Viola burst through the door of the bar, pausing as if to regain her balance as she leaned against the wall before pushing onwards towards the bar. Charon followed her closely, eyes narrowed suspiciously and waiting to stop her from doing anything rash.

Ahzruhkal looked up from a drunk patron who had passed out, huddled face down over the bar top. He frowned. Viola let out a breathy sigh, and slipped into the bar stool in front of Ahzruhkal with her eyes closed and her hands ruffling through her hair. She opened her stainless steel eyes, and gave him her most charming smile.

"Did you miss me?" She cooed, pouting a little and twisting a loose strand of hair around her index finger.

Ahzruhkal took a nervous look around at some of the patrons in the bar, either too drunk to care or happily engrossed in drowning their sorrows. He shrugged and leaned over the bar.

"You're a tease, you know that?" Viola let out a chiming giggle as she stepped up off the stool and sauntered round to the other side of the bar, swaying a little as she did so.

Charon could feel his airway constricting. He had to protect the contract holder and yet he wasn't sure if Viola wanted to put him in danger. He would have thought yes only a minute ago but now, by the way she was looking at him, he wasn't so sure. What had happened to the furious Viola?

"I am?" She purred, slipping her fingers around her belt and tugging him forward towards her. He tilted his head down to look at the grinning little woman who ran her hand up his torso and pulled him down towards her by his tie, leaning backwards as she did so to keep a few centimeters between them.

"I want to tell you something..." She breathed, lips parted.

Ahzruhkal's signature smile spread across his face. He tilted his head as a reply.

"Come closer..." She beckoned, holding up her index finger and gesturing him to come closer.

As he leaned in she pulled her hand back and hammered a fist directly between his eyes and thrust her knees with as much force as she could muster between his legs, making him stumble backwards whilst keeled over.

"That was for everything you've done to me and to all the others!" She snarled.

Before she could land in another hit she felt something like a boulder crush down over the back of her skull. Before she could register the pain she saw the world drop dead around her, fading to black.

...

She jerked awake and felt something contain her and wildly she began thrashing to try and release herself. She suddenly heard Charon grunt with the effort to contain her and immediately she calmed down.

She looked around and saw Ahzruhkal still at the bar, which was now empty, which meant either he kicked everyone out or it was late and shut the bar.

She managed to tilt her head to her Pipboy and swore. It was 3:00 in the morning. The amount of times she'd been knocked out or passed out and missed hours was getting ridiculous, and for a moment she worried for her remaining brain cells, but that was before she saw Ahzruhkal still rummaging around behind the bar.

She scowled and groaned, a migraine was scraping itself across the surface of her brain and for some reason her neck was sore. She looked down at herself and took a sharp intake of breath when she found her front was stained with dried blood.

"Ch...Charon," She whispered.

She didn't know why she said his name. Perhaps it would be comforting to hear his voice. All of the sudden she wanted to hear her father's voice, more than anything.

"You're awake then? Wasn't sure you'd wake up, actually. You see I ordered Charon to kill anyone who who he fails to protect me from. He knocked you out, even had a knife to your throat. I saved your life," Ahzruhkal explained slowly, strolling over to them.

Viola hesitantly touched her neck, wincing as she felt a small, thin shallow slit where Charon had clearly lined his knife up, ready to follow through her jugular.

"Are you going to thank me?" Ahzruhkal asked, folding his arms.

Viola didn't like this. Even when Ahzruhkal threatened her, he would often smirk and mock, but not now. Now his face was straight, unemotional, and Viola was terrified.

"Thank you," She said quickly, avoiding eye contact and staring at Chraon's hands which firmly arrested her upper arms.

"Release her Charon...and Charcoal, I wouldn't move if I wanted to keep breathing..."

Charon did so immediately and stepped back from Viola who remained frozen to the spot.

"Charon, come here," Ahzruhkal demanded, and Charon did as he was told.

"You failed me Charon."

Charon stood a few steps away from Ahzruhkal, and fixed him with a glassy, glazed over stare.

"You know I don't like it when you fail me. Charon, get my baseball bat," Ahzruhkal ordered, and Charon nodded. He walked over to the bar, leaned over it and pulled out a grimy, blood stained baseball bat from underneath the counter top.

Viola felt her heart hammer and she looked desperately between the two men, mouth dry and hanging open.

Charon handed him the baseball bat and dropped to his knees, head lowered.

"Wh...what are you doing?" Viola rasped out, feet rooted into the ground.

"You're aware that any violence on my behalf invalidates Charon and I's contract, yes? Well, you should also know that this rule is nullified if he fails me, in which case I am able to punish him in whatever way I see fit..." Ahzruhkal explained, looking at the kneeling man in front of him with an arrogant grin.

"What are you going to do?" Viola mindlessly asked, holding her hands over her mouth.

"Not what I'm going to do. What you're going to do," He smirked, holding out the baseball bat.

Viola stumbled back as if the bat was on fire.

"No..." She breathed, hardly managing a noise above a whisper.

"It's an order, Charcoal."

"This conflicts with my second rule," She hissed, but Ahzruhkal was unconvinced.

"I don't want you to kill him. Your rule was that I couldn't order you to kill anyone you don't deem bad enough to kill. I'm just asking you to punish him for me..."

"I...I can't do it!" Viola choked, feeling a familiar sensation run down her cheeks. She blinked away her tears.

"If you don't, you've failed me and Charon will be forced to kill you," Ahzruhkal breathed, shaking the bat in her direction.

"Please not this!"

"Oh but I insist..."

"God no! I'm begging you, please!" Viola fell to her knees in front of him, hands clasped together and her whole body shaking. To fuck with dignity and pride now.

"Oh dear, I see it now. Persephone has fallen in love with the ferryman, hm? Don't make me laugh."

"He's my friend..." Viola wheezed, tucking her arms around her stomach and leaning over so her head nearly touched the floor.

The word hit Charon like a bucket of iced water. In fact he was fairly certain it made him flinch. Friend? He was her friend? He quickly numbed himself again.

"Oh how quaint, but you see my dear, I can not sympathise. You betrayed me and Charon failed to protect me. Sorry sweetheart, you're doing this and that's final."

"Anything! Anything else I'll do, any fucked up shit you could ask me for, I'll do! Just don't make me hurt him!" She pleaded, not being able to bring herself to look at the man.

"Tempting offer my dear...very tempting...but I think I'm going to enjoy this more," Ahzruhkal chuckled, pulling up a chair and patting the palm of his hand with the head of the baseball bat in a slow steady rhythm.

"What?" Viola hissed.

"What can I say? Your misery is more enjoyable to me than my pleasure."

"You're fucking with me, right?"

"I'm not, I thought we'd just cleared that up?"

"I fucking hate you."

"Ooooh, say it again," Ahzruhkal chuckled, throwing the bat at her.

Viola caught it in her hands as a reaction, and immediately dropped it again.

"Viola, I want this doing now, if you don't do it, Charon here is going to rip your jugular out and in the seconds you have left, he's going to show it you, do you understand? Now."

Viola picked up the baseball bat in her shaking hands, pulled herself up off the floor and slowly made her way up to Charon, who hadn't moved a muscle.

She let it rest in the crook of the back of his neck, and Charon felt something drop on him and run down his face. She was crying.

She was crying for him.

"I'll tell you when to stop. Don't go for the head so much, I don't want you accidentally killing him," Ahzruhkal said, leaning over to a table top and breaking the bottle cap of a bottle of beer before starting to drink it.

"Forgive me...I'm so sorry," Viola choked.

...

Charon didn't make a noise during his ordered punishment, even when the bat broke his legs.

It probably took a little longer than it should have, Viola kept collapsing in bouts of tears, shaking and throwing the bat down so she could hold her head in her hands. Ahzruhkal would simply laugh, pull her up by the scruff and shove her back forwards, beer in hand.

All in all Charon assessed his injuries as two broken legs, one broken wrist, (he'd accidtnley let a natural reflex get the better of him when Viola swung the bat towards his face, and he lifted up his hand to deflect it, resulting in a nasty break) a chipped front tooth and one knocked out molar.

Charon snorted. Even if she'd knocked out a front incisor it wasn't as if he was going to lose his looks.

He didn't care to count the bruises, that wouldn't require a stimpak and would just heal over time, which is more than he could say for Viola.

Ahzruhkal had left just over ten minutes ago, and Viola hadn't moved from his side, actually, he wasn't even sure if she was bothering to blink anymore, since there was a constant flood of water oozing from her bloodshot eyes.

Charon was slowly registering what had happened and what would be the least painful way for him to get to his secret stash of stimpaks which were all the way downstairs hidden in the bathroom out the front of Underworld.

"Viola..." Charon said tentivley, sitting up.

Viola moved her head towards him, but her eyes remained stitched to something unseen.

"Vio-"

"Charon I'm so sorry!" Viola sobbed, flinging her arms around his stomach and digging her face into his chest, making Charon wince as she squeezed down on multiple bruises.

"Go downstairs and get me some stimpaks, I have a stash of them, they're behind-"

"I have some on me now, here, please take them..."

"Viola, I have some down-"

"No...please let me do this," Viola begged, looking up at him with those impossibly round eyes.

Charon growled. God it was like saying no to a puppy. He didn't say anything, but gave a resigned grunt.

Viola immediately began fumbling around in her pockets for the stimpaks. A moment passed and she swore, frantically sweeping her hands over herself in a panic. Charon heard her sniff. He reached out his hand, and put it on her shoulder, making her shudder to a stop. She looked up at him.

"It is okay. Calm down. It's over," Charon told her.

He'd planned on saying it in a somewhat comforting tone, but it came out as cold and robotic as his usual tone.

Viola took a breath, slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a couple of stimpaks, and shuffled closer to Charon.

"Okay, you're going to have to straighten out your legs as best you can before I inject this, otherwise your legs might not heal as well as we want them to," Viola explained, already cringing.

Charon nodded, and pulled something out from a pocket in his jacket, Viola frowned when she saw the small plank of wood. He slotted it into his mouth between his teeth which he clamped around it.

"Okay," He grumbled, slowly straightening his legs.

He crunched his eyes shut, and the only noise Viola could hear was the wood straining under his gritted teeth.

He spat the block out of his mouth, and Viola could hear that his breaths were slightly uneven with pain.

"How can you even do that?" Viola couldn't help but ask.

"I've spent most of my life in physical pain. You have to learn to cope with it eventually..."

"I'm sorry," She said, gently administering the stimpak into the nerve just below the kneecaps.

"...You called me your friend," Charon stated, controlling the urge to wince as his bones started to knit back together.

"I know," Viola stated in a matter of fact tone.

Charon looked at her, and scowled.

"Is it really that bad to be my friend?" Viola huffed, frowning.

"I'm lying here with two broken legs, I'm missing a tooth and my wrist is broken."

"Oh, stop being a cry baby," Viola grumbled, finding another stimpak and taking his forearm in her hand to inject it.

"No. It's not."

Viola looked up, and smiled.

"Thanks...you know I never really had many friends..."

"Me neither," Charon answered, slowly getting up off the floor and taking a step forward.

His knees ached, but they usually did that. Charon snorted. It wasn't fun getting old.

"You should get some sleep," Charon told her, turning his back on her and slinking back to the corner of the bar.

"Charon...this is all my fault, but I'm going to make it up to you. One day, I promise," Viola told him, her usual determined steely glint shimmering at him in her heavy lashed eyes.

"Seeing that bastard's face when you kicked him in the balls is reason enough to make you tapping me with a baseball bat worth it."

Viola barked out a laugh. It felt good.

"Team?" Viola grinned, stepping over to him and holding out her hand ahead of her face.

Charon stared at it for a moment before the memory of what to do in this situation struck him.

He grasped her hand in his, and tightened his grip, pulling her closer and leaning down to lock her eyes in his.

"Team."

Yes, yes I know, I'm a coward. I just couldn't bring myself to write in detail Viola beating the shit out of Charon. I love them both too much. Yay, Ahzruhkal has now delved completely into his psychotic, sadistic tendencies. I don't care that he's a complete arse hole, I still bloody love that man, damn it.

Next Chapter I'm pulling in a few familiar faces, but familiar doesn't necessarily mean friendly.

This fan fic wasn't actually intended to be this long, but I keep getting ideas and you guys are all so supportive that I just keep going. I still know what's happening in the end, but I just keep slotting things in the middley bit of the story. So thank you to everyone who writes reviews and keeps reading this shit, you truly are the people that make this story just keep going and going.