Safekeeping - Prologue

Vash tapped his fingers impatiently on his desk. They were late! They should have been here by now.

He waited, watching the clock's hands tick by. Where were they? It had already been five minutes since they were supposed to be here.

He shot up out of his chair as the door burst open, looking a bit frightened before he realized it was just the people he had been waiting for. "A-Ah. You're finally here." He stammered a bit over his first words, sitting down and smoothing down the side of his hair. His hand fell away from his belt, where he always kept a small gun.

"Welcome," He slid a piece of paper over to the other side of the desk. "S-Sign here. You'll be paid greatly, ten thousand per week. J…Just keep her safe, please…"

Last week, a man had broken into the castle and nearly gotten to his sister's room before he gunned him down. His sister had seen the man's body, bloody and full of holes. She was scared for her life.

"Yes, sir. We can take good care of her!" A blonde man with glasses smiled at Vash. "I'm Alfred F. Jones, leader and hero of this party!"

"You're not the bloody leader, I am." A man with bushy eyebrows pushed him aside. "I'm Arthur Kirkland. I'm the leader of this party. Excuse him, he's not very professional off the job. He's a rookie." He sighed slowly, shooting a glare at Alfred. "I can't believe I got assigned to work with you…" He paused, regaining his train of thought. "Anyway, this is Alfred." He pointed to Alfred, then to himself. "I'm Arthur, and this is Yao, Ivan, Francis, and…" He hesitated. "…Matthew….? Anyways, we're going to try our hardest to protect your sister."

A short blonde off to the side nodded. "I'm Matthew." But everyone ignored him.

"Thank you, thank you so much." The advisor, Vash, stood up. "I'll be gone on business trips, but please have Lily contact me once per day… If I don't pick up, call again later, and-"

"Yeah, we got it bro. Don't stress yourself!" Alfred laughed. "You already left us a list of what we gotta do." He held up a thick packet.

"Y-Yes, of course…" He nodded. "I'll be off then, I must catch my plane in two hours. She's in her room.." He grabbed the piece of paper that they had signed off the table, nodding as he found Arthur's signature at the bottom. "Th-Thank you, again…"

"Yes, hurry on now." Arthur urged him, giving an awkward smile. "We'll watch everything for you."