September 19, 2014
8:08 PM
Antonio entered the café. Except, he looked a little different. Using Francis's amazing disguising skills, Antonio's hair was now slicked back, wore blue contacts, and had glasses on. He set up himself in the farthest corner of the café, next to the window. He sat down and immediately turned on his laptop.
"Welcome to Cafe Famiglia. How may I help you today?" asked an irritable voice. Antonio looked up and saw a man with brown hair and a strange curl sticking out. He wore a waiter's outfit, although he seemed to want to take it off. His green-brown eyes bore into Antonio's now-blue ones. "Are you going to order something or what?" he asked again.
"Oh, uh. I'd like a coffee, please," Antonio answered back.
"Okay," the waiter quickly scribbled the order on a notepad. "Anything else?"
"That's it, uh..." Antonio looked at the man, who started to turn red, "What's your name?"
"It's Lovino, you bastard," the man added harshly.
"Oh, okay." Antonio gave Lovino a warm smile. "That would be all, Lovi!"
Lovino turned red. "H-Hey, d-don't call me that! You bastard..." He started muttering curses in what Antonio assumed to be Italian and he walked away.
Wow, he looked so cute, Antonio thought, he was as red as a tomato! The bell to the doors rang. Antonio looked up from his laptop once more and saw a woman walk through the door. The woman had brown hair tied in a French bun, and she wore a beautiful dress and a white fur coat placed over it. Her indigo eyes met Antonio's now-blue ones. The woman winked at him, and Antonio had to stifle his laugh. The woman caught Antonio's chuckle and glared at him. After Antonio calmed down, he went back to his laptop. Man, Antonio thought, Francis can really pull off being a girl!
Francis walked up to the counter to order his snack, and at the same time try to seduce the man on the counter. Putting on a sweet look on his face, he walked up to the cashier man. Francis made a very convincing woman, so he caught the man's eyes immediately.
"Hello there, my good sir," Francis muttered, trying his best to imitate a woman's voice. He did it perfectly, as usual. "I'd like to buy one cappuccino and a croissant, please." He batted his eyes at the man. The man blushed and punched in his order on the machine.
"Will that be all, miss?" the man asked dreamily. Francis nodded his head and smiled. "Oh, okay. That would be $5.67." Francis turned around and drew out his wallet from his bag. He noticed the man check him out as he did so. Just as I planned, Francis thought. When Francis turned back to the man, he noticed some flyers on the counter. It read, 'White House Masquerade.' He smirked and took several, placing it in his bag for later.
"So, uh, I take it you're new in town? I've never seen a woman as beautiful as you before," the man teased. "My name's Romulus, and I'm the owner of this café. What's you're name?"
"My name is Francine," Francis replied. "And yes, I did just move here. I'm from France, actually."
"France, eh? I'm European myself! I was born and raised in Rome." Romulus winked at Francis.
"I see. That's why you have such an Italian charm." Francis smiled at Romulus, and the man rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. The people behind him that had formed a line were yelling at Francis for holding the line. "I guess I got to go, Romulus. Why don't you come over by my table and we can have a proper chat. Just you and me." Francis placed his hand on top of Romulus. With one last glance, he walked back to a table next to Antonio. Antonio was giggling like a mad man.
When Francis reached the corner Antonio was at, he sat behind him. He grabbed onto Antonio's neck tie and dragged him under the table when no one was looking. Antonio pretty much lost it. "Dios mio, you sounded like a girl! And you acted like one, too!" he laughed uncontrollably. Francis shushed him.
"Keep it down!" Francis warned. "You're going to attract attention. Anyway, any news about the cameras or Gilbert?" The two of them fixed themselves back up, and Antonio looked into his computer.
"Well, there are security cameras all over the place, but it's nothing I can't hack into. I'm actually doing that as we speak." Antonio tapped on his keyboard as Francis stared in confusion. He never fully understood how this bumbling idiot could've become a high-class hacker. He presented his laptop to Francis and showed him his progress.
Francis stared at it, dumbfounded. "Of the years we've been together, I still can't believe you're smarter than both Gilbert and I combined," he stated plainly.
"... Eh?" Francis face-palmed. "Oh, and about Gilbert, he's coming in as soon as you come back down from the man's room. He has the equipment needed for the distraction. And, if we're lucky and quick enough, we could take some money from the cashier, too. So, it's all up to you to get the code. And here, where these as soon as you get upstairs. Good luck!" Antonio gave Francis an earpiece and a thumbs up before Francis left to another table across the room.
Francis sat at a table next to window. When he noticed Romulus coming towards him, he turned away and looked through the window dreamily. "Ciao, belle~" Romulus said as he sat across from Francis. He placed a tray of cappuccino, croissant, and gelato.
"I don't mean to be harsh, but I don't remember ordering gelato," Francis said to Romulus. The man only smiled.
"It's on the house!" he shouted cheerfully. "So, what does a French girl like you want in America, eh?" The two started to eat the gelato, and they each eat half of the croissant. Francis had to admit, they were both really good.
"I just wanted to get out of Europe and experience life here as an American. How about you? How long have you been in America?" Romulus leaned back on his chair and stared dreamily into space.
"Honestly, it wasn't my idea to leave Italy. My eldest grandson wanted out of Rome as soon as possible. He convinced me that America would be a good place to stay. We've been living here for about..." Romulus thought for a while, "five years? Yeah, we've been ling here for five years."
Francis knew his intention was to get the code to the safe, but he was interested as to why Romulus' grandson wanted to leave Italy so hastily. "Why did your grandson want to leave Rome?"
"I have an idea... but it's a pretty personal opinion between us at the Vargas family. We just don't talk about it anymore. So, we found a nice little building here in New York, made the first floor a café and the second floor our rooms."
"Hm." Francis had to admit, he was a little dissatisfied with Romulus' answer. "Anyway, this food is great! You must make a lot of money from your job here at the café."
"Ah, indeed! But I don't trust the bankers here in America. Call me selfish, but I'd like to hold onto my money." Francis chuckled.
"How do you keep so much money in one place? Isn't it dangerous?"
"I don't leave all of my money here. I have just about a couple hundred in a safe I have in my room, and the rest I give to a bank that I trust. I don't usually touch the money in the safe, since it's for emergencies only."
"I see. I take it you have a very special code to your safe?"
"Well, the code to my safe is a very special date, the day my grandsons and I left for America." Francis laughed at how easy it was to get the code out of Romulus. He guessed that Romulus would never think that a beautiful woman like 'Francine' would break into his precious safe. Or into the cash register.
"Anyway, I need to go and pamper myself at the restroom. Thank you for the wonderful food, Romulus." Francis stood up. As if on cue, Antonio packed up his things into a briefcase and made his way to the only restroom in the café. Romulus noticed Antonio just as planned.
"It seems that the restroom is taken. Please, take the one upstairs, just go through the door to the right and the restroom should be on the left." Francis nodded and continued his way to the room upstairs. He inwardly chuckled at how gullible Romulus was and how the plan fell perfectly in place.
As soon as Francis was upstairs, he put on the earpiece Antonio gave to him earlier. "Hello?" Francis whispered into the earrings. There was a sound of static at first, but then someone responded.
"Franny? Are you upstairs?" the familiar voice of Antonio came from the earpiece.
"Duh, that's why I'm talking to you, remember?" Francis face-palmed.
"Sorry, I just forgot. Anyway, figure out the code to the safe yet?" Antonio asked.
"I didn't get the exact code, but I have enough information for you to find it." Francis replied. "Find the date when Romulus Vargas left Italy for America."
"Alright then, Franny." Francis could here typing coming from the other end of the call. "Found it! It was on the 21st of August, 2009."
"Merci, Toni." Francis crouched in front a painting. He removed the painting off the wall, revealing the tiny safe which was built into the room's wall. He punched in the numbers 21, 8, and 09 in different orders on the keypad until the safe finally opened. As Romulus had said, there was about a couple hundred dollars inside the safe. Francis reached to the very back of the safe and swept all the cash into his bag. Now that the safe was empty, he left a little something inside it for later. He stood up, placed back the painting, and noticed a security camera at the corner near the safe. He waved to the camera and lifted up the bag full of money.
Antonio smiled as he watched Francis raise the bag in victory. He had left the cafe's restroom when he was sure Francis was already upstairs. Yet another successful robbery, he thought.
"Excuse me." Antonio turned to the familiar voice and saw the waiter staring down at him. Antonio nearly jumped from his seat at the sight of the man. "What the hell are you doing?" Lovino asked. Antonio's quick reflex saved him as he quickly closed down the tab where he was watching Francis from.
"Um, I was doing my work," was Antonio's only reply. Lovino looked at him skeptically.
"It didn't seem like work. What do you do anyway?" he asked.
"I program websites and I do some coding." Antonio technically didn't lie. Except, by 'program' and 'coding,' he really meant hacking.
"Sounds boring." Lovino shot back.
"It's pretty fun once you get used to it." Antonio smiled at Lovino. The younger man blushed.
"Whatever. Here's your coffee, you bastard." Lovino placed down the coffee he was holding and walked away.
As Antonio watched the Italian man walk away, Francis came back down the stairs. He grinned at Antonio, and Antonio grinned back. Then, Romulus came up to Francis and the two began chatting. As soon as Romulus left Francis alone, Francis walked up to Antonio. Antonio kicked a bag towards him, and Francis picked it up. Francis then threw his bag filled with money to Antonio. Francis walked calmly to the restroom to change. There was no way he was going to run away from a robbery in heals.
Now it was time for a distraction from Gilbert. He leaned toward the window he was sitting next to. Leaning against the window on the other side was a man with black hair and brown eyes. Antonio knocked on the glass in a pattern, and the man looked down at him. Antonio gave him a thumbs up, and the man smirked. The man walked into the café and slowly, and intimidatingly, made his way to the register. The young man at the counter started to freak out as the man came closer and closer to the counter.
The man looked at the poor Italian at the cash register. He grinned. "Boo."
And the lights went out.
The man, who was actually Gilbert in disguise, ducked behind the counter and pushed the young cashier man out of the way. With a push of a button on the cash register, it opened revealing some money. Gilbert quickly stuffed as much money as he can into his bag and stood up. At this point, the emergency generator kicked in and the lights were all back on. The people at the café gasped in surprise as Gilbert took off his wig, revealing his messy white hair.
"It's him!"
"It's Gilbert Beilschmidt!"
"We're being robbed!"
"That's the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt to you, oh lowly one!" Gilbert gloated. "Let's go, guys, before the cops show up." Francis emerged from the bathroom, dressed normally and makeup all washed away. Antonio also stood from his seat. He messed up his hair, took off his annoying contacts and glasses, and stood next to Gilbert.
"Hold on a second!" Romulus came to the entrance of the café. "I'm not letting you go anywhere!" With one glance from his friends, Gilbert smirked before throwing down a smoke pellet on the floor.
The doors to the café busted open, allowing the three men to escape into the darkness of the night.
A/N: Okay, I cheated a bit in my chapter system. I haven't finished Chapter 4 yet, but I'm at 1,000 words already so I might as well post this now. I got so far ahead into that chapter, but my computer screwed up and lost about half of it. That brought me down, but it wasn't enough to stop me! Then again, writing the entire best part in Chapter 4 from scratch was painstakingly hard, considering it was really good (in my opinion) in the first place.
I've recently been addicted to Game Dev Tycoon, finishing the game in 2 days. The thing's addictive, and brought me to a halt in writing this stuff. But I'm taking advantage of this time to post this for you guys.
Speaking of which, you guys are the best ;-; 4 reviews, 5 favs, and 8 follows?! Damn, I'm very happy. Thanks you guys! You're the best :3 I've had this plot in my head for a while, even making a series out of it! The fact that you guys are reviewing/favoriting/following makes me smile :D
Question for this Chappie: What could the Vargas family be hiding? Find out in future chapters (maybe)!
I'd really appreciate it if you review my story! It encourages me to get off of my lazy ass and start writing these things. I also like reading your opinions on how I could make this better!
See you next chapter~
-Purple