ECLIPSE, grishaverse

i. lucky charm

Then they saw her again a few weeks after during a job, she was on the rooftop of the Exchange, the knifes in her hands shaking with excitement and adrenaline. She got to throw them that time, almost leaving a man without one eye because of her shaky hands but that was collateral damage –Kaz would also say–.

Jesper tried to teach her how to shoot but Mila couldn't get the hang of it, the guns were too heavy for her boney arms –and the fact that she ate little to nothing wasn't helping–. So she stuck with her lightweight knives. Dirix and Rotty helped her improve combat skills, and was definitely her favorite "class". Kicking their dumb asses was much fun than getting on rooftops and following people in the wet late nights.

To everyone's surprise, Kaz had also helped her building skills, but his teachings were different from the others; he explained her how to pick locks and pockets, then he took her on jobs to see her work under-pressure and improvements. Sometimes –and after she asked–, he spoke about strategies and marks while heading to get a job done, or in the way back he would talk about the room and things he noted. Yelena would be quick to catch feelings for a man as smart and handsome as Kaz Brekker, but Mila knew better than her.

Mila Bat-Nasaar wasn't the type of falling in love or look the other way from the feeling of her gut, unlike Yelena. Mila didn't sit to sympathize or think about others, she thought only about the survival of the day and get the job done. She didn't seek for approval or silly things like finding the one. Mila was a bird of prey, and no one could stop her if she had something in mind.

In the beginning, she used to be just a rumor but when she was finally ready, the young lieutenant started running the word of a new shadow in the night. More sooner than later, she walked into the Crow Club with her mask and hood pulled down and drank with Kaz, all eyes were on them as he had planned. And then they all knew, the hawk was running with the Dregs. That made quite an impact in other gangs, the smart ones didn't mess with them anymore. After that, Per Haskell had been in such a rush to make her an official member of the gang that soon enough she had the Dregs tattoo in her forearm.

She somehow got used to that life; training with Rotty and Inej in the mornings, walking down the streets and alleys picking up secrets here and there, having some whiskey for lunch and talk to Jesper in the Club, sometimes going on a job other times to the White Rose to see Nina –her Heartrender friend who tailored her eyes now and then–, reporting to Kaz and having sweet white wine for dinner. In her extracurricular activities at night, she would slither into a different district to see what the high class were up to, while Inej went to other. Her knowledge in languages made her more valuable than any other spider crawling on the streets of the capital city and she took advantage of it, lurking around the different embassies.

Sometimes, the line that she drew between Mila and Yelena seemed to get blurry. Like in the nights where she sat on a roof to hear a conversation and got distracted by the light of the moon, she remembered those at the Little Palace when se seated next to a window and watched the big bright one being mirrored by the lake, or when she saw Nina at the White Rose with her second-hand red kefta she thought about Fedyor and his contagious laugh, his bad jokes and sweet smiles. When she saw two idiots fighting outside a club she couldn't help but think about Mal. And of course, those days when the sun was seen in the Ketterdam sky, she thought about Alina. And just like that her eyes will get rainy and her throat dry, just like that she came back to be Yelena Starkov, the girl without a true north and far from home.

But today wasn't like those nights.

Mila had been tailored by Nina earlier, her eyes were a disgusting obsidian black that were shinning with the light of the lamps in the streets while they cross the Zentsbridge, her face had also been modify to hide the black under her eyes and sharp edges, her cheekbones were less bone and more rosy.