Chapter Two

"Bang"

I'd been kept waiting for nearly an hour. When Abbie's vessel finally pulled in, I jumped down from the crate I was sitting on and set off down to the dock.

Abbie was the last out, and he looked rather ticked off. When he saw me his face took on a relieved look. "Oh, you're here. Dannivel, you've no idea what I had to go through with Instructor I'm-So-Great Rankin!"

"Hyne, Abbie," I remarked, watching the cadets slink away looking embarrassed for their assigned SeeD. "Can it wait?"

"No, it can't wait. Rankin and I been... oh." Abbie caught my eyes and looked at his boots. "Hey, uh, Instructor Rankin? Go ahead with the cadets. I'm gonna hang back and catch up in a minute."

Rankin took one look at me and then gratefully jogged off with the cadets. "Why do they keep pairing you with him?" I asked, leaning against a crate that smelled like some sort of disgusting fish. "You didn't get along the first time, you obviously never have, and your cadets are feeling embarrassed for the both of you."

"Yeah, well, hullo to you too, Danni."

"Hey, I missed you today." I pulled Abbie into my arms and rested my chin on his head. "You were leaving just when I woke up."

Abbie's voice sounded muffled against my chest. "I would've stayed longer, but you were out of coffee, and I didn't want to go to the cafeteria, because that coffee's gross, so I went down to the"

"Training center." I finished his sentence for him, and Abbie looked up at me, smiling with that odd sense of wonder he gets when I do something he approves of.

"Yeah." He pressed a kiss to my collarbone and wrapped his arms around my waist. We stayed standing there for a long moment, holding each other before Abbie finally whispered, "We'd better move before someone from Garden walks along."

Reluctantly, we pulled away from each other and set off down the street. Rankin and the cadets were all piled into the car, and didn't look too pleased at the thought of not one, but two more passengers.

With so many people in the car, Abbie and I could sit close without looking odd, but the proximity coupled with Abbie's mischievous looks, all I could think about was grabbing Abbie in my hands and stripping him naked, licking him all over from head to toe. Not exactly my favorite line of thought in a car with eight people.

The cadets were talking amongst themselves for the entire trip, Rankin joined into their discussion, leaving Abbie and I to sit quietly for the most part, communicating silently over the chatter. Sometimes a cadet would try to include Abbie in the discussion, ignoring my presence. Abbie answered concisely and then quickly lapsed back into silence.

Ten minutes away from Garden, Abbie spoke up, unable to communicate what he was thinking silently. "You need to pick up more coffee."

It was hard to resist the urge to run my fingers through Abbie's hair. It was a wild, natural red, lacking the orange tint that most redheads have. I murmured, "I'll do it later tonight, Abbie."

Something about the way I said it, so soft and familiar caused Abbie's back to stiffen as the eyes of Rankin and the cadets focused onto me. Abbie gave a quick warning look before diverting his eyes to his lap, where his hands twisted together. I copied his actions, looking away and occupying my hands by clenching them into tight fists. Rankin didn't look away until we were approaching Garden, and Abbie twisted to look out the window, making a trivial comment about the rain that had just started.

The car pulled into the parking lot and everyone climbed out and scattered. For the first few minutes Abbie walked nearly four feet ahead of me, his feet moving quickly. I couldn't catch up to him without looking suspicious until we were walking through the open hallway leading to the dorms. I jogged up to him, caught his elbow and turned him to face me.

"Slow down, you're walking too fast..." I let the thought trail off as I saw the tears pooling in Abbie's eyes. "Oh, Abbie." He was warm against my chest, and his sobs started, the tears soaking my shoulder. "Abbie, baby, I know,"

"It shouldn't hurt this much anymore," He sobbed. I felt him go limp, and I lowered us both to the floor, cradling him in my arms. Lucky that no one was walking to their room at that moment, but finally I had to think ahead.

Even though it was the root of the problem, I stood up and looked at Abbie on the floor, prepared for another bought of tears. "Come on, let's go to my room."

Abbie stood up next to me and followed me to my dorm, lagging behind this time, crippled with emotion. I punched the code in and entered my room, sitting down on the bed and waiting for Abbie to compose himself, which he did fairly quickly as he leaned in the doorway, staring at me with wide, tear stained eyes.

"I like it when you, when you wear your shirt unbuttoned like that." He closed the door behind him and moved towards me, his fingers trailing over the buttons on my shirt. "I love you, Danni." He whispered.

I leaned back and pulled him with me, holding him close. "I love you too, Abbie."

"Not enough," Abbie murmured. "Show me."

Abbie suddenly seemed to be wearing too many clothes, his somewhat bizarre way of dressing too complicated for the moment. As I wrestled with his belts and buckles, there was an announcement that crackled over the speaker.

"All SeeDs with an ID ending in an odd number, please report to the front gate immediately."

"Bloody fucking hell." I cursed, lips freezing a few inches over Abbie's straining need.

"Ignore it for a minute," Abbie begged, tugging at my waistband, his fingers threading through my hair. "We'll run down in a bit."

It was impossible to object, and any argument I would've had became obliterated as Abbie's fingers traced down to my groin.

We weren't overly late anyways. Abbie and I managed to slip into the group unnoticed, arriving just in time to hear the overview of what seemed to be an elaborate mission. Xu stood at the front of the group, explaining the assignment.

"Another call arrived sixty-three hours ago for SeeD help, and we've put it off as long as possible. We realize that a few of you have just got back from the field exam, but there is simply no possibility of putting this off for any longer."

The announcements crackled to life once more, asking the even numbered SeeDs to report to the Quad.

Xu let the announcement finish before continuing. "It seems that Deling City is facing a crisis—unprovoked attack, or so they say. We've also recently received a call for SeeD assistance from Timber, who claim that Deling City has recently launched an assassination attempt on one of their more prominent figures.

"The assassination was meant to kill Bjorn Friedrich, a local politician who is in resistance to Galbadian rule. Obviously, the timing of these two incidents has aroused suspicion. We are sending SeeDs to both locations, not only to deal with the problems, but also to see if there is a connection between the attack on Deling City and the assassination attempt.

"The SeeDs with even numbers will be sent to Deling City to get the rival forces out of the city, preferably as peaceful as possible. The odd numbered SeeDs will be split into several groups, some going to Timber to perform various jobs, and one or two groups going to Deling City to spy. As you can see, your jobs will be more information gathering."

I looked over to Abbie, who smiled at the thought of doing something that would put his skills to good use. He noticed my eyes and caught them for a moment, his lips parting into a toothy grin.

"I have a list of the teams here," Xu continued. "All teams were chosen to be well rounded for the job they were assigned to, which means that complaining is absolutely unacceptable. However I'm sure that since all of you are SeeDs, we'll have none of that." I noticed that her eyes rested on Rankin, then shifted slowly to Abbie as she said this. I wasn't the only one who noticed, because Abbie's shoulders slumped and he groaned low in his throat.

He moaned, "I'm with that asshole again?"

Xu held up the list and shook it in the air. "Now silence, please. I'll read off the teams. Can Abbie Arbrin, Kiesha Ellehart and Louis Rankin step forward please?" Abbie trailed his fingers over my hand as he left my side, walking to the front of the crowd. "Alright, now will the three of you head upstairs to the 2F classroom, where you'll be walked through your particular assignment."

It was a long time before my name came up. Xu slid the paper down in her hands and cleared her throat. "Reid Cade, Dannivel Fellen and Mystique Lune... head to the library, please."

I took up the rear on the way to the library, taking the moment to observe Reid and Mystique. Reid was built a lot like Abbie—slender and of average height. Judging by the belt around his waist he was some sort of explosives specialist. Mystique was the type of girl you'd expect to find with a name like that. She looked absolutely loony, her long blue skirt over high white boots, coupled with a shirt that flowed to halfway down her leg. I didn't even want to know her specialization.

The library was nearly empty except for the man who was going to brief us on our mission. He was leafing through some papers when we arrived, smirking to himself.

"Well, this is quite a motley crew." He commented. The man nodded to Mystique and said, "Good to see you, Myst. Up for this?"

"I'm ready for anything." Mystique replied. Her voice was low and husky. I found it oddly repelling.

The man looked at Reid, his smile growing manic. "Explosives, huh? Ooh, I'm glad to meet another. Unfortunately, this job doesn't require your skills in that field, but in your shooting."

Reid shrugged. "Either way, it bangs."

Great, I thought to myself, I've got a man with boobs and a psycho. I just hoped I wouldn't get my head blown off in my sleep.

Then the man's attention was turned to me. "Dannivel, hnn? Can I call you Dan?"

It was a trick question. Whether I said yes or no, he'd still use it. It didn't really matter anyways. Dannivel was too long for most people, and I wouldn't let anyone but Abbie call me Danni. "Why not." I sighed.

"Great! So, Dan, you're a martial artist. Care to show us a punch? Put on your gloves and give me a swing."

"I'll break your jaw." I warned, not bragging, just stating fact.

The man shrugged. "Then punch this," He held up a book. "It's my own personal copy, so no library charges if it's damaged."

I took one look at the book, shook my shoulder out and swung. Crack! There was a hole going all the way through the book. My fist was inches from the guy's face.

"Wow, that's some punch." He commented, eyes wide. "Anyway, I guess I'd better get on with the briefing. My name is Darcy, and I'm filling you in on what you're supposed to do. And guess what guys... and gal...we've ended up with the short straw of the draw." Darcy peered at us as through scrutinizing us for purchase. "We've got the hardest job of the evens. When I say we I mean you, because obviously, I'm not going with."

"Great," I muttered.

Darcy smiled. "Anyways, the idea is that since Mr. Friedrich has had an assassination attempt, he's a little paranoid, a little jumpy. He wants a bodyguard. Since this is an information mission, you can guess what else a bodyguard will do."

Mystique sighed, then said, "I never thought SeeD took missions like this. We're mercenaries, not spies."

"Well, if you look in a dictionary, a mercenary is defined as 'a professional soldier hired for service in a foreign army'. There is absolutely nothing that says that mercenaries cannot spy." Darcy replied.

Although I really had nothing against spying, I spoke up in Mystique's defense, just because it was a point that needed to be brought up. "But if mercenaries are hired out for foreign armies, it wasn't Timber that asked us to spy on them. Deling City didn't even. We're just doing our own detective work."

Darcy huffed, "Well, you're getting paid for it, so just let me finish the briefing." I crossed my arms over my chest and shifted my weight to my left, watching Darcy clear his throat and make some important harrumphing noises. "Anyways, he's paranoid enough to want not one, but three professional bodyguards. His request was for persons skilled, not only in weapons, but in hand-to-hand," here he paused and gestured at me, "as well as persons skilled in more of an indirect, magical way." He tilted his head towards Mystique. "So basically, it's a simple guard mission, which I know from your files that you've all done before. So do what you did then, just keep an ear out for anything you hear."

"I cannot wait for the mission to come," Mystique said in her husky, low voice. "It will be good to exercise some skill."

Darcy nodded. "You'll be taking the train to Timber in the morning, so rest up well tonight. You're going to meet Lieutenant Till once you get there, and he'll take you to Mr. Friedrich. He doesn't know about the spying bit, he's not with us. To him you're just a regular enlisted bodyguard, so act it."

Reid, who had been completely quiet for the entire briefing, spoke up. "It's not honorable, you know." Then he formed a fist with his hand and mimed throwing something at his feet. "Bang." He whispered.

I shook my head and left the library, somewhat irked at that little display of odd behavior. Mystique came up beside me, her hands tucked into what I suppose were once jeans, but the seams were split almost all the way up to her thighs, creating two large flaps of fabric that swayed when she walked. "Sounds fun, n'est-ce pas?"

"Leave me alone," I grumbled, already having a bad feeling about this mission. Mystique followed me until I turned into the dorms, leaving her standing there sort of awkwardly. She called to my retreating back, "Don't fuck this up, Fellen! We're counting on you."

I shook my head and kept walking.