Chapter Text
You stood in the shadows, taking deep breaths with closed eyes. Your hands rested on our waist, squeezing against the soft fabric of your corset. As the song started playing your eyes opened, head tilting up.
This was your cue.
Your hands moved forward and found the slit where the dusty curtains. Slowly, you opened it. The dimmed, red lights of the room reflected against your sparkly sliver eye shadow. The song picked up and you stepped out on stage.
… or rather the small corner of the lounge that Babette had kindly spared for you ever since you started dancing at her brothel.
In your well-worn strappy leather heels you sauntered forward, your hips swinging in the rhythm of the tune. It was a slow, dragging but dynamic beat with a sultry melody and slightly ambiguous lyrics. Once arrived at the center of your stage, you stretched out your left food before the other, the slits on your pale blue satin skirt sliding off your thighs to present your brand new sheer stockings. The sheer fabric picked up some of the crimson illumination of the room.
As you started rolling your hips, your arms joined and caressed your body, slowly tracing along the sides of your corset. It was a simple design, pale blue, fitting to the skirt, but it singed in your waist effectively and you had it embellished with silver lace along the bones and hems. As your hands kept moving further along your breasts and over your shoulders, your slowly made your way to the edge of your stage.
With the help of the bouncers to had managed to elevate the level of the stage a bit, allowing your guests to notice your performances better. The construction was made of simple wooden plates, the edge you had trimmed with a narrow copper balustrade, only a couple of centimeters high. A reminder for you to not fall off your own stage and a reminder for the customers, that the space beyond that copper bar was off limits. Because unless your colleagues, your services did not include sexual duties.
Behind your white ornamental mask that covered the upper half of your face, your eyes started taking in the room. It was still quite early in the night and just a couple of clients had arrived and were taking their first drink at the bar on the opposite of your stage. Between the bar and you, several groups of worn down leather armchairs and small wooden tables were serving as lounge and waiting area for customers. Right now, around three people were lazily lingering by the bar, another two were already seated on the armchairs, waiting for their bookings to join. Shame, today it was only men. You were hoping to get a bit eye candy for yourself while performing. To be honest, they all looked rather bored.
And that’s where you came in.
At the edge or your stage, you turned to the side, standing with your left to the audience now. Again, putting one food before the other, you slowly bend forwards, leaning down with your upper body. Your let your long, open hair dangle along your front leg. Then, with the next drop of the beat, you shot your head back up in an explosive move, throwing your hair up in a dramatic wave that instantly caught the attention you were seeking. You knew, you always got them with that signature move.
While the eyes of your now captured audience fell on your upper body, they missed how your hands had reached behind your lower back and untied your skirt – that in fact was more of a fancy apron. The moment your hair fell back on your shoulders, you served the next surprise: Your arms followed the same movement of your hair, shoving the skirt off your hips and raising the fabric up above your head, exposing your legs, suspenders and matching silver lace underwear. Now you heard the first gasps and hands clapping. An ever so tiny smirk appeared on your glossy lips.
You sauntered along the edge of your make shift stage to the left side, then to right side, so everyone got a good look at your physique, dragging the skirt lazily behind you. You could already hear the wallets opening.
You arrived back at the center, this time facing the slowly gathering crowd with your back, gracing them with a view of your butt and some peaks of your huge tattoo that adorned the whole of your back. Rolling your full body now like a snake, your hands caressed your corset and finally moved towards its front hooks. While distracting the clients with your musings and the view on your ass, you opened the corset at the front.
Let´s give them what they came for. But first: a little lesson in patience. With the now open sides of your corset in your hands, you teased the audience for a while, an announcement of what’s to come.
When the gasps and clapping grew louder and you heard a bit of howling, you looked over your shoulders with a shy, flirty smile. They ate it up euphorically. Pleased with their reaction you turned around, displaying your naked boobs, nipples covered with star shaped stickers, while throwing your corsage to the back coquettishly. By now, all of the guests, which were significantly more than before, had moved away from the bar to the seats in front of you, keeping the waitress busy. Which was the whole point of your act: As the latest attraction at Babette’s, it was your job to keep customers distracted while waiting, making them stay longer and drink more than they usually would.
Now that you had them in your claws, your tension loosened up and you continued with your performance more freely. It was only your first month at Babette’s and you felt a little anxious from time to time on stage. You had performed for others since your childhood days, back then fully dressed on the market to earn some food or coin. This was obviously different for multiple reasons. While you were losing yourself in the following songs and your seductive musings, the crowd grew bigger as more guest that entered the brothel followed the audiences whistling and howling with curiosity.
Just as you were getting up from some crawling action on the floor, you caught the sight of a woman entering the lounge. Finally a woman you thought. But your euphoria promptly got choked out. Was that..? You took in her imposing height, broad shoulders and sharp profile. She was moving purposefully while discreetly scanning the room from the outer corner of her eyes. And utterly ignoring your performance. You couldn’t help but take offence at her demonstration of indifference because as this point it was hard not to notice you with the crowd gathered around your stage cheering you on enthusiastically.
With large confident steps she paraded past the length of the bar and straight towards the hallway where the private rooms were located. Your eyes followed her while your body kept dancing like on remote. You still struggled to believe your eyes. But when you observed how people reacted to her presence, quickly moving out of her way and avoiding her gaze, your suspicions were pretty much confirmed: this had to be her. The scary lady. Silco´s Number 2. Fucking Sevika. You turned your eyes away from her, regaining your composure as she disappeared in the hallway. Still a cocky bitch you thought to yourself …a hot cocky bitch.
***
At the end of your performance you threw kisses at your admirers as they applauded you. You quickly dressed back into your corset, leaving the skirt on the floor of the stage, and stepped to a corner of your stage, where you picked up an old enforcers hat. It was a relic at this point, scoffs and stains littered all over the thick material, its once neat cylinder shape now crooked and battered. Some of the stains could have been old blood.
You stepped off the stage with the hat in your hands upside down serving as your tip-collector, making your round through the room. People loved the profane use of this symbol, especially with its pathetic condition. Some even threw in a couple of extra coins, which you appreciated with a coy smile and a nod with a knowing wink of your eye. The only clients that did not appreciate this macabre accessory where the very few Topsiders that occasionally sneaked in Babette’s place in search of some “exotic adventure”. But their visits were rare these days and they knew exactly on what ground they were standing so they never made a fuss. Not like you cared about their precious feelings anyway.
As the weight of the hat felt satisfyingly heavy, you made your way back to your shabby little chamber that was located behind a wooden door, hidden behind the curtains of your stage. Your “backstage”, aka a dusty, windowless chamber you shared with cleaning supplies, discarded interiors and other clutter. Closing the creaking door behind you, you leaned against it and took a long, deep breath, enjoying the numbed sounds of the buzzing room for a minute. Then you started to take off your current attire and folded it back on a shelve of the rusty cabinet that stood at the right wall.
You got up on tiptoes and pulled a long silver satin slip dress off one of the higher levels of the cabinet – the level that was less visible to the other staff members and where you therefore kept the good stuff. Your collection of “costumes” for your performances was still quite small since you had just started working here. You owned 2 corsets including the one you had worn tonight, a couple of skimpy lingerie sets, transparent clothes and stockings. On of the higher levels you were hiding two more special dresses that you had sewn yourself.
Of course you intended to expand your collection but you also had more important things to do in your free time than shopping underwear and designing dresses. Far more important things…
As the dress slid over your naked body it hugged your every curve and showed off your legs with its two slits at the front that went all the way up your legs to where your thighs started. The backside was cut very low, all the way down to your lower back, exposing a little side-boob and your huge tattoo in all its glory. It was a dainty illustration of Janna, tattooed in a very fine lined, almost watercolor like style.
This tattoo was one of the rare luxuries you had allowed yourself in your life so far: Janna, the wind spirit, protector of Zaun, was still a symbol of hope for many to this day. Hope. Something you tried not to lose, no matter what life threw at you and your home.
Letting your hair open and checking on your mask you took two quick steps to the opposite wall where you had an improvised set up for your hair and makeup: A small pillow on the floor for you to sit on and one of the tiny tables from the lounge of the brothel with a hand mirror and the little cosmetics you owned resting on it.
You leaned down to grab the mirror and took a fleeting look at your make up. Then you hastily made your way back out to the bar. Usually you only stayed for a drink or two. You were hoping to get booked for some private dances as well to earn extra coin, but that lucky day was yet to come.
Tonight though, you stayed for a bit longer, waiting until your colleague Lest was free. If anyone knew all the gossip about the brothel’s clients it was her and Miguel. But Miguel was known for this indiscretions and you urgently needed to confirm that who you had seen during your dance was indeed the Scary Lady. Which was a sensitive matter. Annoyed you rolled your eyes at the thought of that stupid – but certainly earned – title of hers. Of course everyone in the Undercity knew Sevika. You had seen her all over town before, but never had suspected to meet her in a brothel. Why would someone like her even pay for… your mind started wandering but you forced yourself to interrupt your thoughts that were growing heated by the second.
As the bar had emptied out with most of the visitors in the private rooms you took a seat, leaning your forearms on the high counter and ordered a drink when you caught sight of Lest in the hallway. You waved at her. She sauntered over with an intrigued face. Lest settled on a high stool next to you and ordered the same you had: a sweet, green cocktail called “headless snake”. She looked at you, the hallway behind her, which allowed your to observe the activities further. Whoever was about to leave the rooms had to go in your direction and walk past the bar in order to leave the brothel.
“Having a good night, dove?” she asked in her husky voice that had the outstanding ability to lull and calm your nerves immediately. “Dove” was your stage name, given to you by your colleagues the day Babette had introduced you as the latest addition to her playground. After you hadn’t been able to come up with an idea of your own, they chose “dove” for you. Because in this nest of exotics, harpies and vultures, celebrating excess, perversions and kinks, you stood on your stage like a little white dove, the only one not for the taking.
You started your investigation without wasting another moment.
“The woman, that came during my performance earlier, did you notice her? The one with the cloak?” you asked, leaning towards her a little.
Lest chuckled and replied: “Well, it’s hard not to notice her, don’t you think….?”
You nodded. She was stating the obvious.
“Was it who I think it is?” you added, your voice a bit more quiet than before but not less anxious. Lest, of course, heard all of it, including the little shakes of excitement in your tone. A knowing smile appeared on her lips.
“If who you think of is Sevika, then you are correct. And she certainly left an impression on you as it seems…”
You chose to ignore her little remark and leaned towards her again.
“What the hell is she doing here? I mean, does she push Shimmer or something?” you almost whispered.
At the word “Shimmer”, Lest’s eyes darkened and her voice lowered as well.
“No, she is just a regular here. Also, she wouldn’t be tasked with such low level jobs, you should know that, Y/N. Don’t tell me you don’t know the Scary Lady. Have you been living under a rock?“
You rolled your eyes.
“No, of course I fucking know her. Kind of… If she’s a regular, why haven’t I seen her here? I´ve been here for weeks and she never showed before…” you asked with burning curiosity in your doe eyes. With a mix of amusement and indifference Lest answered:
“I don’t know, she probably was busy negotiating Silco’s deals, collection coin…”
You finished her sentence sarcastically: “…punching someone’s face to pulp.” at which she nodded in agreement. Her reputation was truly that of a brute.
“She often takes the back door, actually. Maybe that’s why you haven’t seen her, yet. But trust me, she’s here all the time.” Lest added.
After both of you took a sip of your drinks, she couldn’t resist to let out a small laugh.
“If you find her so intriguing, you could you ask Babette to introduce you. She likes to switch it up you know, Sevika that is. If our little dove can handle her… some of the girls can’t, actually.”
Your eyes grew a bit wide at her words. Not because Sevika was a that kind of customer, apparently. Her whole demeanor screamed “I’m gonna fuck you like an animal” but you still kind of liked that. Sevika was not the only kinky woman in Zaun. You couldn’t help yourself but let out tiny, complacent smirk, then you reached for your glass and shot a winning face at Lest.
“Oh, I ‘m sure I could…” you cut yourself off mid-sentence and cleared your throat. No reason to share your sexual preferences here and now.
“Anyway, I don’t want Babette to introduce me because…” you started explaining but Lest waved you off and interrupted you.
“I know, I know, you only dance. No touching. But I still think you could at least try to… extend your services here. The coin is much better and not every customer wants that, you know?”
“Well, Sevika apparently does.” you chuckled.
As Lest giggled and nodded at your comment, you sighed.
“Well what can I say, I just don’t have the guts and also, I am too picky! I couldn’t stand the sight of a dick dangling before my eyes without breaking out in laughter.” you explained with a silly smile.
Lest shook her head in amusement.
“I mean, I could ask around about the penis thing, but I am pretty sure Sevika does not have one.” she retorted.
At that, the both of you couldn’t resist to laugh like two little girls.
Right in that moment, you noticed a door swinging open in the hallway behind Lest. You narrowed your eyes and titled your head curiously, when you saw Liza, one of your female colleagues coming out of a private room… slightly limping, as if her legs were jelly. She looked rather disheveled, clearly exhausted and was smiling like an idiot. Clearly someone just had fucked her brains out thoroughly.
“Or we could ask Liza... if she is able to talk.” you commented sarcastically and nodded in her direction. Lest turned around and the both of you watched as the person following your battered colleague out of the room was no one else but Sevika. She gently touched Liza’s waist, leaning forward to say something in her ear. Liza chuckled and nodded eagerly. Then, with a satisfied, cocky grin Sevika left her standing in the hallway like a shot deer.
Lest quickly turned back to you, excitement in her eyes.
“Well,” she whispered “…now is your chance to say Hi to her.”
You hesitated for a moment. Shouldn’t you rather distance yourself from someone like Sevika as much as possible for many reasons? But something inside you had shoved your precaution to the side the moment you had seen her entering the brothel. Or maybe it was just the fact that you had been alone for what seemed like an eternity, completely touch-starved and used to have a crush on her back in the days when you were a teenager. While these factors were clearly clouding your judgement, you once again took in her sight: She was a fucking tank of a woman. Her dark, perfectly imperfect lips, her jawline that could cut through hex crystals, her muscular arm that peaked out from her cloak. You let out a little hopeless whimper.
It was in that moment, when you saw Sevika trotting towards the bar – towards you – when you decided then and there to do something stupid. Something that wasn’t like you, at all. Shooting a vicious little smile at Lest, you grabbed her by the shoulders and switched positions with her. Now you were standing with your back to the hall way and Sevika, whose steps were approaching with heavy beats on the floor. Lest watched in anticipation as you thought about your next move.
We were relying on the daringly deep neckline on the back of your dress and the huge tattoo to catch her eye. Of course a lot of Zaunites had ink but not everyone had their entire back covered in it so it did draw attention. But that wouldn’t be enough.
You stood up from your chair and positioned yourself a tiny bit further away from the bar. Not enough to get in Sevika’s way, but enough to stand out from the line of people sitting at the bar. You could hear Sevika’s steps growing louder. She was close.
“She’s coming, dove!” Lest whispered, with wide eyes.
Gods, you were so bad at this. You locked your eyes with Lest. You needed her help.
“Say something funny… ooor stupid!” you commanded.
“What?” she asked in confusion.
“No time! Make me laugh, NOW!” you whispered back to her with urgency in your voice.
It took Lest a second to think and you felt the need to jump impatiently like a child. You could feel Sevika’s presence closing in as a shiver ran down your neck.
Then Lest looked you dead in the eye, but instead of saying anything, she lifted her hand and pinched your nipple. Hard.
“Oouch!!!” you cried out, utterly flustered by her sudden and well, surprising move. Your eyes scolded Lest but she smirked, pleased with her self as your display of pain was too loud for a location like Babette’s and managed to throw Sevika off her game as she was just about to pass you by.
Sevika’s frozen stare broke for a split second. Her eyes blinked, instinctively followed the sound of your voice and immediately landed on your exposed back with Janna’s image on it, starting on your neck and reaching all the way down to your tailbone. It actually even reached a bit further down, which invited Sevika’s gaze to fall right on your ass, which was deliciously hugged by the shiny satin dress.
As she passed you by in her confident pace, you dared to turn your head to her just a bit and tried to check if you made an impression out of the corner of your eye. You could’ve sworn, time was slowing down. It seemed like, for just a split second, when her gaze lifted back up from your ass, that she slightly raised one eyebrow. As your eyes quickly shot down to her mouth, you could see something more: one corner of her lips lifting ever so slightly.
Was she amused? Annoyed? Intrigued? She didn’t slow down, she didn’t turn her head to get a proper look at you. But she had noticed you for sure. And then, the moment flew by in seconds. Your shoulders sank and you breathed out heavily as the anxiety left your body.
You looked back at Lest, who of course had observed the whole thing, keeping her head down, but eyes glued to you and Sevika. You stared at her with intense anticipation. She just grinned at you with mischief in her eyes, followed by a slow nod.
“Did it work? Did she see me?” you begged for a proper confirmation. She nodded again, this time a bit stronger.
“Oh, she sure did, dove.” she finally said. You smiled, satisfied with yet another performance of yours for the night. Your glowing eyes followed Sevika’s bulky frame leaving the brothel and you had to let out another pathetic whimper at the sight of her magnificent shoulders.
Lest chuckled. “Maybe we need to find you a new nick name, you vicious thing…“ she jested.