"I can't believe this stick-up-the-ass is a Stand user. I am gonna have a whole lot to say when I get back to HQ." Hermes's mind continued to wander as she drove into the city. "Should I ask him what his ability is? No, then he might ask mine. Can't let this get even more complicated than it already is. Can't be for anything good anyway."
After driving out of the airport, Hermes headed for the city while Giorno dug into his bag and unveiled a folded map he had in it. "There's a few places I want to drive by first, just to scope out the area. After that we can go check in at a hotel and rest up."
"Yeah yeah," Hermes replied, making her reluctance at following his orders very known.
Giorno made Hermes take several twists and turns throughout the city, all the while showing her his map with several circled locations on it. After taking a quick stop to refill the car, the pair drove off again.
"It's a lot of warehouses and kinda dumpy looking buildings, this Wariano guy doesn't have a house?" Hermes asks.
"Not if he's in hiding," Giorno replied.
"Why would he be at any of those other places? Doesn't he work with you?"
"Not for me, but he is someone I need to see. It's a family matter."
"Right," Hermes thinks to herself again. "The Mob family." Everything about this didn't sit right for Hermes. On paper she was on the job for a very well respected world renowned organization, but in reality she's still driving around and helping out a mobster. Whether or not this guy was just some little grunt was irrelevant, knowing the kind of company she's in made her skin crawl. Hermes knew she was no saint and being a model citizen isn't what landed her in Green Dolphin, but she couldn't help being reminded of painful memories when she really thought about what this Giorno guy might be about.
"Want to check in at a hotel now?" Giorno asked.
"Sure. I can use a break," Hermes answered.
Giorno directed Hermes to a hotel a decent distance away from any of the circled locations on the map. After parking the car, the pair enter the lobby to check in with the receptionist.
"How many nights should we ask for?" Hermes asked. "Got an ETA on when you might find Grande?"
"One night," Giorno answered without having to even think. "We'll go to a different hotel every night so we can stay on the move."
Hermes lowered her eyebrows as she glared daggers at her overly intricate companion. "You're not going to make this easy are you?"
The first hotel they picked was a simple 3 and a half star hole in the wall spot. Nothing horrible, but given her work station, she was hoping for something more extravagant, especially on the budget the Foundation has. Regardless, she wasn't in the mood to look for another place since Giorno picked it out. After checking in and setting their bags down, Hermes laid down on one of the beds while Giorno sat on the little table looking over his map. As nightfall began to creep up on them after the long day, Hermes was considering calling it for the night, that is until her stomach made a very audible rumble.
"Geez," She muttered before looking over to Giorno. "Hey, mind if I have an apple or something from your bag?"
"Sorry, but those are for emergencies only." Giorno didn't even remotely look away from his map.
Hermes rolled her eyes. "Of course they are." She grabbed her wallet and walked over to the door. "Then I'm gonna go get some grub. Do you want anything?" Considering it was the Foundation's money she was spending, it didn't bother her as much to buy food for this guy.
Giorno finally looked away from his map to think. "Hm, I actually haven't had too many American foods. Just bring me anything you think is good. I'll trust your judgment." Giorno flashed Hermes a bright smile before returning to his map.
"Hmph, he'd almost be charming if everything he said wasn't so arrogant sounding," Hermes thought to herself. "Burritos it is," She answered before shutting the door behind her.
Happy to have a break from her pompous partner, she headed back to the car. After sitting down, Hermes ran her hands through her braids and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. "God damnit…what am I doing?" She already felt out of place amongst all the professionalism of the Speedwagon Foundation, but now she's out here getting food for some random criminal. It was either feeling uncomfortable at work or feeling unsettled being around some supposed gangster. "Gloria…I hope you're not disappointed in me."
After coming back with food, Hermes simply ate and went straight to bed. Giorno only ever looked away from his map to take a bite of his food. Throughout the night he would occasionally wonder where the combination of beans and rice had been all his life.
After checking out of the hotel the following morning, Giorno had Hermes drive him to the next city over from the one they started in.
"What gives?" She asked. "You said we were gonna be in this city the whole time?" Hermes drove into a significantly more bustling city, with skyscrapers and people regularly walking the streets.
"That city is much calmer, nothing but warehouses, schools, suburbs, and the occasional restaurant. This one is much more active and has more of a nightlife. If he's hiding he'll be there, but if he's ever out, he'll be somewhere here."
Hermes rolled her eyes again. The unsettledness in her gut just wouldn't go away, and the vagueness of Giorno's explanations didn't help. She just forced herself to remember this was for her job and that this job was a gateway to the good life. If she just stayed silent and dealt with Giorno's orders it'd be over before she knew it.
However, after another hour of driving in silence, except for the occasional directions given by Giorno, Hermes realized that she found the mind numbing silence more irritating than Giorno's voice. "So, you said he doesn't work with you? Then what do you need to see him so badly for?"
"It's a family ma-"
"Yeah I remember the first time you said it," Hermes interrupted. "I'm just saying if I have to be a part of this I feel I should know what I'm getting into."
Giorno was silent for a moment, "Very well. He's from a different group in Italy. Even though their main hub is on the mainland, they've gained a serious foothold in the Georgia area in America."
"Heh, I wouldn't have guessed."
"Their primary base of operations here is in these two cities, and if my information is correct, Wariano should be somewhere here."
"Well, is there a reason you can't just meet up with the guy? Why does he 'not wanna be found'." Hermes made air quotes with one of her hands.
"He doesn't know I'm coming, it's an emergency. I have an important message to send to him and his family."
"Which is?"
"...that's a family matter."
"Whatever." That unsettling feeling only intensified. The mob politics made Hermes think silence wasn't so bad afterall.
After another day of driving and pointing, the pair called it a night and checked into a new hotel in the bigger city. This hotel was much nicer than the last, which impressed Hermes. They got a room on the 8th floor, 8 of 12, had flat screen TVs in every room, a fountain in the lobby, a full breakfast buffet in the mornings, and had a toilet with a bidet.
"Now this is more like it!" Hermes excitedly examined all the details of their hotel room. Not a soul in the world could remove the smile from her face as she looked out the window and got a view of the bright city lights. She finally managed to start feeling relaxed, and started getting a taste of the good life. "Oh I am going to have the best shower I've had in years! If only those bitches in GD could see me now!" She said after checking out the large hotel shower.
What she didn't notice was Giorno closing the curtains the moment Hermes walked away from them. Hermes unpacked some sleepwear to prepare for a shower. Before closing the door to the bathroom, she poked her head out to see Giorno peeking out the window. He gazed so intently it was almost as if he was looking for something specific. He even unveiled his entire Stand to glare out the window with him.
"Woah," Hermes thought to herself. "So that's his whole Stand huh?"
Giorno and his Stand spent a few minutes staring out the window. Afterwards, he simply shut the curtains, dismissed his Stand, and proceeded to sit at the table looking at his map just like the night before.
"Don't think about it, Hermes." Her mind raced again. "It'll only piss you off and ruin your shower."
After her shower, Hermes slumped into her bed, with Giorno turning in soon as well. After about an hour into their sleep, Hermes felt her stomach growl again. "Ah shiiiiit…" The minor hunger pains awakened her from her rest, much to her displeasure.
Hermes slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. She turned her head to see Giorno fast asleep, and the nightstand in between them holding the lamp, the hotel phone, and a phonebook next to it. Tonight she slept with her hair down and her braids made her neck uncomfortably sweaty. "Ugh," She grunts before getting out of bed and digging through her bags for a hair tie. After finding one, she turns on the lamp and stands in front of a big mirror in the hotel room to tie her hair, only to then see Giorno's bag sitting on the corner of the mirror stand.
Hermes looked in the mirror's reflection and saw that Giorno appeared fast asleep. Curiosity getting a vise grip on her, she leans over and peaks into Giorno's bag. It was exactly as she recalled, several random fruits, as well as one tiny blacked out bag about the size of a mini sandwich bag. The tiny bag grabbed her attention, but her mind was busy thinking of how to appease her stomach. She figured if he's asleep, who is going to stop her from having some fresh fruit for a midnight snack? "No, Hermes. You know if you have to hear it tomorrow you're just gonna wanna start swinging." Her thoughts rescued her from calamity once again.
"I think there was a vending machine in the hallway," She whispered to herself. Before she could leave, she took another look at Giorno's sleeping body, and proceeded to sit down on her bed, back turned to Giorno, and threw her head into her hands. "God…fucking damnit…"
Even though she whispered, she couldn't help her groans from reaching Giorno's ears.
"He's even blonde like that other asshole too. Fucking hell why did they need to send me on this job with this bastard, why couldn't I drive around anyone else." Hermes couldn't shake it, Giorno already got on her nerves, but the fact that she needs to work with and help someone in his line of work made her feel defiled. "I went to prison for this and it's still not over. What would Gloria think?"
Giorno may not be the same man as the gangster that killed Hermes's sister, and Hermes may not have been above working with and befriending delinquents in the past, but anyone that was any sort of career criminal just ate away at Hermes's soul. The slightest reminder of what happened to her older sister was enough to put her in a rage. She thought that killing him gave her closure, but the pain still seeped through, and every second with Giorno just reinforced that pain in her mind.
"If he's even remotely like…" Hermes slammed her fist into her bed before getting up and finally leaving the room. "Stop thinking. Please, stop thinking," She muttered to herself while she looked for the vending machine.
Once she found her munchies chamber, she bought her midnight snack and started heading back to her room. Giorno was now sleeping on his side with his back turned to Hermes, which made her feel less concerned about the noise from opening her chip bag. Her salty chips helped get her mind off her thoughts and she got back into bed. She reached for the lamp only to be surprised by an unfamiliar item on the nightstand.
"A flower? Was this always here?" Hermes picked up a single flower sitting on the nightstand. It bloomed with white petals and the stamen started green before becoming a bright burgundy type color. "This is real pretty, I hope they're taking care of it. Eh, a hotel this nice probably gots all kinds of experts handling the floral stuff." Hermes smiled before putting the flower back on the nightstand and returning to sleep.
The pleasant surprise was so nice, Hermes didn't even notice that the phonebook was nowhere to be found, and didn't bother to think about how an Italian White Lily suddenly appeared in their hotel room.