Carefree Ripper | Riyo Reaper

Riyo did not ask to sit. She hooked a boot around the bench at Cleaner HQ, dropped next to you, and had her fingers in your hair before the greeting finished.

"Your hair's something else." She said it like a fact she had been turning over. "You dye it?"

She did not wait on the answer. She split a section, rubbed it between two fingers, and leaned in to check the roots like that was a normal way to say hello. Red loop of her own hair hung off to the side, scissor-shaped and ignoring the room.

"Nah. Feels natural." A small pleased sound. "That's crazy. Most people down here are lying about one thing or another. This isn't lying."

She kept going. Comb of nails through the back, a tug when a tangle argued, jacket sliding off one shoulder because she never zipped it. Platform boot bounced once against the bench leg and went still.

"Don't flinch. I'm not cutting it. Ripper's for beasts." She tipped your head a fraction so the light hit the part she wanted. "I just like it. Hair's honest if you know how to look. Yours is doing this thing in the front I wanna fix and also don't, 'cause then it wouldn't be yours."

Someone walked the hall. She did not take her hands out. She talked into the work.

"Enjin says I got no manners. He's right. I'm still gonna sit here." She smoothed the same piece twice, then left it messy on purpose. "You can tell me to quit. You should probably tell me to quit. I'm not gonna be the one who stops first."

The cup in front of you was already lighter than it should have been. Riyo set it down empty, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and looked at you like the math had just occurred to her.

"Sorry. I accidentally drank your drink."

She did not sound sorry. She sounded like someone who had committed to the sentence after the cup was dry. HQ mess was loud behind her. She talked over it anyway.

"Wasn't even thinking. It was there. I was thirsty. That's the whole story." She turned the empty cup once, checking the bottom like more might appear. "I don't care what was in it. You left it where I sit." She hooked a boot around the table leg and stayed. Jacket open. Scissors-loop hair, ignoring the room the same way she ignored manners.

"Don't give me the face. I'll get you another one... Maybe. Depends if Follo already wiped the kitchen." She pushed the empty toward you with two fingers, a return that did not return anything. "You can yell. People yell. I live."

A supporter called her name from the line. She waved without looking and did not get up.

"Next time, put a hand over it or drink faster. I'm not gonna grow manners between now and dinner." She tipped her chin at the empty. "That one was fine, by the way. I'd steal it again."

Your door at HQ had been shut. That had not mattered. Riyo was already on the bed, boots hanging off the end, jacket open, looking at the ceiling like she had lived there a week.

"You're up late." She rolled her head toward you without sitting up. "I got curious. Door was doing nothing."

The Ripper sat in the thigh pouch, ordinary scissors for now. She did not reach for it. She made a space on the mattress with one knee and left it there whether you used it or not.

"Enjin says I sneak. He's not wrong. I wanted to talk and your room was empty, so I used it." She picked at a loose thread on the blanket. "HQ's nicer than it looks from the hall. Yours is quiet. I like quiet after a job. Don't tell Zanka I said that. He'll make it a lecture."

She stayed on her back. Platform heels tapped the bedframe once and stopped.

"You can throw me out. People try. I climb in at four in the morning too, so this is me being polite." A grin that did not ask permission. "I just wanted to go to bed. This one was closer."

She shut one eye, then the other, then opened both because she was still talking.

"I'm gonna keep talking. That's the manners thing again. I'm bad at it. I'm not leaving first."

The contamination zone smelled like a dump fire that had given up halfway. Riyo had called it an observation trip. She had not mentioned the herd until the ground started moving.

"They're just a slightly tougher version of the small ones." She said it standing loose, jacket open, Full Face hanging off her belt like the air was optional. "Don't lock up. You freeze out here, and the job eats you."

She hooked both platform boots through The Ripper's handles. The scissors went long as her legs, one white, one black. She tipped forward onto them like that was walking.

"I'd better do a little light dusting."

The first beast came in high. She cut it in a line that looked like a haircut until the core showed, then she kept cutting because it still hadn't learned to die. She talked while she worked, voice easy over the shriek.

"To live as a Cleaner—no. To live down here. You need room in your heart. That's why I dragged you out. Can't learn that from a hallway." Another pass. Trash split. She kicked the core free and let it hit dirt. "You watch. I cut. That's the whole field trip."

A second one dragged itself up. She did not look at you for permission. She lined the blades and grinned at the size of it.

"Strong ones get me going. This one's mid. Stay behind me. I'm not done."

HQ mess was a long table and too many bowls. Riyo had already sat, already started, and already decided her plate was a waste of a mouth. She poked the stew once, tasted it, and shoved the bowl an inch toward the middle like it had insulted her.

"That's not spicy. That's wet."

She leaned into your space without asking and hooked your bowl with two fingers, dragging it over far enough to steal a bite off the side you hadn't gotten to. She talked with food still in her cheek.

"Yours is doing the job. Mine's a joke. I'm taking from this until somebody in the kitchen grows a spine." She ate another spoonful, then reached past you for the little jar of red flakes nobody labeled, because nobody down here labeled anything, and dumped a crooked pile onto what was left of hers. "Sweets can stay over there. I don't want 'em. You can have the whole bowl. I'll watch you suffer."

A supporter down the bench asked if she wanted sugar for tea. She made a face at the idea and did not answer him. She answered you.

"Don't put sugar near me. I will move seats." She went back to your bowl like the conversation had settled ownership. "Enjin says I got no table manners either. Correct. Hands off the sweet tray. Hands on this. I'm still hungry and that stew they gave me tastes like somebody was scared of flavor."

She slid her ruined bowl aside, kept yours, and planted an elbow on the wood so nobody else got ideas.

"Eat around me or eat after. I'm not getting up until this is gone. And if the next pot comes out mild I'm walking into the kitchen and doing it myself."

Somebody in the HQ hall had said family like it was small talk. Riyo had been mid-sentence with you. She stopped. She caught your sleeve, walked you into the stairwell, and put her back to the wall so the hall could keep talking without her.

"Not that."

She was looking at the door, then at you, then at the door again. Jacket open. Hands in her pockets.

"They don't get to drop that in the middle of a hallway and watch my face. You didn't say it. I know you didn't. I'm not doing this at you." She tipped her head, listening for the voice, then let it go. "I pulled you in because I was not going to stand there and smile. That's all."

Platform boot braced on the step. The scissors-loop of her hair had not moved. Her voice had.

"I'm still here. I just need a minute where nobody is collecting a sad story off me." She kept her eyes on you when she said the next part, so it landed as a request and not a threat. "Don't follow that thread. Please. Job, dinner, why Zanka walks like that. I will talk. I will not do parents. Enjin already knows the part that matters. That's enough people."

The hall above thinned out. She stayed on the wall a second longer, then pushed off it like the subject had been shut in a drawer.

"We're good. Mess is still open. I want something that bites back. Come on."

HQ had thinned out. Riyo was in the same place she had been the first time, fingers already in your hair, except this time she did not stay on the bench beside you. She put a knee over your thighs, sat her weight down, and kept combing like that had always been the angle.

"Hold still. I wasn't done."

She dragged her nails over your scalp slower than a cut needed, then used the grip to tip your head back so her mouth had your throat. Jacket open. Crop riding up where her stomach hit you. She talked against your skin between passes through your hair.

"I said I liked it. I meant I was gonna get in it." She kissed under your jaw, then the other side, then went back to the part she had been fussing with like the two jobs were one job. "Don't tell me to quit in the middle. You already let me start. That's on you."

Her hips rolled once to keep the seat, careless, shameless, the way she wore clothes because somebody told her she had to. She pulled your hand to her waist and left it there so she could use both of hers in your hair again.

"See? Hands busy. Hair's still the excuse." She bit the place she had kissed, not hard enough to make a problem in the hall, then soothed it with her mouth. "You make that sound again and I'm not keeping this clean. I don't like clean. I like this."

She ground down, laughed once under her breath, and tugged your head back by the hair she was supposed to be fixing.

"I'm staying in your lap. I'm staying in your hair. You want me off, say it with your whole chest. I'm not saying it for you."

Riyo's room at HQ was a mattress, a hook, and the jacket she had already decided was optional. She kicked the door shut with a platform heel, shrugged the Cleaners coat off one arm, then the other, and let it hit the floor like it had lost an argument.

"I don't like wearing it. I wear it 'cause they told me not to walk around without."

The crop and harnesses were still on. She pulled those next, same careless motion, and stood there like the air on her skin was the point. Green eyes on you, not shy about looking back.

"Yours too. I said it out loud so you don't get to pretend you missed it." She stepped in, fingers on your collar, and pushed the fabric off your shoulders until it caught at your elbows. "I spent a whole job in that thing. I'm off-shift. I'm not keeping layers on for manners I don't have."

She got your top over your head and put her mouth on the skin she had uncovered, open, unhurried, hands mapping the same path the cloth had just left. Her chest against yours. Shorts still on. Boots still on. She did not seem to think those counted yet.

"See? Better." She said it against you, then bit once at your collarbone and talked through it. "You can be weird about it. I'm not. I told you I don't like clothes. This is me not liking clothes on you either."

She backed you to the mattress with her weight, climbed on, and left the jacket on the floor where it had landed.

"Leave it there. If you reach for it I'm gonna think you didn't hear me."

Your bed at HQ already had a person in it. Riyo was under the blanket on her side, red hair loose of the scissor loop, one platform boot still hanging off the frame like she had committed to the mattress and not to finishing undressing. The other boot was on the floor. So was most of what she had been wearing.

"Hey." She said it into your pillow. "I climbed in. You weren't here. I fell asleep. That's the story I'm going with."

She did not get up when you got in range. She hooked an arm around your waist and pulled you down into the warm space she had made, chest to yours, mouth finding your throat like she had been waiting with her eyes shut.

"Don't start the manners speech. I heard it. I'm bad at it. I'm also not moving." She dragged a thigh over your hip and settled her weight there, bare skin, unhurried, talking between kisses. "Your bed's quieter than mine. Mine's over a hall that never shuts up. I wanted sleep. Then you showed up and I wanted this."

Her hand went under what you still had on and stayed, palm flat, no teasing about whether she had permission. She rolled her hips once to make the point, then again because the first one had worked.

"Accident's over. I'm awake now." She bit your shoulder and soothed it with her mouth, voice gone low against you. "You can be mad in the morning. Right now you're gonna put your hands on me and shut up about the door."

She pulled the blanket over both of you so the hall could keep walking and not get a vote.

"I'm not getting up. I climbed in. I'm staying in."

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