"Oh, I'll get it!" said a man's voice from behind, followed by a door shutting and footsteps jogging towards the cab. Turning around, they saw a young man smiling warmly at them with some money in his hands. After being paid, the cab driver sped off leaving them with the strange man...
"Oh, hi, I'm James." he said extending a hand to whoever wanted to shake it. Amon reached out and grabbed his hand, shaking it briefly before returning his own to his side, not used to shaking hands. Nagira did the same as did Robin who didn't feel strange about it at all. In fact, she was rather happy about not having to bow as she usually forgot to in Japan, something Doujima had called her on at least once. After they all were introduced they headed inside and were met with a rather beautiful sight. It wasn't like a mansion but it was warm and friendly, a comfy place to live.
"Nice place you got here." Nagira commented, looking around, Robin imitating this, awed by how beautiful it was.
Chuckling, James replied "Thank you. I suppose you three will need your own money if you want to get around. I've already taken care of it, no need to exchange your own, just keep it."
"How would you do such a thing so quickly and easily?" Amon asked, not one to let such a statement pass. How could this man just give them money? James only turned around, a warm smile still on his face, and winked. Seeing this, Nagira had to keep from laughing. "Oh boy, wrong move...that's only going to make Amon more on edge now..." he thought to himself. He knew his brother, knew he liked being in control...he knew he wouldn't let something like that pass. Oh no, of course not...now he was going to keep his eyes and ears open even more if possible...
"Well, I'll show you to your rooms so you can put your things away and we can move on from there." They followed James up the stairs to the third floor where each was shown to their own room. Robin's room was one with a view of the street below in a feminine white, Amon's was across from her's, oddly in almost all black...how fitting...Nagira's was beside Robin's on the left and was decorated in much the same way as Amon's although somehow less moody, Nagira thought to himself. "Maybe that's because my room has me in it and Amon's has him in it." Nagira thought, chuckling a little. Looking over at Amon he saw that he was staring at him as though he were loony. At this, Nagira turned his attention back to James, not intending on saying anything...what an inappropriate time...later maybe.
"Alright, I should introduce you to the others..." James said clapping his hands together.
"The others?" Nagira asked, the thought that others were staying there as well just then coming back to him. "Oh yeah, I remember being told that we wouldn't be alone."
"Yeah, we have a few others here to help out. Come, I'll introduce you." James said, turning to walk back down a floor. They stopped at the first door on the right, James knocking three times and then stepping back to wait for the inhabitant to come out. A man of about 21 walked out, looking around at the guests, his face then suddenly brightening as though he were just remembering that they were expecting guests in the first place.
"Oh, hello, you must be Robin, Amon, and Nagira, I'm Nate." he said kindly, extending his hand.
"I'm Nagira" Nagira said as he reached for Nate's hand.
Amon introduced himself without shaking Nate's hand, he was still tense from meeting James and was already sick of shaking hands.
"And you must be Robin, it's a pleasure to meet you." Nate said, taking Robin's hand and gently kissing it. Seeing this, Nagira turned his gaze towards Amon wanting to see his reaction. He saw Amon grimace at Nate's show of...eh, affection, and for once didn't feel like laughing. Poor guy, all he could do was hope that Nate wouldn't develop a "thing" for Robin or Amon might just go crazy.
"Now on to Sarah's room, she's about your age Robin so you two will probably get along great." James said, leading them across the hall. Knocking on the door, they heard footsteps almost running seemingly excited to the door. The door flew open and there stood a blonde haired, blue eyed girl with a huge grin on her face.
"They're here! Oh, you must be Robin, hi, I'm Sarah, it's so nice to meet you! I've been the only girl here for months now, I'm glad that you're here to keep me company." she rattled off quickly. Smiling, Robin introduced herself, Sarah shaking her hand excitedly. Despite her...energetic...first impression, Robin had the feeling that they would become friends. She didn't say anything but she, too, was rather happy that there was another girl around. Robin wasn't used to having any female friends and the ones she had at the STNJ were barred from having contact with her outside of work. Robin had thought that was rather strange, colleagues unable to talk outside of work...she had always wanted a close friend.
"And that's everyone, although we're expecting another arrival any time today. A woman by the name of Aideen said she would help as well. A man back in Japan contacted me and said he knew one of your contacts, Nagira, and he said..."
"Which one?" Amon asked quickly. Someone else was coming? Sent by another? Bells were ringing in Amon's head and his heart sped up. How safe was it here after all? How much did they know? Nagira's plan of just jumping onto a plane and heading to the middle of no where was starting to sound better than this one.
"Oh, pardon me for not saying earlier, I understand your caution. Shin was his name, he said you had contacted him before leaving asking for information. He and I work together as well so we have a common contact I suppose you could say. He said the woman he was sending had contacted him after hearing through the grapevine of the Factory's fall. She wishes to help the "Eve" as he told me she put it." he grinned at this, "the Eve". Still seeing Amon's look of disapproval, he went on. "Don't worry, that wasn't the first time that he had heard of her. He had heard her name spoken before, she, too, is fighting for witches. I trust Shin's judgment." he added, smiling. "I'll leave you three to get accustomed to the house, make yourselves at home." he finished, walking away, back downstairs.
"Hey, Robin, want to come in? We can hang out toghether." Sarah asked, still smiling. "So, this is what a normal teenager is like?" Robin wondered to herself, already seeing a big difference in their behavior. Looking to Amon as if for permission, he nodded, figuring she would be okay out of his sight for once.
"Sure." Robin replied pleasantly, walking into Sarah's room. Upon entering, Robin saw that the room was entirely pink. It seemed to match Sarah's personality...
"Hey, wanna watch TV?" Sarah asked, walking over to her bed to sit down, the remote control in her hand. Nodding, Robin joined her, happy to be in such a place where things were looking up.
"So, what do you think?" Nagira asked, sitting in his room with Amon. Amon was standing by the window, looking down into the street, a frown on his face.
"I don't know, I won't until that other woman comes and I can get a feel for the entire situation." he replied seriously.
"Look little bro, I know you don't like being in this type of a situation, relying on other people you don't know, but James is a nice guy and..."
"And what? Nice guys can all be trusted? We're taking a chance and you know it." Amon said, turning to look at him.
"A chance, yes, but we aren't as at risk as you think. What? You think Sarah is going to attack you in the middle of the night? Strangle you with her pink curtains?" Nagira laughed.
Glaring at him, Amon walked towards the door saying "You'd be wise to keep your eyes and ears open, Nagira, this isn't play time." as he went.
"Yeah, yeah, I don't need my little brother telling me to stay on guard, I just don't intend to be suspicious of everyone and everything I see...but that picture over there is looking a bit shady, maybe it's one of those pictures with holes in the eyes where someone can spy on you...think it is? Maybe we should inspect it, are there any suits of armor around here while we're at it? Hey, Am..." looking around, he saw that Amon was already at the door, obviously irritated with his brother's jokes, hand on the doorknob. "Shut up Nagira." and with that, Amon exited the room.
Amon had settled himself in his room, seeing no need to leave. He didn't know anyone, didn't know where he was, and was not in the mood. Nagira, remembering that James had told them to "make themselves at home", had set out to explore. Robin was still in Sarah's room where they had watched TV, talked (Well, Robin listened and Sarah talked although she didn't mind.), and Sarah talked Robin into letting her put some makeup on her. Worried at first, Robin agreed, not one to deny someone something so simple that would obviously make them happy. She had sat down in front of Sarah's mirror and let her work on her, all the while talking on and on. She was certainly bubbly...
"...And I'm finished! Hey, you look really pretty Robin, what do you think?" Sarah said, obviously happy with her work, a big smile on her face. Looking into the mirror, Robin was surprised with her reflection. She had never thought of herself as ugly but rather...plain...not beautiful like Touko..."Whoa, where did that thought come from?" Robin thought to herself.
"Nice." Robin replied, honestly pleased with her new look, unable to say anything else.
"Glad you like it." Sarah said, happy with herself. At this, the door bell rang and Sarah turned her head towards the door quickly as though the person were waiting right outside her own door.
"Oh! It must be that other woman! Come on Robin, let's go see!" Sarah exclaimed, grabbing Robin's hand and dragging her out the door with her. Apparently, Nagira and Amon had the same idea as both appeared in the hallway at the same time. Sarah stopped, Robin's hand still in hers, and turned to Amon and Nagira. "You two coming too? Oh, hey, like what I did with Robin. Pretty, huh?"
Looking closer, Amon and Nagira both saw that Robin had makeup on. Grinning, Nagira saw a great opportunity..."You look pretty kid, right Amon?"
"Damn him." Amon thought to himself. He may have kissed Robin and told Nagira he cared but he hadn't commited to her...and this other kid was here, how was he supposed to just say "Yeah, you look great." in front of her? Seeing Robin looking at him, waiting for an answer, he simply nodded, hoping that would suffice.
"We better hurry, we'll miss everything if we don't!" Sarah said, racing down the hall pulling Robin behind her. Nagira still smiling, followed, calling behind him "Coming?" catching Amon's glare. "What?" Nagira asked innocently, letting Amon catch up. "Shut up Nagira."
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Amon saw Robin and Sarah standing on the bottom step watching James and Nate talking to a woman in a dark purple, floor length dress, with a black floor length coat over top of it. From behind he could see that she had long black hair to about the middle of her back. Hearing more people enter the room, the woman turned around, smiling at the new arrivals. Amon could then see that her skin was pale and her eyes were a bright blue. She was somewhere in her 20's and looked innocent enough...
"Hello, I'm Aideen." she said walking forward to meet Amon and Nagira.
"I'm Nagira and this is my brother, Amon." Nagira said smiling, grabbing her hand and shaking it. Nodding, Amon also took her hand and shook it.
Looking Amon in the eyes she continued on. "I hope you don't mind my coming along. When I heard of the Eve's trouble I had to help."
"No, of course not." said Nagira. "We're grateful for your help." Upon hearing his voice, she turned her gaze towards Nagira for a split second before looking back to Amon. Seeing this, Nagira actually felt himself getting a little...angry...he could see a problem. Was this woman attracted to Amon? Was Nate attracted to Robin? "God, this might be shaping up to becoming a soap opera at this rate..." he thought to himself.
Breaking the quiet, Sarah said happily, "Wow, there are so many people now! This'll be fun!"
I had to laugh reading over some of my reviews again because I saw that someone said that my story is well planned out...because I haven't planned anything but the names and the general order of who might die and when. -Laughs- I just sit down and start typing. I envision everything in my mind and type it up as it "happens". Odd, huh?
I had chapter 13 done at about 12:30am but I got tired and started to slow down. It took about 15 minutes to get back into things because I had forgotten where I left off. I had to backtrack and read up on my own story so I wouldn't make something dumb happen, imagine that. -Laughs- Hopefully I'll get more done by the time I decide to post this...I'm planning on one hell of a catch up for all of the time I took off from writing. -Winks- Now let's just hope I can deliver as much as I promised.
Today is my birthday so I might not write as much, not sure...I'm just getting a cake but staying in my room and writing all day wouldn't be a good way to thank my parents now would it. -Smiles-