Kaito was impatiently tapping his foot.
He was already pissed off by the time he came back to the base from his mission, but it was nothing compared to his frustration once he learned that the red-head, royal boy will be joining them on their trip to the Black Market. He had had enough of nobles for one day, not to mention the fact that this particular royal could very easily turn around and whisper in his brother's ears about what they were doing and where they were going if he suddenly decided that something was not to his liking.
After an entire night of fighting and squabbling with squad-mates who would not even let him get an opinion, forget letting him take part in their plan, Kaito was looking forward to having fun with his friends at the Black Market and laugh at Kuro losing his money while gambling. The mission took longer than he would have expected, mostly because they didn't let Kaito take part in it for more than half the time they spent there, and in the end, it was thanks to him that they made it out of the dungeon safe and sound. He didn't get any thanks though. But he was used to it. It seemed that every time one of them saves the nobles' lives, they become more hated. He was grateful that at least they had honor and dignity and didn't try to take credit for what he had done during the mission.
He had not said anything about Leo joining them while Mei was present. They had already argued about Leo and Mei training together when she had informed her friends that she was going to continue with that stupid idea. Seeing that the argument would go nowhere, Kaito decided to drop it after about four days of going back and forth with her and seeing the girl get more and more frustrated with him, so he didn't want that to happen again. But once Mei left the room saying that she was going to go help Leo disguise himself, Kaito turned to his other three friends and made it very clear how unhappy he was.
He didn't know who was he mad at more, Haru for being a blabbermouth, Kuro for not pushing the idiot earlier in the portal, or Hana for not telling the royal pain in the ass no.
But no matter how unhappy Kaito was at that decision, nothing could change it anymore. Leo was coming with them to the Black Market.
Kaito arrived during lunch and by that time not many Crimson Lions were still at the base. It was their free day and some of them wanted to visit family, or maybe their lovers, or do whatever Magic Knights do on their free days.
The four friends stood for ten minutes at the gate waiting for Leo and Mei to join them. When they realized that it will take a while for the two to come, Haru and Hana asked Kuro to open the portal for them, saying that they wanted to get some stuff done before they could all met at the usual bar, but in truth, they just didn't want to spend any more minutes with a grumpy Kaito. Kuro wanted to leave too, but he was the one helping everyone get there so he had to stay.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Kaito saw Mei and Leo approach them. Or who he thought was Leo, but you couldn't tell due to what he was wearing.
"Sorry, we're late! It was harder than I thought to find clothes for him that did not give away the fact that he is a Vermillion. Luckily, we had found someone his size to borrow some clothes from. We had to lie to him that Leo was going on an undercover mission, hopefully, he won't mention that to the Captain. Oh, and sorry Kaito, but we had to borrow your cloak. Leo's is too short to hide his face properly and too royally and we figured that Kuro's would be too big."
Kaito was on the verge of snapping. The boy was oblivious to his murderous gaze and instead gave him an apologetic smile and a 'thank you, Kaito'. He closed his eye and inhaled, trying to calm down before muttering a 'let's go' and turning around to the portal Kuro opened.
He stepped into the portal, followed by Mei.
"Look, I know what you want to say, but please don't. I have the same feelings as you about this, however, we couldn't risk saying no. Plus, it's not like it's gonna be a regular thing. I'm sure Leo will hate it here and will go back to doing boring noble stuff after this and never ask to tag along again. So, please help me get through this easier."
Kaito looked at her. Wrong move. Argh, he could never resist her when he looked at him like that.
"Fine."
Mei's face lit up. She was glad that Kaito will go with her. She had made the terrible mistake of confessing to her friends that she was mostly the reason Leo wanted to go with them, and that was enough for them to decide that she had the responsibility of taking care of the royal boy and make sure he doesn't get caught.
Leo and Kuro entered the portal after which the spatial mage closed it.
"Oi! I know you guys want to look around, so I'll go ahead and meet you at the bar, alright? 'kay, see ya!"
Kuro gave them no time to respond before he stormed off.
"Bastard" Mei muttered.
"Hmm, so this is the Black Market," Leo said looking around "It's not that impressive."
'What did you expect?' Mei rolled her eyes. Of course, he wasn't gonna be impressed, nothing was interesting about the place. There were just dark alleys and stalls with random items that are probably broken, useless, or illegal. The buildings are either storages, brothels, casinos, or bars. The only reason she was going there with her friends was for the occasional party thrown at a bar, the gambling, and maybe looking for some stupid items they would use for either missions or pranks.
That didn't stop Leo from going to every stall and looking at every item he found weird and asked the vendor what it does. She was glad he was at least listening to her and didn't taste or smell any of the items and he kept his hands deep in his pockets where his money was. She didn't want him to get robbed. Thankfully, he also listened to her and kept his hood on his face at all times.
As she and Kaito walked down the alley watching an excited Leo walk around as if he was a child who was for the first time in a store, Kaito noticed a familiar stand.
"Mei, look. Kuro's floss."
Mei laughed as she saw what he was pointing at. The nickname they gave the cotton candy was from its black color that remained on Kuro's teeth for quite a while before he first tried it as no one bothered to tell him that.
"I'm gonna go grab some for us."
Mei smiled as she saw him go. Although Mei didn't really like the fact that she has to drink an entire bottle of water to get the stains out, the taste of the candy wasn't that bad and the laughs and good memories it brought were always welcome.
Turning her attention from the black-haired boy to Leo, Mei's heart skipped a beat as she saw that he was nowhere in sight.
She quickly walked to the stall she last saw Leo at and slapped her hands on the table.
"There was a guy here earlier with a hood covering his face, asking you about this, where did he go?"
The man behind the stall raised an eyebrow and looked at the item she was pointing at before he leaned closer to her and smiled at her.
"You will have to be a bit more clear than that, sweetheart. We have a lot of hooded customers coming to this area."
Mei cursed under her breath and pulled out two coins before slamming them on the table. The man looked at them suspiciously and bit them to see if they were real. After that, he pointed to a dark alley behind him to his left.
"He went that way."
Not bothering to say thank you or inform Kaito of her leaving, she followed the man's direction.
As she exited the alley, she looked left and then right for Leo, only to spot him a few feet away among other people that stood in a circle watching two people fight in the middle.
Mei cursed again and headed towards him.
The fight finished with one man collapsed on the ground barely breathing, and the other one raising his fists victoriously.
"Who wants to go next? C'mon! Anyone who wants to challenge me for any amount of yuls!"
Horrified, Mei saw Leo raise his hand. 'Oh, no, you don't!'
Before Leo could open his mouth to say anything, Mei put her arm over his shoulders and a hand over his mouth, putting her weight on him to make him bow so he was looking at the ground instead of at the men. The few people next to them threw them confused looks, but Mei was quick to put on an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, my little brother is an idiot. Don't mind us."
She gave a burst of nervous laughter before walking away from the crowd. Still keeping Leo in that position, she walked behind one of the nearby houses before releasing him. He immediately jumped out of her hold.
"Why would you do that?"
The boy was obviously angry. Mei didn't care. She was way angrier.
"Why would I do that? What's wrong with you? What part of 'don't attract unwanted attention' don't you get? Anyone that would see your face or hair or MAGIC could immediately tell who you are, do you want to get us caught? Plus, that was a physical fight, Leo, you are NOT ready for that!"
"But I've been training for two weeks now! I want to test it against someone else besides you!"
"And that man has been fighting for years! I will admit that you made good progress, but you are not ready." Leo raised a finger and opened his mouth to say something else, but Mei was quick to shut him up with a glare. "No, don't even try! You will not fight! You will not take off that hood! And most importantly, you will not get separated from me again! Understood?"
Leo crossed his arms and glared at the ground.
"Leo, understood?"
"...Yeah," He answered not taking his eyes off the ground before he muttered, "You're just as bossy as Mereoleona."
Mei heard him.
"I will take that as a compliment. Now come. Let's go meet the others at the bar."
* * *
Leo and Mei entered the bar. It was cramped and it ricked of booze but it was also strangely lightened by strong, yellow lights. It had a few booths and empty tables and a counter on the opposite side of the room with a few tall chairs. Behind the counter were two shelves full of strange-looking bottles and two people, a man and a woman, chatting.
Leo's attention was caught by the crowd gathered in the left corner of the room. Around 15 or 20 people, mainly men, were standing around a table watching carefully the two men that were sitting down with a deck of cards in front of them, holding some in their hands.
Once he got closer to the crowd, stopping when they reached Kaito and Hana, he noticed that one of the men sitting down was Kuro. It was the first time Leo saw the black-haired boy with a serious look on his face and not a cheeky one. He was stroking his chin, deep in thought, as he looked at his cards and after at the man in front of him.
"You've made it," Hana whispered when she saw them.
Kaito turned to them too.
"Where have you been?"
His tone was less friendly than Hana's, but he was still whispering.
"Sorry, we took a different route. So what did we miss?"
"Kuro is losing."
"Don't say that!" Hana whispered-yelled, nudging the boy in the ribs "You don't know that yet."
Kaito snorted. He didn't have to see Kuro's cards to know that he was losing. He had watched the game from the beginning so he knew what cards have been used and what cards remained, and seeing the strategy the other man chose based on what cards he put down, Kaito could easily tell that he was not going to lose.
"Where is Haru?" Leo asked.
"Right here."
Leo looked to his left to see an older, brown-haired man with a thick beard and a few moles under his left eye. He was a bit taller than Leo and much fatter. He smiled and Leo could see that a few of his teeth were missing.
It took him a few seconds, but Leo understood what was going on.
"Why are you transformed?"
Haru looked at the people around them to see if any one of them was listening but they were too focused on the card game. He leaned in closer to Leo so he could hear him whisper.
"I got banned from this place. I'm not allowed to play or come in here."
"Why?"
Haru gave a nervous laugh and started scratching his head with his right hand.
"Ahh, well, I was helping Kuro cheat. I would transform into a fly and look at his opponent's cards and after I would sit on the card that he should put down to win. The plan worked for a while, until Krieg, the guy Kuro's playing against right now, caught onto us."
"How come Kuro's not banned?"
"He was, for a while. But then he met the owner of the bar and... convinced her to let him come here and play again."
"How did he manage to do that?"
Haru looked uncomfortable with Leo's question.
"He... has his ways. Right now he is working on convincing her to unban me as well, but it's not that easy since Krieg threatened to never come back here if she lets us both come back and he is one of her best players and one of the reasons so many people chose this bar over others."
Leo nodded, still curious about how Kuro managed to convince her but decided not to push further. He probably used the same tactics Elric does to get girls to do whatever he wanted, even though Leo didn't know what he does either.
"So, how do you play this game?"
"Thinking of giving it a shot? I will tell you how its's played but don't blame me if you lose your money."
As Haru started to explain the rules to Leo, Kuro put down his last card. It was a seven and normally it meant that he could take all the cards from the tables and all the points, but it was useless now that Krieg was the last one to put down a card, which turned out to be another seven, meaning that he is the one to take all the cards.
Krieg smiled wickedly as he took the cards and the small bag full of coins that used to belong to Kuro.
"Y'know I wasn't too happy when I found out that Melanie decided to let you back here. But now that I realize that I have the opportunity to take all your money, I could not be more thrilled."
"Fuck you!" Said Kuro as he angrily got up from his seat.
Krieg started laughing.
"Good try, Kuro! You almost had him!" Said Hana, trying to cheer him up.
"No, he didn't."
Hana glared at Kaito.
"Oh, fuck you too, man. Don't talk like you've never lost to him."
"Only once."
"Yeah, and that one time was enough for you to go into debt so that now you can't play here anymore."
Hana stepped in between the two guys. "I think that's enough. You don't need to fight."
Leo leaned in close to Mei and whispered.
"Kaito gambles too?"
Mei nodded. "Yeah, and he's quite good at it too. He rarely loses, especially not to a guy like Krieg, but last time we came here, Krieg had learned a new technique from somewhere and had beaten Kaito to more than one game. Kaito got so frustrated and wanted so bad to understand Krieg's technique and find a way to beat it, that he ended up getting a loan here. In the end, he didn't manage to beat the guy and now he got a debt that he has to pay if he ever wants to play here again."
Leo nodded and turned his gaze to the fat, white-haired, old man who was sitting at the table counting the coins from Kuro with a satisfying smile on his face. From what he understood from Haru's explaining and the game between Kuro and the old-man, the game was pretty difficult and most of it was based on luck, but Leo figured out that with a good strategy and the element of surprise, it was pretty easy to win.
With a smile on his face, he approached Krieg's table.
"Alright, I want to play against you."
