Chapter Text
The leader of the Saints and Shaundi were two very different women, the stoner woman was all about having a good time and going around with almost every man in Stilwater, while the Boss was focused on vengeance and wasted no time going onto the next targeted gang. The female lieutenant wanted to find a way to make her boss relax for once, most of the girls in the Saints felt a bit intimidated by the Boss’ presence but Shaundi never flinched whenever the Boss calls her an idiot or belittles her. If anything, Shaundi would respond back at her by calling her an asshole and for some reason the Boss never retaliated back. Her piercing golden eyes staring down at Shaundi’s dazed hazel eyes never struck actual fear to the stoner.
It’s been a few days since the Saints took down the Sons of Samedi by killing off The General in broad daylight. Shaundi felt accomplished that she was able to help out taking out the gang with the Boss and treated herself with double doses of loa dust. The female lieutenant was lounging around Purgatory, bored out of her mind as the rest of the gang including Pierce and Johnny were over at the stripclub by the suburbs. It was thought to be a quiet night for Shaundi, until she heard footsteps coming downstairs. Shaundi took a look to see who it was, and was surprised at what she was looking at. The Boss was usually seen with her signature purple jacket with some jeans and sneakers, nothing too fancy. However, the leader of the Saints wore an opened up white blazer with matching dress pants along with some high heel ankle boots. It was a look that Shaundi has never seen before. In the duration of being with the Saints, the hippie woman noticed that the boss dyed her hair with highlights after Carlo’s death as well as changing from black colors with her purple to white. In addition to the new wardrobe, the Boss dyed her hair once again, where it is entirely blonde. It was like Shaundi was seeing a total stranger, but the thick-rimmed glasses were a dead giveaway that it’s still the Boss.
“Well someone’s looking pretty fancy.” Shaundi responded, knowing she’s going to have a snappy response back.
“Hell, I gotta treat myself eventually...where the fuck is everyone else?” The Boss responded. Shaundi realized that the Boss was sounding more casual than the hostile tones everyone seemed to be used to.
“Stripclub, guess it was a cheap night when all the guys are over there.” Shaundi giggled, maybe for once she could level with her boss.
“I’m guessing the new management that we put there gives specials to our guys. I’d head over there for a beer but it seems like a hassle to hang out with everyone. Maybe for once, I can enjoy some quiet time. Or so I thought until I see that you’re alone. Any guys in Stilwater don’t seem to sleep with you tonight?” The Boss said.
The female lieutenant is puzzled at the Boss, because she doesn’t seemed upset that she’s the only person at Purgatory. Weirdly enough, Shaundi did receive messages from different exes about different parties or attempts to get back into her panties, but she was stoned enough to forget about responding. Before she could answer back, the Boss was grabbing a few bottles of beer from the bar and was heading towards where Shaundi was sitting.
“I kinda forgot there was parties I was invited to, too stoned to head over there anyway, so I decided to kickback here. Not going to lie Boss, it was pretty boring with no one around.” Shaundi responded, she was a bit surprised that the blonde handed her a bottle of beer before sitting one cushion from her in the couch.
“Yeah one of the guys offered me to party at the loft by the college, but I didn’t feel like dealing with drunk college girls vomiting on me, I had enough of that when I was a freshman.” The Boss took a swig at her bottle until her eyes open wide when she realized the little bit of her life before the Saints was out to one of her lieutenants. Before the blonde could react anymore, she heard a soft giggle from Shaundi.
The Boss was in a bit of a panic, she didn’t want to have people know how she was before she joined the Saints. She didn’t want any Saints to think differently about her past life, how she was before that fateful night she came across Julius and Troy.
“I’m not surprised you went to college, seeing that you fit that bookworm look perfectly...if they kill lots of people of course.” Shaundi said, she leaned back in the couch, drinking her beer.
“Fuck you.” The Boss gave a middle finger to her only female lieutenant before she continued.
The Boss didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt comfortable mentioning more about her old life. In fact, the Boss sees some bit of her old self in Shaundi, while everyone gave her a hard time, the blonde trusted her lieutenant to be effective in her task with the Sons of Samedi even if it meant getting information from exes. When the Boss first joined, no one thought much of her including Johnny, but when given the chance, she earned respect from her fellow gang members. The other reason, was that the Boss thinks that Shaundi was too high to remember vital information so she figured that it’s not a big deal.
“You know, when I woke up from my coma and learned that I was finally old enough to go to the bar, I headed off to the strip club for a beer once I escaped jail. I never did anything too extreme like most college kids, I went to frat parties but didn’t play those shitty drinking games. I was more focused on some bullshit rebellious phase.” The Boss felt cringy talking about her quick stint in college, which was a phase that occurred before being canonized. When the Leader of the Saints was just Cecilia. A girl from the suburbs hours away from Stilwater, a young woman that died on that boat explosion.
“You alright there, Boss?” Shaundi asked the blonde, she noticed the Boss showing a wary face, a rare sight for the stoner.
“Y-yeah, look let’s just relax and drink some beers, but this doesn’t mean we’re besties.” Boss snapped out of her thoughts, it makes her uncomfortable to think about the past. Not that it was awful, but how different she was those years ago.
As the two young women continued on idle talk such as Shaundi talking about her various exes, the Boss paid little to no attention to the stoner’s girl problems with men, mostly since she couldn’t relate. Instead, the Boss was occupied with reading the contents on the label of her beer bottle. Shaundi offered the blonde a hit of loa dust, but the Boss declined given that she’s a lightweight on drugs and grabbed a cigarette from her pocket instead. Cecilia only started drinking and smoking after her coma, in the means of relieving stress building the Saints back together. She’s aware that it’s a bad combination, but seeing Shaundi made her think it couldn’t be that awful.
“You know Boss, if you’re interested I can hook you up with someone with the connections I got. But probably not any of my exes haha.”
“No.” The blonde quickly responded in a stern tone and continued.
“I buried one of my lieutenants and my best female friend a few weeks ago, I don’t think I’m in the mood of fucking.” Cecilia mentioned the lost of Aisha and Carlos. She didn’t want to show her pain and guilt to everyone and concealed it with vengeance. Especially with Aisha, she couldn’t shed a tear, it was to encourage Johnny to stay strong. Carlos’ death broke her spirit, she realized her people will die under her hands. Some of her pain can go back to losing Lin, a woman Cecilia looked up to when she was still a timid newcomer to the Saints.
“Look Shaundi, I think I should focus on getting the Saints back into action before anything else. You guys are important to me, I don’t think some fuck buddy should be more important.”
“My bad Boss, I didn’t think you’d snap like that…” Shaundi apologized and it wasn’t one that was half-assed like most of her mistakes. The room remained silent for about a minute until Shaundi broke the silence with a complement to the Boss.
“Listen Boss, I just want you thank you for giving me a chance. Not a lot of people listen to me, and I’m glad that you’re the only one that did hear me. Thanks for looking out for me, I know you got the best ideas.” Shaundi said, the Boss looked at her with raised eyebrow.
The Boss did feel flattered about her lieutenant's complement. It seemed like a familiar exchange her and Johnny years ago revolving around the same instance of mutual respect.
“You did well Shaundi…But don’t get the wrong idea! You still got a lot of work to do about your attitude.” The Boss said and looked away from Shaundi. Her own tone of voice reminded her of a weird conversation she overheard when some otakus at the mall talked about tsunderes and how they act.
While the Boss continued to get embarrassed by her complement to Shaundi, the stoner lieutenant was searching around Purgatory for some snacks. All that loa dust gave her a severe case of munchies and she was on the brink of hangriness.
“Holy shit, I am starving Boss!” Shaundi exclaimed, throwing random crap from the bar out to find some morsels of food. Usually there would be stashes of food in the hideout, but some of the guys already ate up most of the stock of snacks from the bar.
The Boss, feeling hungry herself felt the need to add food in her system with the amount of beers she drank with Shaundi. Despite the alcohol in her system, the Boss was confident to be behind the wheel for a food run. She seemed better off out of the two of the women.
“Let’s head to Freckled Bitch’s then, just because I was nice to you doesn’t mean I’m paying for you.” The Boss said grabbing her car keys from the table.
“You’re an asshole!” Shaundi replied, she looked around the couches for some loose change after misplacing her wallet. It was her luck that people were dumb enough to lay twenty dollar bills out in the open which would be enough for a decent meal for the hangry lieutenant.
The two women were headed to Freckle Bitch’s and decided to eat in the car after ordering a disgusting amount of food in the drive thru. The Boss decided to cover the entire order, only to get the money that Shaundi was about to use for compensation and got called an asshole again by her lieutenant. The Boss and Shaundi began to talk casually, it was a rare sight for the stoner to see the blonde in a mood that isn’t pissy for once. It must’ve been the alcohol in her system. The two talked about different stuff such as talking about Pierce’s singing that the Boss was a subject of torture by hearing it. It gave Shaundi a good laugh and even a giggle from the Boss when giving Pierce crap when he’s not around. It was a chill night for the two ladies which ended on a high note as the Boss dropped Shaundi off to the Purgatory as she drove her way back to one of the cribs to get some sleep.
Shaundi headed back to the Saints Hideout to see that some of the guys have returned after a messy night at the strip club. There were a few guys passed out in the couches and on the bar stools while Pierce was kicking back in one of the couches.
“Which ex did you fuck this time?” Pierce asked as he smirked at his fellow lieutenant.
“You know I’m not always sleeping around? I was just hanging out with the Boss who just happened to drop by earlier.”
“So a night full of insults towards you then” Pierce said, moving his position to offer a seat on the couch to Shaundi.
“Very funny asshole, I had a good time with her and she’s not as crazy as the rest of the guys think. Maybe she’s different around me, I mean...in some kind of fucked up angle she’s kinda cute in a nerdy way.” Shaundi said, in a teasing manner about the Boss. She knew that she could never get away with that remark if the blonde was really there.
“Switching teams or-” Before Pierce can tease Shaundi more, the hippie responded
“What? Fuck no! I mean hey dudes and chicks are both great, but the Boss isn’t very keen on anything that doesn’t involve killing. Plus, why can’t a girl call another one cute without any hints of attractiveness.” Shaundi defended herself, she has called other girls cute as a complement and did find the Boss good to look at.
“Whatever you say. It’s not like the Boss herself seemed interested at anyone anyway so I wouldn’t really pin you as that kind of girl, Shaundi.” Pierce said, he wasn’t into Shaundi at all as the two had more of a sibling relationship, even the Boss has threatened to turn the car around when those two were bantering during a drive-by.
It was that night where Shaundi realized that there’s more about the Boss than how most of the Saints see, and noticed some kind of charm the blonde has, which was hidden in layers of anger. She didn’t know what it was, she was too high to think much about it that night. The Boss on the other hand, realized that her lieutenant could be more than a hippie that slept with half of Stilwater, maybe a woman that she could trust. But Cecilia was too focused on rebuilding the Saints.