Ch. 10 Old habits hardly die

More screams came from inside the building and Lucien sped up, running around the perimeter searching for the entrance. He was hoping with all his heart to not find the girl in the worst of the situations or he would have never forgiven himself for not having been able to save her.

He finally could see a door. With his heart in his throat, he tried the handle and thanked God when he found the door open. It was very dark inside and he easily sneaked silently in, his eyes soon adjusting and quickly searching for movements. There was a far light behind a wall of crates and voices coming from behind it. Hidden in the shadow, Lucien quickly moved, stealthily; he removed his jacket abandoning it on a pole and, with knife in hand, glued his back against a crate and got ready to turn around the corner.

"Leave him alone!"

It was Janel, and after that he heard a loud thud and someone groaning.

With anger flaming in his being and weapon ready to strike, he dashed out from his hidden spot and…immediately froze when he saw three guys groaning on the ground, rolled up in pain. Not far from them there was Janel, in fight position, ready to send the last guy standing down with his mates. Simon had climbed over her shoulders and was wildly hissing at the ruffian. Lucien had to blink twice to believe the scene, but at last he noticed the guy wielding a weapon, a long dagger, as he started yelling disgraceful and racist insults at her.

*tang-clang-clang…* The dagger fell noisily on the ground.

"That's such an indelicate way to speak to a lady." Lucien hissed behind the guy's ear, his hand tightly holding both his arms behind his back, while the other kept the sharp blade dangerously close to his jugular, brushing his dirty skin.

Janel gasped and squinted trying to visualize better the new face behind the terrorized criminal. "…Lucien…?!"

Lucien winked at her and raised a finger to sign silence. "Come over here, darling." The man tried to get advantage of Lucien's distraction, but couldn't know the blondie was always alert. "You'd better not try my patience, monsieur." The punk didn't even dare to gulp, the strength his capturer had shown was surprising and that knife under his pome wasn't inviting.

"Are you the only ones here?" Lucien asked, his voice low, dark, menacing. Just like old times, he thought.

"Y-Yes." He rasped. "L-Listen, let us go and we won't bother anyone a-anymore."

Lucien nodded, quite amazed by the guy's cowardice. "Impressive how you punks bow your head so fast. Apologize to the lady."

"W-wha..?!"

Lucien's knife delicately brushed under the pome, drawing a thin line of blood and a pained hiss. "Be a gentleman for once in your life, will you?"

Gritting his teeth, the young man looked at Janel and growled a simple "Sorry." But Lucien wasn't satisfied and tightened his grip, sending a sharp pain down his spine. "AGH! Fine, fine! I apologize for assaulting you, lady."

"Hm, I don't think we're going to have more than that, Lu." Janel crossed her arms and chuckled.

"Agree." And with a fast smooth movement of his wrists he turned the guy around, hit hard a couple of times his chest taking his breath and with a last frontal slap he sent him to the ground, unconscious.

Janel looked at Lucien with big eyes, dismayed. "You need to teach me that."

Lucien blinked at her and looked down at the other three guys still rolled up on the ground. One was clearly fainted, the others were probably faking to be asleep. "After what you did to them? Girl, you don't need me. Now go search for a rope."

Janel smiled at him and, before he could realize it, she was hugging him tightly. Lucien carefully closed his butterfly knife and tucked it in a pocket before hugging her back. Simon was purring loudly against their shins.

"Are you alright?" He asked taking her face in his hands checking this and that side.

"Don't worry, Lu. Now let's hurry." And she was off to search for a rope.

"You're pretty good with knots, too, girl." Lucien said seeing how she had arranged the four guys. They had been elegantly tied up against a big metallic container –all unconscious thanks to Lucien- with a nice bow on the front, ready for when the police would be there in short. "Oh wait, I have this, too." And a big black marker appeared between his fingers. The two exchanged a grin.

"I had no idea you could fight, where have you learnt those moves?" Janel asked him as they walked outside. Simon trotted at their side.

Lucien fell silent for a long moment and sighed. "I'd prefer to not talk about it. Would you keep it secret for me, Janel?"

The girl frowned at him, he had so suddenly become…sad. She nodded, crossing her heart. "Would you still teach me that thing you did though?"

Ah, kids these days. "Fine, but if someone asks you, you learnt it watching TV."

They found all the others at the entrance of the warehouses area. Janel quickly picked Simon up, raising him over her head as Mama Rin turned around noticing her. "Found him!" She yelled and Mama Rin was quickly in front of her.

"You ok, dear? You surely took your time, gave us all quite a scare!" She hugged her and glared at the cat. "You're so grounded, mister." Yet she laughed as he started shamelessly purring at her. "Where did the little devil end up to?"

"He got stuck in one of the warehouses. We had to climb up to get him down." Lucien quickly lied and Janel nodded.

"Are you hurt?" Willy unexpectedly asked him, worried, pointing at his side.

Lucien frowned. "No, I'm not-" There was a thin line of red on his white shirt. He grimaced. "I got blood on my shirt… I must have hit something without realizing it." He didn't, probably he had stained himself with the punk's blood as he folded the knife.

"Let's get you fixed up, darling, and since we're at it let's have some dinner, I bet you all are starving!"

Lucien was exhausted and felt as heavy as an elephant while climbing his stairs, following Theo, Nik and Willy. Mama Rin's food had been simply marvellous, better than any restaurant in town, but she had the habit to stuff his dears up for good, almost fearing to see them starving. She looked so perplexed when she exanimated his side, there was no wound of course and it's been hard to have her stopping checking.

"Would you like a last drink, Lu?"

His attention got fully captured by William's voice. "I'd love to, but I'm too tired to take another step, let's make another evening maybe?"

"No problem, mate, it's pretty late after all. Well, goodnight, Lu. I'll get you tomorrow, we still have half sheets block to play." He snorted and patted him on the shoulder before heading upstairs.

"Good night, Lucien." Nik's voice thundered in the little hall.

Theo offered his hand and Lucien cautiously shook it. As he expected, the medic signed him a message. Talk. Later. Lucien nodded and wished them all goodnight.

Theodore smoothly got out of the bed and quickly got dressed. Nik looked like he had gone into hibernation and would likely not hear him moving out of the room. The kitchen clock signed 3am, but he knew Lucien was probably awake. He quickly checked the door of William's room and listened carefully. Satisfied to hear him snoring he quickly got out.

He didn't even need to knock on the door to have it open, with Lucien tiredly standing behind it. He quickly got inside and, as Lucien locked it, he didn't let him even talk, he tackled him in a tight embrace, squeezing the air out of his lungs.

And then he punched him in the face. Hard. "That's for leaving with a note!"

Lucien pressed the ice bag on the jaw while he tapped the cigarette in the ash tray. They had moved outside on the balcony, the city was dark if not for rare coloured lights.

"More tea?" Teddy offered, speaking in German, and Lucien moved his cup closer to him to fill it. It was so nice to have his friend at his side, just like old times, when they shared an evening talking about books, weapons and having a warm tea.

"I missed this." Lucien smiled at him, keeping the language.

"What? Having your face punched or me serving you tea?" He snorted.

"Maybe both." And had a nice gulp.

"So. It's been quite a long time. What are you doing here?" He asked trying to hide a note of surprised incredulity.

Lucien shook his head and chuckled. "Believe it or not, I live here, you dork. I came here about a year after I left the battlefield."

Ted leaned on the table, really surprised. "You mean you've been here all along? You've not been following William?"

Lucien glared at him. "You see me as some kind of a creepy stalker? Are you out of your mind?! Why would I even do such a thing? Why did I leave with that note if I wanted to hunt him down?"

Theodore raised his hands. "Ok, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to be tactless."

The other man took a sip to clear his throat before angrily go back to him. "By the way, what are you doing here with the RED Heavy and Sniper?"

"Well…I…"

Lucien frowned at him for a long minute and suddenly something connected to an old memory. "Ohh. Don't. Tell. Me. The old secret lover you had in war was…!"

Ted nodded, defeated. "Ahah, yes, the RED Heavy weapon guy."

Lucien took another sip, finishing the tea, his eyes never left the medic's. "That, my dear friend, explains so many things you have no idea!"He laughed and Teddy laughed along full lungs.

"It's true, it's true," he said in tears, "we kept it so secret nobody knew until the end of war. Willy has been the first to know."

For few minutes they remained silent, just enjoying their company, until Theodore came out with a question.

"Tell me, how have you been here all these years?"

Lucien took a long drag of his cig, finishing it, he puffed away the smoke and looked at him with sad eyes. "I admit I had ups and downs through the years, I had a really tormented period with my lover and we broke up in quite a violent way… It still burns today, but I can't change the past. I started here as a member of a local orchestra, but soon I got bored and started a new life as a music teacher. It was quite a change and I loved it from the start. Today I have a little bunch of devoted children and adults coming to me to learn and I couldn't be happier about my job. What about you?"

Theodore was perplexed on how quickly he passed the baton, but didn't want to push too much. "Uh… hm. Well, after the war, Nik and I simply retired and travelled around USA for about three years. We then decided to settle down, but couldn't find the right place for a long time. It's been because of my sister we moved here, she has a clinic downtown and I went working with her, while Nikolai enjoyed buying all the flats he liked." He snorted. "Most of our money went to charity. I guess you know the feeling?"

Lucien nodded. "I helped some school here and there too." He chuckled remembering how much money his last job left in his accounts, but especially how many people deeply thanked the mysterious benefactor.

"Why haven't you told him who you used to be?"

The question had come out so sharply that Lucien almost choked himself on saliva. He turned to him with eyes full of anger, but Ted's were so full of pity he couldn't stand them. He slumped on his chair, sighing. "What good would it be? I don't want to be remembered as the Blu Spy."

Ted stood up. "Allow me to tell you he was very upset to not find you that evening. I'll play along as long as you want me to, but please be careful, he's been through quite a tragedy recently; try to not hurt him more." Lucien looked up at him with a puzzled, tired look. "I go back to bed or Nik will find out I'm not there. We'll have another chat, maybe tomorrow night?"

Lucien stood up, yawning. "I'll open the door as long as you don't punch me in the face. I guess that if I want to know what happened to him I have to wait for him to tell me personally?"

"Yes, you do. Goodnight, Lucien." He warmly said.

"Sleep well, Teddy."

The next morning wasn't as bright as Lucien had imagined, but at least he could have a good laugh on the newspaper's front page's photo: four bandits, found by police tied up and with their faces all marked with scribbles.