Chapter 3

Eve powered down and entered the café, looking to see if there was anyone around. There were some sweepers whom she either did or didn't recognize. Annette was at the bar, talking to one sweeper Eve had no recollection of meeting.

She approached the former sweeper and sat at the bar.

Annette turned to Eve and nearly dropped the glass she was cleaning. "Eve! Where have you been? Sven and Train ran here late last night demanding to know where you were! Are those pajamas? Come on." Annette grabbed Eve by the wrist and pulled her upstairs.

Eve at first had no idea what Annette was talking about when she said that she was wearing only pajamas. So much had happened. It was when Annette mentioned that Eve was only in pajamas did she blush.

Annette pulled out a black shirt, a jean skirt, and boots and handed them to Eve. Once Eve was properly dressed, Annette repeated in a calmer manner her questions.

"I was kidnapped last night, but as you can tell, I got away. How long have I been missing?"

"Just a few hours, but it was enough to get Sven and Train in a tizzy after not hearing from you since last night. They split up to go look for you. I've never seen those two look so worried. Sven, I expect, looked as though he would have a heart attack, but Train looked like he'd have one himself. They were going to file a missing person notice if they didn't find you by the time they realized you were missing."

"The whole twenty-four hour deal, right?"

"Right," Annette said, leading Eve back downstairs. "I'm going to give them both a call."

Eve followed Annette back into the bar and took a seat next to one of the sweepers. Annette gave her a bowl of chocolate ice cream (much to Eve's delight) and called the boys, starting with Sven.

"Sven, Eve's back. She's alright—no, she was kidnapped…she didn't say by who, but she looks fine…I don't think she plans on doing that when there's a kidnapper after her…Right, I'm going to call Train now…yeah…goodbye, Sven."

Annette hung up and dialed Train's phone. The conversation repeated almost entirely the same way, except…

"You're close by…Okay…See you in a moment, Train." Annette turned to Eve. "Train's coming to get you."

Eve's heart skipped a beat. She wondered what Train would do. She half expected him to come in, yell "hey, Princess!" and order some rice balls with salmon and milk before they headed back to the manor. Yes…that would seem like Train under any normal circumstance. But Eve was well aware that she had been missing for over twelve hours. She wasn't sure what the Black Cat was going to do when he walked through the door.

When the bowl of ice cream was completely gone, the door to the store banged open and heads turned to see the Black Cat. Eve's stomach lurched. Train looked quite serious. Maybe more serious than usual, which was very uncommon. He was breathing heavily, as if he had ran as fast as he could.

When he spotted Eve, he walked over to her.

Eve felt guilt ridden even though she knew she shouldn't. She wasn't planning on worrying Train or Sven so badly.

"I…I—"

Train wrapped his arms around Eve almost instantly and held her.

He was sweaty, Eve noticed, from running. Most would have been grossed out, but Eve was used to being around smelly men and Train was no exception. Usually Train didn't break a sweat, so Eve figured that he must have been running all day.

No words were exchanged. Train just held her. After what seemed like an eternity, he released her. The door opened again and Sven stumbled in.

"Yo," Train greeted in his usual cheeriness. Sven didn't appear to have heard him.

"Eve, thank God!" he muttered, dragging himself over to her. He, too, wrapped his shaking arms around her, but it didn't feel as dramatic as when Train did. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. But now that you're both here, we really need to talk. But not here."

"At home, then," Train agreed. Sven turned to Annette and thanked her before pulling himself back up and lead Train and Eve out of the café and towards the hideout.

Eve couldn't stop stealing glances at Train, who seemed much more like himself now that they were all reunited. She couldn't get the image of him out of her head when he entered the café. It seemed like a distant memory now, though she knew it wasn't.

When they entered the house and settled down in the living room, Eve retold them her adventure and of Bade Diskenth.

"I was wondering when Bade was going to show up now that his precious little brother was in hiding," Train said. "Though I'm pretty peeved that he'd go so far as to kidnap a kid and invite her to join him so he could have a trump card that knew my weaknesses."

"You sure that's it?" Sven asked. "Are you sure it wasn't leverage?"

"He said he wanted my help to kill Train," Eve said. "He said he wanted to kill Train for, and these are his words, abandoning Creed."

Train gave her a sour look. "Uh…you make it sound like Creed and I were and item or something…"

"That's how he made it sound to me," Eve answered. "I know it's gross. When I told him that Creed didn't want you dead, he tried to kill me."

Sven and Train went into an outrage at this. It took almost fifteen minutes to calm them down again so she could continue on and tell them about Garack.

Sven recognized the name, as did Train.

"The explosive's expert, Garack Joaquin," Sven asked, pondering aloud

"You think it might be him?" Train asked.

"Only Garack Joaquin I can think of. I wasn't aware that he had a family…"

"We aren't aware of a lot of things about the people we hunt," Train stated with a smile. "Remember that guy that was an accountant for a gang? He had a pretty nice reward on him and we ended up getting nothing cuz he was assassinated?"

"Right…"

"Joaquin seems like him a bit, doesn't he?"

"I wouldn't say that, but there are some pretty obvious similarities. Man! I forgot about that guy! When was that?"

"Just about around the time Eve joined up. Before her, I think."

Eve gave them odd looks, unable to comprehend what they meant.

"Well," Sven said. "I'm going to bed," he stood and fell back down. "I guess I wore myself out more than I thought I did."

"I'm sorry I worried you guys," Eve said, her head bowed. Sven and Train looked at her and Train burst into laughter.

"Princess, you're really funny at times, ya know that? We don't blame you for this at all."

"We've no reason to be mad," Sven expanded. "You were kidnapped. If we're angry at anyone, it's this Bade guy. We're probably gonna stick around for a little while until we're certain that he won't go after you again."

So they've targeted him, she thought. But she felt more at ease now. Standing, Eve bade Sven and Train goodnight and went to get ready for bed.

Once she was in her room, she turned off the lights and headed to bed, wondering why she was going to bed when she didn't feel tired at all.

Right, I have school tomorrow, she thought. But Train and Sven flashed through her mind. Would they let her go to school tomorrow?

She laid down in bed, deep in thought. The door creaked open and she felt a pair of eyes on her. She wondered who it was that was staring at her. Sven maybe…

Whoever it was tiptoed closer and Eve closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. He sat on the bed and leaned downwards towards her face. It felt like Train, but though her heart jolted, she didn't open her eyes.

"We love you, Princess," Train whispered in her ear. He eased off the bed. Eve opened her eyes and the door closed engulfing her in darkness if not for the thin line of light that peeked under the door way.

Eve eased herself off of the bed and headed towards the door.

She slowly turned the door knob and eased it open. Peaking outside into the hallway, she noticed that neither Train nor Sven were in sight.

Heading into the hallway, she headed towards the living room. Train was on the couch, his head downcast and a glass of milk in his hands. Eve did her best to hide from his line of vision, but she wasn't sure if he already noticed her or not.

Train raised the glass to his lips and downed it instantly. He set the glass onto the coffee table and turned to Eve.

Well, no point in hiding now, Eve thought, stepping out.

"Can't sleep Princess?"

"Too much happened. I thought I'd want to go to sleep, but I don't."

Train moved a bit and Eve took a seat by him. "I love you guys, too," she said, smiling at him. "You've both always been there for me and I really appreciate that."

Train gave her his trademark grin and ruffled her hair. Eve answered him with a simple smile. But her smile faltered after a moment.

"Train…"

"Yeah," he said, stretching, and sprawling himself on the couch vertically, arms spread apart on the back of the couch. His mouth was open as if dying to let saliva pool out.

"When you hugged me earlier, it felt different than when I was hugged by Sven."

Train pulled his head towards his chest and glanced at her. "We were really freaking out."

"But—"

Train smiled. "Don't worry about it. A hug's just a hug."

Eve stared at him. Liar, she thought. There's a reason behind it, and it's either my emotions or yours.

She sighed and tucked her legs under her before leaning against Train. She didn't notice that the ex-assassin seemed a tad uncomfortable with her doing so. But he calmed down a bit afterwards and wrapped an arm around her.

Only then did Eve fall asleep.

that was Chapter 3, everyone! I'm actually sorta pleased with how it's been developing :D and I hope everyone else has too...I wanna say more, but that could give away what happens in the next chapter, so...I'll just leave it at here.