Well, here we go, another week and another chapter. Con. helped me out again with this one so she gets a good chunk of credit for this. (Obviously with the German part, the little linguist). But please remember to review afterwards. enjoy!

Ike always forgot how influential Marth was.

Granted, he had always known that Marth and his family was. They could actually trace their legacy back to the city's founding almost two hundred years ago. Marth also smelled of the old money, but the contacts they had always surprised him when he called them in.

So when Marth told the others to meet him at his house the morning after, the other two were quite surprised when there was another car parked in his driveway. It was a dark black and teal trimmed sports car, the two investigators knew that there was someone influential there. Hell even Marth's car, which cost two years at Clock Town Community, was dwarfed in comparison by the luxury in it. "So who do you think Marth talked into visiting him this time?" Ike asked as he rang the door bell.

"Beats me, I guess one of his investment brokers. But the car has somewhat of a femininity look to it with the leather and stitching." Link replied as he rang the door bell again.

"Wait, you can tell that?" Ike asked as they heard some hurried footsteps.

"Hey, if there are two things that will break a mans neck on his own accord it is a good looking car and a good looking woman." Link responded as Marth opened the door.

The bluenette was gayer than a man on "Queer Opinion for the Manly Man" that instantly meant that something was up. "Come in, you guys are not going to believe what I have in store for you today. And this will help us with our undercover work."

"You bought us each a Mustang with bulletproof windows?" Ike shot back at Marth as he took off his light jacket.

"No. Something even better. This will be more helpful and entertaining than that." Marth replied as Link grunted in annoyance.

"Whose definition of helpful and entertaining are we going with?" Link asked as Marth lead them into the common area he had. There were three large hairdresser's chairs, complete with mobile sinks and foot rests. Though what caught the guy's attention was the rather attractive redheaded Twilli finishing some of the final adjustments to the chairs.

Marth clapped his hands together and had a questioning look of his sanity on his face. "And I managed to get one of my good friends from one of my many nights on the town. Minda is one of the best hair dressers in the city, even working on the likes of Zelda Harkinain and several international models."

"Please Marth, you give me far too much credit." Minda said as she swatted the air between the two as she lined up all of her hairdressing tools. "Besides, it was a night at my house and not the town where you got to know me better."

Ike suppressed a laugh while Link smirked like a mad man as Marth turned a shade of red. Few could be so blunt to him without him retorting. Apparently Minda made a large impression on him and she continued as if it was nothing. "But yes, Marth said you needed a makeover to make a large impression on some lucky ladies." She looked at the three and then arched her finger in a somewhat seductive way towards Ike. "I think I can do a lot with you, so why don't you take a seat."

Ike hesitantly stepped forward and took a seat. She wrapped a jacket around him and pumped the chair up as she sprayed down the hair with a spritz bottle. "I think we should keep the wild look you have in your hair. Maybe toss the locks around a bit while we could tie it back with some form of a silken headband."

Ike nodded as he felt her experienced fingers run through his hair and she began to clip the untamable curls in his hair. "Link, did your girlfriend tell you what type of friends you're blackmailing us into going with?"

The Hylian chuckled and pulled free his smart phone, scrolling through the photo gallery. "One, it's not blackmail, if I recall correctly last night you and Marth willingly agreed to it. Two, I will send her the pictures and her friends would pick. But I have a feeling on who is going with who after she sent me a set of her and her friends."

Marth took the phone Link gave to him and knelt down on the other side of Ike and showed him the picture on the phone. The first one was that of a emerald haired beauty, running her fingers through said hair. Her eyes were amber in color and smirked is a very arousing manner as she posed in her fine evening wear. "That's my girlfriend, so stop right there." Link responded to Ike's opening mouth.

"How drunk did you get her in able to convince her to go out with you?" Marth said and Link bright a steel toed boot out and kicked him hard in the shin, forcing a grimace from Marth. "But regardless, damn. You got lucky if you are going out with her. Who are her friends by the-" As he flipped to the next picture, the words promptly formed on his lips died in an instant.

The next picture was that of a long golden blond haired woman. Marth snatched the phone and looker her over, and Ike almost saw him drooling a bit. To be fair, she was really beautiful. She wore a sink clinging dress of an medicinal sludge shade of pink, with no bra so her large size was natural and she wore elegant gloves with a merry laugh on her lips. "What's her name?' Marth asked as Minda forced Ike's head to a certain position as she added some primal smelling hair gel into his hair and began to massage it in.

"Some sort of fruity name. Pomegranate... no that isn't it. Cherry? No not it."

"Peach Toadstool?" Minda asked and when she saw Link nod, he shook her head. "That girl has been fucked more times then a hen in a barn full of rosters. She is sweet, as her name would suggest, but she may not have a full meal frying in the brain pan if you catch my drift." She then tied back Ike's hair and moved to his nails, and proceeded to give them a manicure. "One of my nail friends services her regularly and she tells me horror stories of what she hears."

Marth shrugged. "Well, given the round up of some women I have formed relationships with, she can't be that bad."

"Your funeral boy." Minda muttered under her breath as she finished a few of the nails on Ike's hand and proceeded to place them in some warm water. "Alright Marth and Link,get in the other seats." Marth passed the phone to Ike's spare hand who flipped it to the next image in which he saw Elincia's other friend.

And his reaction was priceless.

"Link, how..." he was at a loss of words for once. The next picture had someone with two long braids of milk chocolate brown hair. She was a Hylian, with some what elongated ears even for them. She wore a white and purple blouse and skirt combination with piercing emerald eyes.

"Oh, so you reached her." Link said as Minda muttered something about taking better care of one's hair under her breath. "That's Zelda, and a real bitch at that. Called me a date rapist and pulled me away from Elincia when we first met each other. I am sure she is nice, but you really have to work for that from what I hear from Elin."

"You don't know the half of it." Minda said as she shampooed Link's hair and began to wash it away."She talks as if no one is listening so I pick up quite a bit about her. Apparently, her family isn't too close. Mother is always away abroad, promoting one thing and then another the next month. Dad is so absorbed into the business that he doesn't spend a whole lot of time with her. Her brothers on the other hand," she made a sharp exhale as she shook her head, "are no benefit to her. She spends most of her time with friends and they influence her a lot. She is cold and demanding more often than not when I am servicing her. Personally, she could use a real man in her life, just to let her know she has someone with her. But that's just my humble opinion."

"I don't recall you being the humble type." Marth replied and Minda wrapped Link's head in some towels.

"Watch it Marth. I know where you sleep." She said as she moved to him and began to run her fingers through his hair. Ike could almost hear a witty comeback from Marth, who wisely chose to remain silent about the whole thing. "For Link, I think we could go with a refined hipster look, I have a nice green hat that will really bring out the blond hair. Marth, it looks like you will be going for that male model look. And Ike, I think untamed would sum up your looks."

"Works for me." Ike said as he relaxed, realizing he was all tense for some reason. Well he probably would have a good reason if the barber was working for the mob. "Oh, guys. By the way, my dad said he would treat us to the firing range to relive some stress."

"Sounds like a plan." Link responded. "By the way, I need to snap some pictures of you guys so I can show Elincia and her friends who we are."

"Go fuck a horse or your girlfriend." Ike replied. "But I repeat myself." Link smacked his partner on the exposed arm for such a comment. After a while, Minda finished them up and Link took his pictures like the shutter bug he was. Marth ate up the camera with his new tiara look, but both Ike and Link agreed it looked like Marth had a tumor growing out of the back of his head.

All that was left was to see when they would rendezvous with their female counter parts.

Elincia was, as usually, running late. She had a date with Peach at six for a manicure, but her stupid metro card had somehow expired without her remembering it, and fixing the issue had cost Elincia at least ten minutes.

But Peach was a very easy-going person who would be cool with waiting for some minutes more.

And indeed, as Elincia pushed the doors to the nail salon open, she saw her friend already sitting in one of the white armchairs, incredibly relaxed. In fact, the blonde seemed to be dozing away.

She was brutally ripped out of her peaceful nap when Elincia let herself fall on the free armchair to her left. "Sorry for being late", she said.
Peach smiled. "Don't worry about it. I know you." Elincia rolled her eyes, though she had to admit that she couldn't blame Peach for expecting her to be late. Her friend was currently having Toadette (her favourite nail artist) paint her toenails in a bright pink, a colour Elincia herself would never even have considered. "So how was your date?"

Obviously this was the first question. Elincia had deliberately not answered her phone yesterday, knowing full well that she wouldn't have gotten any sleep, because Peach would've expected her to go into the details to subsequently analyze Elincia's love life. But they had enough time for that now. "Very satisfying."

"Satisfying? Really? That's the word you use? Because afterwards I called you like half a million times and you didn't pick up, so should I assume that's because you took him home and he 'satisfied' you there? Or did you mean 'satisfying' in a derogatory way? You were so overly excited that describing the date with anything less than 'perfect' would be a little sad, really."

Typical Peach. Minutely analysing the date before even knowing the full story. Elincia rolled her eyes. "It was perfect", she clarified. A nail artist came and began filing her toenails.

"Oooh." Peach raised her brows and sent her friend a mischievous smirk. "So why didn't you pick up? Would it have interrupted your intimate togetherness?"

"Peach. It was the first date. I did not sleep with the man." Elincia felt the heat in her face. She was a little embarrassed to talk about this while getting her nails done, but she and Peach were here so often and talked about such random stuff that the nailed artists probably already thought they were mentally disturbed anyway.

The blonde began biting her nails. It was a habit of hers she just couldn't get rid of— the reason why she was always wearing fake nails in the first place. "Well did you at least kiss or are you still emotionally stuck in grade school?"

"Look, I don't want to do him once and never see him again, okay? Maybe that's what Zelda expects me to do, but I'd like this to go in the right direction. And it feels like he thinks so too."

"Okay. I'm happy for you if you think Link could be the one."

There had been no mention of that. Peach was just jumping to conclusions again— but yes, Link was the full package, and Elincia still couldn't really believe he wanted to see her again.

In fact, she'd arranged her meeting with Peach right after the man of her dreams had called her again, and she rubbed her hands together in excitement as she reminded herself of what the occasion for their meeting was. She knew Peach would just as hooked as her. "Okay, so I have a surprise for you."

Her friend abruptly jumped up in her seat, almost kicking Toadette in the face. The small woman began to curse loudly, which was graciously ignored by the two girls. "Oh my goooosh, I love surprises!" Peach squealed and started clapping her hands in excitement.

Elincia joined in. "I knooow, and this one's so good! I have to tell you, or else I'll explode!"

"Spill it, spill it, SPILL IT!"

"Okay." Elincia grabbed her friend's hands and took a deep breath. "Calm down. Phew. We."

Peach's face was all red with anticipation. "Yeeees?…"

"Are going on a triple date", Elincia concluded and could not help but join in on her friend's overly excited squealing.

"Aaaaaaaaaah, oh my goooosh, this is so, so, SO ama— wait. Triple date? So Zelda said yes?"

"Well…" Truth be told, Elincia had wanted to tell Peach first. "Technically… She didn't say 'no'."

"She doesn't know?"

"Nope."

"Dear lord, just don't mention the word 'date'. The woman would barricade herself in her room."

"Do I look like an idiot?" Elincia asked.

"No." Peach checked her nails. "But you also don't look like you're not one. But never mind", she said just as her friend wanted to drop a sarcastic remark. "Who are the lucky men who get to take me out on a date?"

The greenette squinted in confusion, but she obediently rummaged her bag for her phone. "Men?"

Peach shrugged. "Well, when Zel will see the poor guy and subsequently scare him away —which, let's face it, she will— I can just take him as well, can't I?"

"Just— Pick one and stick to your decision, woman." She knew that Peach was kidding. It was still somewhat scary though, because Elincia always had this nagging feeling that her friend actually meant what she said. Somewhere deep inside. Better not think about it. And while the blonde was happily saying something about 'open market', she opened her phone's gallery to search for the pictures Link had sent her.

A small smile crept on her lips as she scrolled down and a picture of Link with a green hat appeared. 'Looks like you're dating the new hipster in the city', he'd written and then sent her the picture. He was sticking his tongue out to look silly (because apparently that's what he thought of the hat), but Elincia had to admit that it looked very good, even if the green thing on his head was a little unusual. In fact, thanks to the hat he looked very in touch with nature, she thought. And it made her even crazier about him.

Ah, the next picture was one of a guy with blue hair. Elincia had asked her new boyfriend (oh, how she loved the sound of that) for pictures of his friends, and she hadn't known what to expect. But what she'd gotten had left her honestly surprised.

Of course they were no Link, but damn. Who would've thought freelance consultants were so handsome?

"Give me that", Peach declared and greedily snatched the phone, only to put on a scandalous face. "Are you kidding me? Where has that guy been all my life?"

Lucky enough not to cross paths with Peach. Until tomorrow, that was.

"Look at him." Obviously Elincia had already seen the pictures, but Peach leaned over anyway so they could stare at the phone's screen in unison. Well, yes. Elincia had already forgotten his name, but there was no denying that this was a very handsome male specimen.

Apparently he'd been photographed involuntarily, because he seemed a little irritated on the picture. A headband prevented his unruly dark blue hair from falling into clean, mid blue eyes. His face looked as if an Italian sculptor had carved it.

"Link knows them both from work, by the way", she informed Peach.

The blonde raised her brows and gave a short laugh. "This is not a freelance consultant. Freelance consultants are pimply, hairy toothpicks. This one's a male model. Look at those shoulders!"

Elincia clicked her tongue. "Peach. Do you know any freelance consultants besides Link?"

"No."

"Well, there you go. Wait, I'll show you the real male model." And she swiped her finger over hr phone to reveal Link's other friend, the wine expert. Not exactly hertype, to be honest, but Peach's reaction was more or less the one she'd expected.

"Oh. My. Gosh."

"Yes, I thought you'd say that."

He had blue hair as well, but unlike Mister Serious' before, this one's was a little lighter and carefully combed. A weird thing that Elincia could only really call a tiara sat on his head, and the man was really selling the male model thing. He looked very slender and had high cheekbones, and he knew exactly that the camera loved him— he was posing for it.

"I want them both", Peach cried. She was fanning herself and constantly sweeping back and forth between the two pictures. "Oh, I don't know, I don't know! I can't decide! Look at him! And then at him! This one looks like he'll read me poetry all night long, but this one is SUCH. A. MAN! But then this one! We'd go to wine tastings! And to brunches, and fine dining! I want them both", she groused.

"Calm down, Peach. Link has told me a few things about them, and as far as personalities go, you and the wine expert would be a match made in heaven, as far as I can tell. Apparently he has some very… feminine tendencies. At least that's what I've been told."

"Feminine as in…?"

"I don't know. Link didn't specify. But he does look a little… You know."

Peach swiped back to the wine expert and stared at him with hungry eyes.

"That's decided, then. Besides", Elincia continued, taking back her phone, "I think Zelda will keep her enthusiasm within limits if I set her up with a man who uses more beauty products than she does."

"Oh, come on. I love Zelda, but seriously, you don't have to bother dragging her along. You'll have a drink in your face the second she gets wind of being set up."
Elincia punished her friend with a sour look. "Peach. Look at me. Stop being selfish, we will see how this works out. In fact, I'm meeting Zelda at the spa in two hours. Just wait until the day after tomorrow with planning your threesome, okay?"

"Fine." Peach reclined back in her seat and closed her eyes as Toadette began to remove the fake nails on her left hand. "I'll give it a chance."

Elincia mentally high fived herself. That was one person off her list, and there was one more... she was not looking forward to convincing her. She had her in a few hours.

"… and that was basically my day. Mother's still in Europe promoting some freaky art exhibitions with nude pictures —seriously, that's normal art over there— and father's never home anyway so I've had enough time to hang out with Ilyana and Micaiah."

Elincia frowned, but it wasn't like Zelda could see how displeased she was at that statement. They were lying face down on massage tables, getting their backs kneaded by a bald German and his blonde assistant. The only thing Elincia saw were her masseur's feet in brown Birkenstock sandals. At least she wasn't wearing them with socks. The woman had hands like a man, Elincia concluded, feeling her muscles relax.

She'd never met Micaiah or Ilyana, and though they appeared to be two friendly girls, their influence on Zelda was anything but positive. Their pastime methods were very questionable. Zelda was by far no junkie, but Elincia had heard that both Ilyana and Micaiah were also known for consuming harder substances than just pot.

Time for a change of topic. "So are you free tomorrow night?"

"Depends." The brunette murmured.

"Because you owe me a favour."

"Miss, please stay on de table. Reläx", she heard the bald man say with a faint German accent. What was Zelda doing?

"A favour? What for?" she heard her Hylian friend say. She sounded anything but happy.

"Yes. A favour. For being a bitch to my boyfriend."

Zelda grunted. "Look, again, I'm very sorry. I realise you like the guy and I shouldn't have reacted in such a way. Didn't you go out yesterday? Who paid?"

"He did."

The brunette grunted, and Elincia took that as a sign of approval. "It was very pleasant, thanks for asking. We kissed and I'll see him again soon. Tomorrow, actually, and I expect you to come."

"Oh, I get it. You want me to get on good terms with your boy toy? Will I have to apologise?"

"That's the plan, yes. I'm not Peach, I don't go through guys like through a box of tissues. This is kind of a big deal, so I'd appreciate it if you called him 'Link' and not 'boy toy', since I have a feeling that this might last."

"Until he drops his act and leaves with your money."

Elincia's face grew hot with anger. Link would not do that. True, she didn't know him that well yet, but she had a decent intuition for people. Better than Zelda, anyways. "Stop doing this again! Stop assuming everyone just wants to use you!"

"I know how to protect myself. I'm doing this for you, Elincia, because I don't want you to end up hurt."

The masseur interrupted her. "Miss, would you please läy bäck down? I can't work like this", he said, but Zelda ignored him. Elincia lifted her head to see her friend leaning on her elbows.

"What do you know about the guy? Really, how are you so sure he's different?" Elincia retorted back to her over protective friend, who was looking madder then she was feeling.

"Miss, I must ask you to—"

"Och, jetzt halten Sie doch mal Ihre verdammte Klappe, ja?" Zelda suddenly snapped at the man. "Da versucht man, eine Unterhaltung zu führen, wird aber andauernd von Ihrem blöden Gelaber gestört. Was soll denn das? Ich zahl Sie, damit Sie mich massieren, und nicht damit Sie mich zu Tode labern. Meine Güte."

Elincia looked at her own masseur in panic, who watched her friend and her coworker argue in German. Elincia didn't understand a word of what they were saying, but it couldn't be anything nice. "Please excuse her", she whispered, "my friend's not always like that."

The woman raised her brows. "It's alright", she softly said. "It's not the first time we're dealing with a temperamental customer. Besides, if I may say, I don't know what's her problem. Your guy sounds nice."

Elincia smiled. "I know, right!" Then she turned to her friend, who was still arguing with the masseur. "Hey", Elincia interrupted them, "nein nein nein nein nein!" The two turned to her in bafflement. 'Nein' was the only German word Elincia knew. "Stop this! Zelda, you will be there tomorrow, end of discussion! And now shut up and lay down!"

Zelda pouted, but she did as she was told, which Elincia interpreted as a sign of acceptance. Very well, then. Zelda would come with them, but Elincia decided to tell Peach to get ready at the Hylian's house, so that Zel couldn't bail out on short notice.

As she lowered her face back into the hole in the massage table, she also decided to give the two masseurs at least a $50 tip each.

Alexander ran his thumb over the flint wheel of his lighter, spinning it around and around for a good long while as he looked aimlessly at his office. Hard to belove that after so long he was still in it. To be honest he expected to be dead at this time in his life. Guess fate had other plans for him.

His mind reached back to wonder how those three would pull the stunt off. Each one of them were very fine detectives in their own right, but this might be more than what they could handle. It was like tossing them into an ocean of sharks and telling them to swim to sore. A very apt description of the current situation they were in if there ever was one.

He told them half of the truth last night, and knew full well who the informant was and who she is now. The blow on the head not only erased the memories of what got her into such a position, but also who she was entirely. She was given a new identity (falsely lied to her as her own) and a new life. Unfortunately, due to some clerical errors, she was very close to the investigation now. More so then he wanted. If he told her, the risk ran rampant that she would remember and someone would finish the job. He tried not to think of it, and needed something to take his mind off of it.

As if on cue, Sheik stuck her head in with one. "Mr. Aquila, there is someone here to see you."

He grunted and put the lighter away as he closed the folders that were open on his desk. "Please, show them in." She nodded and a tall man waked in. He had chestnut hair, closely chopped to his skull and had an aura of authority surrounding him. Alexander recognized the face in an instantaneous moment. "Ludveck, I presume?"

Ludveck chuckled. "It would seem my reputation proceeds me." He held out his hand which Alexander took after a moment's hesitation. "May I sit?" Alex nodded and he pulled up his seat and adjusted to a more comfortable.

Alexander took one of the reports he had in a stack and began to look it over. "Re-election isn't for another two years, councilor. What brings you to my office?" He tried to keep a controlled voice, knowing he was talking directly to a suspect. Thankfully it didn't sound as if he was pissed off or angry.

"What would you assume that I am here for re-election? Can't a councilor just visit the men and women of law enforcement with a reason beyond seeking another vote on the ballot?" Alexander didn't look up from the paperwork, but could sense Ludveck's smile (false or real, he couldn't tell). "I actually came here with an invitation."

A letter entered Alexander's field of vision and he put down his pen as he opened it. It was an invitation, to the Final Destination Theater. Alexander mentally read the note to himself in his head.

Show this invitation to gain entrance to the Seventh Annual City Service Appreciation Gala.

Time: 8:00pm to 2:00am

Attire: Suit and Tie

Meal: Provided by Luigi Italy, served at 6:45

Live music will be performed by Hyrule University Orchestra, with a harp solo by our own Elincia Crimea.

Alexander nodded and placed the invitation down. "This is in two day's time, correct?" When Ludveck gave a curt nod, Alexander pretended to roll the idea around in his head, even though he had already made his decision. "Very well, I'll go along."

He clapped his hands together. "Excellent, and there is a slot open for a short speech, since the commissioner is out of town. Would you be willing-"

"Yes, I'll do it. Thank you for your visit and if you don't mind, I have work to catch up on." Ludveck was initially shocked that he was interrupted, but grunted in confirmation as he headed out. Once he was out of sight, Alexander cracked into a smile. If he wanted a speech, he will give them one.