-Uh oh, broody, moody Remy.- Emil had just come back to his room after a hacking lesson with his older cousin Theoren, when he spotted the mutant teen sitting in his room, frantically shuffling a deck of playing cards.
"Why are you sitting next to my bed?"
Remy tore his attention away from the cards. "No room on the bed." Emil winced slightly, as there actually was no room on the bed. The blankets were a messy pile, next to them several books about computers, his homework and a few CDs. To top off the mess, his PJs lay there in a crumpled pile, taking up the last major open spot. Emil also suspected them to be the source of the strange, sweaty smell. Remy smirked at Emil and added "And I ain't cleaning up that piece of modern art." Remy returned to his thoughts, and his hands returned to the card-shuffling. Emil groaned. Remy continued ignoring him and indulging in his favorite nervous tick.
"Alright, let me clarify this: Why are you sitting next to my bed IN MY ROOM and not your OWN room?"
Remy huffed. "Hubbard's patrolling in front of my room." Emil wanted to howl in frustration.
"Have you thought about the... possibility... of your brother having ordered him to patrol in front of your room for your protection?" Remy wasn't exactly known for his well-thought through decisions.
If looks could kill, Emil would be dead, lying on the floor.
A news story that had run last week popped into Emil's head. "So, you're gonna blast me like that guy from the news, that X-Guy?"
Remy looked momentarily confused, then cackled and mimed the super terrorist's signature gesture. The news had run a story about a group of mutant terrorists that had been active for two years up until they seemingly completely disappeared half a year ago. Emil let himself fall back on his bed, as if he had been hit by the mutant's red 'eye blast'. He landed on one of the books and winced as a corner painfully poked him, though that didn't stop him from following Remy into a laughing fit.
Still gasping for air Emil shifted away from the book, nearly sitting down on his homework, then decided to just follow his cousins example and sit on the floor.
"Rem, I was being serious."
Remy now glared at Emil through his bangs. "'For my protection'. Yeah, sure. I bet most people in this Guild, including my dear bodyguard, wouldn't mind all that much if I were to have a little 'accident'."
"Fine. He's there to keep Henri from worrying too much. That reason enough for you?"
The mutant teen, apparently in a nonverbal mood, huffed again.
"Isn't the big, bad mutant who sleeps with a knife under his pillow going to deign me with answer?"
-Apparently not.- Frustrated and slowly wanting to get some time for himself, Emil pulled Remy up into a standing position and started pushing him out of his room. Remy
"Wait, how d'you know 'bout the knife?"
"Remember that time the Assassins put that bomb in the Gervais' house? If you didn't want me to know, you shouldn't have brought it to the catacombs."
Remy was being extremely uncooperative. -Who would have thought pushing a sixteen year old out of his room would be just as hard as getting rid of two annoying mid-twenties older brothers?-
"You went through my stuff?!" -That's the only thing you got out of my question?- He sometimes really couldn't believe his cousin's priorities.
"Pot calling the kettle black. You mysteriously were the first to know about Mandy."
"Everybody knew you had a crush on her!"
"The 'Warped Tour'?"
"That was for a birthday present!"
"Uhu. Excuses, excuses."
Emil concluded that Remy was easier to move when he was busy talking, so the show... uh, conversation must go on. Preferably something that would have Remy trying to come up with excuses and forgetting to stubbornly resist Emil's attempts at getting some privacy.
"Why'd you have that knife anyways? Not your usual style, you know."
"What's it to you?"
"And there I thought you trusted me." Just two more feet and Emil would be able to close, lock and block the door, with his unreasonable cousin outside.
"It was a present from Bella..." Remy grumbled.
Remy was now nearly far enough into the hallway for Emil to shut the door. Now he only had to distract Remy enough to keep him from pushing his foot into the door. He suddenly had an idea.
"How'd you get in here? I doubt Léon just let you walk out of the house this late."
Remy snorted. "O' course he didn't. Hubbard doesn't trust me as far as he can throw me, probably not even half as far. Well, I saw Fortier patrolin' in front of my room, and quickly went down to the catacombs before Hubbard's shift began. Bertrand is always softer on me, y'know. So, I go through the- Hey, what?!"
Remy stumbled into the hallway, Emil closed the door, locked it, put a chair under the handle and sat on it. No better way to distract Remy than get him mesmerized by his favorite sound: His own voice.
"Open the door. Bunny, I'm talking to you!" Remy hissed while scratching and quietly knocking on the door. Nobody wanted to risk the wrath of Angélique Lapin by waking up her two youngest. "I'm not leaving here." A quiet thump hinted at the persistent mutant having planted himself on the other side of the door.
"I'm not letting you in. Go to your own room. We have lessons tomorrow. I need my alone-time." With those words Emil got up and was just about to start relocating the mess on his bed when Remy started to rhythmically tap and rap the door.
He continued with the task at hand. -Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him. He'll get bored and leave. Ignore him. Ignore him.-
The tapping continued.
-Well, I can't exactly read or work on my programs with that tapping, and *Mére* forbid me to put on music after Tav's and Oli's bedtime...- He settled on trying to reorganize his pens and folding the clothes lying on the floor for about a month.
The rhythm got slightly louder.
-Damn, you Emil! You're a Thief, you're supposed to be able to resist torture and all that jazz. Don't give in now. It can't have been more than half an hour...- He checked his watch. -...Ooor fifteen minutes.-
"Em! Ee-hem. Emil. I need you to come with me." Remy didn't stop tapping the door.
"Are you afraid, cry-baby?" Emil hissed. Maybe that would get Remy to leave. The hacker-in-training already felt like he was on the edge of his sanity.
"*Non*! I'm no cry-baby!" Remy shot back "But I need you to convince Hubbard that I wasn't out planning to betray the Guild or... whatever else they think I'm guilty of." An uncomfortable unsaid 'or kill somebody' hung in the air.
Emil dropped his head in his hands, shook himself and groaned.
"Alright. I'm coming. Screw you."
Léon Hubbard couldn't believe he had been assigned to guard the Mutie. He quickly checked the ceiling. -But Henri Lebeau said he had to be guarded, and I'm not about to question that.-
Nothing noteworthy was going on outside the window. -Henri's pretty much the new Guildmaster.-
Nothing suspicious going on in the Lapin House, as far as he could see. -Not that he deserves it all that puts that Mutie before his responsibilities as Guildmaster.-
Hubbard turned around and walked back toward the staircase. -Coincilmember Guillory is right. The Mutie wasn't born in the Guild, and Jean-Luc was insane to take him in and let him enter the line of succession. He is probably trying to kill his way to the top. Those twisted Muties don't feel like humans do.-
Still nothing out of the ordinary. -Maybe it's good that I'm here guarding him. For the Guild's safety.-
-Is it normal for a child to be quiet all the time?- Léon didn't have any children, but Félicianne, his sister, had told him that her two sons were noisy menaces. -He may not even be a child! Maybe he can change his appearance...- Léon shuddered. He really hoped that wasn't the case.
Léon checked the hallway's corners. -But Coincilmember Guillory said 'Remy Lebeau' could manipulate people... He probably was manipulating the Lebeaus!-
The sound of quiet footsteps ripped the Guard out of his thoughts. Two sets of footsteps, one barely audible at this distance.
"Hey, Hubbard, it's Emil and Remy." That was Emil Lapin's voice.
The two sixteen year olds came up the stairs and the Lapin boy boxed the Mutie's shoulder. "There ya go, crybaby. Next time we're in town, you're buying me a CD of my choosing."
Léon glared at the Mutie. He couldn't blame Emil for being friends with it. He was probably being manipulated.
As it disappeared into it's room, wearing that lopsided smirk he used so often, Léon chastised himself for not having checked his room. -No wonder it had been so quiet, the Mutie hadn't even been in the room. What kind of cretin do I have to be to not check the room! Or maybe the Mutie used his demon magic to be able to come and leave unnoticed? No matter what, me running on only a few hours of sleep and caffeine couldn't have helped.-
In times of stress and danger Guards had a busy schedule, not that Léon minded though. Being important to the Guild made him feel proud of being a Guard. Not that he wouldn't have preferred to be a Thief. It was hard to accept that a street rat Mutie, who used god knows what Mutie powers and demon magic to pass the Tilling got to be called a Thief, and Léon didn't. -One little slipped hand when I was thirteen, and I will never be a Guild-Thief. But that is the Guild's law.- If he couldn't contribute to the Guild by being a Thief, he could at least do his duty as a Guard and report the Mutie's suspicious activities. -Not to Henri Lebeau though. He's probably being manipulated. Now Guillory, he can be trusted.-