#norugrats

You sit at your neat, ornate little office desk and the organised systems of paperwork flow through your fingers and your mind like silk. Smoothly flowing work, made easy by weeks of careful planning. You finally had things running smoothly.

Not like Ramsey. Fucking Ramsey, the thought of him has your pen sink deeper into the paper. He was your predecessor, the bar manager who came before you. While in some ways he left big boots to fill, you'd prefer to never fill the heavy concrete boots that now held him at the bottom of the murky, polluted junkpile that lay at the deep bottom of the River Pilt.

He was well loved by the patrons and staff though, which had made things hard for you. But since a bunch of shimmer greedy, glowstick lickers aren't exactly reliable or trustworthy staff, you'd managed to weed out the worst of them. Making you even less popular. Sevika had been particularly upset with you over a favorite bartender of hers but once she let go of your hair and you explained the blatent theft she simply snarled and pushed you away roughly into the wall. You could have sworn there was something in her, in that moment, that accidentally revealed a single granule of respect but it was so hard to know with her. She'd left you alone more since then and you greedily took that as proof enough of your suspicion. That and she was too big to really fit into your cramped office.

While never having had anything to do with the man other than him technically being your boss, you suspected Silco was less than pleased with you splitting Ramseys role into two jobs but your organisational systems seemed to be resolving a large variety of other problems for him so he didn't interfere. You'd made everything transparent and quantifiable and he seemed to appreciate that. The shimmer sold from behind the bar had its own till and was monitored and controlled. Whereas before Ramsey and the staff had operated on more of a "One for me, one for you" self help approach to the glowing vials of valuable shimmer, which only further endeared the staff to him of course.

While you may be less well liked, you don't mind so much, you appreciate solving problems more than impressing people.

As long as Silco continues to leave you alone and Sevika doesn't grab you by your braid again as far as you're concerned, everything will be alright.

The office door clicks open and cool air leaks in. Your office is in the cellar, next to the beer keg room, directly below the bar. Its unusually out of the way, so when you are interrupted like this it usually meant trouble.

Your eye flicked over quickly to the door slowly followed by a graceful turn of your head. Zaun had your reactions dialled into survival first and staunch posturing slowly, but closely second.

You eyeball Harker, your head barman cooly as you smirk at him and pointedly place your pen in its holder.

His attractive, cocky lean against the door didn't match the concern of his knitted brows. His long brown hair curtained his face with his movements. Closing and opening his expressions dramatically.

"Shcist never showed."

You look down and sigh. "Again?"

You like the kid but this was the third time in too many weeks. Damn. You look up searchingly into Harkers face. He tilted his head hiding behind his hair which told you everything you needed to know.

"Find a ~reliable~ replacement" you say turning back to your paperwork.

He hesitated for a beat and you could feel the air in the room thicken with something to be said.

"Is there anything else?" You look up again.

"You need to speak to the staff more Maya. They all think-"

"I'm a steel hearted bitch?"

"Look, your words, I just..." he sighed. "I don't want them to hate you."

You can't help but smile at his warm gesture. "I don't care if they hate me" you lie. "Why do you think I hired you? You're my people person. You're the face of the bar. You deal with the feelings and the people and I do this."

You gesture at your mountainous book keeping operation.

He sighs giving up and accepting your stubborn self imposed social exile. "Well, since you're such a busy, steel hearted bitch... you probably have no time for...knock off drinks?" He makes a comical drinking gesture to nail home the offer.

You can't help but smirk again. You hired the man for his charisma, he can subtly marionette the mood of a room full of people, which is important in the bar game. Maybe he was too good.

You grin and put down your pen.

"How can I resist."

~~~

The Last Drop never really closes. Not unless Silco orders it, but this was its quietest time.

You sit at the bar, laughing and undoing your long black braid, literally letting your hair down. It flows out behind you in long kinked waves under the fluorescent lights.

"The idiot is looking me in the eye, while he stands close and pisses right up against the bar, thinking I don't know exactly what he's bloody doing. So I give security ~the look~ and they pick him up, mid stream" you shake your head in disbelief nearly crying laughing. Harker is so damn good at telling stories. "And he sprays about five people as they lift him up and drag him out."

"Oh nooo" you laugh, fake gagging, sticking a finger in your mouth. "Eugh, I'm so grateful I wasn't front of house for that."

You sip your peated whiskey. It tastes like the smell of a healers room but you fucking love it for some reason. Antiseptic scent flavour sinking into your senses and calming your overworked nerves. You look down and smile at your drink in a rare moment of grattitude, you never do this. It's nice for a change.

Something shifts in the atmosphere and you momentarily curse yourself for ever having relaxed. You flick your eyes up to see Harker suddenly looking very serious and proffesional and busy. You poorly a stifle a snort at the sudden uncharacteristic change. It comes out as a jagged breath through your nose.

Then you see what's happening behind you in the mirror behind the top shelf bottles. They provide you with a covert view behind you. You see Silco and his entourage have just arrived. Seems like you almost kept the same hours. The presence in the room is heavy and stifling. Power and danger weaving through the air. Sevika quirks an eyebrow up and peels off from the main host to beeline for you. Fuck fuck fuck. You tense in anticipation and fear at her attention. Thankfully, the main host continues through to his office, a school of sharks elegantly cruising past. You thought you saw Silco pass a look in your direction and quickly decided you didn't. You'd never had any direct interactions with him and you'd never planned to. No news is good news where that was concerned.

Sevika sat so heavily into her chair you thought it might break under her. Thankfully the furniture was well made Zaunite quality you noted with pride, not pretty, Pilty, fragile shit.

She turned to you with a wide smirk that turned your guts into knots and smacked the bar twice in Harkers direction without looking at him.

While he rustled up a drink for her she holds your gaze curiously.

"You never come up here" she mused.

"It was quiet, I wanted a break."

She flicks her eyes over yours and quickly snatches at your glass in her massive hand and sniffed it.

"Whisky huh?"

"What you thought I'd drink sugar water?"

"I thought you'd drink just water" she laughs handing it back to you as Harker places a large stein of ale in front of her. She takes a big swig and as she gulps it down you notice dark blood dripping from her hairline.

You reach for it and she smoothly bats your hand away as if she has a sixth sense around her personal space, she snarls at you.

"You're bleeding." You state plainly.

"That's my job." She growls obviously and drinks deeper finishing the stein and smacking the bartop twice for another. Harker hops to work giving you a quick concerned look as only a co-worker can do. Sevika wasn't chatty with anyone, this was highly unusual.

You take a big swig of your drink, the previous relaxation and gratitude had come to a grinding halt and was now replaced with anxiety and discomfort. You start to braid your hair back into its single long line. Feeling silly for ever letting it out, somehow it had left you feeling vulnerable and exposed.

Sevika drank beside you in silence as you braided it and then went back to drinking.

You suddenly feel increasingly tired and yawn. Maybe time to go back to the office for a snooze in the chair you muse through the haziness of good booze. Your head is swimming suddenly, your thoughts turn to confusion and mush. What was it you were doing? No matter... first you just need to rest your head on the counter because it's far too heavy. The Last thing you see is Sevika smirking at you.

~~~

You wake up to violent pain in your stomach. It makes you cry out ungracefully spittle flying halfway out of your mouth and catching on your chin. You pant with the wrenching, twisting agony of it. Eyes scrunched tightly closed.

You feel your wrists first, the pain of them, sharp rope and cool steel press against them. The smell of cool concrete and meat fill your nose. Your feet swing below and just touch the ground in one small space if you stretch to reach.

You finally open your eyes to see what nightmare this was. Sevika is facing away from you. It must have been her that punched you in the stomach. You're hanging on a meathook in some kind of industrial butchering line. Carcasses hang on hooks attached to a central rail in the ceiling. On the floor below you is a simple brick standing up vertically giving you barely one foot wide to balance precariously on. If you fuck up in any way it will fall over and your weak, lithe arms will bear all your weight.

Panic grips you. Why was this happening? You knew that you worked for dangerous people but... you figured if you did everything correctly they would appreciate it and leave you alone. Sevika turned to you now

"Finally, I can't believe I had to wake her up..." she mumbled.

Your brows furrow, you don't get alot of sleep. Exhausted and drugged probably meant your body took as long as it could while it had the chance. The bitch had drugged you.

You try to calm your ragged, panicked breathing.

"What is this" You try to sound calm but fear blatantly stains your conviction.

Sevika doesn't bother replying, she just sneers at you knowingly. You wonder what she knows, because you don't have a fucking clue what any of this is about. You're not dumb enough to fuck with your murderous employers.

"Is this my reward for trying to fix Ramseys fucking mess" You bark frantically, starting to crumble. You're ashamed it's happening so quickly. You always saw yourself as stronger than this.

Foot steps fill the room. Clean, crisp, confident footsteps in a calculated stroll. The taste of metal pangs in your mouth as fear churns in your chest. The footfalls are cool, and unhurried. They come from behind you and as your skin pales and prickles and adrenaline pours into you.

You know exactly who it is.

Silco.

He's silent as he stops behind you. You tense in frozen terror and try to remember how to breathe. Attempting to keep your trembling fear internal and maintain your balance on the torturous brick. Grateful to keep your jeans and shirt on for this humiliating exposure and vulnerability. At least it wasn't unessecarily tasteless.

The clink of a lighter breaks your racing thoughts. It's so silent that you can hear the miniscule crackling in the embers of the cigar being lit before you feel the smoke blown towards you. The smell is so all engulfing you have to force yourself to resist the urge to writhe pathetically to escape it.

"Amaya isn't it?" The voice says smoothly, as if you were seated across from each other over a cup of fucking tea.

Another violent blow to the stomach. Gods, Sevika is viciously strong you think to yourself as you gag on the sensation the brick somehow still remaining beneath you.

"Yes, it is" you say. Sevika scowls and takes a hurried step towards you and you quickly add "Sir" which promptly halts her fist from a third assault on your midsection.

By watching her face and body language you get the idea Silco has waved her off and she strides off behind you somewhere peaking your anxiety. You realize have no idea how many people are actually in the room. Your shoulders hunch as you decide it doesn't matter, you're probably dead anyway.

You hear a gentle tapping sound that must be Silco ashing his cigar.

"Your paperwork systems have been an impeccable upgrade to my reporting." The gravel in his low cool voice settles in your lower spine. You feel a pang of pride and get mad at yourself for it. His slow footsteps curl around closer to you and you feel your braid lift away from your back slightly.

"So you can't imagine my disappointment" the braid is suddenly wrenched violently back so forcefully that the nerves in your neck pinch in white hot pain and you can't withhold the whimper that whistles through your teeth into the cold, refrigerated air.

Another pause as the stars in your eyes fade and the pain settles. You realise, insulted, that he must be taking another drag on his cigar. He releases the braid and your head lilts forward facing the industrial concrete floor and cruel brick that you struggle not to knock over.

You feel the smoke on the back of your neck. It sends involuntary shivers of fear through you, he's good at this you think to yourself. He's playing you like a violin. Calculated doses of fear and punishment. Anticipation... an orchestra of suffering, elegant and terrible.

"When I hear what you've been doing." He continues walking slowly around in front of you. You keep you eyes down, thick locks of hair that escaped your rushed braid hanging down across your vision. The tailored pants and metal tipped, well polished shoes stop directly in front of you. Fear and despair roil within you. You feel him looming over you just now realising how tall he is even with you strung up off the ground. But then again, you were never tall.

You see the hand at the last second and flinch as it firmly grabs your chin lifting it up to face him. You keep your eyes lowered, trembling gently.

"Look at me" There was no room to disobey that smooth calm voice.

You dragged your eyes up into the glacial frozen blue and the dead orange and black fire of his eyes. He must be able to feel you trembling. The rage in his deceptive demeanour is palpable. His hands are cool and ... surprisingly rough against the soft skin of your face.

Then his gaze shifts slightly to something you can't quite place as he seemingly looks deeper into your being. His head tilts ever so slightly to the left, a great beast observing curious prey. His face is so close to yours you're hardly breathing.

"It's not you" he says eyes dart swiftly over your features while scanning your face, reading you like a book. He slowly let's go of your chin but doesn't break eye contact. You stare at each other for a disconected moment in time before he turns away to take another thoughtful drag of his cigar.

"Cut her down." he says calmly.

"What!?" blurts Sevika from somewhere behind you.

"Now." he growls, tone laced with threat.

He takes a few more steps away while rough hands lift you up like you're weightless and slide your rope bindings off of the violent steel meathook above.

You're dropped unceremoniously on the ground. You collapse in a heap and the brick finally falls over with an insulting clink. You gasp for air, painfully winded.

"It's not her" Silco says, eyes far away as he tries to solve the immediate problem.

"Bring her back with us" he gestures with an elegant hand movement and murmers deep in thought.

Sevika grumbles and once again leans down and roughly cuts your hands and feet free. She starts walking away.

You struggle to get up, stiff and aching and unsure how you're still alive. You stagger and laugh gently to yourself in unhinged disbelief. You limp out after them into the cool murky air as Sevika snarls at you to keep up.

~~~

As you near the last drop Sevika beckons over some security goons from a nearby alleyway. You're impressed with her diligence to have such a broad watch system then you realised it made sense. She must have people absolutley everywhere in Zaun.

You curse yourself when you realise you weren't paying attention to what she said to them when she leaves to trail Silco inside the bar and the goons grab you by the arm and escort you away elsewhere.

They take you firmly but not roughly around the street and into a building around the other side of the nightclub. It looks like some kind of tired shop front. Every item on the shelves is covered in a thick layer of dust. You walked into the back past a bored shopkeep who doesn't spare us a glance over their book. You curl down spiralling stairs into a service tunnel and you finally realised this is a secret back entrance into the club. Winding up some more stairs into a hallway of doors, opening one and gesturing you inside. The network of tunnels is busy with people hauling what could only be shimmer, weapons and other valuable, dangerous goods throughout the sprawling spiderweb of Zaun.

It looked like some kind of sad prison...

There was an old bed, a bedside table a... chamber pot. You turned back to the gaurd, "What am I supposed to do?"

He just turned to the other and shrugged at you. "Relax" he drolled in a deep guttural voice and smirked at you. "We'll be right here if you need any..." he looked you up and down. "...help with that." He offered, eyes glinting with the promise of mischief.

You set your face hard and held your breathing steady, willing your face not to blush. "So sweet of you." You reply sarcastically and close the door in his face. They roar with laughter from the other side of the door. You realise he may take that as flirting but you can't deal with that right now and push it our if your mind.

You lay on the bed facing the wall willing your racing mind to clear. Your aching body and sore stomach nagging at you. In particular your neck and wrists. Despite all this, you do eventually fall asleep. The massive near death adrenalin dump having left you exhausted.

You wake up to the smell of food on the little table. Some meat stew, bread and a jug of water. You swing your legs over the edge of the bed and go to the table sitting on the stool beside it to eat. It was strangely easy to accept this experience. You knew what it was to adapt and overcome. Digging your heels in against reality just got folk dead down here. Zaunites were borne of resilience and innovation under extreme pressure. You weren't the hardest street rat and you felt self conscious about the undeniable softness and warmth within you. You sometimes feared that it would get you killed. Maybe every Zaunite secretly harboured that internal war with their humanity.

As you chewed thoughfully on the hard crusty bread the door burst violently open.

Twisting with the support of one arm you see Sevika stroll in and comfortably sit on the bed.

"How's the stew?" She said absently and you wondered to yourself if this was her version of an apology while you finished the mouthful.

"The fuck is happening." You say one hundred percent done with pretence and take another rough bite of bread, chewing unrushed, patiently waiting for a response.

She sneers in a confusion of delight, anger and humour.

"Someone's knocking off your bar shimmer."

You shake your head wearily swallowing another coarse mouthful and take a sip of water before responding.

"Not possible, I take inventory. It's all accounted for."

She sighs, "Well we know that now, Silco went through your paperwork personally."

You imagined him sitting in the privacy of your office. Your oasis, his long fingered hands on your desk.

"Bit late to make sure now don't you think." You hiss vehemently shooting her a sharp glare. She glares back,

"You're the bar manager, you should know what the fuck is happening in ~your~ fucking bar."

You look up at her defiantly, under furious brows. "I share the role, I do the paperwork, he does the people..." you trailed off realization crashing around you like cold water filling the room. You exhale sinking into yourself.

Sevika eyes you carefully.

"Harker?" she says simply.

"I don't kno-" You start carefully before she cuts you off.

"-But he was your first thought right?" She cocks an eyebrow at you.

You nod unable to deny it but fearful for him if you're wrong.

"The first thought is instinct. Always trust your gut" she says slapping hers.

"Don't feel too bad for him" she says standing. "He set you up."

Your eyes fly up to her face in furious shock.

"What!?"

"He fudged your inventory paperwork so that it lead us straight to you." Your skin crawls at the implication.

"We're letting him think that we killed you." She finishes. The frank lack of sensitivity there shouldn't surprise you.

You stare at the floor feeling nothing but firey rage at your betrayal. And rage at yourself for letting it happen.

"Normally we would have dealt with him already, but we suspect there's a few other rats sniffing around the cheese." She mused out loud scratching her shoulder absently.

"Can I help?" You ask dark gaze piercing hers.

"With what part" she huffs looking at you as if you must be joking.

"I... I don't know but... if I let my poor judgement cause this, I want to make up for it." You flounder half out of vengeance and half out of self preservation. If Harker was found responsible it could still cost you your skin.

She looks down at you, her brows furrow slowly as she thinks it over.

"Maybe we can find some use for you in the meantime."

You toss the last bit of bread back on to the plate as the door shuts behind Sevika. You're not hungry anymore.

~~~