(A/n)
He ain't no red Riding Hood but this is the next best thing. What's better than Killer in a skirt?

The next day was the worst one you had in a long time.

You scampered home, sore, moody, and tired. When you were woken up by sunlight hitting you right in the face, you had to fight the urge to cry from how much it hurt. It was like a hangover but worse. Your head throbbed and your eyes felt overly sensitive. When you checked them in the bathroom mirror, they were bloodshot and had dark bags under them. You looked like death warmed over. At least you escaped without any other damage to yourself but you could thank your tough skin for that.

The only thing you noticed that was out of place last night was you were missing one of your large feathers from your crown. The redhead must have pulled it out when he fell off of you. That annoyed you, but it'd grow back after a couple weeks.

You put on a pair of sunglasses and went on with your day. The glasses kept you from hurting too bad and hid how bad they looked from Delilah when you took care of the morning chores for her. After you helped her and got through her asking why you were out late again last night, you fled back to your place to nap off and on. Working two nights in a row took a lot out of you and you needed more sleep so you could function properly when you went back to see Ivankov later.

At least Killer didn't come by again. You were left to stew in your own mix of emotions without him making something else go wrong for you. You were pissed you were caught off guard so easily last night, frustrated you missed out on funds you could really use, and confused on why people couldn't just leave you alone.

While "Blue's" record of perfect jobs wasn't ruined, the dragon's was. People were going to be more skeptical about hiring that part of you and that was a good part of your income. The next few months at least were going to be rough. It'd take another year to get back to normal, steady work. There went your reputation. If you ever saw Killer again, you'd be sure to beat the shit out of him whether he knew what it was for or not.

When it started getting dark out, you dragged yourself out of the apartment and started trudging your way over to the Monarch, sunglasses on of course. The club's lights would be a real bother without them. You were dreading the music, your headache hadn't gone away all day. If anything, it had slowly gotten worse throughout the day and you were in one sour mood.

As soon as you stepped into the club, you were met with a loud Ivankov. He was male this time as he smothered you in a hug, squeezing the life out of you and greeting you loudly.

"I was so worried my dear Blue!" He cried.

"I'm glad to see you too Ivankov, but I'd love it if you toned it down a bit."

He backed up and looked you over. "Are you doing alright?"

"My head feels like it's splitting in half and I'm nursing my wounded pride, you tell me."

"Well I can fix part of that for you, come with me." He dragged you along past the partying people and heavy drinkers to a door labeled employees only.

You'd never gone back here before. He pushed through the door and took you to a room with his name written across the door in big, bold letters. As soon as it closed behind you, the first thing you noticed was the wonderful lack of noise, followed by the nicely dimmed lights.

"Some days it's a contest between who's my favorite person in the world, you or Delilah." You slumped into one of the rigid chairs across from his desk while he spun around in his behind it.

"That's flattering my dear." He bat his eyelashes at you with a giggle. "Now tell me what happened."

"Long story short, I went in, got halfway done with the job, things went South. A couple guys came in and picked a fight with me."

"You can handle a couple men." He frowned. "They couldn't have been that bad."

You took of the sunglasses and tossed them on the table. His eyes flicked to yours for a moment before he looked down at his desk.

"They used a flash bang, I lost a couple feathers. Got fucking manhandled." You shrugged. "I didn't get hurt all that bad, but I couldn't put up with that. Some freaky redhead with a mechanical arm was talking about 'taming the dragon' and making him some stupid king. And then his dumb ass friend was there." You scoffed.

Ivankov didn't have to work hard to have you going off on a tangent. All it took was a few words on his part and you were talking like you'd never get a chance to again. He was the only person you could really rant to and you'd do it whenever he let you.

"I've seen his friend three times in the past two days. Three times!"

"Slow down." He held up a hand to stop you. "What do you know about these men?"

"One's a creepy redhead and the other one somehow has better hair than literally anyone I've ever met and apparently his name's Killer. That's probably as much his name as Blue's mine."

Ivankov nodded. "The redhead is Eustass Kid and Killer is the blonde's real name Blue."

"Wait, you mean the Eustass Kid? Like, worst generation Eustass Kid?"

"Yes my dear, that one."

"That's so much more annoying." You groaned. "What if they keep getting in the way of my work? I already failed a job, I can't do that again."

"Well it wasn't a complete failure." He said with an apologetic smile. "You ruined the factory enough that you got a small earning. It's not much, but... It's something. I didn't take a cut this time, you need it more than I do."

"Dooon't start with the pity nonsense Ivankov."

"Please." He rolled his eyes and opened the desk drawer, pulling out a handful of cash. "It's not pity, it's money you earned. Now take it."

You reached for it begrudgingly, knowing he'd argue with you until he won or worse, shoved the money down your shirt or something. He wasn't above doing things like that. Before you could pull away after taking a hold of the wad, he pricked you with his nails. You jerked back with a curse, definitely not enjoying the pain that came with him practically stabbing you.

"Was that really necessary?" You grumbled.

"No, but I thought you might like the effects."

You blinked a few times, noticing that your headache was slipping away faster than any kind of medication could make it disappear.

"Yeah actually. I feel....good."

"Perfect. Your eyes look much better too."

Of course you couldn't see that, but you felt so much better. "Thanks, I've been feeling like shit all day honestly."

"Well now you can bounce back and get some rest my dear, you need it."

"I've been sleeping off and on all day, we'll see how that goes."

You counted the cash quickly, curious how much of a cut Ivankov was able to get you. $500, enough to pay part of next months rent. You weren't going to complain about it.

"At least try, come back when you're ready to work again."

"Alright mom." You chuckled as he waved you out of the office. You weren't sure what you'd do without him.

----

You were a little paranoid when it came to your funds. Money wasn't something you had laying around regularly so when you did, you were always worried about someone else snagging it. So you liked to hide it. Your favorite spot was in a box of tampons. You always kept an empty wrapper handy and rolled up your cash before hiding it in there and back in the box. It was a spot most people would either never think of, or would rather not check.

After you had that done, you decided to go on a walk. Sleep wasn't going to happen and you'd done next to nothing all day. It had you itching to get up and move. So you changed into jeans and a light hoodie and headed out. It got a little chilly at night around here sometimes, never cold enough for a heavy jacket, but definitely enough to warrant keeping a couple coats handy.

You headed to the park. It was the nicest place around this part of town. The grass was always a healthy shade of green and well maintained. The trees were always in good shape and the fountain was never dirty. You had a feeling some good samaritan kept everything in order for the locals to enjoy.

After walking a few laps around the place you found you were able to settle down, but you still weren't tired.

"This is bullshit." You grumbled under your breath, kicking a rock off the concrete walkway.

You stopped in front of the fountain. It was full of coins of all shapes and sizes. That was something you could never understand, why people felt the need to throw away their spare change. Sure, you understood the whole thing about needing to make a wish when you did it, but what was the point of that? It made sense for kids to do it, they still believed in magic and all that jazz. But it was the adults that did it more often.

You stopped with the whole magic nonsense a long time ago. If you wanted things to happen, you made them happen yourself. People never helped you before, nothing went your way just because you wished it to, you worked for everything you had and you worked hard. It made you think of when Killer tossed a coin in the fountain.

Was it all for show, or was he wishing for something too? Just like everyone else. A big tough guy like him probably didn't need to wish for anything. He was buddy buddy with someone from the worst generation and you bet he wasn't hurting for anything. Just thinking about it had you getting annoyed at him all over again.

He came around and tried to ruin a job, comes back after failing and insists you give him information, and then picks a fight with a fucking dragon. You've dealt with flies less aggravating than him. Maybe you'd be lucky and you wouldn't see him or his boss again. You'd have to work twice as much as "Blue" so you could lie low as the dragon.

Things may blow over and people might forget about it or at least give up on the idea of "taming" you as Eustass Kid put it. You could dream that would happen at least.

"Fuck it." You sighed and headed home. It was time to try and get some rest. You needed to start work again in the next few days with your best foot forward. Those bills weren't going to pay themselves.