[In the Tower of Babilim, you must always look pristine]

" I want to wedge a complaint !" the young man, clad in full argent armor reached my desk in full strides and pounded his fist on the hard wood while holding my gaze in a determined manner.

It really had been too calm in the - not even 15 mins?- since my shift at the tower's reception had started.

One of them, always had to ruin my morning coffee, right ?

Putting down the congratulary mug I had gotten from those pricks higher ups last year (instead of a rightful bonus), I put on my best business smile, hitched up my glasses on my nose and faced the champion that I knew all but too well.

"What can I do for you today, Nigel?"

The man was fuming and barely standing still.

"They did it again Sheiah ! Look !" He then proceeded to pinch the end of his burned hair to better show me the damage.

I raised an eyebrow, not really comprehending.

I sent him an exasperated look that might have conveyed all the interest I had in his particular dilemma; which was none.

" A dragon ! They let loose another dragon on the lower floors !" He all but roared and gesticulated in all direction, arms trying to mimic the size of said monster.

I braced myself for the rambling that was about to come.

"A DRAGON ! Can you believe it ? On the 15th floor ! Have they gone mad ?! We cleared that level thousand of years ago! Why do they suddenly feel the need to add - oh let me see- a pretty little DRAGON , while they know we are this close -this close- to cracking the 56th floor ?! Can't they give us time to breath ?! I had to go down in hurry to subjugate it and abandon the 56th floor raid !" He banged his fist on the wood again and raised his glare to the ceiling, seemingly aiming it at something above.

"I swear it must be that four-eyed miscreant on the Quest Designing Committee again ! He's had it in for me ever since I destroyed his golems 3000 years ago and he keeps getting in my way !"

Nigels' rantings went on and on, from many assumed grudges against him to full fledged conspiracy theories until I could do nothing but tune him out.

He looked funny jumping up and down from frustration in his full-on heavy warrior suit. Like a little kid complaining about bullies to his mom…

Wait .Did that make me the mom in this scenario?

I was too young for that type of torture...

Ah. My coffee was getting colder by the minutes.

My hand went for the mug and I took a sip of the dark fluid of life.

".....but you survived right ?" I whispered unconsciously while nursing my drink.

Silence.

Oups. Wrong move.

" Does this look like surviving to you ? Does it ?! Apologize to my hair right now ! " He pushed the end of his burned hair right in my face, some strands even dipping in my coffee. I made a disgusted face and removed the loose strands from my cup and glared back.

"Can't you cut it ? It can't be that practical when you fight. "

Nigel, the silver-haired warrior looked downright scandalized.

"Hair is an Elf's love and pride ! How dare you suggest I cut my most distinctive Elfik feature - "

" ...I assure you your pointy ears are proof enough." I deadpanned.

" - just because some dangeloïdi dragon wishes to play burning man ?"

Huh ? Dangeloïdi ?...writing that one down.

" So..." I paused for good measure. " The problem here....is the hair ?"

" OF COURSE IT'S THE HAIR ! Have you been listening at all ?"

" Well you could have been planning to bomb the Quest Designing Committee for all I know !" I grumbled back.

" I wouldn't have bombed it ! " he argued then fell silent. "....poisonous lotus traps however..." he pondered, seriously mulling it over.

I drowned out his nonsense again and fetched a blank formular from my drawer to start filling out basic necessary informations related to this case.

" So what do you want written in that complaint of yours ?"

" I want compensation !"

I began writing.

" Ok...Compensation. For ....your hair ?" I asked unsure, looking up from the paper.

" Yes, for my precious locks that have been ruined by their damn dragon ! That thing has no place on lower levels anyway!"

"....and not for any other material destruction that the dragon might have caused ?"

" Who cares about that ?" he shrugged. "The dwarfs will have a fields day pricing the reperations to floor 15th's inhabitants. If I cut their profit by asking for free repairs, they will have my head on a silver platter... you know, to go with my hair. " he added with a smirk, probably proud of his joke.

I didn't even acknowledge at his poor excuse of humor.

" Ah, and I request they pay me back in Veneer shampoo. write that well. V-E-N-E-E-R shampoo, like that. Don't get the spelling wrong."

What a pain in the as*, that elf was.

"....why shampoo ? You could ask for coins and buy the shampoo yourself, no ?"

He rolled his eyes far enough to peak at his brain.

"Of course, I wouldn't expect someone like you to know."

What did the jerk mean by that ?

"…but this fabulous hair of mine requires utmost care, otherwise it wouldn't be as shiny and luscious as it is now." He flicked his hair behind his back for good measure and I had to restrain myself from grabbing it and strangling him with it.

Nope, definitely not jealous of his hair.

Not at all. Don't know what you're talking about.

"This Veneer shampoo is custom made for Elfik hair and you have to specifically order it from out the tower. It takes days to come, even on a special delivery, the wait is two weeks minimum ! My stock isn't going to last me enough after I repair this burned ends with at least two bottles of the concoction!" he ranted. "But if the order comes from the tower, it will be delivered in less than a day !"

I put my shin on my hand and stared at him in boredom.

"You know for a bloodthirsty warrior; you worry an awful lot about your appearance." I pointed out.

He huffed.

"What can I say? I have to look my best to kick monsters' bottoms."

"You can say ass you know…"

He let out a gasp as if I had deeply insulted his virtue.

"That would be undignified for someone of my stature!"

Yeah right, like plotting murder and yelling someone's ears off on a fine morning to get shampoo isn't undignified enough already?

"Are all elfs like you, Nigel?"

He looked smug.

"You mean as beautiful as me?"

I glared back.

"No, I mean as vain and dimwitted" I remarked snidely. "I know for a fact that you nearly died last month because you couldn't resolve yourself to fight a slimy sludge villain during the last raid. Nearly got all your party killed for that, too." I snickered.

"Who conspiracies against me by propagating such slanders? It wasn't that I couldn't fight it, it was too weak for me to lower myself and combat it! "He defended himself. "And how do you even know about that?

"News travel fast."

"You live on the dirt floor." he eyed the deserted lobby with contempt. "No one comes down here, and you have no tower employee friends to gossip with."

"You would be surprised to know how many of your kind come down every day to shatter my ears off and file absurd and idiotic complaints against the tower like oh, this one right here." I said, agitating his complaint file in front of his face for good measure.

"Whatever." He grumbled." Send my complaint to the higher-ups and tell them I won't stop coming down here to file new ones until they compensate me in Veneer shampoo. I am serious."

"Yeah, yeah right. I'm sure this paper will be ranked high priority on their agenda, Mister Hair Model."

"At least mine doesn't perpetually look like a rat has taken up residence in it."

My hand immediately went to the back of my head in an effort to tame the curls.

"Shut it. I just woke up and it looks decent." I glared.

"If that helps you sleep at night."

"Screw you." I flipped him off.

"You wish."

He turned around and strutted back to the apparition circle in the middle of the lobby, a sway in his steps that made it impossible for my eyes not to follow the movement.

"Eyes up here." He looked back over his shoulder, an unsufferable smirk on his lips and eyebrows raised in a suggestive way.

And as the circle activated, the elf warrior nearly dodged a mug that shattered on the floor after his disappearance and spilled black liquid all over the floor.

Shit.

That was my only mug.