Antoine wasn't sure, but she thought she heard voices over her. 'It must be three in the morning...' she thought, sleepily. Whose voices were they? "Aidenn?" She murmured, not really awake. She didn't remember it in the morning.
Adrian noticed, after a few hours of watching them, that Aidenn was awake and staring back at him.
"Something is different, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"We don't want to sleep with her." It wasn't a question.
"No. We love her, but only the way we love us." They turned and noticed Antoine peering at them sleepily.
"Aidenn?" She fell asleep immediately.
Aidenn looked down at her, his heart full of love for her. He noticed Adrian watching him, carefully. He didn't like the look in his brother's eyes.
"Who do we love more?"
"Don't ask that. We know we can't answer."
"We know. But we know everything we think. We both know the answer." He rolled away from his Twin.
Aidenn knew that his Twin was wrong. He thought he knew, but he didn't. He loved them both, equally. They were such opposites, they couldn't both be loved the same way, but he favored neither of them. He crept into his Twin's bed. They snuggled, and he felt his Twin's forgiveness. He stayed with his other half for about half an hour, until he heard Antoine's restless rustling.
'Go.' Adrian thought to him, but there was no anger in it.
'Thank us.'
'Go to her.'
Aidenn slept the rest of the night with Antoine.
The first thing Antoine noticed when she was properly awake up was that A) she appeared to have contorted into a permanent blob with Aidenn and B) Aidenn had managed to extract his head somehow and C) He was staring up at Adrian who was staring at both of them, smirking. Just when she thought that she was going to be attached to him forever, he leapt up easily, leaving her in a very weird position.
"Um, hi?" She said, Adrian's stare was making her nervous. Aidenn's little "heart-to-heart-with-someone-I-barely-know" thing was gone, and his smirk now matched his Twin's.
"Comfy? We figured you didn't need to change like we do, so we let you sleep."
"You can't shift clothes?" This was the best her mangled brain could come up with.
"Yeah. Get up. We have to wake the others up and have breakfast."
"'k. Could you please stop staring at me like that? It's like you're looking through me or something." They only smirked harder and walked off, in perfect unison, to the door, leaving her staring at them. 'Never EVER get at all attached to assassin programs!' She thought 'They're sooooo aggravating!' She followed them.
Morpheus didn't appear to have gotten any sleep, and was eyeing Niobe, who was snuggled up next to him, warily. Neo and Trinity were still asleep, cozied up together. Adrian, a mischievous look on his face, leaned right over Niobe's face and poked her. Right in the butt.
"Oh Morpheus... I love it when you do that..." she muttered, still asleep. Morpheus looked disgusted. Aidenn started laughing, and started shaking Trinity. She leapt up, pulled a gun out of somewhere, and instantly had him pinned against the wall.
"Damn, you're good! For a-"
"If-you-say-human-I-will-seriously-shoot-you!"
"-woman." He snickered. "If you ever get tired of him..." His Twin spun on him, a very irate look on his face. Aidenn just shrugged and blew her another kiss. Adrian and Trinity both shuddered.
At this point both Niobe and Neo woke up, looked up, and stood up. "Did I miss something?" Neo asked, examining Trinity's expression.
"Neeeeoooo! Go beat them up! They're coming on to me!"
"Hey!" Cut in Adrian "We had nothing to do with this! Leave us out of this. US, however, we can feel free to beat up."
"Oh yeah? Then we'll tell Him about that time that we were at that place with the medal around our head..."
"Fine. If we want to get stuck in a wall again."
"Are we threatening us?" Aidenn looked scandalized.
"Yes."
"We wouldn't!"
"We know we would. So don't."
"It's too early to be beaten up."
"Oh both of you shut up! Don't we have to go to breakfast?" It was Antoine, of course. She was the only one who dared talk to them like that. "No beating, no telling weird stuff, no walls. Just breakfast. It can't be that bad..."
Ten minutes later, she realized just how wrong she was. She didn't know how much she could take without snapping. All the guards, the Merovingian, Persephone, the patrons, the waiters, the Twins... they were all staring at her! 'Why?' she wondered 'what is sooooo special?!' She started glaring at them all. Except the Twins. Or rather, Aidenn. Adrian deserved glares. Suddenly, she noticed that they both had that glazed look that they got when talking mentally. Adrian nodded, and smiled at her. Weird. He had never smiled at her. Smirked, sure, but never smiled. She flicked her ears back, narrowed her gaze, and looked elsewhere. She amused herself for a while by pointedly ignoring all the people staring at her, and watched the patrons. She found that the Twins' table was ideally situated for this, and she watched the man at table fourteen pick his nose. Until... The Merovingian's irritating voice broke through her thoughts.
"Thank you all for joining me for breakfast today. The food will be served shortly, but first I have a speech."
Antoine, listening to the speech wished desperately that she could either A) tune out, but she had never been any good at that, or B) communicate telepathically like the Twins. Aidenn looked at her pityingly, but went back to talking to his Twin. The only one who looked remotely interested in the Merovingian's blabbering about 'Cause and effect' was Niobe. Or maybe she was just half asleep... Neo and Trinity were just staring into each other's eyes, looking terrified. Morpheus was reading the menu, desperate for SOMETHING to read. Unfortunately, it was all in French, which he couldn't understand. Finally, just as Antoine was about to yell "SHUT UP!" he did just that.
"Now, enjoy!" A mass sigh was heard. The waiters scurried forwards to take people's orders, and the Twins got busy translating for Morpheus, Niobe, Neo and Trinity.
The food was ok, but Antoine had never been all that big on French food. Except baguettes. She was obsessed with baguettes, actually. But there were none. She started sulking and complaining about French restaurants that didn't have baguettes, until Aidenn told her to just "shut up about the bloody baguettes!" Which just made her sulk more, until he started running his finger over her knuckles, when they both relaxed so much they almost fell asleep.
(This actually works. Make a fist, or have someone else do it. Then, very very gently, run one finger back and forth over the knuckles and the skin between them. Both you and the person who you're doing this to will both get very, very relaxed. I didn't mean to do this... It was sort of an accident, so my friend and I wandered around all stoned... It would have been funny, but we had a band practice...)
After breakfast, everyone else practically had to drag Antoine and Aidenn out of the restaurant, causing everyone to stare at them, the Merovingian to look outraged, and Persephone to look hopeful. Adrian looked rather embarrassed, too.
Once they were safely out of the restaurant, Adrian turned to his Twin. "What was that about? You're both about to fall asleep right here!"
"We didn't know that would happen... We just wanted her to stop sulking..." Aidenn answered, sleepily.
"We see... Well, it worked! We'd better hurry if we're going to make it to our appointment on time." They hurried to bring the rebels to their suite, and they were almost to the parkade when they heard very light footsteps behind them. The three of them turned and saw the Lady of the Silken Fur standing behind them.
"He requessstsss your presenssssse. All thhhree of you. In hisssss offisssse. Sssssomething about the job today, I thhhink."
"Thank you, Lady." Adrian said, very politely. Antoine thought it was funny, hearing the note of fear in their voices when she was around. The Lady noticed Antoine's smile and smiled back. She would love to spar with the Lady sometime... They turned, the Twins grumbling, and went back the way they had come. Antoine was apprehensive about entering His lair, but she had no choice.
"Ah, ma Jumeaux! And the Backup! A pleasure, to be sure. I assume you intend to take her with you today?"
The Twins nodded, hoping they would be able to leave soon.
"Tres bien. I am asking because..." He paused, most irritatingly. "I am thinking about employing the Backup..." He caught sight of her face. "Antoine. As a bodyguard."
This came as such a complete shock to all three of them that they just stood, blinking.
"What was that?" Adrian asked, looking stunned.
"I know you heard me. I want you two to report to me on how she does. Let her do the killing, unless you feel she can't handle it. Now go."
"That was weird..." Antoine said, once they were back in the hall that lead to the parkade.
"Extremely... Maybe that was why he answered your summons in the first place?"
"Maybe. I doubt it though. I don't want to think about it. Who are we, or I, killing?"
"Some man, by the name of Erick Fronton. Apparently he owes the Merovingian money but won't pay him back."
"He's killing him over that?"
"Yeah. It doesn't bother you, does it? We just like getting the practice."
Was it just her imagination, or did Adrian sound ashamed? "No, I don't care. It just seems a little weird. He doesn't have a family or anything, does he?"
"No, he's just some hacker."
"Fine. Let's get out of here."
"Fine with us!" Aidenn, who was driving, executed a neat turn and they headed off to the city.
Just before entering the mall that the salon was in, Antoine remembered to lengthen her hair. Just so people wouldn't freak out if her hair suddenly grew about two feet. They made their way to the salon, ignoring the staring of the other people. After all, it wasn't every day that two identical albino Twins and another girl who looked oddly like them just came through the mall...
It was different in the salon, though. The Twins had gone there for so long that everyone was used to them. Antoine quite enjoyed having her hair washed, dried, and played with into dreadlocks, as did Adrian. They both loved being pampered. Aidenn, on the other hand, looked as if this was his duty, but he didn't have to enjoy it. He liked manicured better.
Antoine hated the manicure. She bit her lip so hard during the attacking of her nails that it almost started bleeding. When they started applying the black nail polish, she just watched in fascination. Aidenn, who wasn't watching the process, having seen it so many times, noticed this.
"What?" he asked, "Don't you ever do your nails?"
Without looking up, she answered "Once. Only once..."
"What happened?"
She imitated the ditzy receptionist's voice, "Oh! You dyed your hair blue! You must have used a ton of gel to get it that stiff!"
"Really?"
She nodded. "It took four showers, two bottles of shampoo, and one of conditioner to get out..."
He laughed and left her to watch the precise way the polish was applied to her hands.
After they were happily dreadlocked and polished, which took several hours, they walked to a fancy Indian restaurant nearby and bought lunch. She asked them what it was like to work for the Merovingian, as she was seriously considering it.
"After all, I have nothing better to do!" She said.
"Well, it's not so bad. You get paid well..." Just then the food came. "Very very well..." Adrian continued, glancing at the bill.
"His speeches get annoying, but he more or less lets us do whatever we want. Killing the ordinary little people isn't our usual job, it's more like practice."
"So what do you do?"
"Well, we aren't actually bodyguards all that often. Usually we go after military buildings, government secrets, that sort of thing."
"Why?"
"For His information trafficking. He sends us out to get information he can't get even with his computers."
"Oh. Ok."
"So will you do it?" Aidenn asked. He sounded very anxious.
"Ya, I suppose so." They finished their lunch.
Adrian noticed, after a few hours of watching them, that Aidenn was awake and staring back at him.
"Something is different, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"We don't want to sleep with her." It wasn't a question.
"No. We love her, but only the way we love us." They turned and noticed Antoine peering at them sleepily.
"Aidenn?" She fell asleep immediately.
Aidenn looked down at her, his heart full of love for her. He noticed Adrian watching him, carefully. He didn't like the look in his brother's eyes.
"Who do we love more?"
"Don't ask that. We know we can't answer."
"We know. But we know everything we think. We both know the answer." He rolled away from his Twin.
Aidenn knew that his Twin was wrong. He thought he knew, but he didn't. He loved them both, equally. They were such opposites, they couldn't both be loved the same way, but he favored neither of them. He crept into his Twin's bed. They snuggled, and he felt his Twin's forgiveness. He stayed with his other half for about half an hour, until he heard Antoine's restless rustling.
'Go.' Adrian thought to him, but there was no anger in it.
'Thank us.'
'Go to her.'
Aidenn slept the rest of the night with Antoine.
The first thing Antoine noticed when she was properly awake up was that A) she appeared to have contorted into a permanent blob with Aidenn and B) Aidenn had managed to extract his head somehow and C) He was staring up at Adrian who was staring at both of them, smirking. Just when she thought that she was going to be attached to him forever, he leapt up easily, leaving her in a very weird position.
"Um, hi?" She said, Adrian's stare was making her nervous. Aidenn's little "heart-to-heart-with-someone-I-barely-know" thing was gone, and his smirk now matched his Twin's.
"Comfy? We figured you didn't need to change like we do, so we let you sleep."
"You can't shift clothes?" This was the best her mangled brain could come up with.
"Yeah. Get up. We have to wake the others up and have breakfast."
"'k. Could you please stop staring at me like that? It's like you're looking through me or something." They only smirked harder and walked off, in perfect unison, to the door, leaving her staring at them. 'Never EVER get at all attached to assassin programs!' She thought 'They're sooooo aggravating!' She followed them.
Morpheus didn't appear to have gotten any sleep, and was eyeing Niobe, who was snuggled up next to him, warily. Neo and Trinity were still asleep, cozied up together. Adrian, a mischievous look on his face, leaned right over Niobe's face and poked her. Right in the butt.
"Oh Morpheus... I love it when you do that..." she muttered, still asleep. Morpheus looked disgusted. Aidenn started laughing, and started shaking Trinity. She leapt up, pulled a gun out of somewhere, and instantly had him pinned against the wall.
"Damn, you're good! For a-"
"If-you-say-human-I-will-seriously-shoot-you!"
"-woman." He snickered. "If you ever get tired of him..." His Twin spun on him, a very irate look on his face. Aidenn just shrugged and blew her another kiss. Adrian and Trinity both shuddered.
At this point both Niobe and Neo woke up, looked up, and stood up. "Did I miss something?" Neo asked, examining Trinity's expression.
"Neeeeoooo! Go beat them up! They're coming on to me!"
"Hey!" Cut in Adrian "We had nothing to do with this! Leave us out of this. US, however, we can feel free to beat up."
"Oh yeah? Then we'll tell Him about that time that we were at that place with the medal around our head..."
"Fine. If we want to get stuck in a wall again."
"Are we threatening us?" Aidenn looked scandalized.
"Yes."
"We wouldn't!"
"We know we would. So don't."
"It's too early to be beaten up."
"Oh both of you shut up! Don't we have to go to breakfast?" It was Antoine, of course. She was the only one who dared talk to them like that. "No beating, no telling weird stuff, no walls. Just breakfast. It can't be that bad..."
Ten minutes later, she realized just how wrong she was. She didn't know how much she could take without snapping. All the guards, the Merovingian, Persephone, the patrons, the waiters, the Twins... they were all staring at her! 'Why?' she wondered 'what is sooooo special?!' She started glaring at them all. Except the Twins. Or rather, Aidenn. Adrian deserved glares. Suddenly, she noticed that they both had that glazed look that they got when talking mentally. Adrian nodded, and smiled at her. Weird. He had never smiled at her. Smirked, sure, but never smiled. She flicked her ears back, narrowed her gaze, and looked elsewhere. She amused herself for a while by pointedly ignoring all the people staring at her, and watched the patrons. She found that the Twins' table was ideally situated for this, and she watched the man at table fourteen pick his nose. Until... The Merovingian's irritating voice broke through her thoughts.
"Thank you all for joining me for breakfast today. The food will be served shortly, but first I have a speech."
Antoine, listening to the speech wished desperately that she could either A) tune out, but she had never been any good at that, or B) communicate telepathically like the Twins. Aidenn looked at her pityingly, but went back to talking to his Twin. The only one who looked remotely interested in the Merovingian's blabbering about 'Cause and effect' was Niobe. Or maybe she was just half asleep... Neo and Trinity were just staring into each other's eyes, looking terrified. Morpheus was reading the menu, desperate for SOMETHING to read. Unfortunately, it was all in French, which he couldn't understand. Finally, just as Antoine was about to yell "SHUT UP!" he did just that.
"Now, enjoy!" A mass sigh was heard. The waiters scurried forwards to take people's orders, and the Twins got busy translating for Morpheus, Niobe, Neo and Trinity.
The food was ok, but Antoine had never been all that big on French food. Except baguettes. She was obsessed with baguettes, actually. But there were none. She started sulking and complaining about French restaurants that didn't have baguettes, until Aidenn told her to just "shut up about the bloody baguettes!" Which just made her sulk more, until he started running his finger over her knuckles, when they both relaxed so much they almost fell asleep.
(This actually works. Make a fist, or have someone else do it. Then, very very gently, run one finger back and forth over the knuckles and the skin between them. Both you and the person who you're doing this to will both get very, very relaxed. I didn't mean to do this... It was sort of an accident, so my friend and I wandered around all stoned... It would have been funny, but we had a band practice...)
After breakfast, everyone else practically had to drag Antoine and Aidenn out of the restaurant, causing everyone to stare at them, the Merovingian to look outraged, and Persephone to look hopeful. Adrian looked rather embarrassed, too.
Once they were safely out of the restaurant, Adrian turned to his Twin. "What was that about? You're both about to fall asleep right here!"
"We didn't know that would happen... We just wanted her to stop sulking..." Aidenn answered, sleepily.
"We see... Well, it worked! We'd better hurry if we're going to make it to our appointment on time." They hurried to bring the rebels to their suite, and they were almost to the parkade when they heard very light footsteps behind them. The three of them turned and saw the Lady of the Silken Fur standing behind them.
"He requessstsss your presenssssse. All thhhree of you. In hisssss offisssse. Sssssomething about the job today, I thhhink."
"Thank you, Lady." Adrian said, very politely. Antoine thought it was funny, hearing the note of fear in their voices when she was around. The Lady noticed Antoine's smile and smiled back. She would love to spar with the Lady sometime... They turned, the Twins grumbling, and went back the way they had come. Antoine was apprehensive about entering His lair, but she had no choice.
"Ah, ma Jumeaux! And the Backup! A pleasure, to be sure. I assume you intend to take her with you today?"
The Twins nodded, hoping they would be able to leave soon.
"Tres bien. I am asking because..." He paused, most irritatingly. "I am thinking about employing the Backup..." He caught sight of her face. "Antoine. As a bodyguard."
This came as such a complete shock to all three of them that they just stood, blinking.
"What was that?" Adrian asked, looking stunned.
"I know you heard me. I want you two to report to me on how she does. Let her do the killing, unless you feel she can't handle it. Now go."
"That was weird..." Antoine said, once they were back in the hall that lead to the parkade.
"Extremely... Maybe that was why he answered your summons in the first place?"
"Maybe. I doubt it though. I don't want to think about it. Who are we, or I, killing?"
"Some man, by the name of Erick Fronton. Apparently he owes the Merovingian money but won't pay him back."
"He's killing him over that?"
"Yeah. It doesn't bother you, does it? We just like getting the practice."
Was it just her imagination, or did Adrian sound ashamed? "No, I don't care. It just seems a little weird. He doesn't have a family or anything, does he?"
"No, he's just some hacker."
"Fine. Let's get out of here."
"Fine with us!" Aidenn, who was driving, executed a neat turn and they headed off to the city.
Just before entering the mall that the salon was in, Antoine remembered to lengthen her hair. Just so people wouldn't freak out if her hair suddenly grew about two feet. They made their way to the salon, ignoring the staring of the other people. After all, it wasn't every day that two identical albino Twins and another girl who looked oddly like them just came through the mall...
It was different in the salon, though. The Twins had gone there for so long that everyone was used to them. Antoine quite enjoyed having her hair washed, dried, and played with into dreadlocks, as did Adrian. They both loved being pampered. Aidenn, on the other hand, looked as if this was his duty, but he didn't have to enjoy it. He liked manicured better.
Antoine hated the manicure. She bit her lip so hard during the attacking of her nails that it almost started bleeding. When they started applying the black nail polish, she just watched in fascination. Aidenn, who wasn't watching the process, having seen it so many times, noticed this.
"What?" he asked, "Don't you ever do your nails?"
Without looking up, she answered "Once. Only once..."
"What happened?"
She imitated the ditzy receptionist's voice, "Oh! You dyed your hair blue! You must have used a ton of gel to get it that stiff!"
"Really?"
She nodded. "It took four showers, two bottles of shampoo, and one of conditioner to get out..."
He laughed and left her to watch the precise way the polish was applied to her hands.
After they were happily dreadlocked and polished, which took several hours, they walked to a fancy Indian restaurant nearby and bought lunch. She asked them what it was like to work for the Merovingian, as she was seriously considering it.
"After all, I have nothing better to do!" She said.
"Well, it's not so bad. You get paid well..." Just then the food came. "Very very well..." Adrian continued, glancing at the bill.
"His speeches get annoying, but he more or less lets us do whatever we want. Killing the ordinary little people isn't our usual job, it's more like practice."
"So what do you do?"
"Well, we aren't actually bodyguards all that often. Usually we go after military buildings, government secrets, that sort of thing."
"Why?"
"For His information trafficking. He sends us out to get information he can't get even with his computers."
"Oh. Ok."
"So will you do it?" Aidenn asked. He sounded very anxious.
"Ya, I suppose so." They finished their lunch.
