Revy...

Revy pushed up on her arms from the floor of her bedroom for the fiftieth time. What had been simple before her injury, was now agony. But she was used to agony. Agony was just another type of pain and pain was a language she spoke well. The other things happening to her for the last forty-eight hours or so? Not so much. Her elbows bent again, her mind convinced that she could go another fifty but the trembling in her muscles belied her belief. Still, she gritted her teeth and began doing another set, hell-bent on distracting herself from what wouldn't go away. This feeling!

Note to self: Kick Rock's ass all over Roanapurr and back again.

This was new. She never had to pre-mediate anything when it came to hurting Rock before, her episodes just happen based on the next stupid thing he said or did but it felt good to imagine planting her foot so far up his narrow ass she wouldn't be able to see the top of her boot.

For the longest time, Revy had been frigid sexually with the exception happening a few days before and after her period when her hormones kicked into overdrive and she got so horny she swears she could feel a staccato rhythm down there. She'd once joked to herself; "I can take my fucking pulse from my crotch."

Ever since she left his hotel room she had been feeling like this and goddamnit, she was infuriated with Rock for it. Only infuriated.

Revy switched to one hand and her entire body quaked from the strain. She kept the count going in her head. Only by pushing herself to the breaking point will she get any sleep tonight. Exhaustion was the key until she could get a hold of her target and besides, this helped with getting her stronger, still.

She balanced on the three points of her body stretched out in the plank position as she did what few outside of an army could accomplish, all the while, trying to ignore her sexual frustration. There was no one to shoot, no one to war with and fucking hell, it was hot! Revy would be damned before she spent another cold shower barely stopping her hand from descending between her legs to stroke herself or ward off the need to rub her nipples that were so swollen, they pucker against her palm when she'd neared them. She had never acted on her impulses to undo her belt buckle and test the mattress with anyone before- "if it never happened in prison, it sure as hell wasn't going to happen in Roanapurr". Much more to the images in her head.

Nothing's worse than being treated like some whore by your companions. Nothing!

She exhaled a breath as she lowers herself to the ground, inhaling for the strength to come back up.

Fifty-nine!

Right now she was pisser than pissed and to make matters worse, it was not that time of the month yet she's been getting a 'Staccato Frenzy' for the last forty-eight hours.

Sixty-three.

This was all Rock's fault.

It was.

A couple of hours ago when they had returned to the docks she had been grinning from ear to ear like the Grinch on Christmas Eve. Envisioning her retribution being met out so intricately she could almost feel the satisfaction of landing that first blow to his eye, as promised. As soon as Dutch killed the engine, Revy had hopped off the deck of the Torpedo Boat, dropping anchor and tethering the boat with the heavy rope to the dock in quick succession.

"Your injuries are healing well," Dutch intoned from behind her.

When had he come up from the below deck?

For a big man, Dutch reminded her of a cat. Silence, observant and mysterious.

"What makes you say that?"

"I didn't expect that you could moor the boat much more lift the anchor, Revy. I came up as soon as I could to help."

Finishing up, she made a 'tsking' sound then walked away almost too little quickly from the docks. Great, now Dutch was undermining me as well.

Victim status would never be something she associated with herself ever again. Revy was eaten up with hatred, understandably so with the things that has happened to her in her past but even something like catching a cold pisses her off to the point of seething. While 'fuck' and anything else considered as inappropriate by others was as normal as breathing for her, words like weakness and mercy were considered as an insult to Revy. The very idea of being the object of someone's pity abraded her like a serrated knife being dragged slowly across her skin.

By the time she entered the office, she was tingling with excitement at the prospect of seeing that fucking Jap bastard. Her fists clenching and unclenching, her imagination running unchecked with the violence to come.

"Hey, welcome back," Benny said in his lazy slur, emerging from his work den. Left alone, Benny would slowly become a piece of equipment in that place. She barely registered that his hands were covered with dark grease, her brown eyes darting around the enlarged space of the office.

"Where is he?" She'd hissed.

With a slightly surprised look, Benny had said; "Rock seemed to be in very high demand today. Just got a call from Balalaika requesting to speak with him about some job she had that was... 'suited for his expertise'." He shrugged, "Her words not mine."

Dutch came in a few seconds early to catch that last bit. Though his body was facing in Benny's direction she could have sworn that his shaded eyes were trained her when he asked; "It's still early in the work day for him, did Balalaika pick Rock up?"

"No, he actually left about one hour ago," Benny answered, wiping his hands on a piece of white cloth that gradually changed it's color to a dingy brown with each swipe. "He seemed like he was sort of out of it today." He pointed at what looked like a busted up version what used to be the office's accountant calculator sitting on the coffee table.

There was a slight pause until Dutch asked, "Did something run over it?"

"Nope but it did crash head first into the wall when Rock threw it in some sort of...rage," Benny informed sounding puzzled and she couldn't say that she blamed him. Rock was more like the Mr. Levelheadedness to her spitting fire. While she was quick to pop-off on anyone that made a mistake, he would be the first to put in a soft response.

Wait...what the hell am I doing? Counting the opposites between us? What's next, our compatibility chart? How about picking the fucking petals off flowers, Revy?

Like magic, another cigarette was in her mouth, already lit; the habit so seamless as if it knew that she needed one to pacify her violent bursts of emotion.

When she inhaled enough calm, Revy decided to scoff at her musings but when she spoke, it was more in response to the conversation between the three of them.

"What's heating his tits?"

Again she felt eyes on her.

Benny shrugged.

"Whatever it is," Dutch said pointed at the thing, "that's coming out of his paycheque."

Revy had stomped passed the both of them heading towards the stair that led to her room. She didn't need to hear anything else. Once Rock was with Sis, there was no way that she could get to him short of storming Hotel Moscow. Well, if she ever had a death wish in need of fulfillment then that would be the best idea ever. If there was one person Revy held respect for and didn't fuck around with unnecessarily, it was Balalaika.

"Fucking-motherfucker." She hissed under her breath.

Had he planned this?

She wouldn't put anything pass Rock now given the high-stakes death game she saw him execute flawlessly during that hunt between that Maid, the American soldiers, Balalaika's arm forces and that little brat.

Now she would have to wait. Something she hated to do.

So here she was, doing push-ups to kill the time. She didn't dare touch the alcohol again. Did that last night and her room went from a dump to "Jesus Christ, what the fuck happened?!"

She could barely clear a spot to do her 'training'. New holes had opened up in her walls from her shooting at them randomly or at some ghost from her past, that materialized during her drunken rage. Needless to say, her AC with its loud rattling and cloughing sounds, hadn't made it out alive and now she was paying for her misjudgment. Sweat running between the valley of her breasts made the skin there slippery; it washed her face like water from a tap and her tank top clung to her.

Eighty-eight.

She had three options;

Go to the yellow flag and hoped for a fight or start one,

Swing by Eda's and get shit faced...no, no! That's a bad idea. Eda would just start talking about Rock and she knew she would just lose it, then and there.

Or option three.

Ninety-One.

She could go back to Rock's cheap ass hotel room. It was clean, probably has a working A/C unit too. She couldn't wait to see the look on his face when got home and she was there waiting for him.

The idea gave her the energy to push up and down for the final stretch, the strain in her body forgotten because she was now seizing on the idea. Why hadn't she thought about it earlier? It was so simple.

Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine. One hundred.

Her muscle hurt like a son of a bitch but the thrill of the retribution to come made it easy to ignore. Mind on her newest idea, she showered quickly then redressed.

Rock's place was only eight minutes away by car, thirty by foot. She could take the car but people knew their company mobile and any fuck-wit that thinks they have the balls might want to kill her, something she would have welcome in a different situation but Rock had earned his private session with the way he treated her.

"Pitying me." She thrust her cutlasses into their holders, her teeth grinding against one another when she remembered the look in his eyes.

"Pinning me down like that then letting me go." That only meant that she was at his mercy. The thought scalds her like a brand.

"That horse-cock bastard!" She cursed as she slammed the door behind her.

.

.

.

Fifteen minutes later, Revy's breaths panted heavily, her finger on the triggers of her pointed guns as she stood in the doorway of what was Rock's hotel room. Surging with adrenaline, Revy had ran all the way from the docks to the hotel, cutting the time in half. She entered through the service-way instead of the front entrance half expecting Rock to be back by now or close to it given his work ethic for completing tasks with swift efficiency. The man had a concentration consistency that could block out a train wreck. Expecting to find him off guard and unaware, she stepped into the hallway with ease only to tense up when she spotted the kicked in door then switch to kill mode when she saw two shadowy figures within, men from the looks of them and they were both armed. The place was trashed and Rock was nowhere in sight. With situation summed up in her mind, she growled out one question,

"Who the fuck are you?!"