Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I had never gone to a party before, I mean, I was only going because my boyfriend invited me to celebrate my new job, but.. I also partially wanted to see what the big deal was. When I got there it was pretty boring, the only thing going on looked like a bunch of gambling but it’s Greed so it’s expected. I didn’t really know anyone there aside from Chaz who invited me in the first place so I just walked over to him and hovered around him while he talked to all his friends.
One of his friends brought a pack of Beelzejuice, normally I don’t drink but I didn’t want to seem boring so I took my bottle and downed it. Bad idea looking back on it, but it tasted more like a spicy cream soda so it wasn’t that bad. I only remember talking to Chaz and his friends throughout the rest of the night and then getting into his car. I don’t actually remember much of anything after that but when I woke up with an insane headache in my gross, new apartment I kind of got the jist.
I checked my phone and it was already 2 in the afternoon and Chaz was nowhere to be found. I looked out the window to see if maybe his car was still out there but it wasn’t. Other than my dignity he also stole my cash, credit card, and my pants which I think he mixed up with his. I tried to call Chaz and ask him if he could at least send me my credit card and some of my cash back but he didn’t even respond.
I’ve only lived in Greed for a week and Chaz promised he’d help me out here but he flaked on me. I got a job out here the day prior so he said this party was to celebrate, but I think he just wanted to get into my pants.
After I canceled all new purchases on my card; I clocked into my new work, I was nervous.. which is understandable, but it wasn’t just because I was new. My new job was as a bartender, but I had no experience unless you count me grabbing my dad a beer from the fridge when I was younger. I had promised myself that I would watch a few bartending tutorials online but I neglected to do so so I was pretty sure I was fucked. I worked the afternoon shift which had more customers than I expected. I put on an apron and stood there unsure of what I needed to do. They didn’t offer any training so I just stood there rubbing an already clean glass with a dirty handkerchief and hoped someone would ask for a drink.

Eventually a feminine voice answered my prayers, “Whiskey, on the rocks, please.”

My head turned to see who said it, it was another imp, like me. The thing that popped out to me at first was her beauty mark, the second thing was how she caught my gaze and eyed me down with a quickness. I turned away, slightly embarrassed and trying to remember what she’d asked for.

‘Whiskey on the rocks.. that’s like.. whiskey with ice, right? Why are there different kinds of whiskey over here?!’, I thought to myself as I quickly scrambled to grab the right ingredients.

I got a small cup and shoveled in some ice before pouring in the golden liquor; trying my hardest to look like a pro.

“Here you go!…”, I smiled awkwardly hoping I didn’t accidentally fuck it up and ruin this ladies afternoon.

I watched her swirl it around before taking a sip, still keeping eye contact with me. I averted my eyes realizing I was being a bit creepy just staring at her. I was just about to turn around and pretend to clean shot glasses again but she stopped me.

“So, you’re new here, ain’t ‘ya?” She questioned, setting down her drink so she could rest her head on her hand.

I turned toward her, I took in her appearance just to remember how she looked, in case she hopefully came in again. She had long black hair in a ponytail, mid-sized horns, one of her teeth was knocked out, and she was just so gorgeous.

“How could you tell?” I looked down at the shot glass I was cleaning and back up again at her.

“Well, I ain’t never seen you behind that bar before. You look pretty young for a bartender at this joint, too.” She added on, I was surprised at her comment; growing up I kind of got used to being told I looked older.

“Uh, well, yes.. I’m new. You think I look young?”, I looked away, somehow both embarrassed and flattered.

“I reckon you look ‘yer age, let me guess.. 21?”

“26, actually. Which I know is still pretty young, but people usually think I’m, like, 30.” I laughed awkwardly. I hardly noticed I had been blushing until I was rudely called over to take care of another patron.

When my shift was over I cleaned up the bar. When I left the building I saw that there were quite a few wanted posters outside. I didn’t notice them when I came in I guess. Most of them were for minor criminals, including my, now ex-boyfriend, who was on the run for stealing a car; but one really stood out to me. It was the same woman I’d seen at work. Her name was Mildred May and on the poster she was attacking someone, there was blood everywhere. I felt slightly sick but also very intrigued, despite living in Hell I wasn’t used to blood and guts, and I was born and raised in Sloth so I never witnessed any of that, even online. I tore the poster off and stuffed it into my pocket, I want to know more about her.

Chapter Text

The next few days at work were mediocre, Mildred didn’t come back. I felt like she wouldn’t show up again, but I was wrong, she showed up a few weeks later. She asked for a whiskey again, which I figured by her whole get-up must’ve been her usual drink. She had remnants of what looked like blood on her clothes, it scared me a bit but I obviously still served her.

This time, I decided that I would be the one to start up small talk, “So, your shirt is… where’d you get it?” I was going to ask about the blood but I didn’t want her to think I was hunting her down.

She looked up at me, I don’t think she really recognized me. “It’s a gift from my Ma after I moved out here. Don’t really know where she got it.”

I was somewhat surprised she admitted that, I kind of assumed that assassins wouldn’t dare mention their life outside of work, but maybe she admitted that because I looked like a spineless English teacher. We stood in silence for a bit until I was called over to help someone else.
After work, I returned to my apartment and since she had a wanted poster I guessed she’d have some info about her online, I searched her name and lo and behold; she did! Apparently she was originally working in Wrath, which explains her accent, and moved to Greed to get better opportunities. She’s got pretty positive reviews from her clients.
When I caught myself looking through her clients' reviews for an hour I realized that I had to eat so I went to the gas station near my apartment to get some food. When I got there I felt like I was being watched somehow, I just didn’t know by whom. When I bought my food I just sat outside to eat, I had been spending too much time inside my apartment and it was depressing being cooped up for so long.
Eventually, a guy ran past me and darted behind the gas station. I thought that was weird but it was nothing compared to the axe that flew past my face directly afterwards. I looked to see where it came from and it was thrown by the same woman from the bar, Mildred. She jumped over my table to retrieve the axe and ran behind the gas station chasing after that guy I saw. I decided to check it out which I knew my mom would chastise me for but I was really curious. I peeked behind the gas station to see what would happen and I was shocked and confused. Confused because she looked so pretty; ripping the life away from someone, but also shocked because… she was killing someone. I couldn’t hold it in anymore and I started to vomit, which she definitely heard. After making sure the guy was dead she started walking towards me.

‘Oh Satan, I’m going to fucking die! She’s gonna kill me. No witnesses!’ I kept saying in my head, I kept my head down.. hoping with all my heart that she’d somehow not see me and just walk past.

“You’re.. that bartender ain’t you?” She said with a surprising amount of emotion in her voice.

I looked up at her, she looked so nice I forgot she had killed someone earlier.

“Uh... yes, yes I am.”, I nodded frantically.

She put her hand on her hips as she spoke, “Well... good news for you, your boss said if I killed any more of his employees I’d be banned.” She smiled, looking at me. I felt relieved, thank Satan for my job or I’d be dead.

As soon as she closed her mouth I wiped the vomit from my mouth and began to ran, I turned back to look at her and she kind of looked like she felt bad for me. I couldn’t tell.
I had nightmares that same night and woke up all sweaty, I haven’t done that since I was in middle school. I felt kind of gross since I still thought she was so pretty it freaked me out. It was early in the morning and I still felt sick so I drank water and scrolled through my Sinstagram feed until I had to go to work. When I did finally pull myself together and get to work, my hands were still shaking and I still felt extremely paranoid. I saw Mildred walk into the bar and I froze, she sat down where she usually sat and I instantly poured her a whiskey. She looked at me, which gave me butterflies… somehow. I didn’t know why my feelings were so conflicting. I felt like my brain was contradicting itself.

Her voice interrupted my thoughts, “Uh, listen miss, I’m sorry for what you had to see.”

I turned over to her, “Uh, it’s.. it’s okay. I’m fine! We live in hell, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before!” except I really hadn’t seen anything like that before, “And my name’s uh.. Juliana. But, I prefer Rocky, but nobody really calls me that offline…” I added on, I felt embarrassed when I realized I said that last bit outloud.

Millie rested her head on her hand, “Alright, Rocky.”

Chapter Text

Me and Mildred continued to talk, I kept on finding reasons to speak with her.

“So, Mildred—“ I began, I only noticed now that I hadn’t even asked her name yet.

“You can call me Millie, I reckon you’ve seen my.. uh, posters.” She smiled sheepishly, taking a sip from her whiskey.

I paused and nodded, I remembered her posters.. the violent acts she’s done to even be on those. I felt a little guilty at how I just blew her actions under the rug, but she seemed to like to talk to me and I really liked talking with her too.

“Yeah, actually I have, you’ve made quite a name for yourself— in a good way, I think.” I correct myself, hoping I don’t say anything that might be shaming her for her work. “So, how’d you get into.. that work in the first place?” I asked.

“Well, I grew up in Wrath, assassin work was already pretty common there. It was easy to make a quick buck off that over there. I never did well working behind a desk and my parents wanted me to get a job and what better job than killing folks for petty reasons? At least, that’s how it started. I got myself what they’d call a ’neighborhood headcount’, people trusted me a lot less..”, She cleared her throat, she seemed like she was getting emotional. She must’ve seen that too because she stopped talking about it, I mean I’ve only really known her a little more than a day so I don’t expect her to pour her guts out to me.

Me and Millie talked a lot, but it was always strictly when I was at work, she started coming by a lot more often, it seemed like she’d come right after her own work since she was so beat up, she really liked to talk to me, surprisingly.
It’s been around a couple of weeks of us talking. Millie came in, as always, and we spoke about our days and just whatever caught our attention, Millie left me something before she was done drinking and decided to head home, she left me her number. I was very surprised that such a pretty woman would give me her number.

When I got home, I immediately put the number into my phone. I texted her first, I wasn’t just gonna act like I wasn’t interested, because I very much was, but I didn’t want to come off too strong by calling her.

I texted her a simple ‘Hi, It’s Rocky from the bar!’ And waited for her to respond.

When she did respond, I spent all night talking to her. She offered to meet up, not at my work or the bar but at a restaurant. I’m going to be completely honest, I had never been on a date at a restaurant before. When I was dating Chaz he just took me to his house and we ate food on his couch while watching shitty mafia movies, so this was a welcome change of pace.
I leaped out of my bed, I got ready, I even straightened my hair! Which I never do because it takes forever, but I really wanted to look nice. I did briefly consider wearing a dress but I decided to go with jeans because a dress seemed a bit too fancy and I didn’t want Millie to think I was being bougie. We never spoke outside my work so I wanted her to know that I was a good person outside of my job and it wasn’t just for patrons.

When I got to the restaurant I was sweating, it felt more like a job interview than a date, Millie was sitting on a bench outside. I could tell she washed her hair since it looked shinier than usual, she smiled at me and walked me inside. We sat at a table… though, I kind of hoped we got a booth instead but Millie made sitting at a table much more bearable.

“So…uh…”, I didn’t exactly know what we were supposed to talk about. This was basically my first real date and I definitely couldn’t ask about her job.

“Hello, what can I get ‘ya both started with today?”A man approached us out of nowhere, snapping me out of thought, our waiter. “A water, or..?”

“Uh, Can I get some water, please?” I was always embarrassed to talk at all in a restaurant, I forgot about that.

”Me too, thanks.” Millie added on, the waiter trotted off and I was surprised at how confident Millie seemed. It made me kind of nervous.

”…How did you do that?” , I asked, I always sat very stiff in a restaurant, my arms at my side, I was very on guard. I mean I was being watched at all sides by everyone in there, that’s why I preferred booths, I could at least shield my back.

“Well, I guess when you’re trained to fight it’s pretty easy to do a lot of things. What’re you orderin’?” She smiled, her tail curled looking at the menu after asking me. “I think the steak looks pretty good.”

“I guess the.. uh” I didn’t want to order anything too expensive, Millie said she’d pay for everything over text. “I guess the steak too? Since you’re getting it.”

She smiled and our waiter came back with our waters. I guess Millie could tell I was feeling nervous because she carried most of the conversation that night. I told her mostly about my interest in art which really seemed to interest her. Our date went really well, she drove me home.