Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Blood+.
The cloudless sky was slowly beginning to sparkle with little tiny stars as night crept upon the city. Twilight had already retreated before the darkness overtook England's capital. A night full of fog, as is nearly every night in London, when the heavy ground clouds begin to envelope every surface area of the city that isn't under the protection of the city's lights. The residents were busy as usual. Downtown held the most activity, with people enjoying the sights, shopping around the various stores, sipping hot drinks in front of their favorite restaurants. It was rather cold this night, in comparison to the previous nights of the winter season that was soon to end. One cafe, as busy as the rest were, was centered in the middle of downtown. Round tables with cushioned seats could be viewed on either side of the cafe. Most of the inside was packed with people just sitting down and enjoying their drinks, conversing with whoever sat at the other end of the table. There was a short line at the counter, with two people at two registers taking customer orders. As one of the cashiers finished with one customer he preceded to go on, when he gazed upon the next person in line, he could not help but stare. The customer in question stared back, with eyes the color of the deepest ocean blue. Her pitch black hair flowed around her like a blanket, hung to her waist and seemed to shine under the cafe lights. She was dressed completely in white, from her expensive-looking button down coat that hugged her figure to the thick white panty hose she wore, to her fluffy white snow boots. The color of her clothes were almost indistinguishable from the color of her skin, which nearly seemed to glow on it's own.
The cashier was broken from his trance when his co-worker hit him on the back of the head. He turned to his to say something when he realized what he had been doing and decided, red faced, to just return to the customer he'd been embarrassingly gawking at. Diva couldn't help but slightly giggle at the man's blushing face.
The cashier regained his composure and asked politely, "What would you like young miss?".
"I would like iced coffee with caramel and whipped cream please," Diva replied.
The cashier looked a little bewildered, since it was so cold outside, he'd figured she would like something hot as every other customer did. But doing his job as he's supposed to, he complied with her request. Diva smiled a thank you and stepped to the side to wait for order after she gave him the money.
The black town car parked directly outside of the cafe, stood with two of it's three current passengers. One of whom was speaking on his cellphone with someone. He stood with one hand on his hip while he spoke on the phone in front of the car. His short blonde hair, his movements, even his choice of clothing, were styled as though he was scheduled to perform a theater act right in the middle of the sidewalk. The other man looked to be the blonde man's polar opposite. With chocolate brown skin and a military uniform, he stood leaning against the end of the car with his arms folded, patiently awaiting his queen to come out. Having finished his conversation, Nathan put his phone away, and walked over to James.
"Guess who that was?," Nathan beamed in that sing-songy voice he was so fond of using.
James gave Nathan a stern expression, "Just tell me who it was."
Nathan gave a playful sigh and a false look of despair, "You never want to play with me, it makes me want to hold myself and cry a stream of tears!" Hugging himself to dramatic effect, people began to stare as they walked by.
James opened his mouth to speak when Nathan silenced him, "Alright, alright, I will not keep the great James Ironside in suspense any longer," he said dramatically.
Suddenly, Nathan straightened himself and said, "It was Amschel." He made no effort to hide the disdain in his voice.
James too looked as if he was forced to swallow something disgusting, "What did that bastard want?"
"Nothing in particular, he just wanted to know how Diva was doing and that he'll be back from France in a few days," Nathan replied, with mild amusement.
James grunted, "As if that man actually cares about Diva's happiness."
"Hmmmmm...protective of momma aren't you?," Nathan said with a certain implication.
James shot back, "And you are not?"
"Of course I am, of both Diva and Saya," Nathan's voice became solemn and nostalgic, "after all, they are the daughters of my true love."
James said nothing. He didn't have a problem with Nathan as much as he did when they first met. Since Nathan is not a chevalier of Diva or Saya he was always suspicious of why Nathan would want to help protect them. But after he learned that Nathan was in fact a chevalier of Diva and Saya's mother, he began to feel a little more comfortable having him around. A little. For James, as long as Nathan would do anything to keep Diva safe and happy, it didn't matter where he came from or who he was.
Diva, having finally received her order, came out of the cafe to the car where Nathan and James were waiting.
"Did you get what you wanted? My darling Diva?," Nathan cooed to her.
"Yes!," she said, "Thank you both, for trying to make me feel better."
It had been exactly one year since Red Shield had literally been taken apart and left to sink to the ocean floor. Since then, Diva and Saya have had absolutely no contact with each other. Although Diva had not actually killed the real Riku, she knew that Saya was thinking about nearly all of the members of Red Shield that died that day. She hated when her sister was in pain. She could feel her even now. The quiet suffering she subjected herself to as punishment. They had been sacrificed, it was the only accurate term. All of them dead over a lie. A very big lie with a long history. They're lives lost for a cause, just not their cause. It could be justified or explained away as necessary for the greater good or the bigger picture but the grim reality was much more cruel than that. Diva understood this. Yet she still found it hard to feel any guilt over it. As much as she loved her sister, she could not ignore the differences between them. One very distinct difference was their perspective on humans. From day one, Diva got the short end of a very unfair stick. She'd only ever known how terrible humans could be. While her sister only knew their love.
She didn't hold it against her big sister, neither could control the circumstances of their upbringing. But Diva would never lie and say she didn't still feel those traces of bitterness that emerged when she first became aware of Saya's existence and their connection to each other. Back then, she would often go from hating Saya to loving her. It wasn't until they both came upon a terrible secret that they became closer. Reliant on each other. If not, they would have never survived that day...
"Diva?," Nathan said, waving his hand in front of her face, "Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiva?"
Diva was pulled from her thoughts by Nathan's voice, "Huh? Oh! Sorry, I was just...thinking."
"About Saya?," James replied.
Diva didn't answer, it was always obvious when she thought of her.
"Saya's quite the warrior, she can certainly take care of herself," Nathan offered soothingly.
He rubbed the small of her back in gentle circles. Diva looked most like her mother, Nathan's former Queen and lover. Pale skin, solid blue eyes. She also inherited the habit of chewing on her lower lip when in deep thought. It was admittedly the main reason he kept close to Diva rather than Saya. He cared for them both, and yet a part of him needed the solace of looking upon Diva as she so reminded him of who he lost.
"Shall we go home?," He said.
Diva pondered that and said, "No, not just yet. Since we arrived here I haven't really seen all of London, is it alright if we drive around a little?"
Nathan almost squealed, "Of course! I have so much to show you my dear! We shall explore all of this city until there is nothing left to see!"
Diva smiled at Nathan's eccentric enthusiasm, and then laughed at the look on James' face as he looked at Nathan.
Elsewhere in London, Okamura had finally been able to find a decent hotel to stay in that wasn't too expensive. In fact he would have opted for a quiet Bed & Breakfast, but Mao protested, 'What's the use of having all of this money if we can't use it?' So he had to go with a hotel in the city. It had been days since he'd received a proper night's sleep and he was more irritable than what was usual for him. After they had checked in a few minutes ago, Mao had discovered that the hotel had a 24-hour jacuzzi on the bottom floor, fortunately for him, as soon as Mao got into the room she changed and went downstairs. Okamura could now get the quiet sleep he'd been wanting ever since they arrived in London.
Even though it was only 8:30pm, he was ready for bed. He closed the door that connected his bedroom with Mao and climbed in. The clean fluffy pillows, the thick blankets, and the soft mattress felt like heaven as he was finally able to drift off to sleep undisturbed. Sadly, this feeling of paradise wasn't to last, as Okamura's cellphone began to vibrate. As much as he didn't want to, and he really didn't want to, he had to in case it was Kai or Lewis.
"Hello?," Okamura doesn't even hide the irritation in his voice.
To his surprise, the voice on the other end isn't one that he recognizes.
"Hello? HELLO? Is this Akihiro? Okamura Akihiro?"
It was a man. An older man by the sound of it. He sounded a little frantic and boring a British accent.
"Who the hell is this? How did you get this number?" Okamura demanded. He got out of bed and went to the window. Peering through the curtains he took a peek at the street below. No suspicious cars, that he could see anyway. 'Shit!' he thought, 'Were we followed?'
"Judging from your tone, boy, I'd say I got the right number," The man said, "My name is Michael, I used to work for Red Shield."
Okamura had his doubts, but since his phone was untraceable, he wasn't in any immediate danger. But how did this man get his number?
He repeated the question. Very few people knew it for obvious reasons.
"A Mr. Zanza. Owns a small bar out in Ireland. Bit on the heavy side," The man said. He'd be right, Hachi was no slouch.
Okamura stayed silent for a moment. Hachi was an old friend and informant. Worked for the Triads back in the day before being caught in the U.S. on drug smuggling. He was planning on using the money he got for the job to book a plane ticket to god knows where in order to leave the life. Unfortunately he was in too deep just to leave with the higher up's blessing. Very few were ever allowed to leave that way. When he got arrested he opted for plan B. Worked out a deal with the Feds, gave up everything he'd learned working for his bosses, testified, and got relocated. But he didn't like the Marshals always breathing down his neck and eventually quit the program. Okamura met him at the bar and the two hit it off. He trusted Hachi, the old bastard had gotten him out of some pretty tight spots and always gave solid info. So if Hachi was willing to give Okamura's number out to a stranger then it must be something important.
"Hey boy, you there? I don't got all day. Hell I might not have the rest of my years," The man seemed both anxious and annoyed.
"Yeah I'm here. So what do you want?"
The man said, "I need to meet with you, as soon as possible."
"Before I do anything I need to what it concerns," Okamura trusted Hachi but he wasn't stupid. He had to take every pre-caution possible.
When the Man answered, he strained to keep the fear from his voice. Almost as if just mentioning whatever he was talking about could bring hell down on him this very second.
"It concerns Red Shield," his tone quivered just a little, "I've come into possession of something that's..." The man went silent, as if trying to find a word strong enough.
After a moment he continued, "I've got something that's...life-altering...for everyone involved."