"The police are still investigating the disappearance of a 26-year old Dutchman who was last spotted two days ago, close to the Pankower Strasse, located in the district of Pankow. The man is tall, blonde and was wearing a brown trenchcoat and combat boots the day he disappeared. If you know anything related to his disappearance, please call-"
Gilbert tightened his hand around the sponge, scrubbing the plate furiously, trying to block out the sing song voice of the news reporter. It was boiling hot in the kitchen, the steam that came from the large pans filled with rice and chicken not quite succeeding in escaping through the narrow windows. A dozen people or so moved through the thick clouds of steam, stirring pots or chopping meat while chattering loudly over the sound of the radio in a foreign language. They mostly seemed to ignore him, carefully moving around him and averting their eyes as they passed him, which made Gilbert feel like even more of a freak than usual. Though it was probably for the better, as he was not really in the mood for awkward introductions where he would have to decipher anything his colleagues said in their heavy accented German or English. His mind kept drifting off to that lone Dutchman who had provided him with weed over the last three years. He had not dared to answer the phone call, too afraid that it would be a worried mother on the other end of the line, wondering why her son had not called her back yet, or worse, a police officer trying to figure out where Lars van Rijn, or his body, was currently located.
He dropped the plate in the sink with a crash as he suddenly realized something, receiving angry stares from his co-workers. They spoke about his disappearance. How hard was it to discover a decomposing body lying in a park in the middle of Pankow? If anything, the smell should alarm people..
"You okay?"
He was snapped out of his thought by a soft voice. He turned his head to face Mei, a short girl with a childish face, pink painted lips and dark strands that had come loose from her bun falling into her face, who was assigned with the task to help him on his first day of work.
"Yeah..yeah.'m fine." Gilbert said absent-mindedly. She stared at him for a moment, but then got back to her own dirty dishes.
It had been two days. How could they not have found the body yet? Where'd it go?
Gilbert's mind unwillingly conjured up an image of a zombified Ned staggering towards his apartment, ready to tear Gilbert's head off torso. The heavy scent of cooked chicken that hung inside the kitchen suddenly smelt sickly. Focus, Gilbert, or you'll go insane. He thought to himself, shaky hands shoving another cleaned plate into the rack.
Both Gilbert and his twelve young Asian co-workers started as quick footsteps suddenly could be heard on the other side of the wall, in the hallway leading to Yao Wang's office.
"Dangerous..could get all of us into serious trouble.."
Even though Gilbert had only seen the man a couple of times, he could clearly make out Yao Wang's snappy voice over two pairs of shuffling footsteps.
"You be happy he is willing to even do such things for you!" Another voice shrieked loudly, in English, a harsh female tone laced with a thick foreign accent.
"Completely irresponsible, do you and your brother even realize what.." Yao lowered his voice before ending his sentence, causing Gilbert to draw closer to the wall, trying to understand more of the conversation. He was not sure if Yao was angry, disappointed or concerned, but it probably was pretty serious.
"You shut up." The female voice snarled threateningly. "See it as little gift from him to you, da?"
From the corner of his eye, Gilbert saw one of his co-workers pick up a knife. That odd accent, the way she pronounced her l's and r's..he had heard that before, but where?
Curiosity overtook him, and he grabbed a stack of freshly-cleaned plates, walking towards the hatch where cleaned dishes and cutlery could be shoved through.
"Braginski's don't like it when you don't appreciate their gifts, understand?"
As soon as he opened the hatch and peeked through he was faced with a pair of steely dark blue eyes and an angry snarl on a pretty face, her long dark blonde hair now pulled back into a ponytail, and all of the sudden he was back in the park, cursing as a woman bumped into him, angry blue eyes flashing at him, the heavily accented apology, Duxi's tugging on the leash, Ned's unseeing eyes, the bloody bullet hole, tiny pieces of brain stuck in blonde hair-
He only caught a glimpse of her and Yao's surprised expressions before he was pulled back by a furious group of Asians. He struggled against their hands, deafened by their hysteric yelling before he froze, finding himself faced with the tip of a gleaming knife. His eyes followed the edge of knife upwards, from a thin arm to an angry face, narrowed eyes and furrowed brows. Her eyes spat fire as she pushed the weapon. closer to his face.
"WHO'RE YOU? WHAT YOU WAN'?!" She roared and Gilbert tried to step back, only to be stopped by a dozen of hands closing around his arms.
"I..I'm Gilbert Beilschmidt…I don't want anything..I promise!" He stammered. "Please don't stab me.."
"Lien, please." Gilbert looked over the angry woman's shoulder to see Mei trying to restrain her. "It's probably just accident!"
Lien ignored her. For a second nobody moved, the only sound in the kitchen being Gilbert's heavy panting. Finally, Lien lowered the knife and Gilbert sighed in relief, only to let out a choked sound when she grabbed his collar.
"L-listen lady, it's a bit early in our relationship to start practicing BDSM, don't ya think?" Gilbert joked weakly, but Lien only glared at him suspiciously before abruptly releasing him.
"I wan' him out." She snapped at Mei, who winced before reaching past her grabbing a coughing and rasping Gilbert by the wrist.
"We gonna go to front now, 'kay?" Mei said softly, dragging him towards the door with a surprising force.
"Your friend sure is a feisty one, heh." Gilbert croaked, stumbling a little as he leant heavily on her petite frame. "Ahhh..first day of work, nearly stabbed to death by a coworker, it's all going great."
She turned her head to look up at him, concern sparking in her eyes as she led him into the hallway. Yao and the mysterious woman were long gone. "You should not make Chung Lien angry, she will tell boss! She his best employee, you look out!"
"But I didn't do anything!" Gilbert protested, rubbing his sore throat. It felt as if someone had ridden over his neck with a bicycle. The painted dragons on the ceiling seemed to laugh at him, ridicule glittering in their large colourful eyes. "I looked through a hatch, when did that become a crime?"
She abruptly stopped walking, pushing him against one of the green velvet-covered walls. "Listen to me, 'kay?" She narrowed her eyes. "If you wanna keep job, you stay out of boss' business, kay?"
"Yeah..yeah I understand.." Gilbert said, rolling his eyes. Those strange Asians and their hysteric manners.
He gasped as she roughly pushed him against the wall. "Ow-what the hell? Why are you all so violent?" He groaned, pushing her away.
"Listen to me!" She said shrilly. "Stay out of it! I swear! It's no good for you!"
"Out of what?" Gilbert said, exasperated.
"I dunno!" She stuttered, eyes darting uncertainly over his face. "But I seen things. Bad things. Just keep out, 'kay please?' Her eyes were large, and doll like, soft browns framed by dark long lashes. Her face was close to his, he had been dry for about a week now, and this combined with Gilbert's strange kink for being abused made his head spin in all sorts of inappropriate directions.
"For you, schatz." He said, smirking at her, trying to regain some of his male dignity. She wasn't having any of it, smacking his arm firmly.
"Promise to me!"
"Okay..okay! I promise!"
She sighed in relief. "Okay good. You be good, kay? We gonna go into restaurant now, follow me please!"
As soon as they entered the restaurant, Mei wasted no time installing him behind the counter, barking some instructions at her co-workers before disappearing, all flushed cheeks and messy hair.
Gilbert passed the rest of his shift there, actually quite enjoying his career switch to cashier, as that meant he finally was able to communicate with other Germans who walked up to him in order to pay or order take-away. He only had to work 15 more minutes before his shift ended and then he finally could go home, maybe put some ice on his throat and seriously reconsider his career choices. His next customer raised her eyebrows in surprise at finding a grumpy albino wearing dirty kitchen attire behind the cash register instead of the usual friendly faced Asian girl, but she composed herself, rummaging around in her pockets to find her wallet as she ordered.
"Can I have one Kung Pao chicken please, and..some ramen to go with that? Take-away please."
Gilbert gave her a half-hearted smile before whirling around, opening a hatch and roaring the order into the kitchen. He was not sure if the staff understood him, but at the moment he did not care less, he could've left that kitchen sliced like the slippery meat that was boiling in the large pans, after all. As he turned back to collect the customer's payment, he froze halfway through as he noticed something. The girl had started emptying her pockets in the search of her wallet, tossing her keys onto the counter with a tinkling sound. Next to a teddy bear keychain that had lost half its head sat a bright yellow tag, the black letters on it reading "08".
"Sooo.." Gilbert said slowly, his eyes never leaving the keychain. "How ya doin'?"
She gave him a confused look, cocking one eyebrow. "What?"
"How are you doing?" Gilbert repeated, dragging his eyes from the keys to look at her face.
"I'm fine.." She said hesitantly, giving him a suspicious look. "Why?"
"Oh, erm..you know..restaurant etiquette and all, heh." Gilbert laughed awkwardly.
She gave him a curt smile, before averting her eyes.
"Uh, hey!" Gilbert tried again. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"I don't think so, sorry." She said, pulling a bill out of her pocket, handing it to Gilbert who put it in the register without breaking eye-contact.
"Really? I could've sworn I've seen ya before." Gilbert said, squinting his eyes to study her face. She wasn't a pretty girl, face pale and puffy, with bright red acne markings on both cheeks.
"I really do not know you, sorry." She laughed uncertainly.
Gilbert scratched his chin, running a hand through his hair. That always seemed to work. "Hmm…I saw your pretty face before and I know it! I just don't know where…Do you live in Pankow, perhaps?"
Her face had turned a bright red at Gilbert's compliment. "U-uh, no! I live in Marzahn."
"Marzahn, huh? A close friend of mine lives there! I come there a lot, maybe I saw you there? You live close to the Kornmandelweg?"
She twirled a lock of badly dyed black hair around her finger. "Uh, kinda. Well..no..I live at the Elizabethstrasse, it's a few blocks away from there."
Bingo. Great job, Gilbert. Gilbert could not keep a triumphant smirk from creeping up his lips, quickly forcing himself to remove it, replacing it with a pout. "Oh, that's a shame, I was sure I had seen you somewhere. I always remember a cute girl, you know?"
If her face had been red before, it was on fire right now. "I think your colleague wants you to give me my order." She said shyly, pointing at the hatch behind Gilbert, where an angry man had been sitting for five minutes hissing at Gilbert to pick up the meal.
"Oh yeah, natürlich schatz." He said, giving her a cocky smirk, quickly wrapping her meal in a plastic bag before handing it to her with a wink. "Enjoy your meal!"
She threw him one last glance before shuffling out of the restaurant, probably feeling confused by Gilberts strange advances. Gilbert himself was not sure how to feel either.
Schatz = Dear
Natürlich schatz = Ofcourse dear