Being on your own was not the perfect life teenagers always wanted. Beeing an 18 years old boy and on your own could actually be very hard. Kenny had learned it the hard way, and not by simply hearing someone talk about it or seeing it on TV. After his father died, it had been (he hated to admit) easier for the rest of he family to live. The rest of the family consisted from him and his mother, the others being dead. A few months later, she died too, leaving Kenny the house and a bunch of bitter memories. Luckly, after he finished highschool, he found a job as a waiter in a cafeteria. The money was far from enough, but at least he could buy himself things that helped him survive untill the next month.
Now,it was 10 p.m. and he was heading,more like crawling, to the cottage he called home. If it had a bed where he could crash, it was okay with him. The wind was blowing, making the cold, humid weather even more horible than it already was. He could barely feel his frozen fingers,but he was too tired to care. Under the soft locks of blonde hair,his greenish eyes got darker everytime he blinked. So tired. Still,he took out of his pocket a lighter and lit the smoke that was already hanging from his lips. It never calmed him, it was more like a habit he couldn't get rid of. Not that he wanted.
His irregular steps made little noise on the empty street. As the clouds gathered on the sky,covering the moon, it got harder for the street-lamps to light his way. It was only 200 more meters and he was home. After a soft sigh, he took the remaining of the cigarette and threw it away, ready to take another one, when a rustle in the bushes nearby made him stop. From his experience, he knew that curiousity was a bad thing and he always got killed when he got curious. But he couldn't help it. Maybe,if his boss wasn't such an asshole, he would've not care if he got killed,he came back every time. But missing even a day of work meant no job and no job meant no food. And hunger was the only thing he truly hated with his very being, so he was not going to die. So he took his hands out of his pockets and took a few steps back.
The noise was heared again and his body stiffened. He was ready to defend himself. He knew it because he could hear his heart pumping faster and faster. Suddenly,someone rolled from the bush and, faster than Kenny thought it was humanly possible, grabbed him by the orange coat and pinned him to the street-lamp.
"W'o are you? W'o sent you? Answer to me !" he asked in a low,but harsh voice, shaking Kenny a bit.
Astonished,Kenny looked at his attacker and recognized him: Christopher DeL..something, better known as 'Ze Mole'. Flashes or their first encounter ran fast through his mind, then were gone. The fire in his black eyes amazed him,the rage,the hatred and yet the intelligence they radiated. The wind blew,ruffling the dark-brown locks of the French, reminding Kenny that the Earth was still spinning and answered.
"Right now,my body is sending me home where I want to eat,take a shower and you mind letting me down now? You stopped my circulation."
Christophe losened the grip,but didn't let him go,watching the blonde tried to smile,in order to make the mercenary trust him or something,but he only managed a was far too tired for more 'mr-nice-guy'.
"Look asshole,you can't even imagine how tired I am ,if you want to kill me cuz I disturbed you from whatever fucking shit you were doing,go ahead,do it, but, if I lose my job, I will come back,hunt you down and kill you in the most painful way. Believe me,I have a lot more experience than anyone on this goddamned planet! Now fuck off!"
The mole blinked once. And then he blinked again. It was his turn to be amazed. The before-almost dead eyes were now shining with a whirlwind of one got the nerve to speak to him like that and get away with it. The most amazing thing in the whole situation was that it amused him and he never was never amused. This was really bizarre. Slowly,he let the blonde go and stepped back.
"Pardonne-moi zen. I am ze Mole." he said after clearing his throat. Almost imediatelly,he took a cigarette,lit it and put it in his mouth. It was when Kenny noticed the brunette's cut lip and the blood mixed with dirt smell coming from him.
",are you okay? You're bleeding."
"No need zo worry.I will be alright." Bending to pick his shovel,he fell to his knees and moaned in pain. Knowing that the Mole was indestructible,Kenny got worried and helped him get up.
"C'mon,I'll get you to my house.I live nearby."
Getting no answer,he looked at him and saw that he had his eyes closed. Helping himself with the shovel,Kenny somehow managed to carry the boy to his bed,get his boots off,his coat,clean his face and hands and crash next to him,unconscious.
The next morning,he woke up alone.
Wondering if it had all been a dream, Kenny got up and rubbed his clock on the nightstand showed 6:23 a.m and he sighed in had 2 more hours before he had to go to work. He fell back into the mattres and took a deep breath. Then,it hit him: a faint smell of dirt mixed with blood was lingering on the covers. It had not been a dream,the Mole had been here.
Suddenly,a loud thump came from the bathroom and Kenny ran to it. The image in his face made his heart sink: pale and shirtless,Christophe sat in the empty bath tub,trying to stitch a long,deep wound stretching from his shoulder blade to his stomach. Without noticing the blonde,the mercenary went on with his work,clenching his teeth everytime the niddle broke the hurried next to him.
"You have to lay down and relax.I'll finish this for you."
Doing as told,Christophe looked at Kenny with a strange look that he couldn't label,it was some kind of mix between hostility and hate and confusion. Focusing his attention to the cleaned and disinfected wound,the blonde continued stitching.
"Do you want to talk about this? How did you manage to do it?"
The silence that followed lasted until Kenny applied the last bandage and it didn't stopped after that either.
"You are not too much of a talker,are you?" asked the blonde."If you're lucky and it doesn't get infected,it will be healed in a few weeks and you'll have a new scar.C'mon,I'll help you to the kitchen and we'll see if there's anything to eat."
The Mole took another cigarette,lit it and got up,following the blonde. He didn't trust the orange wearing teen,but also,he didn't understand why was he so good with him. It was curiousity that didn't let him leave when he got up;and the bad wound that hurt like this,he went through worse and didn't die. He shook his head to make these thoughts go. He had more important things to think about now,like finding something to eat. He had to make sure that the blonde didn't poison his whatever-was-it that made his meal,so he watched him carefully as he poured some cereals in two bowls and then poured the milk. When he was handed the bowl,he smelled the contents. He could tell if the food was poisoned by smell,he knew more than one hundred different types of poison and toxic substances, but this was clear and the noise made by his stomach encouraged him to eat, silently munching on the cereals,he thought about how bad his last mission went. Usually, he didn't make mistakes like those.
*FLASHBACK*
As he approached the guard,his heart beat remained steady and remained steady after he cut his neck and blood spilled on the floor. He dragged the guard from the way and continued his path. Man after man,the guards fell like they were puppets."Worthless'' whispered the mercenary. They never knew anything about their superiors, they were doing their jobs without question,hungry for money. He wasn't like this,he accepted only what he wanted to and took exactly how much money he wanted. He was independent and didn't care about anything or anyone,except his life. He wanted to live with a passion hard to explain. He couldn't explain it to himself:why would a person want to live if he had nothing to live for?A mistery he didn't want to again,he was curious.
One more guard and he was done. But this one was had turned and looked at him just before he cut his neck. The Mole saw something different in his eyes, as if he was happy that he got killed. He usually saw fear,sorrow or anger,and it didn't impress him,he had far too much experience and he couldn't afford any kind of mistake. He had to reach his goal:kill everything that moves,set the bomb and get away fast. The reason:this would end an old fight between two big gangsta bosses. Not a big deal.
*END FLASHBACK*
Christophe didn't see the guard approaching with a sharp mini axe,because he was setting the bomb. The hit left him puzzled,he heard the blood dropping on the floor and after that, he felt the pain. He shot the attacker in the head and left. The blurry vision didn't help him at all, but he made it to the tunnel he had dug with his allways present shovel and, on the other side,his Harley was waiting for him. The Mole got on it and minutes later,the building exploded,but he was too far away to see it. He just heard it. Not paying attention to the road,he got to South Park by accident and he was looking for a place to sleep when Kenny heared him. And that was all :he needed to avoid making mistakes like that. Setting this as a reminder,he finally looked around:the kitchen was old,but clean and it didn't have too much furniture. On a wall,a cardboard was half ripped and was written on it:Viva la resistance.He raised an eyebrow and looked at the blonde. He looked back and followed the other's look. Seeing the sign,he smiled a little,then looked somewhere else.
"You must remember, it was the time when we worked together."
"W'at I zo no understand iz why you kept eet."Christophe corrected.
"Because it was one of the...no,it was..uh..I...I guess I like to keep things that remind me of past." Kenny explained unsecurely.
After a while,Christophe continued "Past iz something that needz to stay in ze past."
He left the bowl on the table and took another smoke."Thank you for your help. I zo not understand why you helped me,I owe you.I will leave now."and he made his way to the bedroom.
Kenny blinked,smiled and murmured for himself 'no problem'.Right after that,he went to work. When he came back at evening,The Mole was gone like he's never really been there.
Then ,his life came back to normal. Day after day ,everything was going on ,over and over. Waking up at seven in the morning, going to work, working all day long and coming back home where he could finally crash and sleep. Every day resembled the other almost perfectly, making the blonde feel like he was caught in a time circle and that he was doomed to live forever doing the same things thoughts made Kenny shiver. Heck, even two years seemed an eternity! The eternity itself would surely drive him insane. His plan was to work for two years, make enough money and move on, to college. He wanted to be someone and have a decent job and a decent life. He had sworn never to surrender his dreams and he was ready to fight down everything or everyone that had the guts to stay in his way!
These were his thoughts while he was washing the dishes at "Cheloo's". It was 9:30 p.m and his shift was almost over. It was Friday and the last customer had left two hours ago. Maybe he could finally get home earlier and get some more rest. He sighed satisfied and began to whistle, but stopped abruptly, with a frown stuck on his face as he heared the door-bell. This meant that someone entered the small cafeteria. He undid his apron, rinsed his hands and went to see who it was. Oddly, there was no one.'Maybe they went to the bathroom' Kenny thought.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" he asked loudly, his voice raising a small echo as it hit the walls. Getting no reply, he shrugged and got back to cleaning the dishes. If the kids were going to set pranks on him again ,he had a bat and he was not afraid to use it. He didn't like kids anyway. After the last plate was rinsed and put back to it's place ,the orange-wearing teen checked the bathroom to see if there was anyone. Then ,he switched off the lights, locked the door and left.
Thinking about random stuff, he walked home, ocasionally kicking pebbles and humming a song that he heared at the radio. It was a new hit and the guys at the radio felt the need to play it over one hundred times a day. He rolled his eyes and kept humming. He didn't like it, but it was stuck in his mind and it amused him.
"It's actually interesting how all the things you like almost run away from you and the ones you don't like suffocate you" he stated loudly."It's the same with people. Just when you need them ,they are nowhere to be found. Assholes." Just then, a deep voice came from nearby, scaring the shit out of him:
"Eez eet normal speaking to yourself?"
After Kenny's heart beat came back to normal, his brain also re-started functioning and he recognized the unmistakeable French accent of the Mole. He regained his composture and tried to sound as calm as possible. It was the French's number one ability: to scare him.
"And is it normal stalking people?".Pause."Cristophe?" his attempt to sound pissed failed miserably, but at least he tried. And he was proud of it .The Mole appeared from his left, where he was hidden. For what reason? Unknown to Kenny.
"I will castrate you if you call me by my name one more time. It eez worse than a fucking pet name."He lit a cigarette and continued calmly: "I needz a place to stay for the night."
The blonde looked at the French and cracked up laughing. He couldn't belive his ears.
"I can't belive you! You...you threaten me that you will cut the most precious part of my body then you ask for housing? Unbelievable!" As the blonde laughed incontrolably, the mercenary smoked, inhaling deeply. Then, with a calm voice, he said to the amused teen:
"I could've killed you and uze ze house everytime I needed. I chose to let you live. Eet eez your choice."
"I can call the police ,you know. I can bring you trouble. "
"You can try .I don't mind."He sounded so calm it scared Kenny. The blonde stopped, looked at the dirty guy standing next to him and shook his head. The French really knew how to make friends.
"Ok. "he said, then continued walking home, hands in his pockets. The other followed, smoking calmly and listening absently at Kenny's humming.
Kicking his shoes somewhere in a corner, Kenny imediatelly made his way to the kitchen and re-heated some left-overs, making sure he doubled the usual quantity. Then he took two beer cans from the fridge and placed them on the kitchen table. Entering his bedroom ,he noticed the mercenary's shovel by the bed, some rope thrown carelessly on the floor and the before-said mercenary by the window ,with a smoke hanging from his lips .The blonde rolled his eyes and said:
"Come and eat. I don't care if you're not hungry, you will eat."
The demanding tone of his voice made Christophe smirk. The blonde really didn't know anything about him,but he liked that he had the guts to act like that around him. Any other person had their head turned around already, but Kenny amused the Mole. And no one amused the Mole.
Sitting at the kitchen table, across from the blonde, Cristophe ate in a comfortable silence. And, incredibly, he liked what he ate, though he didn't know what it was. Something, with chicken and potatoes and... was that grass? He held it up with his fork and raised a brow questiongly. Kenny looked at him and grinned.
"Chill man, it's not poisoned. It's a recipe I invented and that, the thing you're holding, is the secret ingredient to the perfect taste. I can't tell you what is it, but I can assure you that it's eatable."
The rest of the meal went in silence, the only exception being the time when Kenny asked for a cigarette. It was not like this because they didn't have anything to talk about, but it was because none of them wanted to. Cristophe knew that, if he made friends, his enemies would eventually find out and try to use them to get to him. On the other hand, Kenny liked the silence. It was comfortable and not at all awkward.
While cleaning the kitchen, he said to the French guy smoking by the table:
"Tonight you can sleep in my bed. I have some movies I want to watch anyway. There is beer in the fridge and,oh, next time, bring a sleeping bag or a matters."
After inhaling deeply from his smoke, the Mole looked at Kenny and said, in a cool but slightly irritated way: "W'y do you like to be zo much like a woman? I can sleep on ze couch or right 'ere on the floor. It doezn't matter, az long az I sleep in a building."
Kenny looked back at him and shrugged "Do as you like, Cristophe."
"I told you not zo..." the Mole started, but stopped, as a frown darkened his features. He heared a noise from outside and it alerted him. Sometimes he was being paranoid, but now, someone was outside. Seeing the sudden change in the Mole's attitude, Kenny remained silent and smiled when he realised what had alerted the dark haired guy: it was a rustle from outside. Beeing very aware that the mercenary could get a grenade out of nowhere and blow up a half of his house, the blonde smiled again and went to open the door and he could feel the other tense up, ready to jump and kill if it was the case. Instead of evil ninja or crazy hunters, a gray cat entered the house. Kenny bent down and picked it and started to rub It's ears. The cat purred, relaxing in the blonde's arms. The only noise one could hear was the purr and a fly buzzing around. It was a total silence, a comfortable one.
"I'm going to sleep. " Kenny said yawning. " There is beer in the fridge. Serve yourself."
Walking to the bedroom with the cat in his hands, the blonde yawned again. He was so tired. Just before closing the door behind him, he remembered something and an evil grin split his face. Slowly ,he placed the sleeping cat on the bed and, on his tiptoes, he walked back to the kitchen. Sneaking a peek at the brunette, he saw him quietly sipping from a can of beer, exactly in the same place Kenny had left him. Grinning again, he walked behind him, not making a noise, with his heart beating in anticipation. But just before scaring the shit out of the French, he said:
"If you are willing zo scare me, you failed. Miserably." another sip." I heared you from ze moment you entered ze room."
If he would've turned and see Kenny 's face, maybe, just maybe, Christophe would've laughed. It was a funny sight in deed: his mouth was hanging and he was blinking fast. Kenny would've never admit it, but the Mole had scared him. Recovering, he murmured some kind of a 'show-off' and left to sleep, without seeing the smirk on the French's face. He really amused him.
5
