"Excellent, my boy," the man said in his cool-natured accent as he approached the car, "I knew I could count on you."

It turns out it wasn't difficult to show up for an early morning job if you never went to sleep, not that Marcus wanted to make a habit out of it.

"I even took a peek out my window when I got up, you've been here for over an hour," Ixis continued as he slid past the open door and into the waiting plush leather seats in the back of his car.

After he had dropped Fiona off, there wasn't much to do besides wait. This day would take its toll on him, but all that could wait. There was no denying that disappointing Mr. Nagus was not an option. Marcus took a deep breath as he rounded the front of the car and found his way back to the driver seat.

"Although," the man began almost immediately, "we're going to have to do something about your attire."

It hadn't occurred to him to at least make an attempt to find a change of clothes.

"Have you even changed? Showered?" his new employer pressed him.

Lying didn't seem like a good option.

"No," Marcus shook his head. "I'm crashing at a friend's place clear across town. After I got done helping Fiona, I wouldn't have been able to go home and make it back here in time."

Ixis nodded in agreement as he put the car in drive and pulled out into the morning traffic.

"What funny business did you get up to with that fox?"

"She told me she needed a ride," Marcus hesitated, not wanting to betray the Fiona's trust.

"And you agreed?" Naugus asked in a tone that suggested he was neither angry nor pleased.

"Well I wasn't exactly sure if I could tell her no since she works for you."

The man's chuckles helped him relax, but only a little.

"Sometimes I think she's too smart for her own good," Ixis laughed. "She saw an opportunity and capitalized, just like I taught her."

"Should I not have done that?"

"You're fine, my boy. Although I shouldn't have to spell out that you're my driver not hers. However, the car is free to use on your time, and if giving rides to that little hellion is what you want to do with it, then by all means. Fiona obviously saw that you might not know any better and took advantage of the situation."

Marcus sighed, "I should have known."

Ixis shrugged, "You played it safe, sometimes that's the best move. But if you don't mind me asking, where did you take her?"

"The diner on fourth."

His laugh returned, "She made you take her to breakfast?"

"That's what I thought at first," he confessed.

"I see."

Marcus half expected the man to press him further on the subject, but it seems he had already said enough for him to put together the rest.

"Should I be worried about her, sir?"

"Did you do anything to piss her off?"

"I don't think so."

"Then I doubt it. Fiona is a surprisingly gentle creature, but don't tell her I said that. She's unusually quick to break bones, but at the end of the day her heart is still too big for this line of work."

"After last night, gentle would be the last thing I would describe her as."

"Like I said, quick to break bones, but she won't hurt anyone unless she has to, unlike me. I'll hurt people for looking at me the wrong way."

Marcus quickly removed his gaze from the review mirror and focused as intently as his mind would allow on the road in front of him.

"You've got nothing to worry about," he added. "Or at least I don't think you do."

He did his best to put on a grin, but it was harder than he expected.

"Although, we probably should go over a few more ground rules I suppose."

"Okay," Marcus readily agreed.

"I call, you come. Rain, shine, or broken leg. There's no excuse I haven't heard, and there is far fewer that will work."

Fiona had made that much seem obvious. Ixis was a man who got what he wanted, when he wanted it.

"After you drop me off, you're going to go to Bernard's on 42nd. Have you heard of it?"

"No."

He was still getting to know his way around the city. 42nd was in a part of town that catered to people with a lot more money than he would likely ever have, so he had written it off early on.

"He's the best tailor in town. If I'm to be seen with you, I need you to look the part. He'll take care of everything, all you need to do is show up."

"Okay," Marcus acknowledged with some hesitation.

This was getting more serious by the minute. Last night had been one thing, but now it felt as if he had signed some type of invisible blood contract.

"After that I want you to go home and get your things. I've made arrangements for you. It's nothing special," Nagus insisted while pushing a key across the armrest, "but it's something to call your own."

He felt the need to gulp, tailored suits had been one thing. A piece of property was something else. Cautiously, Marcus reached over and pocketed the key.

"It's on the top floor in the building across from the Barn Yard. You know where that is, right?"

He nodded slowly as he pulled into a parking space in front of Ixis' hotel. That part of town he was familiar with. It catered to anyone brave enough to walk its streets.

"Thank you, sir."

"No need to thank me. These are the perks that come with the job."

Marcus removed himself from the driver seat and made his way around to the passenger door.

"Sir, have a nice day."

The man's composure was ice cold, bordering on stone that had the luxury of movement.

"Any questions? Now is the time."

He had a half dozen at least, but was too scared to ask them. It seemed obvious that he was trading his life for this job. Part of him wanted to ask if there was still time to back out. The other part of him, however, knew better. Life would occasionally grace you with opportunities, passing them up out of fear was unwise to say the least. But there was still one question he felt scraping at the back of his mind.

"What's a Huli Jing?" his sleep addled brain managed to inquire. Marcus had been wondering since Fiona had brought it up earlier in the morning.

Ixis's eyebrows furrowed in opposite directions, unsure of what to make of his request. Slowly the man began to chuckle before breaking down into a downright laughing fit. Without responding the man walked up the steps and into his office, snickering to himself to whole way.

Well that went about as well as could be expected, the kid concluded silently to himself.

Driving, as it turns out, wasn't always fun. He had moved to the city with hardly a penny to his name and subsequently resorted to moving around the city on foot or by way of train. Having a car was as expensive as it was pointless. Rush hour traffic brought the streets to a standstill, and what might be a twenty-minute walk turned into a thirty-minute drive.

The tailor was in a non-descript building that hardly fit in amongst the other more well-known brands who plastered their names across their storefronts in bright neon letters. A bell rung above the door as he stepped into the tiny shop. It had an eerily sterile feel, and the plush red velvet carpet that lined the floor ominous to say the least. A mildly overweight middle-aged man appeared by his side without so much as a word.

"Hi," Marcus said doing his best to hide his startled appearance. "You must be Bernard?"

The man did little more than grunt in response before pointing to a mirror at the back of the sore.

Weaving in and out of the mannequins and displays, the kid admired some of the finer handy work. Pick stitching laced some of the highest quality fabric he had ever felt or seen. To top it off each and every garment had a quintessential mobster look to it.

"Mr. Naugus sent me," he added, unsure of what was happening.

The man did little more than roll his eyes before positioning him in front of the trifold mirror. For the first time in the better part of a day, Marcus to got to take in just how much his appearance had degraded.

Shaking his head, Bernard muttered under his breath, "Where does he find them… dogs off the street."

"The other one is a fox," he felt the need to point out.

"I'm all too aware," the man lamented as he retrieved the measuring tape that had been draped around his neck. "Had anyone else come to me and told me to find her suitable clothes, I would have laughed at them until I was blue in the face. Ixis, however, is not a man you say no to."

"People keep saying that," Marcus noted to himself, albeit aloud.

"Well it keeps being true," Bernard replied before tugging on his arm, measuring from the back of his neck down to the tip of his finger.

He repeated some variation of that process at nauseum with little regard to his personal space. Everything from his calf circumference to the inner seam of his thigh seemed to be important. Finally the man produced a notebook, transcribing what must of haven at least two dozen measurements onto paper from his memory.

"And how do you typically dress?"

"Uhh with clothes… in the morning, or well most of the time anyway."

Bernard sneered at him before defiantly requesting, "to the left or the right?"

"I'm right handed."

With a sigh, the man gave him an odd look from the floor to the top of his head be scribbling something else down.

"You can put your arms down now," the man sighed. "And do us both a favor and get lost before you scare off any of my customers."

Marcus had no problem with leaving. The store was oddly musty smelling, and floor felt like all the wrong kinds of cushy. He wasn't meant to be in a place like this, or not yet anyway.

"Thanks," the kid replied before he made his way back outside.

It was already half past noon and he still had to retrieve his personal effects from his friend's house. Thankfully, however, with the morning traffic gone he would likely be able to make it across town and back in time to pick up Ixis.

He made sure to drive briskly, clearing three blocks at a time before being inevitably snared by a light or some unexpected congestion. There was also little denying that the house he had been living in actually belonged to his friend's grandmother. They were both freeloaders. Although, one more than the other. His parents would have called this acquittance a bad influence, and they probably would have been right.

Ed was the best kind of friend and the worst kind of role model. He had zero ambition and it showed. He changed jobs like most people did clothes, staying at one gig just long enough to make a paycheck before getting bored and retreating to his spot in the attic. Marcus had run into him his first weekend in the city and had become inseparable since. They each had a penitent for partying hard and relaxing harder.

"Mrs. Felder," he exclaimed walking in the front door, "how are you?"

The elderly woman smiled sweetly back at him, "Marcus, I was worried you had left without saying goodbye."

"Never," he replied before planting a gentle kiss on her cheek.

The woman was beyond sweet and he owed her and Ed both a debt. She had taken to him as well, calling him a 'well-mannered a polite young man'.

"Ed is upstairs where he usually is. Will you be staying for dinner?"

"Not today, I'm afraid. I finally found a decent job," he proclaimed with a smile.

"Splendid dear. You will have to tell me all about it."

"There's not too much to it I suppose. I'm a limo driver for some rich guy."

"Ahh, that does sound promising. Is he a nice man?"

"I don't think so," Marcus replied with a hint of disappointment.

"The rich ones never are," she agreed with a shake of her head, "but a job is a job."

"It is," he agreed.

"I was just swinging by to pick up a few of my things. I might be gone a little longer than normal."

"Don't be a stranger, dear," Mrs. Felder called after him as he bound up the first set of steps.

Ed, as his grandmother promised, was exactly where he expected to find him, sprawled out on the couch playing video games on a tv that was well past its prime.

"Where the hell have you been," his friend inquired without moving an eye from the screen.

"Got myself a job," Marcus answered as he stuffed as many of his clothes as he could find into a backpack.

"I thought you had one of those already."

"No, I mean like a real job, one that pays more than a couple of bucks an hour and has real benefits."

"Who would hire you?" Ed laughed.

"You ever hear of a guy names Ixis Naugus?"

"Yeah, of course, everyone has."

"I'm his new driver."

Ed nearly doubled over in laughter, "that's a good one, man. That's a good one."

"No seriously, I am."

Still laughing, his friend was reluctant to believe him, "do you have any idea how dangerous he is? No one in their right mind would work for him."

"Yeah… people keep telling me that."

Ed hit pause and looked up for the first time, "wait you're seriously working for him?"

"Well yeah, I mean it's a job, better than washing dishes, you know?"

"No, I don't think you get it. That guy doesn't screw around man. He's broken people's legs just for looking at him funny."

Oh… he wasn't kidding when he said that… Although Marcus had never thought that he had been.

"I mean I wouldn't he have been arrested by now if that were true?"

"He owns most of the cops in this city. When people say crime doesn't pay, well, they haven't met Ixis. He's untouchable, ruthless. I'm telling you, man, it's a mistake."

"I'm not sure I have a choice anymore."

"Then let me help you pack," Ed replied as he put down the controller.

"What?"

"You need to leave. I can't have you around here anymore, hell I don't even want to be seen with you, so the sooner you can get your crap packed up and leave, the better."

"Wait, what? Are you serious?"

"Very."

"What gives?"

"I'm all for taking shady jobs, Marcus. It's basically how I make my living. But Ixis is a different story. You may as well have sold your soul."

He was now starting to recall a few of things Fiona had mentioned to him his first night on the job. She had promised him that his friends and family would look at him differently. When they look at you, they'll see him, she had assured him.

"You see him, don't you? When you look at me?"

"It's hard not to. You didn't grow up around here, you don't know his reputation. Hell, you don't know what he's done to this family."

With a backpack over his shoulder and a duffel in his hand, Ed was nearly pushing him down the steps.

"I'm sorry," Marcus tried pleading with him.

"Nothing to apologize about, "you choose him."

"I didn't mean to. I didn't know I was making a choice."

"But you did, and that's… well that's that."

"I'll see you around maybe?" he asked Ed, but instead the kid he thought was his friend slammed the front door in his face.

That's not how I expected that to go, Marcus lamented to himself as he stared at the forest green paint on Mrs. Felder's door.