blood, sweat and fears {ashley and go}

"Wait, wait, wait," she said, laughing incredulously, "So let me get this straight, you want me to beat up your son? But I can't kill him?"

Go Corday was draped over the only couch in the large office, long black curls stark, gorgeous against he pale skin. The deep red evening gown that she wore matched very well with the rubies dangling from her ears. A glass of white wine that she had been 'drinking' all evening was held delicately in a perfectly manicured hand, her coy smile making a neat match for her overall look for the evening.

"Yes. That's exactly it," said the far older man sitting in an ancient but ornate desk in front of the rooms only, but grand, window. He was well past his young years but still managed to fill out his black suit very nicely. He was an old codger but a handsome one. The sly grin was slightly off-putting though, leading Go to not fully trust him.

Artfully, she pulled herself up from the couch and made her way over to his desk. She was quiet for a moment, running her hands along the edge of the carved wood. "May I ask why?" she purred, taking a sip from the wine glass. Outside the office doors the party was in full swing. Some sort of cover-up for a big heist or something, she wasn't certain, she tended not to pay attention to things that did not apply to her and never really would. She was a criminal, yes. A thief? Sometimes. A gang member? Never. Go worked alone.

The old man sighed and leaned back in his chair. He took his time, collecting his thoughts before he responded. It was odd, he sounded almost wistful as he said, "Because I'm getting too goddamned old to beat the living shit out of him myself."

She blinked.

It was odd beneath the mask, she could feel where her eyelashes bat against the metal cage of the face piece. Butterfly kisses, Gina would have called them. Go had learned a different sort of kiss, for example, her fist kissing the back of some asshole's head. That was her type of butterfly kiss. She shook one gloved fist out as she watched the guy go down like a tree in seven. Timber.

No one was really expecting some girl in a full bodysuit to attack them. No one ever really was prepared for that except for the crazy fanatics that were so pumped up on morphling that they'd forgotten which way was up. You could tell them apart from regular drug addicts because they were so paranoid that some of them were often seen with a hat made of tinfoil t keep out the satellites. It was nice to roundhouse kick a full grown man in the back and then smack her arm into the side of his head so hard that her bones rung. She ought to get out more, do stuff like this more often. It was good fun.

She wasn't sure if these men were incompetent idiots or just expecting her. Most of them went down far too easy. Only a few saw her coming but dodging their flailing knives was so easy that it was laughable. It didn't help of course that she was doing most of her getting about via the tops of the warehouse aisles. She could see a lot from up top and they couldn't really see her coming at them at top speed, knees ready to nearly break their spines with her landing.

The funnest ones were the boys in their steel-toed boots. She could see those kicks coming for miles because their feet were made heavier from the shoe. They were easy enough to dodge but three at once proved a challenge. She lost her breath for a moment or two when she took a boot to the side. She gave the man a black eye and a broken jaw for his trouble.

Her toughest adversary was the man guarding the office. His dedication to his job was somehow sweet, oddly adorable. It made him harder to take down too, he seemed more desperate to protect whoever was inside. If the other men belonged to the old man, this guy was the son's man through and through. She should write a note, leave a review for his excellent service. In her book it was top-notch. Judging by the ferocity of the punch she took to the thigh, it would be a massive black bruise by tomorrow. He was deserving of at least a ten cent raise.

Perhaps she'd been a bit brutal with him when she kicked his ass down the metal stairs and watched him land in a heap at the bottom. The satisfaction was worth it.

"Oh for fuck's sake."

She smiled, heart leaping up into her throat was excitement. It was one thing to face a bunch of goons, another thing entirely to fight a target. It was like getting to the final level to face the last boss. She turned slowly away from the railing, confident in her androgynous disguise. Her curls were tucked up tightly beneath her helmet, mask latched securely in place and breasts banded down. She was unrecognizable.

She didn't give time for him to study her further, body tensing and kicking in one foul swoop right at his head to get that gorgeous gun out of the picture. She didn't need the brat shooting off bullets and accidentally getting himself killed when her job was only to bruise and break. She wanted to get paid after all.

She felt her foot connect with skin and a cold grin formed beneath the mask.

Wendy-bird would not be pleased with her for this.

She liked this boy. Not that she could tell all that well. The downfall of the scary looking mask was that facial features were rather difficult to pick out. She only knew that she was attacking the right body because he'd been the one in the office at the top of the stairs; the lovely princess guarded by fire breathing dragons. Useless fire breathing dragons.

He wasn't useless, she decided as she took his foot to her chest. She fended it off with one hand but it wasn't enough to stop the force of the blow entirely. She bent to one knee to regain her breath, in the meantime her quarry was getting away. She leaped up onto the metal railing that surrounded the small balcony she was on and watched as he moved away from her across the warehouse floor. He probably thought that he could create a safe distance from her by doing so. She smirked beneath the mask and ran along the railing, leaping gracefully onto the nearest shelving unit which was thankfully taller than the other ones because it was against the wall. She grit her teeth as she landed, a bit of pain shooting up her leg from the spot on her thigh where she had taken the punch. Luckily, she was used to pain. It did not slow her.

She leaped from unit to unit, keeping the boy in her muddled sights all the while. He kept looking behind him, as if he thought she would follow by ground. She couldn't blame him, most people thought the same. A cheeky grin formed from beneath the mask and with perhaps too much gusto, she jumped from a lower shelf, powerful legs folding to knock him in the chest with her knees.

They collapsed in a tangled mess.

She was meant to do him a little bit more damage than a nasty headache and a bruise or two but there had also been no time limit on her job. When she was certain that he was really dead to the world, she slipped her mask off, long black hair tumbling loose and onto her shoulders from it's makeshift tie. She ruined the glorious moment completely by immediately swearing and wiping the sweat off of her face using one of the previously knocked out pion's shirts. She stood over him, inspecting her work, wondering if she should give him a bit more visible damage.

Wendy-bird stood beside her, looking down at the boy as well. He was sort of cute in an 'I-just-beat-your-ass kind of way. Wendy-bird opened her mouth, probably to tell Go off for beating up a sweet young man again. Go didn't let her finish. She knelt down beside the boy and bit into his lip, tugging slightly until the taste of blood filled her mouth.

--

It was too early in the morning to be awake but it helped that she'd never gone to sleep at all. Last night had been spent in a bathtub with some tea lights and bubbles, nursing the painful bruise on her thigh. For a job well done, she was treating herself to a cup of coffee at one of her favourite shops. Bundled up in a cute jacket and scarf combo, she brushed her long hair out and let it hang down her back, not on the job for the day and therefore free to look as adorable as she pleased.

"A chai tea latte, please," she said happily to the old woman who was always running the till, paying and moving to the side in order to to wait for her drink. She hummed happily as she waited, flipping through her old copy of Peter Pan. for the umpteenth time. The boy who made the coffee spoke, said something or other to the old woman and she froze, recognizing the sound of his voice.

She knows that there is no possible way that he can recognize her. She wore a mask the entire time last night, only taking it off at the last second to catch her breath. Still, she hid her face behind the book the moment he walked over to where she was in the store, instinct taking over and managing to make her appear to be soft in the head. This was rather unorthodox however to come across a target the day after smacking them around, mostly because usually her targets ended up very much dead. She didn't often have live ones to release. She wasn't sure how to react. Surely he would recognize her by her height or her frame or her gracefulness.

Or maybe he'd just think her an idiot because it had nearly been a full thirty seconds and she hadn't taken the latte from his hand yet.

Or it was quite possible that he somehow knew that it was her who had attacked him last night and he had infiltrated the coffee shop as a worker, fully knowing that it was one of her favourite places to go and he had poisoned the cup of coffee in revenge for her beating his ass last night because really what kind of crime boss's son works in a coffee shop?

Slowly, she lowered the book and eyed the latte. There was a tree made skillfully out of the foam on top. Wendy-bird peaked over the rim of the cup, and then eyed the bottom as well, rather skillfully. "Go ahead and take it Go, I'm sure it's not poisoned," she said to her older sister. Go knew not to acknowledge her sister's presence, lest she come across as insane.

After another long moment, she gingerly took the cup from Ashley Io's hand and offered him a soft, "Thank-you," followed by a rather sweet little smile.

She allowed herself to slip fully into the character of a shy bookworm in order to come across as less suspicious. So when he told her that he could make the drink again she blushed and took a sip from the cup, smiling from behind the rim to reassure him. "No no, it's really wonderful thank-you! The tree is lovely!" she offered almost desperately. It was a good cup. The reason this place was one of her favourites was because they seemed to always get the coffee just right, no matter what was ordered. As a bonus, the old couple who ran the place were very caring and had asked after her well being more than once.

She hadn't had much of that before and although they probably asked after all of their customers, she cherished it all the same. She sipped the coffee again, making it past the foam and burning her tongue slightly. In response, she stuck her tongue out a bit, scraping the top if it across her teeth in an effort to stop the soft pain it gave her. "Ah yes," she said, when he gestured towards the book, "My sister is- was very fond of it so it's special to me." She allowed her blush to creep back across her cheekbones, desperately trying to normalize the situation.