Chapter Text
Yor stood at the counter, doing her best to figure out the recipe she had sitting on the counter next to her. It said that she needed to dice the potatoes but she couldn’t remember which one that was out of all the different types of cuts Camilla had shown her.
She closed her eyes, doing her best to envision herself back in her friend’s kitchen but was struggling to do so. But that was fine, she just needed to remember the difference between slicing and dicing and julienning. She wasn’t good at knives in the kitchen but she was good at putting knives in bodies, so she tried to imagine the different types of slices on her latest victim, a banker who’d been selling bank information. He was quite fat and that would probably affect the cut verses cutting through just muscle though…
Anya had been running around the coffee table with Bond chasing after her, boofing, but now she stood stock still in the middle of the living room, staring at Yor with a pale face.
“Miss Anya? Are you okay?”
She was about to put her knife down and go to Anya to see if she was sick, but at that moment the door to the apartment opened and Loid walked in carrying a large bouquet of flowers.
“Papa’s home!” Anya yelled, suddenly looking much better. She ran over to Loid and latched onto his leg.
“Be careful, I don’t want to drop anything,” he said, and though he said it in a scolding tone he was smiling.
“You have so many flowers!” Anya yelled.
“Yes, I bought them on the way home.” Kneeling down, he plucked a rose from the middle and handed it to her. “A beautiful flower for a beautiful girl,” he said.
Anya took it, her eyes sparking, then ran over to Bond to try to attach it to his collar.
Standing, Loid turned to Yor and said, “And gorgeous flowers for a gorgeous woman.”
Yor’s face flushed as she took the flowers from him, her heart pounding. Why was he giving her these? They weren’t actually married and they were in the privacy of the apartment, so why had he bought these for her?
“I was actually hoping you’d be willing to go on a date with me,” he continued.
Her heart had been racing before but now it stopped.
“A—a date?” she stammered.
“Yes. I overheard the neighbors talking about how they don’t think we’re romantic enough so I think this would be beneficial to our arrangement.”
“Oh.” Of course. He just wanted to keep up appearances so Anya could keep going to school. “Yes, that’s fine.”
She glanced over to where Anya was playing and thought, But if we can’t find someone to watch Miss Anya…
“I miss Scruffy!” Anya suddenly yelled. “I wanna see Scruffy!”
“Huh? But you just saw him the day before yesterday,” Loid said.
“Maybe we should call him and ask him to come play with Miss Anya,” Yor said. “He could watch her while we go out.”
“I suppose that’s a good idea,” Loid said.
“Great! I’ll get dressed while you call him,” Yor said. She put the flowers in a vase, placed them on the dining room table, then went to her room, Anya trailing behind her.
“Mama, I wanna help you get ready!” she said.
“I’m not sure there’s much to help with. I only have one dress.”
Anya crawled onto the bed and said, “I still wanna help.”
“Well, alright.” Going to the closet, she pulled her black dress out, then froze. She hasn’t had the chance to clean it since her last job and she could see the dark stains of blood on it. It blended in well with the black fabric but it wasn’t invisible. If she wore this, Loid would certainly notice.
“Why don’t you wear any of the dresses Papa gave you?” Anya asked. Scrambling off the bed, she pulled the suitcase out from under the bed where Yor had hid the beautiful clothes. Yor wondered how Anya knew it was there as she started pulling out the colorful fabrics.
“I don’t want to ruin them,” she said, which was mainly true. She didn’t want to stain them with the way blood had a habit of spraying everywhere once a knife was pulled out of a body, especially if it hit an artery.
But the bigger reason why she didn’t want to wear them was because she wasn’t worthy of them. Loid had bought these clothes for his wife, the perfect mother, and she was neither of those things.
“You should wear this one!” Anya said, holding up a yellow dress.
“I don’t know.” Yor looked down at the floor.
“Mama.” Yor looked up at Anya. “Do you like Papa?”
Yor froze then said, “He’s a good man and a great father.”
Anya looked at her for a long moment, then said, “I think you should look pretty for Papa.”
Yor wanted to object, to put on the same dress she always did, but part of her did want to look good for Loid…
Ten minutes later, she stepped out into the hall, the sunshine yellow fabric swirling around her legs. Loid was just getting off the phone and as he put the receiver down, he looked up at her and froze, eyes wide.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
“Thank you,” Yor said, face flushing pink and looking away. Was this just something he was doing to keep up appearances again?
Anya looked back and forth between the two of them. “Mama and Papa are flirting.”
Clearing his throat, Loid said, “It’s polite to tell a lady she looks nice.”
Ten minutes later, Franky arrived and they were able to leave. They made it halfway down the hall before Loid suddenly stopped and said, “I’m so glad we get to do this, even though we don’t get to very often.” Reaching out, he brushed a piece of hair from her face.
A glint caught her eye. Over Loid’s shoulder she saw a shadow move behind the peephole of apartment 3B. Mrs. Graf’s apartment. She was notorious for spying on anyone and anything that went by her door. She would certainly tell the other women of the building about this the next time she saw them.
“Me too,” Yor said with a smile before letting herself be led down the stairs.
As soon as they made it to the street, Loid lifted his hand and hailed a taxi. Once one stopped in front of them, Loid opened the door and gestured for Yor to get inside.
“To the Pappillion,” Loid said, sliding in beside her and shutting the door firmly. There was a thick sheet of glass partitioning off the front seat and the back seat so the driver wordlessly pulled away from the curb.
“The Pappillion?” Yor gasped. “But isn’t that the fancy French restaurant on Weizer river?”
Loid smiled. “Yes, I remember you saying how you wanted to eat there when we were shopping with Anya the other day.”
There was a slight hissing sound and a faintly sweet smell filled the air.
“We can’t go there, it’s too expensive! You don’t need to spend money on me like that when we’re not really…” Her voice trailed off. She wanted to finish the sentence but couldn’t.
“Nonsense, I—,” he started, then froze. Tightly, he said, “Actually, it’s a beautiful night, so I think maybe we should walk to the restaurant instead.” He grabbed at the door handle but it didn’t move, even when he threw his whole body weight against it.
Yor was starting to feel lightheaded. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew she needed to be the perfect wife, and if Loid wanted to get out of the car, then a perfect wife should help him do that.
Kicking out her foot, she struck at the glass just beyond his head, making sure it hit in such a way that the reinforced heel was able to shatter the glass.
Reaching through the window, Loid opened the car door from the outside. They were almost at a deadstop since they were in downtown evening traffic, so it was easy for Loid to grab Yor by the wrist and haul her out onto the street. He hurried them along, Yor doing her best to keep up with her head still dizzy.
She was feeling much better by the time they got to the restaurant a few minutes later. Taking a deep breath, she said, “You’re right, Loid, it was better for us to walk. The air in that cab was so stuffy. I hope the driver won’t get in trouble since I broke his window, though.”
“I’m sure they have insurance to cover it,” Loid said as they stepped inside. A Maitre d’ smiled politely at them and showed them to a table tucked away in the corner of the restaurant.
Yor opened her menu, not really looking at it. She had already decided that she was going to order the cheapest thing there was, whether it was something she liked or not. Loid was already doing so much for her, pretending to be her husband so she wouldn’t get arrested, providing her a place to live without asking her for rent, buying her the incredible dress she was currently wearing.
A server came by and took their order before disappearing again. Yor and Loid were both quiet for a moment before trying to talk at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” Loid said. “Please, you go first.”
“I just wanted to thank you for everything that you’ve done for me. You have done so much more than anyone ever should have. I’m just incredibly grateful for you and your daughter, and I’m sorry for not being able to do everything you need me to.” Yor blinked, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. She’d always been a failure at everything she did, whether it was cooking or schooling or anything else that she really tried. The only thing she was good at was killing, but that wasn’t something she could do here, so was it such a surprise that she was so useless?
Her mind would have kept spinning if she didn’t feel a hand on her own. Looking up, she saw Loid smiling at her.
“There’s plenty of things you’re not good at, but the worst is giving yourself enough credit,” Loid said. “You may not be the best at things like cooking, but you’re the perfect mother, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Yor felt her heart skip. Loid thought that she was the perfect mother?
“I can tell that Anya thinks so, too,” he continued. “She talks nonstop about how much she likes having you around, and I can tell that you’re a really good influence on her. Anya’s mother–” Loid stopped. Yor stared at him, silently willing him to go on. Loid never talked about his late wife, and she desperately wanted to know more despite being unwilling to pry. “It’s been a long time since she had someone take such good care of her. I know that she genuinely loves you.”
“Thank you,” Yor said. “I can see how much Anya loves you, too, which is why I love spending time with the both of you. When I see how happy you are together, it makes me think that I can be a part of a family like that one day too.” She smiled.
“Yor–”
Their server arrived with their dinner, placing their plates down in front of them and asking if they needed anything. Yor glanced down at her plate, having forgotten what she ordered, and was disgusted to see a salad garnished with what looked like snails. She vaguely remembered pointing to the escargot salad on the menu earlier.
Not wanting Loid to think she was not grateful for being brought here, she picked up her fork and took a large bite, forcing the slimy lettuce down her throat.
“How is it?” Loid asked, noticing the look on her face. Quickly, she forced a smile and nodded, spearing another stack of leaves and shoving them in her mouth. She had made sure that this bite didn’t include any actual snail, which made it a lot easier. Unfortunately, she could only manage a few more bites before having to excuse herself to go to the bathroom.
She barely made it to the toilet in time to throw up, her barely chewed food coming out almost completely whole, making her vomit harder. She kept throwing up over and over until she couldn’t anymore. Gently, she dabbed at her face with the backs of her wrists, trying to wipe away the tears that clung to her lashes without smudging her makeup. She’d tried to order something cheap to make herself feel better, but now she felt worse seeing as Loid would have to pay for something she immediately threw back up.
Almost silently, the bathroom door opened and a woman stepped in. If Yor hadn’t been an assassin, she never would have noticed, but her heightened senses immediately had her on edge. There wasn’t anything inherent to make Yor know that she was in danger, but she knew enough to go with her gut instincts, so as the woman approached the door to her stall, Yor quickly shimmied up the wall and flipped over the divider into the first stall.
The door to the stall burst open the moment she disappeared over the top. Yor was crouched on the toilet of the stall next door, but leaned over so she could see a pair of red, strappy heels. She saw the woman step forward to look into the toilet bowl, then retreat back in disgust.
“She’s not here,” the woman suddenly said to no one. She must have been talking on some sort of communication device. Then, “I’ll have to wait for her to get back to the table, but it’ll be more difficult to take care of him if both of them are there.”
Take care of him? As in, kill him? Yor had no idea who this woman was or who she was talking to but she and this other person were clearly out to hurt Loid, and that was something she couldn’t let happen.
Just as the woman walked by her stall to leave the bathroom, Yor held out an arm, an eight inch knife in hand. The blade touched the woman’s skin like a lover’s kiss and Yor stepped around her, caressing the back of the woman’s neck with her other hand.
“Looking for someone?” she purred. The woman froze. “What do you want with Loid?”
“Is that what he told you his name is?” Her voice was solid, but Yor could feel the woman trembling under her fingers. “You’re just a stupid chess piece for him, you know that, right? You don’t matter to him, you’re just helping him in the game he’s playing.”
Yor dug her fingers into the woman’s neck and pressed the knife harder into her throat. “What do you want with Loid?” she asked again, in a much darker tone this time.
“To kill him,” the woman answered. “For being a spy.”
Shock went through Yor. Loid? A spy? No, it wasn’t possible. This kind, handsome man, with a beautiful, loving daughter? The man who had helped her when no one else in this world could? The person who went to the hospital everyday to help people who were sick, who faked a family just to get his daughter into a good school, who did what he could to make her happy despite them just being friends?
No. It wasn’t true. This must be one of Loid’s patients, someone who was delusional, who thought that Loid was someone who he wasn’t. But even if that was true, spy was an incredibly dangerous accusation to throw around. Even if this woman and her partner were just sick, the government would still have to take their accusations seriously. They would have to do an investigation, look into every aspect of his life, and though they were legally married, there would still be questions. If things didn’t go properly…
An image of Anya being taken away from her father popped into Yor’s mind.
The woman fell to her knees, blood gushing down the front of her throat. She tried to speak, but nothing came out except a burbling sound as blood spouted from her lips. She clawed at her neck, trying to stop the bleeding, but a few moments later her hands fell to her side and she collapsed to the ground.
Yor stared down at the woman, blinking in surprise, before looking at the bloody knife in her hand. She had killed this woman without even thinking about it, all to make sure Anya would stay with her father.
Thankfully, Yor had been standing behind the woman when she had slit her throat, meaning the majority of the blood had sprayed away from her, but as Yor tried to pick her way across the growing lake of blood to the bathroom door, she noticed her tights were flecked with gore. She quickly washed off her knife and hands, tucking her knife away before pulling off her tights and throwing them in the trash. Thankfully, the rest of her seemed relatively clean. She could only hope that Loid was one of the men who was oblivious enough not to notice something as minor as tights.
“Are you alright?” Loid asked when she sat back down.
“Yes, I’m fine.” There was still a majority of her salad left, but she didn’t try to eat it. Even if she had ordered something she liked, she wouldn’t have been able to continue eating after murdering one of Loid’s patients. She just hoped that this would be enough to scare off whoever else the woman had been with.
“Are you sure?” he asked as he watched her scan the restaurant. “Would you like to go home?”
As much as she wanted to say no, to stay out on this amazing date with Loid, the fact that she knew someone else was going to try to kill him was making it impossible for her to try to enjoy the night. It would be much easier for her to protect Loid if they were back at home instead of out in public.
But what if they followed her and Loid back to the apartment to where Anya was? What if they were already at the apartment, holding Anya hostage?
“Yes,” she said, standing. “We should go home.”
They walked quickly back in the direction of the apartment. Yor could tell Loid wanted to ask her what was going on, so she said, “What is it like, working with your patients?”
“Oh, well, it’s like being any type of doctor. Everyone is different and you have to find what works best for your patient.”
“And do you work with a lot of, um, delusional and violent people?” She couldn’t look at him.
“Well, yes. You’ve seen me have to use my, uh–”
“Concussive Recovery Therapy,” Yor said. That’s right, that was a thing. Instead of killing that woman, Yor could have just knocked her out so Loid could have come and helped her. Yor may have killed countless times before, but those were all bad people. That hadn’t been a bad person, it had been someone who was sick and needed Loid’s help.
She suddenly felt like she was going to throw up again.
“Yor, what’s going on?” Loid asked, worry tinging his voice.
She had to tell him. He would hate her, turn her into the police and she would finally be in jail, but that was what she deserved. She had sworn to herself that she would only kill in order to protect the innocent, but now she had taken an innocent with her hands.
“There’s something you should know,” she said slowly. “When I was in the bathroom–”
They had stopped at a street corner and Yor was standing with her back to the street. A van suddenly squealed up behind her. The door slammed open and hands reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into the darkness of the van before taking off down the street with a squeal. Yor struggled against the hands that shoved her to the floor but the two men were much larger than she was and they leaned their entire body weight on her.
The blond man pulled out a knife and waved it in her face.
“You killed my girl,” he growled. “Now I’m going to kill you.”
The other man was holding a hand over her mouth so she bit at it, causing him to yelp and pull it away.
“I know that you think Loid is a spy, but he’s not. It’s okay, you’re just sick and need a bit of help. If we go to the hospital, you’ll be able to get better,” Yor said.
“What the hell is she rambling on about?” the second man asked.
“Who cares?” the first man replied. He raised up the knife, but he had underestimated her and moved his weight off her legs. She flipped them up, wrapping them around his neck and bringing them down as hard as she could, slamming the man’s head into the floor and knocking him out.
The second man had an arm on one shoulder and now he tried to throw a leg over her to hold her down. He was too late, though, and she was able to get her legs under him, kicking him under the chin. Blood exploded from his mouth as he bit his tongue and he fell to the floor, doing his best to keep his tongue from completely falling out of his mouth.
Jumping up, she launched herself at the driver, grabbing at the steering wheel. They were in downtown, so they weren’t going very fast. Bracing herself, she yanked the wheel, causing the van to bump over the curb and slam into a light pole. Even though she prepared herself for impact, she was still thrown forward and hit her head hard on the windshield. For a moment, everything went black.
“Yor!”
She felt hands grab her under the armpits and pull her out of the van. Opening her eyes, she saw Loid above her, cradling her in his arms.
“Yor, are you okay?”
She stared up at him for a moment, then burst into tears. “I–I killed your patients,” she sobbed.
He stared down at her for a long moment before saying, “No, Yor, you didn’t. It’s okay. Those people, they were, uh, family of a patient of mine. They are very abusive and don’t like the fact that I help my patient get away from them. Clearly, they’re trying to take revenge on me for it.”
“So…they weren’t good people?” Yor said.
Shaking his head, Loid said, “No, they weren’t.”
She cried harder, this time tears of relief. Everything was okay. She hadn’t taken the lives of the innocent, she helped protect Loid and his patient.
“You’re bleeding.” Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, Loid pressed it to her forehead, causing her to wince. “Earlier, at dinner, you said that you wished you would be a part of a family like Anya’s and mine, but that isn’t something you have to want for, because you’re already a part of our family.”
“But…it’s all pretend.”
“No, it isn’t.” He shifted how he was holding her, pulling her closer. “We may only be married on paper–we may barely know each other–but Anya and I do care about you, we consider you a part of our family. Families are about who you care about, who you love.” His face reddened at the implication of what he just said. “I–I mean–”
“I know what you mean,” Yor said, smiling. “And maybe, perhaps one day, once we get to know each other better, there would be a chance of our relationship be a little more…real?”
Loid’s face was solid stone. “I–” He stopped, then said, “I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t like that.”
Like earlier in the bathroom, she moved before she thought, pulling herself closer to him and pressing her lips against his. He was frozen for a moment as though thinking about how to react to this, then kissed her back. Too soon, though, he pulled away, then moved to put her on her feet. She had forgotten for a moment that he was holding her, that she had just been in an accident, that she had killed people to protect Loid and Anya.
Anya!
“We should go home,” she said firmly.
“Yes, it’d be good for you to lie down. I should also call one of my friends from the hospital to look at you and make sure you’re okay. Your head stopped bleeding but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a concussion.”
Yor was only half listening to him as they made their way back to the apartment. As soon as they made it back, Yor threw the door open, calling Anya’s name. The apartment was silent in response.
“Miss Anya!” Yor called, rushing into the apartment.
“Rawr!” Anya popped out from behind the couch, causing Yor to let out a scream. She laughed, then said, “I scared you, Mama!”
Sinking to the ground, Yor wrapped Anya in a hug. “I’m so glad that you’re okay,” she whispered into Anya’s hair, thinking of all the terrible things that could have happened to her, of all the things that had already happened.
Anya was stiff, but then she pushed herself deeper into Yor’s arms. Even though her face was buried in Yor’s chest, she could still hear the girl say, “Thank you for protecting our family. I love you, Mama.”