𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍
I Did Something Bad - Taylor Swift
"They say I did something bad, but why's it feel so good?"

   The first thing I saw when I woke up was the stars in the ceiling. So that's where the blue light had come from. Judging by the little light escaping through the dark curtains, it must be around three or four in the morning. The starry ceiling calmed me down, it reminded me of the times my father would point out different constellations to me. I wondered if it reminded Kris of my father too, whenever she looked at it.

   I shifted my head to find the mafia leader in question fast asleep on the floor, an arm over her stomach and another over her head. Her mouth was ever so slightly open, a little drool escaping the corner of her lips. The sight made me want to giggle until I remembered the events of last night which had led me to this situation.

   I shook my head clear of the unwelcome memory, focusing instead on the woman on the floor, who had now shifted her arm away from her face, turning on her side to face me. She had a handsome yet delicate face when she doesn't look as serious and severe like she usually did whenever I saw her. Her features were androgynous in itself, especially when bare, that made one question what gender she truly was. I supposed it was a lucky gift to be born with, especially for someone who's gender keeps changing.

   Asleep, she looked calm, almost sweet. But then her eyebrows furrowed, her breath quickening. "No," she whimpered, tossing about. I panicked a little, there wasn't anything I could do right now to help, I couldn't even reach down to her.

My eyes landed on the glass of water on the night stand, probably Kris had put it there for me. "I hope she doesn't kill me for this," I muttered, grabbing the glass.

I unceremoniously poured an entire glass of water over Kris's face, making her gasp and shoot up straight, spluttering out some very colourful curses. Meanwhile, I was completely dumbstruck when she whipped around to glare at me. Her hair, now wet, hung in messy damp strands over her forehead. If this woman hadn't been a mafia leader, she would have taken over the entire entertainment and beauty industry.

   "What, exactly," she said, her voice dangerously calm, "do you think you're doing?" Her grey eyes made her seem ethereal.

   "I, uh..." I gulped nervously. "I didn't know how else to wake you up. You looked like you were having a nightmare."

   "Did you perhaps, think to try calling my name first?" Ah.... That hadn't occurred to me at all.

   "Sorry...?" I grimaced as she glared at me harder.

   "Now my mattress is wet. How am I going to sleep in it?" She demanded hotly.

   "Don't you have another spare mattress?"

   "No." She snapped, before sighing. "There's nothing else to be done, looks like we're sharing the bed."

   I would have protested, if she hadn't immediately started pulling up her wet shirt, moving over to the closet, presumably to get a new one. As it was, I just yelped and covered my eyes. I heard her chuckle.

   "Haven't you ever seen another woman in her bra?"

   "No, and I'm not surprised that you have." I retorted, refusing to remove my hands from my eyes.

   I felt the bed dip as she sat beside my. Her hands took mine in a firm grip and brought them down. I was glad to see her fully covered. She cocked her head slightly and her lips pulled up in a small smile.

   "You're a lesbian." It wasn't a question.

   "Pansexual." I corrected. Something flashed in her eyes when I said it, but it was gone just as fast as it had come. She seemed to scrutinise me for a moment before shrugging and moving over to the other side of the bed.

   "Didn't you say you can't sleep when you're sharing a bed?" I asked tiredly.

"I seem to be doing a lot of things I don't like doing tonight, might as well add this to it." She grumbled, turning on her side so I was left facing her back.

   I noticed she was still shivering, whether it was from the cold or not, I was uncertain. Rolling my eyes wearily at her grumbling, I snuggled into the comfortable covers. But it seemed the cold shower hadn't done an effective job of getting rid of her nightmares because barely ten minutes after I shut my eyes, I opened them to the sound of her whimpering.

   "Please, no. I'm sorry-" she whimpered, cheeks wet with tears. Once again, I was at a loss to help. I found myself wondering if this happened every night. But before I could take any drastic action, she shot straight up, eyes wide and her face and hair drenched once more in cold sweat. The look in her eyes was one I was very familiar with: the fear and readiness to lash out like a hunted animal.

   "You okay?" I asked softly, trying not to startle her. Her eyes were still a little unfocused, bleary with tears. She was clutching the sheets with with a painful grip and her chest heaved as she tried to get her breathing in control.

   "Fucking hell, I forgot to take my meds." She muttered, springing up and off the bed, padding away without so much as a glance at me. I would have followed her, I wanted to, but a small part of me told me it was better to leave her alone.

She didn't come back that night, and I fell asleep waiting for her. When I woke up, I slowly pushed myself off the bed and shuffled to the living room to find that the ruined sofa was gone. I somehow found my way to the kitchen and a tray of toast and omelettes greeted me along with a cup of tea.

Thankfully, none of them were cold and the sight of a post it note on the kitchen counter beside the tray made me raise an eyebrow.

I have some business to take care of so I've gone to the bar. Hope the breakfast isn't too cold. I'll be back soon, make yourself comfortable.

As I munched on the toast, I wondered what kind of person Kris was. All I knew were the basic facts: Her full name is Kris Katherine Kim, she's the only child of Justin Drew, went by her mother's last name, now leader of one of the biggest mafia in NYC, genderfluid, thirty years old, owns a lot of businesses which are surprisingly mostly clean and owns a bar where she spends most of her time.

My father always said that Kris's personality was like her gender fluidity. Not that I could make sense of that. So far, she had seemed nice enough, although she clearly expected to be obeyed without complaint. When I had teased her last night, I had surprised her, that was evident, and she had retaliated ten fold. Competitive. I didn't like being touched by other people, and clearly she didn't either, but for some reason, I wasn't particularly scared even though she had taken of my shirt despite my protests.

   My heart skipped a beat when I heard footsteps echoing in the living room, breaking me out of my thoughts. If Kris had left only less than half an hour ago, given that the breakfast had still been warm when I ate it and that it takes an hour at least to even get to the bar, who was in the house now?

I grabbed a fruit knife off the counter, scrambling to best of my ability to get to the kitchen cupboards. This was the house of the biggest mafia leader in the city, Kris is bound to have guns hidden everywhere around her house. As ever, my instinct didn't fail me. I found a gun taped to the under side of the kitchen counter in the cupboard below it.

   To my eternal embarrassment, it wasn't an intruder that entered the kitchen, but a dog. An adorable, grinning, husky. He padded over and placed his forelegs on the counter, trying to get his nose into my leftovers.

   Recovering my wits, I gently pushed him back. "Down, boy. This is mine."

   He looked up at me with wide eyes, licking his snout hopefully. I shook my head, unable to prevent the smile that came over my face. I took a picture of him and sent it to Kris. I don't know what prompted me to text her, but I was surprised when she replied moments later.

   I see you've met Milo. Just give him a little bit of your toast or he'll complain your ears off.

   I smiled at Milo and did as Kris said, rubbing his head behind his ears.

   I didn't know you were a dog person, I texted back.

   Well, I suppose you should also know about Penny.

Who's Penny?

   You'll see. She's a brat, that one. Oh, and there's also Lilo, try not to get scared when you see her, she's actually pretty sweet.

Lilo?

   Kris chose that moment to not respond, leaving me in terrified suspense. And that was when I saw something red and hairy pad over into the kitchen.

   "Milo," I whimpered. "Please tell me that it isn't what I think it is." The red animal stared at me, I stared at the red animal.

   "Why the ever-loving fuck, would she have a fox in her house?" I whined, trying not to move and startle the possibly dangerous mammal in front of me. I slowly dialed Kris's number and put it up to my ear. The fox seemed to be disinterested in me and turned its attention to the small bowl of water in the corner of the kitchen. Milo seemed completely undisturbed by its presence.

   "Well aren't you very clingy? Do you have separation anxiety? Didn't I say I have something important to take care of?" Kris sounded more amused than annoyed.

   "When you mentioned having two more critters in the house, you left out the very important part where one of them is a freaking fox."

   "Ah, Lilo's up then?"

   "Anything else I should know? Is Penny a freaking jaguar?"

   "Close enough, she's feline."

   "Kris..."

   "Don't worry, Penny's a cat. Three years old. Lilo's one year old, Milo is three." I narrowed my eyes at my phone before putting it back up at me ear.

"Any reason why your house is practically a zoo? Any other dangerous wildlife I should know about?" I demanded.

"They're the only pets I have, I promise." I heard Kris laugh, only serving to increase my irritation.

"I have to go now, darling. See you later when I come home." She hung up.

   What was this? It sounded weird coming from Kris, like I was in an uncomfortable relationship with the crazy ass mafia leader who likes to lead a very dangerous life even within her home.

I was startled by something soft and furry brushing past me and I quickly looked down to see Lilo looking up at me curiously. I hesitantly reached out a hand, surprised beyond belief when she let me rub her head.

I let out a breathy laugh. "You really are a sweetheart, aren't you?"

Just then, a black cat jumped onto the kitchen counter, sitting on its haunches and regarding me suspiciously. She cocked her head to the side, sniffing forward warily and looking down at Lilo. This, I assumed, was Penny. I suppose I should be glad Kris doesn't have scarier pets like a snake or something.

Shuddering, I turned my attention to Penny, who was still looking at me suspiciously, like she thought I might steal her catnip. She was a beautiful specimen, obviously well taken care of, looking at her sleek coat and slim build. I burst into giggles as I realised that Penny looked quite a lot like Kris.

"Who the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing in Kris's kitchen?" A cool voice called out, making me whip around too quickly to my wound's dismay.

I still had the gun next to me and I now levelled it up at the stranger, a rather attractive stranger at that. But still not as attractive as Kris, an annoying voice whispered in my ear. True, I found Kris to be quite... ethereal, in a way. From her dark pixie cut hair, to her almond shaped eyes stormy grey eyes that always seemed amused when they were fixed on me, and her delicate yet sharp features that somehow betrayed both her European and her Asian descent.

   This woman however looked like a goddess, from her auburn hair to her green eyes to her round, angelic features. Her build was thin, not like the slim and lithe figure of Kris. Kris had muscles, strength that was disguised by her build.

   I imagined the smirk that would curl on those thin lips if she knew I had observed so much over the last week we'd been meeting. Shaking my head slightly, I forced myself to focus back on the intruder.

   "Who are you?" It came out as a squeak rather than the menacing growl I had aimed for.

   "Someone who can tell quite clearly from your stance that you've never handled a gun in your life." The stranger smirked.

   "Then how do you know I won't accidentally shoot you somewhere vital? I don't know how to aim, but I sure as hell know how to pull a trigger on such a close target," I snarled.

   "Ooh, feisty. So I'll assume you're the esteemed guest Kris warned me about, Allison was it? I must say, you're as stunning as she described."

   "Let's see if you still feel that way once I discharge a bullet into you, which will definitely happen if you don't tell me who the hell you are!"

"Calm your tits, I'm only here because Kris asked me to drop by and check on you. The name's Liz, and I'm looking forward to getting close with you." A smirk lifted those full lips as she sidled up close to me when I slowly lowered the gun. "Oh, I plan on getting very, very close with you."

I raised an eyebrow, refusing to play along with her flirting. "Sorry, but you're not my type."

   The smirk vanished into a surprised smile of approval, eyebrows raising. "Shrewd, aren't we? Or do you only play with my boss?"

If this is how she wanted to play, then fine. I let my lips pull up in a wicked smile, full of mischief and taunting. "Why, does it bother you? Or are you just snide because you're lonely with none to play with?"

Rather than seeming annoyed, she seemed to like my answer. "Ooh, I like you." She smirked back at me. "But trust me, sweetie, I'm not the lonely one in this house."

She looked at the critters surrounding me pointedly. "I'm not the one that brought strays in." I had a feeling that when she said strays, she included me as well. But I didn't feel insulted, somehow, the only thought running in my mind being that it was worth being another of Kris's strays if it meant I could catch my dad's killer.

   "You should know, being the first," I said sweetly, taking pleasure in the way she tensed. It had been a calculated guess from my part, her obviously not being a blood relative of Kris, and as far as I knew, Kris was an only daughter.

   "Observant. Good, that'll save your skin in most situations. And you don't hesitate to act on them either. There's hope for you yet."

   "Is there a point to your yapping?"

   "I'd drop the attitude if I were you. I don't tolerate insubordination from my trainee." She snapped, her entire demeanour changing like a flip of a switch. "Kris has decided to let you into our organisation, therefore you will be expected to follow the rules. Do not think that just because you have been provided sanctuary beneath Kris's roof will gain you any special treatment."

   A chill ran down my spine. Kris was letting me join her organisation. She was agreeing to let me have my revenge. I didn't feel joy, I didn't feel excited. I only felt grim determination set in as reality hit me. No more games, no more distractions. I only had one purpose in life now, though I might have to give up my entire life for it. But I would do it, for my father.

   And so, when I nodded my understanding to Liz, my back straightening and my mouth clamping down to prevent the groan of pain from escaping my lips. I was to be a member of one of the biggest mafia in the city, I would suffer greater wounds than this and I will have to learn to keep standing with them.

   No more weaknesses, no more distractions. That was what I was determined to maintain. But Kris, seemed to have other plans to ruin mine.