-Hey everybody, crypto here! This is my first actual DOGS fic, and I've been playing with this plot for a while now. It probably won't be very long, but it should be interesting. If you're wondering, this is a HeinexBadou fic, but it might not seem that way from the first chapter. It'll come in later, I promise. I also promise that Suma, the character introduced in this chapter, will in no way be romantically involved with Badou. If you think she should be, write your own drabbles with her in it. So long as you give me rights to her manic insanity, it's fine with me. Have fun reading, and R&R please!

Anarchy in Blue

As Badou sat at his usual table in Buon Viaggio, he mulled dully over the job he and Heine had done late the previous night. His arm still hurt from a hard hit he had taken on his way down a set of stairs. Albeit he wasn't exactly going down them the way he should have, rather, he had gone tumbling head over heels down the stairs rather than just jumping down them two at a time like he usually did. He had ended up generally unhurt from the whole ordeal, save for one hell of a bruise he was now garnering on his arm. Considering some of the other wounds he had received from separate jobs, these weren't so bad. But his trouble hadn't just ended at the stairs.

No. It had just been one of those nights.

It had been one of those nights for Heine too, the poor fucker. He had been so plugged full of holes that Badou, even knowing Heine's bodily processes, was surprised he was still conscious. As it turned out, the moment that Heine had returned to his lowly apartment he had indeed passed out. Badou felt sorry for him, and felt sorry for having left him lying in pain like that on his old weather beaten couch, but it didn't change the fact that the only furniture that Heine had other than his sink and bathtub was said couch. Which, the night previous, he had claimed with every right as his own.

So, Badou had left him to heal, choosing to go back to his own miserable flat to sleep the damage off. As it had turned out, most of the damage was still there when he got up the next morning, but he wasn't in half the mood he had been when he had crumpled on to his mattress the evening before.

Rolling a meatball around in a distinctly bored fashion, Badou sighed. He still hadn't heard from Heine yet, even though it was nearly noon. He knew Heine didn't sleep well, if at all, but he had left the albino almost a good eleven hours ago. Even he didn't sleep that long. His only comfortable assumption rested in the idea that Heine was already up and around, and was out attending to his own business.

Whatever business he had outside of their small partnership.

Clenching the fork between his teeth, Badou looked about the café, nearly startling himself out of his pants when he saw one of the other customers staring at him. Not just looking; staring. He hadn't noticed her at first… hell; he hadn't noticed her at all until he had caught sight of those neon blue eyes staring straight at him.

Rather, he felt that they were staring through him. They were intensely blue, shockingly blue almost. Her pupils were strangely small, like Heine's were sometimes when he was angry or stunned. They weren't unkind, but they still disturbed him with how deadly set they were on him. He had always liked to think himself easy on the eyes, but he felt like this girl, whoever she was, was eating him with her eyes. It scared him, and as he observed the rest of her, he didn't find his fears alleviated.

She was tall, that fact obvious, even as she hid herself beneath the table a short ways away from him. Taller than even Naoto, he would wager, with the way her pale legs stretched out beneath the table. She wore a loose black jacket with a high collar, one that Heine would have liked he was sure, but wore it with the front open, revealing a narrow core and a perhaps not so modestly hidden chest with a black laced tank top clinging to her pleasantly shaped underneath. Her skirt, short and well fitted, was black, and clung to her narrow thighs like a glove, only barely coming to rest a third of the way down her thighs Her feet were only protected by a trim pair of sandals; a dangerous thing in a city where you never knew what could land on your feet and render you unable to run.

Overall, the feeling he was getting from her was one of probable insanity. And as he came to that conclusion he became aware of just how much she was scaring the shit out of him.

Worst of all, beneath a silvery gray head of shimmering hair, her face was twisted into a disturbing smirk. It wasn't malicious, but he knew then that she knew a whole lot more than he did, in whatever relation she seemed to be seeing in him. She was pretty, yes, and had he seen her on the street he probably would have whistled in appreciation. But now that she was staring at him, making him feel like a bug pinned to corkboard, he realized that whatever beauty she had would come at a terrible price, to anybody that chose to get involved with whatever she had to offer.

Badou swallowed hard, his fork still clenched between his teeth. He knew he needed to say something, but he had no idea where to start. He was still so thrown off by her gaze that his usually quite motorized mouth was jammed into complete silence.

"Hello Badou," she said, her pale lips parting to speak a greeting connected to his name so silky soft that it made chills run down his spine. "It seems you're having a pleasant day. Have a good night last night?" she asked, resting her narrow chin on her flat palm, leaning gently and resting herself slightly over her table. Empty of food, he noted, but not empty of drink. She was drinking a small glass of wine, almost empty next to her free hand.

"Um…" he said, his throat still tight. He didn't care whether she was referring to his job or to what could often be assumed happened in his nights. He wasn't much one for hookers anymore, but she didn't need to be aware of that. "Not really, it was kind of rough," he said, taking his fork out of his mouth and rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

Her expression slid into one of concern, one so convincing that he wondered why initially he had been so afraid of her. She was so… sincere, what could he have seen that had frightened him so much?

"How terrible!" she cried, concern, and an overwhelming amount of care in her voice. Only minutely did his mind compute that he had no idea who she was, and why on earth she seemed to be so intent upon being interested in him. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Startled at first, Badou didn't reply, twisting his thoughts together. He wasn't sure how to respond, thinking of what he could tell her. He really wasn't alright, considering… but saying he fell down a set of stairs as an explanation wasn't exactly exciting… or manly. Both of which he was overdue for an emergency dose of.

"I took a bad fall while on the job last night," he said, choosing to make the truth sound just a bit better. He wasn't lying after all, just edging around the truth. "I banged up my arm, but I think I'll make it through," he said, smiling wryly at her. If she was interested, he was at least going to take advantage of it while he could.

"Oh you poor thing," she cooed from her table. "Haven't you had it looked at? I could have sworn that that old fox would treat you better than this!" She stood, striding over to him and looking worriedly down at his arm. "You're such an asset, and to think she's abusing your efforts by giving you such dangerous work!"

As she sat down next to him, Badou smiled at her, puffing out his chest and looking at her with a glimmer of pride in his eyes. "Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. But really, the old granny isn't so bad. Some of her work is a bit rough on the old bod, but nothing Badou Nails can't handle," he said, enjoying his chance to boast for once in his life.

She looked at him and smiled sweetly, but a flicker of concern lingered in her striking blue eyes. "Perhaps I could help you then. I've been looking for someone to do a couple of easy jobs for me. I can't do them, because I've got no experience in the area," she said, tracing a long finger over his shoulder, her nail raking over his shirt in a gently suggestive manner. "But you, Badou, you know all sorts of things about working under cover. Would you be willing to do me a few favors? I'd be willing to pay them back, of course. Cash, favors, loans, whatever you want in return, just ask and I'll deliver."

Badou fumbled in his pocket for a cig, lighting it and looking at her as she sat next to him, looking all to reliant on whatever his answer would be. How could he say no to a face like that? The old fox wouldn't mind if he picked up a little extra money on the side, and Heine could handle things while he was out, right? He could spare a few days, hell; he hadn't done something he wanted to do in a long time. The depression could go fuck itself, if this lady asked him, he'd shoot himself for the right price.

He smiled at her, offering a hand for her to shake. "At your service, ma'am," he said. "But I didn't get your name."

"Call me Suma," she said, shaking his hand with a gentle, feminine air, a bashfully coquettish blush staining her pale cheeks. Pulling out a small card from the inside of her coat, she leaned in next to him, slipping it into a pocket on the inside of his jacket and looking at him with a pair of bedroom eyes that not even his perfectly clean mind could resist. "Here's my card. Call me tomorrow, and I'll set up your first job," she said, leaning away rising with such graceful swiftness that it nearly sent the Cyclops tumbling back in his seat.

She strode over to the door quickly, blowing a kiss at him and waving as she left. He watched her go, appreciating the swing of her hips beneath the short skirt she wore. Still, even after she had faded from his sight, her blue eyes lingered in his mind's eye. Standing and leaving a bill that generally covered his food; he stood to leave as well. If he wanted to be able to keep his promise, he would have to tell the old granny that he wouldn't be available for the next few days. That, and tell Heine that he'd be on his own until his mysterious mistress returned him to his partnership.

He looked over at the table where she had been sitting as he came to the door, noting with odd interest that the wine glass she had been drinking from was now gone, the napkin on which it had once sat also mysteriously disappeared.

Dismissing it as the work of the over-zealous waiters that Kiri had hired, Badou left the small bistro. For once the eyes of his partner no longer haunted him, the crimson red the same as the wine his new mistress had been drinking earlier now gone from his mind. Now, all that remained was the electric blue that promised not only a heavily paid future, but a veil of secrets that intoxicated him into thinking that maybe, if this turned out well enough, he would never really go back to the old fox's place for work.

If it was meant to be, he would never need to.