Beggers and Choosers

Mian chuckled to himself as another little whore came onto Kochei. The old gold battle servant had taught Mian far more about sex at least than he ever would have dreamed possible. A scream ripped through the bar.

He grabbed the link he held with Kochei. Another battle servant glared down at Mian's partner. Kochei glanced at Mian. The knife flicked into the air. Fifteen cents of steel buried itself deep in Kochei's neck.

"Fuck your mother!" Mian screamed. His gun dropped into his hand and five rounds of caseless later, the copper didn't have a head. He ran to Kochei.

Blood pooled around their bodies. Kochei's eyes were blank, the gold faded to brass. Mian started to weep, the remembered Kochei's words. He reached around and found the gaping hole in Kochei's neck. It didn't hit the spine. Kochei wasn't breathing, but he knew the battle servant wasn't dead.

"Out of the way." He hauled Kochei's 'corpse' up over his shoulder. "You're fucking heavy." He muttered. Even the sens had stopped. The instant he dropped Kochei into the car, sense returned to his eyes.

"I wanna fucking get out of this."

"Yeah, me too." Tonight had been too close.

"Too many people after my ass."

"Yeah, and you don't have a unit and a half like Anatoly."

"Lucky fucker."

"I am." Mian gave Kochei a hot look.

"I'm thinking Germany." Kochei grinned.

"France."

"Too stuck up."

"Yeah, but they'll stick it up you, too." Mian grinned.

"I've fucked you up, boy."

"Sure have." Mian ran his hands through his hair. "Its gonna be bad, Kochei. We can't change it."

Kochei glanced around. "Nah, I've paid my dues. You?"

"Anatoly's little trick in getting rid of you for a week worked. There's no home for me here." He didn't have to mention he'd never been able to hold more than five servants, no matter their type. He was as broken as any scrapped reject.

"Oh, fuck you too." Kochei grabbed him and kissed him, hard.

"Yeah, and fuck you." Mian grabbed Kochei's balls, which he hadn't even drawn up. "You're the luckiest bastard."

"Too much luck, not enough skill. Time to cut and run."

Mian could only nod. Kochei was too much of a target. Time to cut and run.