Chapter Six – "Seattle, Washington"

It was late by the time they had arrived in Washington, despite their new method of travel-teleportation. It was cold and windy, with heavy snow coming down. It was enough to make Chinara shiver and wish she'd packed something better than the thin jacket she was wearing now, which did little to protect her from the cold. She was also tired and stressed, and just wanted a good night's sleep, which she had been denied the previous night by Deadpool's snoring and sleep talking. It took a while of searching to find a hotel, but when they did she went inside to get them a room while he stayed outside to answer a phone call he'd just received.

"I need a room for the night," Chinara said as she approached the front desk.

"Is it just you?" the woman behind the counter asked.

"No, I have a friend with me," Chinara said.

"Alright, well, the only room we have left has a single queen bed. And the heat's broken," the woman said with a small apologetic smile.

Chinara hesitated a moment to think about this, looking out the front windows to where Deadpool stood out in the snow, talking on his cell phone still. It had been bad enough sharing a room with two beds with him; did she really want to deal with a room with one bed? If she hadn't been so tired she would have just gone to a different hotel, but as it was, she couldn't take going back out into the snow to look around for however long.

"Yeah, I'll take it," she relented at last.

It was a nice room, at least, Chinara discovered when she unlocked the door and walked in. It was just…cold. Not as cold as it was outside, just not as warm as she would have liked it. She threw her duffel bag down in the corner by the table and strode over to the windows to pull the curtains closed before kicking off her shoes in the general direction of where she'd put her bag.

"Cozy," Deadpool commented as he came in after her, closing the door.

She shot him a dirty look just in case he was thinking of doing anything, but she wasn't sure if he even noticed.

"You can sleep in the chair," she said dismissively, not wanting to even bring up the subject of sharing the bed as she pulled the covers down.

To her surprise though, he didn't even question her. Any other time she might have found it odd, but this time she just didn't care. She was much more occupied with trying to ignore how cold she was curled up under the covers even with all of her clothes on. The sound of the wind whistling outside as it blew snow flurries through the night sky coupled with the occasional creak of the chair was oddly comforting as she tried to fall asleep, but every time she had just about dozed off, she'd shiver from the cold and wake herself up.

She had just about dozed off again when she caught the sound of movement and woke up at once, her eyes snapping open. The fact that it was just Deadpool did nothing to comfort her since he was sliding into bed next to her. She would have recoiled, but the spot she was curled up in was relatively warmer than the rest of the bed by now and she didn't have the heart to move.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, peering at him through the darkness.

"You looked cold," he said simply, wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm f-fine," she retorted, though she couldn't deny the fact that he was warm, possibly because of his costume that he still wore.

"You'd sound much more convincing if your teeth weren't chattering," he pointed out.

She attempted to glare at him, but she had a feeling it wasn't very affective. It also didn't help that she was already starting to feel better and wasn't shivering as bad as before.

"If you try anything, anything at all…" Chinara left the end of the threat hanging, not needing to complete it to get her point across.

"I know, I know. I'll regret it. Bodily harm and all that," Deadpool confirmed.

"So long as we're clear," the assassin said, tentatively closing her eyes.

Chinara was tense and wary for a few long moments, waiting to see if he was going to try something that she wouldn't approve of. He didn't do anything though, barely even moved. He just held her close, both of his hands in perfectly acceptable places, and enveloped her in warmth. Eventually, she was able to relax and drifted off to sleep.

In the morning when she woke up, she was alone in bed and Deadpool was in the shower. How anyone could shower when it was this frigid in the room, she didn't know. He couldn't have been gone long though because she was still cozy and the spot next to her in bed was still warm where he had been sleeping. She wasn't quite sure what to think about what had happened last night. She'd felt safe in his arms, despite all the times she'd wanted nothing to do with him since they had met. Maybe she even-no, she couldn't consider that, especially not now. They still had something important to take care of.

Taking advantage of the fact that he was technically out of the room, Chinara got changed into some clean clothes and decided to put on her Onyxlock gear ahead of time. With all the times she had been shot and attacked lately when she wasn't expecting it, she wanted to be prepared for a change.

She was all ready and waiting, sitting on the edge of the bed, for her own chance to use the bathroom by the time that Deadpool was done. She didn't look at him when he emerged from the bathroom, just quietly moved past him and closed the door behind her.

"About last night…" Chinara said as they walked into the downtown office building that they'd been given the address for back in Nevada. "…Thanks."

Deadpool shrugged. "It was nothing," he said. He came close to adding something else, but figured she wouldn't appreciate his humor and would just give him another dirty look, so he didn't.

As they approached the front desk where the receptionist sat, Chinara quickened her pace so that she got there ahead of Deadpool, wanting to be the one to do the talking this time instead of having to witness him wave guns at innocent people again.

"We're looking for Vincent Burch," the assassin said with a pleasant smile, hoping she would be able to get this done without threatening anybody, "We were told that he's in a business meeting here."

"Well…yes," the receptionist said, her uneasy gaze flickering from Chinara to Deadpool as he approached, "But he can't be bothered right now."

Chinara remained patient, or at least, she tried to. "His secretary told us he would be here, it's very important that we speak with him as soon as possible," she said.

"You'll have to wait until the meeting is over, which is in another two hours," the receptionist said.

Abruptly, Chinara caught the smell of her unease turn to the smell of fear, and looked over to see Deadpool had drawn a gun and was aiming it in the direction of the woman behind the desk. The assassin sighed, shaking her head. So much for getting this done without threatening anyone.

"Just tell us where he is. We've been through too much shit to play any more games. Unless you'd like to play a different kind of game," Deadpool said.

Chinara shot him a dirty look.

So much for avoiding that.

The color drained from the receptionist's face and she hurried to access the information on her computer. She flinched back a bit when Deadpool stepped around the desk to see the computer screen for himself, but he didn't threaten her anymore. In fact, he didn't say anything to her, just holstered his gun and headed for the elevators.

"Why can't we ever do things my way?" Chinara asked, hurrying to keep up with him.

"We did do things your way. That's how we got here," Deadpool reminded her.

"I meant when it comes to threatening people," she clarified, "Not every situation calls for waving a gun in someone's face."

"It's quicker that way though," he said, stepping into the elevator when the doors opened. "Gives them motivation."

She quirked a brow, stepping in after him. "Patience works too," she said.

"I'm not a very patient person," he said with a shrug, pressing the button for the appropriate floor.

"Clearly," Chinara said. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall of the elevator car. With her luck, they'd be shot at again when the doors opened, and she didn't want a repeat of what happened the last time.

She supposed that it was just to prove her wrong that when the doors opened there was no one in sight, just a long hallway. She shifted a gun in one hand just to be safe though and then stepped out. Despite the fact that everything was quiet, she stayed alert and cautious as she moved down the hallway, keeping track of Deadpool out of the corner of her eye as he trailed along next to her.

Every conference room she poked her head into was empty, and she was quickly growing frustrated by the time they reached the last one. She was just about to declare this another dead end when the large flat screen in the last room flickered to life, displaying the image of a man in a business suit. Chinara flinched a bit, whirling around to face the screen.

"Sorry I couldn't be there to greet the two of you in person," the man said, though he didn't sound very sorry at all.

"Vincent Burch?" Chinara guessed.

"Correct," he said with a smile that was more unsettling than pleasant. "You two have been going through a lot of trouble to find me, I've heard."

"Yeah, a wild fucking goose chase," Deadpool said.

"You set us up. We want to know why," Chinara said, glaring at the man on the screen.

"I'd much rather tell you both in person," Vincent said.

"Works for me. All the better to put a bullet through your skull afterwards," Deadpool said.

Vincent merely smiled at the threat. "I'm in Montana. I can send a private jet to pick you up," he said.

"No," Chinara said, "We'll get there ourselves." She wasn't going to trust anything from this man, especially not an offer of transportation.

"Suit yourself," Vincent said with a shrug, "I'll just send more information on the location to your cell phone then."

"Great, thanks," she said dryly.

"Though you might want to hurry up if you want to make it there," Vincent added.

She frowned, trying to figure out what he meant. Before she had a chance to though, Deadpool had grabbed her by the arm and was pulling her towards the door.

"What, what is it?" she asked, stumbling and nearly falling as she tried to keep up.

"Bomb," he said, pulling her into the hallway with him.

Her eyes widened a bit. Another bomb? How come she never noticed these? She was good at these things and yet this was the second time he'd discovered a bomb while she had been completely clueless to its existence.

She was about to voice this thought when suddenly the conference room they'd just been in exploded, the windows shattering outwards and sending glass flying across the hallway. Shards of glass flew in her direction as the force from the blast made her stumble hard. She'd started to go down when Deadpool caught her, shielding her from harm as they both tumbled.

The floor shook beneath her as a wave of heat rolled across her, but she was uninjured. A chain of smaller explosions started to go off behind them, and Deadpool pulled her to her feet, ushering her towards the stairwell. Smoke stung her eyes and sensitive nose, making her cough, but she could see well enough to make out the door as it was pushed open, and then the stairs beyond.

They paused there for a moment and she took deep breaths as she leaned back against the wall, coughing and catching her breath. Once her eyes had stopped watering, Chinara looked up and saw Deadpool picking shards of glass out of his back. Her expression changed into a concerned frown as she watched him, though he didn't seem to notice that her attention was suddenly on him.

"Are you alright?" she asked as he dropped another shard of glass to the ground.

"I'm fine," he said, shrugging a little even though that probably wasn't the best idea.

"Alright…" she said.

He had protected her, even though he didn't have to.

"Thanks," she added.

"Yeah. Let's just get to Montana. I really wanna give that Burch guy a piece of my mind," he said.

"Agreed," she nodded.