Denmark's POV
It was great seeing Al get the spotlight. Although I can't shake this feeling that this is something natural, something he should be doing. Daily really. Oh well. I bit into my bagel and smiled each time Al looked back at me. As things died down a bit, he sat back down.
"Wow! I feel so accomplished.."
"You should! You just saved a kid's life." I ate the rest of my bagel, and left a tip for Francis, as he always expected one. Although, his food wasn't really to my taste buds. The food my home region serves is more to my speed, or taste buds.
"Hey, weren't we talking about something earlier..?"
"Huh? Oh yeah. About.." What was it? I couldn't seem to recall. We kept pondering over what the subject could be. That is until Francis shooed us out for soliciting.
"But we bought food!"
"Oui, oui! But you are also wasting precious space for future customers. Plus, aren't you two busy? Talking about someone watching you?" He gave one last heave, before fully pushing us out the door. His last statement, however, caught me.
"Someone watching us.. The Chief!"
"Oh yeah!" Al agreed. Newly set with a goal, we continued to stroll along the streets. I held my hands in my pockets as we strutted along. I glanced at a few women passing by, blonds, brunettes, who smiled back. I guess we were both a bit loony for the ladies. Blushing to myself, I turned forward and looked down.
"Dude," Al began, resting his head on his arms. "We need to find us some women."
"I couldn't agree more."
The loneliness of being single had pretty much gotten to us. As we marched onward to our terrible workplace, I couldn't shake the thought of what the Chief did. Not only did he let us get away with screwing up a job he seemed intent on us completing, but also when Al noticed him staring, he must have had a reason why. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and with me being distracted, I ended up bumping into some passing ladies. We both fell to the ground.
"Ah!"
'Huh? Oh! I'm so sorry!' I apologized. At first, she looked irritated, but then she looked up, and stared at me, smiling.
"Haha.. It's fine.." she gestured with her hands, accepting my hand to help her up. I blushed a little when I got a closer look at her face, and we both just kept staring at each other in silence. Her straight brunette hair, and smooth skin made me melt. He lips looked soft, and at that moment I wanted to kiss her. The sound of Al cracking up, broke us from our trance, and I looked over to see him laughing with the friend of the girl I crashed into.
"Something funny?" I asked, fixing my composure.
"Yeah! This girl is HILARIOUS!" Al's smile slowed, followed by him thinking for a second, then coming to a realization. "Wanna' get some dinner later? Maybe we can joke around a bit more.." he elbowed her gently.
"That sounds fun," she giggled. Her blond hair shined in the mid-day light, as she took Al's phone and started typing in some numbers. I could see he was blushing, as he watched her in silence.
"Hey I have an Idea," the brunette added. "We could.. make it a double date.." She smiled at me.
"Oh.. uh.. yeah.. That sounds good." I rubbed my neck, and smiled.
"How about.. Felici's? I hear the foods good there." the blond added.
"Wait, wasn't that the place where that freaky guy ran out of?"
"Oh yeah.. Well there are other options."
"Felici's sounds great!" Al spoke out, smiling. "We'll meet you there. By the way, what are your names?"
"Oh, I'm Bella!" the blond one peeped. "My friend over here is Joyce."
"Well Bella and Joyce, we'll meet you outside of Felici's at say.. seven?"
"Sounds like a date.. oh wait it is one." joked the blond, poking Al in the stomach.
"I can't wait." The girls walked away in the other direction, waving.
"Dude! How lucky are we!" Al elbowed.
"Yeah.. Hey. Why did you pick Felici's? Didn't they just say that's where that guy we chased ran out of..?"
"Since we Francis reminded us, I couldn't seem to drop the thought of the Chief's odd behavior. So, we can kill two birds with one stone by going on a sweet date with some hot babes AND investigating this. I mean it has to do with that guy right?"
"Wow. I'm first off surprised that you know about that saying at all. Also, nice job. That was some quick thinking."
"Heh. It's what I do," Al smiled, pretending to fix an invisible tie up.
The work day soon ended, and as I finished up the last of my paperwork, putting the last case file in my 'Complete' box, I leaned back in my chair. Glancing at my watch, I realized it was 6:47. 6:47. Crap! I was late! Dashing out of my chair, I grabbed my coat and hurried downstairs, and out the door. What I was wearing wasn't appropriate, so I rushed to the parking lot, and into my car. Whurring up the engine, it started after a few tries, and I drove out of the parking lot, and into traffic. I banged my head on the wheel, crying to myself about how stupidly I acted. Letting myself get caught up in work for once. What's wrong with me!
"Gud dammit!" I exclaimed. I honked my horn a few times, then rolled down my window and started to yell. My patience was being heavily tested, as I slowly inched my way home. Once I finally made it there, I ran up the steps, unlocked my door, and retreated to my bedroom and into the wardrobe. I grabbed the nearest suit, jacket and tie, threw it on, and I was out.
"7:04. Shit." I hurried into my car, and drove off East towards Felici's. When I arrived, I fixed up my tie a little, and stepped out of the car, into mud.
"HVORFOR HAR DU HADER MIG GUD! HVORFOR?" I yelled to the sky.
"Excuse me?" I looked back down, and saw Joyce innocently watching me.
"Oh.. Sorry Joyce."
"It's fine," she smiled. "By the way, I never got your name."
"Really? Sorry I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Andersen. You can just call me Andy if you'd like." I smiled.
"Andy. Nice." She reached up, and fixed my tie up better. "You're late you know. We already have a table inside. Come on." She led me with her soft hands, into the building. We were welcomed by the sweet smell of spices and aromatic scents that whisked away form the kitchen and into our noses. We passed by tables of couples facing each other. One was leaning over the table, kissing, and it felt awkward to stare, so I looked away. She let go when we reached our circular table, near the end of the walkway. Al and Bella were sitting next to each other, staring at the same menu.
He looked up and smiled. "Hey dude! What took you so long?"
"Traffic."
"Ah. You see, you should just get a bike or something. It's a healthier choice."
"Yeah, ride in a suit worth 20,000 Halfs. What a great idea."
He shrugged, and went back to chatting with Bella. We sat down, and grabbed a menu. The options were in Italian, so I just judged off of the pictures.
"Ciao~" cheered a man. He had light-ish brown hair, and a curl that came out from his head that didn't look natural. He held up his pen and pad, ready to write down whatever we ordered.
"I'll have this seafood pasta thing," pointed Bella.
"The Spaghetti alle vongole? Sure thing!" He quickly scribbled a few words, then made a few stroke marks.
"Can I have-"
"One second~" He nodded after about 20 seconds, then looked back at Al.
"Okay.. Can I have this pizza? Two of them please. In your largest size."
"Got it." He began to scribble more on his paper.
"You don't seem to be holding back today. Why don't you try not to pig out for once?" I whispered.
"Fine.." he whispered back.
"Can you make that one pizza?"
"Oh, alright."
"Can I get uh.. this?" I pointed to this pasta dish.
"Gnocchi di ricotta. Good choice! Anything for you bella?" he smiled.
"Wait.. but I'm Bella.." The table went silent.
Joyce looked away from her friend, and blushed. "Well uh.. I'm not sure.."
"Then I'll just pick for you~ Trust me. Everything's good here!" He scribbled more on his paper, and stroked somethings down, then walked away towards the kitchen. We were all silent for a bit. I looked around the room, trying to avoid eye contact.
"So.. uh.." Al pulled out the napkin from the wrapped up silverware, and placed in on his lap. He fiddled around with it as he stammered in a futile attempt to start a conversation.
"What do you girls like?" I cut in. I hope I just saved us.
"Well.. I do like sweets. Quite a bit actually.." Joyce replied.
"Sweets are cool I guess. But I really prefer something I can grab. Something meaty.." Al and I looked at Bella, taking what she said waay out of context.
"You guys are gross. I mean something like a burger."
"Oh!.." we chuckled together, realizing how stupid we must've looked. We chatted some more. As our food arrived, one bite and we were in heaven.
"Wow.." was all I could mumble out. I didn't really want to speak anymore since I just wanted to savor the food. But there was one thing missing. "Waitor!" I called.
"Hmm?" he leaned back when he stopped in his tracks.
"Can I have a.. beer?"
"Sure!" he chirped. As he had done previously, he scribbled down some more words, and skipped away. Literally. He skipped away..
"Beer..? You never drink." Al spoke, dangling a pizza slice in his mouth.
"Huh? Oh, you're right. Weird. Are you sure?"
"Am I sure.. Dude. We eat together all the time. I should definitely now this." He shoved the piece in his mouth and continued minding his own business. I stared down at my plate, wondering. Haven't I always had alcohol.. Why do I have so many memories. Ugh.. Jesus, why does my head hurt so much..
"I-I gotta' go Al. Take the ladies home, could you.. Sorry.." I stammered away, holding my head. I stood up, and grabbed my wallet, throwing down who knows how many Halfs.
"You. Do you want your beer?" A guy similar looking to our waiter stood in front of me. He had a curl on the opposite side of his head, and almost emitted anger vibes.
"Uh.. no thanks." I pushed through and behind him, accidentally dropping the beer he held in his hand.
"YOU BASTARD! LOOK WHAT YOU DID! YOU MADE ME WASTE THIS! AGH! GET OUT!"
"Lovi! Calm down!" I looked behind me, and the angry guy who's name was apparently 'Lovi' came charging at me, waving his fist. I hurried out of the restaurant and down the street.
"Hvad fanden.." I muttered to myself. I saw little puffs of smoke appear each time as I breathed under a street light. I stopped when I turned the corner, and stood under one, still holding my head. My head hurt like hell, and all I could do was stand and think. Why does it feel like I always drink beer? Like it's been something I've been doing my whole life. Suddenly, pictures of strange men appeared in my head. Two I recognized, Lukas and Emil.. but who were the other 2 standing there? One looked burly and frightening, almost as scary as the chief but still wasn't at his level. The other seemed kinda sweet. Who were they.. Had I met them? What's going on..
"Hey! Watch it!" a man yelled, bumping into me while he passed by.
"Oh, sorry sir!" I might as well head home. I searched my pockets for my keys, but they were gone. Wait.
"HEY!" I turned around and ran after him. He noticed that I'd caught on, and started sprinting towards the parking lot. He'd probably already figured out where my car was. Shit. I ran, faster and faster. Soon I caught up with him, fumbling with the keys, trying to shove them in the lock. And Alfred said getting one of those older cars was stupid. Pfft. I ran up, and punched him square in the nose. He fell to the ground, gripping his face. I smirked.
"Trying to steal from me, hmm?"
"Rather," he began, pulling his hands away from his face, revealing no marks at all,"luring you. Bag him."
"Huh?" I wasn't nearly paying much attention to his features, but I had noticed an Asian ethnic like figure. He had some weird ponytail, and last I saw, was a devilish smirk, before some cloth was thrown over my mouth. The world went black.
When I awoke, I was tied to a chair in a room. I wasn't gagged or blindfolded like in those cheesy kidnapping films. Instead, the Asian guy and the same creepy figure from my weird memory stood before me.
"Good. You finally woke up." the Asian guy smiled. The burly guy stood silent, only fixing his fallen glasses.
"What do you want? Money? Too bad."
"We're not after your stupid, useless currency."
"What? Is this like some ransome? Am I you're hostage. Pssh. HQ could give a flying rat's ass about me. Low ranks like myself aren't exactly their prime focus."
"No, you're not our hostage.." the little Asian guy grouched, showing his temperamental side.
"Oh! I got it! Al did something stupid, and you want revenge! Like in those movies-"
"AYE-YAH! YOU ARE NOT HERE FOR MELICIOUS PURPOSES! IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP I'M GOING TO SLAP YOU WITH MY WOK, ARU!"
"Calm down, Yao." The tiny man was running in his place, trying to lash out at me, as the big guy held him down. "We need to see if he remembers like we thought."
"Ugh." He walked over to me, and slapped me.
"Agh! What the hell?"
"Okay. Now let's see."
"See what..?"
"Denmark," the big guy began. "Do you remember me?"
"What..? No." Then I did begin to remember him.
"Are you sure.." he sounded worried. Suddenly, images, no, memories of him began to appear all over my mind. The thoughts and recollections I had of this place were suddenly being replaced by different memories. In my heart I knew, the ones coming in were real, and the ones leaving, were not.
"AGH!" I began to thrash around in my seat. The incoming emotions and feelings hurt. It was like getting stabbed a thousand times in the head by a knife. You wanted to die, to just curl up with a gun, and shoot, but you couldn't and wouldn't die. The guys standing before me, whom I could now begin to remember began to say words. The world blurred around me as I turned, and all the sounds from anywhere else were muffled. They walked over to me, and I started to think they were going to hurt me. I was sweating, my heart began to pound harder and hard.
"StAy BaCk!" I yelled, pushing emphasis on the wrong letters. They slowly approached me, and untied my ropes. I fell off the chair and onto their plush carpet. I gripped it, hoping that the harder I held, the less the pain I would experience, but It only got worse. I started to cry, and every once in a while, a memory would flash into my vision, before going away and letting me see the room. As I looked up, I saw the big man look down at me, and saw a small tear roll down his eyes. I gagged, and rolled around, screaming for it to stop. I grabbed my hair, wanting to rip it out. Crawling to a wall in the bland, square room, I leaned on it, and started to scratch my face, wanting to feel a different pain, something I'm more accustomed to, then what I was feeling now.
As time passed, what felt like years of agony finally slowed down. And with as abruptly as it began. It vanished, like a gust of wind. I froze in my place, my vision clear. I remembered everything. I remember the beer. I remember my battleaxe. I remember the Nordic 5.
"Sweden." I looked up. "Sve, I do remember."
I let go of my hair, and looked at him. There was still tears in his eyes, but instead a smile grew across his usually blank face.
A/N: Took me a bit to write, but if you are reading this, hopefully you're piecing things together. The first chapter had stuff, but it was more of an introduction. This chapter is when stuff starts to pick up. ;) Hope you enjoyed and hopefully, if I'm up to it, I can put up another chapter after this. Idk. We'll see. I am feeling very inspired after writing this. I LOVE IT! Aight. Have a nice day!
Translations:
French~
Oui! - Yes!
Danish~
Gud dammit! - God dammit!
Hvad fanden – What the hell
All the Italian words are actual dishes. If you're Italian and it's wrong, tell me, then get mad at me cause I only went to Wikipedia*