapping back to looking around the room. There wasn’t much; just her coworkers, her bosses; the people dressed in black and in masks.

But one person stood out. This tall being had her hands clasped behind her back, her posture straight in the spine but slouching at the shoulders. Her eyes scanned the room, not noticing Juliette quite yet. Akin to the shouting leader, this person has gold accents on their outfit, which... wasn’t much of a professional outfit if they might have been a bodyguard. But when the eyes rolled over to her, Juliette swore she could feel as if she should recognize this person. Something about the mask, the eyes, and the way this persons posture became straight as an arrow told her right away something was off.

The being turned and walked to Juliette, towering over her.

“Tell your guard to leave my guard alone! Only I’m allowed to intimidate my damn employees!”

The taller woman scoffed, murmuring something to the being in front of Juliette in Spanish. The being responded, affirming that they were actually a She.

“She says she isn’t a guard, which is true, and that she wants to know what the name of the guard is.”

“I don’t have to tell you shit.”

The woman Juliette was looking at kept staring her down, her head tilted. With what seemed like a good amount of effort, she murmured, “Jul-ie-Ette?”

Juliette’s blood ran cold and her eyes narrowed. The woman smiled, pleased with the reaction. She called something back to the woman (still yelling at Gretel), and the woman paused.

“Are you sure it’s her?”

The woman nodded, talking more before pointing at Juliette’s hand.

“Ah, so that’s where you’ve gone.” The other whispered, snapping her head to glare at Gretel. “Where’d she get the ring?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, you can’t have it.”

“Uh huh. Veronica, love.”

The newly dubbed Veronica reached into the pocket of her jacket, pulling out a silver chain. At the end of this chain was a matching ring, right down to the gemstones. Veronica kept staring at Juliette, studying her emotions. When she received only shocked looks, Veronica also pulled out a paper from a side pocket. Unraveling it, it revealed the missing marriage certificate that Juliette didn’t think to look for.

“It seems,” the woman grinned smugly at Gretel, “that your little bodyguard is very much my great-granddaughters lost wife.”

Gretel took a moment to process this before turning to glare at Juliette.

“You mean to tell me that the night you went missing, you went out and banged the great-granddaughter of a goddamn mega corporation?!”

“And underground mafia.” The older woman chimes in.

Despite not quite understanding what was going on, Veronica smiled at Juliette. She gave a brief wave, speaking to her great grandmother. The woman was more than happy to translate. “Veronica wants to take Juliette on more dates. Aka, we’re taking her. Name your price if you want to, but we’re not leaving without her.”

“Hey! She’s my employee, and you’re not taking her anywhere. I don’t care how much you’re paying for her, or offering. HR would have my ass if I did that.” Gretel stood from her place, glaring over at Nala.

Nala started her down in retaliation, blinking rather slowly. Her hands were still resting behind her back, and she listened to her bisabuela tell her what Gretel has said. In return, she spoke a brief sentence, watching La Muerte grin.

“What the fuck is she saying.”

“She said ‘it’s not a choice.’”

Nala smiled and took up one of Juliette’s hand, admiring the ring that was on Juliette’s finger.

Juliette didn’t retract her hand, a bit worried at what would happen should she do so. All she knew right now was that this woman was 1) dangerous, and 2) didn’t care about human safety laws much.

“Like Hell You’re just gonna take her!” Gretel sneered, shoving her chair back as she stormed over to the duo, ignoring her brothers protests.

In an attempt to get Nala to let go of the hold she now had on Juliette’s arm, Gretel grabbed Nalas elbow, trying to yank her off. Instead, Nala worked with the sudden yank, using the momentum from it to backhand Gretel. The sudden slap was enough to get Gretels hand off of her elbow, and she spoke again, La Muerte translating.

“She said ‘don’t put your hands on me ever again.’”

Juliette was awestruck. Well, that was.... strange. Gretel was immedietly enraged, trying to attack Nala. Of course, Gretels guards held her back, preventing her from any other possible injury.

Guards in black and masks all stood in the way between Nala and Gretel, Nala giving Gretel a blank (if not annoyed) stare. Juliette spoke now, wanting the chaos to calm down.

“Hey, maybe there’s some misunderstanding? Maybe it’s another Juliette Mime you’re looking for.”

Nala merely shook her head when she had the translation, first pointing to the certificate, then the matching rings. Her expression suggested that she was 100% sure that she had the right Juliette.

“Maybe we should get an annulment! We both had no clue what was happening that night!” Juliette felt a bit proud she remembered that.

“Yeah, uh, that won’t be happening either.” The new voice drifted from beside La Muerte, the owner being a very familiar head of blue and brown hair.  “You May have been drunk, but hey, you still managed to sign your names pretty well on the certificate.”

“You-“ Juliette’s eyes were wide, glancing over at everyone else.

Gretel was calming down, briefly, and Hansel was staring around awkwardly, unsure of what was going on. Karine was happily enjoying a bowl of popcorn she’d had brought up earlier. So all three of her bosses were useless.

“Yeah, it’s me.” The girl shrugged, smiling.

She wore no mask, but still bore the uniform Nala wore.

Nala, seeing this newcomer, smiled. “River!”

River waved, but was pulled into a quick hug and a head-ruffle before she managed to get Nala away.

“You drugged my drink!” Juliette accused, poking her finger into Rivers chest. River, seeming annoyed and disgusted, pushed Juliette’s hand away with a pen (trying to stab but instead brushing the hand away).

“Yes and no. It wasn’t the drug you’re thinking. Instead it was a form of drug I wanted to test.” She rolled on before Juliette could talk. “The effects I was hoping for was an instant knock out. Maybe get you flirtier, whatever.”

Now she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“However, what I didn’t expect was for you to experience like, 1000 emotions at once, or 25 or so years of emotions. Especially not with my Mom.”

Juliette needed to sit down. She sat in a chair and put her head in her hands, rubbing her temples.

So basically, River wasn’t wrong. They couldn’t get an annulment.

River was also like, 16 or something. How old was Nala exactly? Nala was a mom. Juliette married either a widower or a divorcee. She didn’t want to know how long for either.

“But how does that impact an annulment?” Juliette looked up.

“Because you should be receiving the emotions you felt through that time here in a few days or months. Aka you’ll know exactly what you did, what you felt, and why you two got married.” She glared at Juliette. “Sadly. Tragically married.”

No one translated any of this for Nala, so Juliette could easily assume that River had enough power to cover her damn tracks in front of her Mom.

“But I-“

Nala rapped her watch at River and La Muerte. La Muerte folded her arms. 

“She’s coming with us.”

“No she isn’t!”

“Just try and stop me.”

The guards in the masks separated Juliette from the others, and she lost sight of them. Nala took her hand again (seeming to ignore the attempts at removing said hand from her grasp), leading her away from the room and to an elevator. La Muerte smiled as she heard yells coming from the room, and saw most of her guards surge toward the disruption.

“Well, Juliette. I suppose I should welcome you to the family business.”

Juliette didn’t like how that sounded.