WARNING: This chapter contains sexual references, proceed at your own discretion
Contract. An agreement of some description, usually in the form of writing.
I have no real love for the word. When I was a little young I used to ask my dad to help me train. His reply was always 'I can't sweetie; daddy's gotta go make a contract'. Back then I thought that was is reason for keeping us in our nice home. Now I realise that they are just fuel for his greed. He lives is life by one simple equation. More contractsmore money.
You may think its silly, hating a few scarps of paper so much, but I hate what those papers represent. For my dad they represent opportunity and money, for me they represent separation, isolation, greed and entrapment. But I suppose that would mean that my father was forced into those contracts against his will.
"Damn those bozo's to HFIL," Gohan cursed as he scavenged around his apartment, looking for food.
Before he had arrived to the platoon of thugs, he had hoped that he would able to make himself a nice meal. But as it turns out, the thugs had helped themselves to all of Gohan's food, and now that they were dead, Gohan was left with practically no food and an apartment littered with body parts and the smell of blood. The smell didn't bother Gohan that much, just that he really needed food, or else his Saiyan instinct would take control and he would start to devour to dead bodies.
"Ew," said Gohan, looking disgusted. "I'd liked to think that I haven't sunk that low,"
Growling, Gohan managed to find a packet of 2 minute noodles. Flipping over the bad he checked the use by date. Apparently those noodles had expired about a year or two before Gohan even moved in. Gohan dropped the noodles like it was contaminated and blasted it.
"Dammit, I really need some food," said Gohan, sighing.
Making his way over to the living room where all the deceased were, he looted there wallets and weapons. While most of them only had about twenty dollars on them, Zachary Paladin had easily five grand. Grinning, Gohan made his way to his telephone, carefully stepping over the body parts. Gohan then dialled the number of the Chinese take away place down the street.
"Yea hi, I'd like… um, eight servings of sweet and sour pork, five servings of the beef, and six servings of the lemon chicken. Oh yea ad some won ton soup and a hundred fortune cookies…. One hour... Cool, thanks," said Gohan, hanging up, as his stomach gave another growl.
As Gohan rubbed his stomach, trying to calm it down, he heard a knock at the door. "Goddamn that was fast," said Gohan.
Teleporting to the door, he opened it to find not a man delivering Chinese, but rather a young man, maybe around twenty-one or so, wearing a smart business suit and short brown hair. The young man looked at Gohan. "Are you the mercenary Gohan?"
Gohan nodded, giving the man in front of him a look of distrust. "I am, and who the hell are you,"
"I'm Alphonse Elric, of the Satan Administration Department of Law and Justice," he said, holding out his hand.
Gohan hesitantly took his hand. "What's a member of the Satan Administration doing here in the Vanguard district," Gohan asked releasing his hand.
"I'm here to organise a meeting with you, Edward Elric, Head of Law and Justice, and Roy Mustang, the Mayor of Satan City. They wish to discuss a new contract with you," said Alphonse.
Gohan showed Alphonse in. "Ignore the decomposing bodies in the next room, please," he said as he showed him to the kitchen.
Alphonse, who had become very pale, kept glancing at the living room. Gohan who noticed this said, "Don't worry, they're all Syndicate thugs." This did not bring the colour back to his face.
Gohan shook his head. "Ok can you please tell me exactly, what you are doing here?"
Taking one last nervous glance towards, Alphonse spoke. "Uh… yes… done to business then," Alphonse was sweating slightly. "The Satan Administration has heard of your termination, and wanted to be the first to make a new contract."
Gohan nodded. "Would you like a glass of water Mr Elric," and with a slight smirk added, "apart from the usual crap, there's nothing in it."
As Alphonse's face paled once more, Gohan wondered if his face could actually hold blood. Getting up, Gohan grabbed a clean glass and got some water from the tap. Gohan then handed the glass to Alphonse who slammed it down, a little colour returning to his face. Gohan shook his head. "Look pal, as long as you don't piss me off, you'll be fine,"
Alphonse nodded, though still held an air of nervousness around him. "Mr Elric would like to know when you will be available tomorrow, so you can meet with him and Mr Mustang to discuss a contract."
"Just outta curiosity, are you related to the other Elric guy," said Gohan.
Alphonse nodded. "Edward Elric is my older brother," he said.
"Just wanted to clear that up," said Gohan. Going silent for a minute he finally said, "How does noon sound?"
"Noon will be fine," said Alphonse. "Just go to the City Hall tomorrow and tell them who you are and who you're meant to see. They'll tell you where to go,"
Gohan nodded. "Well if that's all I'll show you to the door and not keep you further," he said.
Alphonse nodded getting up and making his way to the door. As he was leaving, he reached into his briefcase and pulled out a couple of sheets of paper and handed them to Gohan. "Before I leave, here's a brief outline of the contract. You'll be given a full copy tomorrow," he said.
Gohan took the papers and shook hands with the young, before he made his way back to the City Hall. Once again stepping over the corpses, he made his way to his bloodied up sofa, and began to read through the outline, while waiting for his food.
&
Gohan looked up at the City Hall. It was a twelve story building, with the words 'City Hall' on top of the entrance. On top of the building were seven flag poles, the middle flag was the flag of Satan city, and the others were that of various allies and minorities.
Gohan smirked at the time he was here last. The last mayor, King Bradley, had been kicked out of office because he was firmly on the pay roll of the Syndicate. When he was caught accepting a bribe, he was removed from office and exiled out of Satan city. In retaliation for losing one of their puppets, Gohan was sent to cause some damage to the hall. So he set off a small bomb in the basement, causing nothing more than a lot of panic. When his superiors reprimanded him for doing so little damage he simply said, "I do things my way. You don't like it, get someone else to do it," then causally reminding them how many people he killed in China.
"Naturally, I'm not gonna tell them that," he said to himself. After reading the outline last night, he decided that the Administration was offering quite a good deal. They were paying him less than the Syndicate, but there were may added bonuses, such as health care, over time, and best of all a fully provided for house, complete with weekly food deliveries. That was pretty much the selling point for Gohan.
Gohan made his way into the building that he had once tried to blow up. Inside was a nice mahogany bench where a young woman was working. She had short brown hair and her bright brown eyes were covered by large brimmed glasses. When Gohan looked over the desk he saw that instead of doing work, she was reading a book, which Gohan recognised as being Oliver Twist. Gohan cleared his throat to get her attention. She didn't budge. "Um… excuse me miss?" Gohan said. Still nothing.
Gohan was known for several things, but patience wasn't really one of them. Growling, he placed his thumb and his middle finger and clicked. The sound echoed through the otherwise empty halls, and yet the young secretary didn't move a muscle. Gohan placed his fingers together again, but this time put some energy behind. The result…
BOOM.
Gohan smirked as he had obtained the desired response. He shook the office up and gave the brunette a scare of her life. Picking up her book from the floor, she looked at Gohan. "Oh I'm so sorry, I must have gotten too involved in my book," she said apologetically.
Gohan just looked at her like she was nuts. "Riiiiight, whatever. I have an appointment with Edward Elric," Gohan said.
The woman nodded. "Of course you must be the mercenary, Gohan," she said as Gohan nodded in confirmation. "Hold on one moment, I'll let Mr. Elric known you're here," She moved towards to intercom. "Mr. Elric, Mr. Gohan is here to see you," the panted reply saying, "Ok… send him in,"
The young woman point down the right hall. "Mr. Elric's office is ninth floor; the elevators are just to your right down the hall."
Gohan gave her a little wave as she went back to her book. Gohan entered the elevator and pressed the ninths button. Gohan begun to wonder what kind of person Edward Elric would be. Would be timid and nervous when faced with a superior foe like his brother, or would he be headstrong and face down his opponent. Gohan's thoughts were interrupted by a robotic feminine voice saying "ninth floor, Department of Law and Justice. Have a nice day,"
Gohan exited the elevator and made his way to the door at the end which said Edward Elric, Head of Department. As he got to the door, it flew open with another young women walking out. This woman was tall, blonde hair and blue eyes and wore black mini skirt that made Gohan take a longer look at her legs. The older woman at the desk, who Gohan assumed was Elric's secretary shook her head disapprovingly at the young woman, who just blushed slightly. When she walked past Gohan, he sniffed, which caused the woman to blush more. Gohan smirked. She smelt of sweat, sex and for some reason chocolate. Of course Gohan could probably figure out what they used the chocolate for.
These dirty thoughts were interrupted by someone clearly his throat. Gohan turned around to see a short blonde haired man, wearing a black business suit with a dark blue tie and white gloves. His golden eyes were glaring straight at Gohan. "Mr. Gohan I would appreciate it if you didn't ogle my wife," he said, his voice young and brash.
Gohan raised an eyebrow. "That woman is your wife?" he said, to which Edward nodded. Gohan rubbed his chin. "You know I thought she would have been your mistress, but with a wife that hot, why would you need one,"
Edward just growled. "Quite," he said. Closing the door to his office behind him he said "If you could come this way please, we're meeting the Mayor in his office."
Gohan nodded and Edward just led him back to the elevator, where he selected floor number twelve. As the elevator took off, Gohan caught a strange scent, one that he wasn't excepting to find in an elevator. "Do you smell that," Gohan asked Edward.
Edward sniffed. "Smell what," he replied.
'Duh, humans don't have heightened Saiyan senses' Gohan thought as he said "oil,"
Edward nodded as he took of the glove of his right hand. Instead of the pink colour of flesh, there was the cold grey of steel. "Automail," said Gohan instantly.
Edward nodded, putting his glove back on. "Before I started to work for the Administration I was a soldier, along with Roy Mustang, who was a Colonel. We were helping some refugee's from the north get over the Satan border when we were attacked by militants. We won, and we saved the refugee's but I lost an arm and a leg, and Mustang lost an eye," said Edward.
"So how'd you get Automail, and still have such a hot wife," Gohan asked.
At this Edward smirked. "She's my mechanic,"
Gohan nodded, in understanding. They arrived at the twelfth floor in silence after that. With the doors opening, Edward led Gohan out of the elevator to another door, this time saying Roy Mustang, Mayor. Gohan also noticed an empty desk in front, with a sign saying Riza Hawkeye. Edward knocked on the door. "Mr. Mustang," called out Edward, with a pained expression. "Mr. Gohan and I are here,"
Gohan could here rushed movement for several minutes behind the door, before it swung open and two people walked out. The first was a tall blonde woman, wearing a knee length skirt and a matching navy blue jacket. As she approached her desk she smoothed out her skirt, and Gohan caught the same scent as he found on Edward's wife, minus the chocolate. The second was a fairly tall man, with short black hair and a patch over one eye. His suit was more or else the same as Edwards, with a maroon tie instead of dark blue. There was an awkward silence as Gohan looked between Edward, the woman he assumed was Riza Hawkeye, and Roy Mustang. Finally he said, "So… do I get a sexy blonde in my contract,"
Riza blushed from her desk as she proceeded to type something on her computer, while the two men just growled. "No I'm afraid not," said Roy.
Gohan shrugged. "Oh well maybe next time," he said.
Roy motioned Edward and Gohan into his office. Sitting behind his desk, he offered two chairs for Edward and Gohan. "So Mr. Gohan, did you read the outline," asked Roy.
Gohan nodded. "Yep. Gotta hand it to you guys, you sure do know how to make a good deal," he said.
Roy pulled out his drawer and got out a stack of papers and handed it too Gohan. "This is the full contract, which requires all our signatures, plus a witness, which we shall use Miss. Hawkeye. Nothing from the outline has been taken out, but several things have been added too the contract," said Roy.
As Roy spoke just flipped threw the contract, without actually reading it. "Where do I sign," he said.
Both men looked at him. "Aren't you gonna read it," asked Edward.
"I'll read it later," Gohan replied.
Both men smirked as Roy handed him a pen. As Gohan signed, Roy said "I feel I should mention that you will be assigned as Videl Satan's partner as a last line of defence in the police force,"
Gohan handed the contract to the mayor. "Sounds like fun," he said.
Roy signed the contract and handed it to Edward. "Also take this," said Roy, pulling another stack of papers. "It's a copy of the contract so you can read it later," as he handed Gohan a copy of the contract.
"Cool," said Gohan. "Well if that's it, I'll be going,"
The two men nodded as Gohan got up to leave and exited the room. Glancing at Riza, who was still blushing, he flipped through the contract again. Pretty much what was in the outline he got from the night before. However, Gohan soon saw something that perked his interest, and not in a good way.
Gohan looked very closely at the words that were written on the paper to make sure they were correct. And indeed they were.
&
"He's gonna kill us isn't he," said Edward, taking a sip of brandy.
Roy nodded. "Probably, but he is an honourable person for a mercenary, or so I hear. He'll honour our contract at least. At least this way we have a better chance of controlling him and Videl,"
Edward sighed. "Karma's gonna bite us in the ass one day, you do know that right,"
Roy nodded again. "Of course it is,"
"SON OF A BITCH," came Gohan's yelled from outside the office.
Roy smirked. "I think he's found it,"
A/N Sorry this chap took too long just couldn't get in the mood to write. Also don't except the next chapter for a while, cause I have exams coming up, so I'm gonna be preparing for them. And I should mention that the characters, Edward and Alphonse Elric, Winry Rockbell (or Elric in this fic, cause she's Ed's wife) Scieszka (the woman who kept reading) Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye aren't original characters. They come from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, and if my description of them wasn't good enough who can just google the characters.