Chapter Text
Year 2, Chapter 8
“Ryan.”
“Clint.”
Clint glared at him. “What do you do every morning?” he asked.
Ryan shrugged. “I jerk off.”
He rolled his eyes. “What else?”
“I work out.”
“That. I’m going to need you to quit that.”
“Why? It’s not hurting anybody.” Ryan had been at the brothel for close to a month now, his anger towards Clint only grew.
“It’s making you too muscular, no one wants a whore who’s stronger than them.”
“So I can’t be pinned down? Is that what? Clint, you know I won’t fight back against my clients, I never do. I can be muscular and submissive.”
“A muscular man is only attractive to women and twinks, neither of which are your clients. I would like to start you on an appetite suppressant as well.”
“You’re seriously gonna starve me?”
“Yes. I need you to be thin quickly.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Language,” Clint warned.
“Like you don’t cuss? You’re what? Fifty?”
“Forty three.”
“Close enough.”
“I want you to apologize, then you are dismissed.”
“Apologize? For what?”
“For being disrespectful towards me.”
Ryan covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. “Because I called you old? Maybe dye your hair if you want to be perceived as younger, it’s graying.”
“Do I need to make you apologize?”
“Go right ahead, I won’t though.”
What didn’t catch Ryan off guard was Clint doing something about it, it was that Clint effortlessly pinned him to the desk, face down, and started twisting his arm.
“Fuck! I'm sorry!” Ryan screamed after a few seconds of getting his arm twisted.
“Good boy.” Clint released Ryan’s arm. “Now, go back to your floor.”
Millie was trying to hide the tears streaming down her face as Ryan walked in.
“Rough client?” Ryan asked as he sat down.
“Yes. Rough time with Clint?”
“He banned me from working out. Said it’s making me too muscular.”
“That’s really shitty.”
“He’s also starting me on an appetite suppressant. I’m just not gonna take it.”
“He’ll force it down your throat if you refuse to take it.”
“I’d like to see him try.”
“No, I’m serious. I didn’t want to take my bipolar medication, so he pinned me to his desk and shoved it down my throat, threatening to beat me if I did it again.”
His eyes widened. “I’m so sorry.”
“That’s my life. I need to be innocent enough to not be viewed as a whore, but slutty enough to attract men. I need to babysit the kids here for God’s sake, being their mother and all.”
Ryan only nodded, not trying to say anything, so Millie continued.
“I need to be a fucking therapist to everyone: comfort Mason when he’s upset about God knows what, and tell my clients it’s ok that they just hurt me? And what a joke that is. Just because I’m a prostitute, means I don’t have my own feelings? For once I want someone to listen to me. To be there for me. God, I want to get out of here.”
“Millie, I’ll listen to you. What do you need right now?”
Millie sighed, whether it was with relief or her finally releasing her feelings, she wasn’t sure. “The issue is I’m too tired to cook for the kids, can you cook?”
“Can I cook? Of course I can! My mom would get off work late so I did most of the cooking.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, of course. Is there anything else I can do?”
“No, that’s it.”
“Alright.”
The next month went as usual for a brothel, with Ryan and Millie both suffering through their clients.
“Hi Ryan!” Timothy said as Ryan came out of his brothel room.
“Hey.” He finally decided to talk to the guard who ogled him daily, walking up to him, pulling him into his brothel room by his tie. “So, how’s your day been?”
“It’s b— been good. How about y— your day?”
“Eh, not so good. Hey, could you do something for me? Maybe I’ll do something for you in return.” He winked, trying not to cringe afterwards.
“Of course! What do you need?”
“Could you get me a lighter?”
“Mhm! Do you need cigarettes too?”
“No, I don’t smoke. Fire just calms me down.”
“Consider it done! I’ll have it for you within an hour!”
Ryan chuckled. “Are you going to leave to get it?”
“Yes actually. I get a thirty minute break and the general store isn’t too far from here.”
“Is there even a break room here? I always wondered that.”
“No, there’s not. Clint didn’t think to build one when he made this place.”
“That sucks. Why do you work here anyway?”
“I get paid almost twenty dollars an hour here.”
“Clint really has too much money, doesn’t he? Hey, listen, I need to get back to everyone else. Talk later?”
“Yeah! Bye, Ryan.”
Ryan waved to him and he went up the stairs. He could hear yelling from the other side of the door. He sighed and opened the door to find Ashley pissed about something.
“I don’t get why the fuck he hired a hair stylist for my hair. I could easily do it myself, if he didn't want me to do it, Lauren could’ve.” She paused, taking a breath. “You know what, Millie, can you do a French braid?”
“I believe so.”
“See? You could’ve done it too.”
“My mom was a hairstylist,” Ryan added as he sat down.
“He could’ve gotten your mom to do my hair then, she would be cheap as hell considering you look poor.”
“No can do, she’s dead.” Ryan decided to ignore the comment made, it wasn’t worth the fight.
“Ok? Do I look like I care? Anyway, Clint pisses me off. I mean I love him but sometimes he makes me mad. He complains that I waste his money but then turns around and hires something stupid like a fancy hair stylist. She didn’t even use anything besides hairspray! And it cost Clint one hundred dollars!”
“Rich men spend their money on the most useless things, but then become cheap over the littlest issue. My father was like that. But this isn’t about your hair, is it?” Millie asked.
“What?” Ashley snapped.
“You’re angry with how Clint and the rest of society treats you.”
“Society treats all anima people like shit, I’m no different.”
“But Clint?”
“Shut the fuck up! He loves me. That’s more than you’ll ever get from him.”
“Ashley, I don’t want to date Clint, I never did.”
“Yes you do! I see how you look at him!”
Ryan laughed, but quickly put a hand over his mouth when Ashley and Millie both glared at him.
“I don’t look at him in any way.”
“Yes you do!”
“I’m a lesbian, do you know what that means?”
“I get it, ok? You film porn with girls, I do too.”
“No, you misunderstand—”
“No I don’t! I’m not stupid!”
“Don’t interrupt me.”
Ashley tensed up with Millie’s words.
“I’m only attracted to girls, not just from filming porn, ok? Me and Clint will never happen.”
“Dyke.”
Millie’s ears perked up. “Where did you learn that?” she asked.
“Clint said girls like that are called dykes. That’s what you are, aren’t you?”
“Ashley,” Ryan said, “that’s a literal slur, don’t say it.”
“I can say whatever the fuck I want.”
“No, Ryan is right. The word you’re looking for is lesbian. Clint is just a horrible man with a horrible world view.”
“Whatever.” She turned to go to her room, flipping off both Millie and Ryan.
“Damn. You have patience, you know that?” Ryan said once Ashley’s bedroom door slammed shut.
“It’s simple, really.”
“Maybe for you; I would’ve gone off.”
“I’ve had to babysit problem kids in my class, I’ve heard worse than that.”
“What do you mean ‘babysit’ them?”
“When you’re a gifted student, teachers have you sit next to problematic children to make them behave.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Ryan got his sketchbook off of the coffee table between the L-shaped couch and the chair across from it. He flipped to the page he was working on.
“Who’s that?” Millie asked when she saw the anima woman Ryan was drawing.
“My mom.”
“She’s very pretty.”
“Yeah she was, it’s where I get my looks from. I’m starting to forget her face though.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s ok as long as I can still remember how strong she was. She raised me by herself because my dad wanted nothing to do with me. If she could raise a kid by herself while being anima too, I can survive this place.”
“Why do men think they can do that?”
“No clue. If I ever got a girl pregnant, I would make damn sure that I stay with her and help her raise that kid.”
Ryan turned as the door opened, it was Timothy standing in the doorway.
“You can come in,” Ryan said.
Timothy walked up to the couch, eyes shifting every second as if he was about to steal something. “I have…” he brought his voice down to a whisper, “the thing.”
“My lighter?” Ryan asked, voice not so quiet. “Thanks.” Ryan held out his hand as Timothy set it down in his palm.
Timothy awkwardly stood there for a second before saying, “I should go now.”
“Yeah, you probably should. Thank you though, it means a lot to me.”
“Of course! I can get you anything you need. But right now, I need to go pretend to be busy.”
“That’s all your job is, really? And you get twenty bucks an hour for it?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Timothy shrugged and smiled.
“Millie, you said that I’ll bleed monthly, right? Well I haven’t bled in two months,” Ashley loudly announced as she came into the room again. She then noticed Timothy and said, “Oh, you’re here.” To which he waved at her.
The previous argument meant nothing to Millie now, she was just concerned over Ashley. “You haven’t bled in two months? You should go to Anthea.”
“I already told her about it though, that’s why I have pads in my room.”
“You told her you missed your period twice?”
“No.”
“That’s what you need to tell her.”
Ashley threw her hands up. “Fine. I’ll go after my next client.”