Honey couldn’t believe that time had passed so quickly from when he and Ham had come ashore and made their home in Detroit. After several years of building their brand, selling their fathers estate, and continuing the search for their sister, many things had changed. Just recently, he had made a move to Las Vegas and set up a robust trade back and forth to Los Angeles. There was something to be said about the perpetually sunny state that had its share of celebrities, artists, and plenty of people who fell through the cracks. Honey had tailored his business to cater to the elite, the ones who paid handsomely to custom build their own experience. Of course, he still sold normal tea and confections at his new shop near the end of the strip, having separated the two businesses unlike Detroit.

 

Las Vegas was much quieter without his boisterous brother who made himself the life of the party and had been key in peddling many of the drugs that they dealt in. For now, it was Oolong who kept him company on the days where it began to feel all too much for him to handle. Despite recent events, he found himself cheered by several familiar faces who had also followed a few leads out to the high desert. The dam up on the Arizona border had been completed just few years previous and still brought in quite a bit of business as tourists and jet setters came to gamble and sight see. Of course, the barren desert in Nevada wasn’t really the pinnacle of excitement with scorching summers and icy winters with the occasional snow but figures in the crime world had decided to invest in this one horse town and make it a bastion for gambling and sin. The doorbell chimed in the coffee shop causing Honey to glance up, catching the figure of Rom who had stooped to scratch the chin of the overly friendly Oolong. The cats sister, a fluffy Himalayan named Jasmin gave Rom a mildly disinterested look before flopping down into a pile of fluff to lazily swing her tail. Honey put aside the bag of the he was filling, wiping his dusty hands on his apron before greeting his friend.

“So  you finally bit the bullet and moved out here to Vegas? What convinced you this dust bowl was such a good idea? It was the gambling wasn’t it?” 

 

He smirked, acknowledging their first encounter in a gambling den where they had formed an unlikely alliance that had eventually led to a comfortable friendship. Recently, Rom had brought in a new member to his branch of families, someone named Kates and he’d been meaning to inquire about her and her relationship to the business. 

".....Can't it be that I was doing some long-lost soul-searching for my one true Friend?"

Noticing the look he was getting, it wasn't even going to be anything like that which would be getting past Honey. Though he noticed how the cat seemed to ever so slightly relax with Honey around, the man always had a fascination, he saw it back in Detroit...before, well, his world went chaotic. 

"OKAY Fine, it was like a siren call, damn you!"

Rom's ears went red as his cheeks soon followed that had the cat giving him one of the most odd grins he had ever seen on an animal. Was he in one of those comic books that Geek kept reading? Nah, that couldn't have been it, this was real life! Sure, at least he thought, better leaving those thoughts to the notebooks.

"So you found me here, in the place of my desires, pretty cliché don't ya think mate?"

Rom had to say to the man, they had to stop meeting like this, it was odd. This was how rumours begun and it was not always that Rom enjoyed the odd tale here and there, something always brought him back for more.

"HEY! I mean it, what is it with us and gambling, it's almost like it wants us to grip its fine dice and let us have our way with it...at least that is what it feels like. I came here to check out the scene though, see what I could do...been a while though."

There was a time that Rom would have been raring to go, his mind jumping at the prospect of bringing forward new business, yet there were other aspects. Some that he didn't even know were even there. 

He seemed to notice something, Honey had said, finally bit the bullet? Well not exactly, he got shot once, was not a fun experience. It was that, which made him into the.....well self-made bastard of a man he was right now. This life, the way he had brought himself to Vegas, it was a story in itself and one to tell around the campfire. 

"I see that look on your face, you think I'm up to something....dear god, a man can't even come to the place in peace and roll.."

It was then that he heard the silly rumour, Kates and him? That wasn't even something he even knew of, from what he knew, there were talks of a few people roaming around the cities, he didn't exactly know where they settled. Yet one did go by the name, Kates, whoever it was, he wasn't working with 'em. 

"I'm not in the game, right now. I'm just....coasting, of course, while playing the game that I know so well. It's what I do, yet, I would need to know if you and your brother are up for it..."

It was here that he gave the man a soft grin, yes, he knew. Not that it took time, he had his sources, but he still didn't know what they were doing here. That was something he wished to find out, with nothing more, Rom bowed his head, thinking about last time. 

Turning his head to the side, last time, Gerry had been here with them. Now, he was nothing more than a ....memory, something that Rom didn't wish but still, he found it ever so welcoming that the thought didn't hurt as much.

"Yes, I know. I know a lot of things, it just depends on if you're up to it, brother."