Chapter 3
"What?"
"You heard me, Alfred. We're not fired, aru," Wang said, irritation coloured his voice.
"YEEHAAW!!" I shouted as I jumped and punched the air. Beside me, Mattie was completely stunned. His expression showed extreme disbelief at our apparently unbelievable luck.
"You're sure, Wang?" He said with his voice a little unsure.
"Yep, I'm one hundred percent sure," Wang half-smiled. "But don't get too excited, aru. Alfred, the Chief wanted to meet you."
I stopped mid-track in my celebration. "The Chief?" I asked with horror.
"Yeah, and I mean like, right now, Alfred," Wang frowned slightly.
I froze in my seat, my heartbeat started to escalate. If we're not fired, then why the hell the Chief wanted to meet me? I hoped that I won't be demoted for my failure as a leader at our last mission. That horrible mission, where I failed miserably for not being able to shoot when the bad guy was right there in front of my nose.
Sighing painfully, I stood up and walked slowly to the door; Wang and Mattie's sympathetic gaze followed me as I opened the door and closed it behind my back. Outside in the empty corridor, I straightened my back up and tried to tidy up my uniform. After unable to make my tie completely straight three times in a row, I gave up and just walked through the corridor to the Chief's office, right in the corner.
I've never met the Chief before. From what I've heard, he was an awesome police, always became the hero of the day. He's exactly the figure I was striving to be.
After I arrived in front of his door, I gulped and knocked it three times. "Come in," a reply issued from inside. I breathed in deeply, opened the door, and entered the room.
"Lieutenant Jones?" A soft voice greeted me.
I stiffened and saluted, "Lieutenant Jones, reporting for duty, Sir."
In front of me, sat a young man of about twenty years old or so. His expression was gentle, one that didn't really fit in with the image of a Chief of Police. His chin-length dark brown hair framed his soft face. On the whole, he didn't look like how I imagined him all this time.
"Very pleased to meet you," The man smiled warmly. "My name is Toris Lorinaitis, but you can just call me Toris."
"Really?" I blurted out before I can hold myself. My face blushed like mad as I realized what I just said. God, why can't I hold my mouth just this once? I thought, irritated at myself.
Toris laughed gently and said, "Yes, it's fine. Our age weren't much different anyway. Now, please sit down."
I scratched my nose, feeling deeply embarrassed at myself. My face was still red hot as I sat in the chair in front of Toris's desk.
"Now, Lieutenant Jones," said Toris with a more serious tone. "I've seen your report on your first duty as a Lieutenant. It is very much regrettable that you've failed in your first mission."
I held my breath, my heartbeat started to escalate. Here goes nothing…
"However, I have decided to give you a second chance."
"WHAT!?" I shouted before I realized. "I mean… THANK YOU!!"
Toris smiled, then he continued, "To repay for your first mistakes, I have given your team a new assignment, Lieutenant Jones."
I fidgeted in my seat, unable to contain my excitement. I can't believe that the Chief actually trusted me enough to give me another mission after I failed in my first one. "What is it?" I asked nervously.
"I want you to find these documents, Alfred," Toris said bluntly. "I'll give you as many people as you want. Just make sure that you find those documents."
"It's that important?" I asked, my curiosity started to build up.
"Yes. The director of Alfroskaya Tradings Ltd had asked me herself to find these documents no matter what happened," said Toris. "If you clashed with those robbers again, Alfred, don't hesitate. Annihilate them if you must, but capture them if you can."
"Yes, Chief!" I replied with excitement.
"Good. Off you go, then."
"Yes, Sir!!" I saluted and turned to leave the room. Behind me, Toris half-smiled.
"So how is it, ve~?" Feliciano asked nervously.
"We're back in action, guys!" I shouted, clapping Feliciano on the back. I grinned wide, the weight now lifted off my chest. "A new mission waits for us!!" I continued.
My team stood agape, unable to believe my words. Wang's hand – which held a pair of chopsticks with noodles on them – stopped mid-air, and Mattie squeezed his teddy bear so hard that its eyes were about to pop out. I laughed brightly at their funny expressions. "Come on, guys! Aren't we supposed to be celebrating for this!?" I exclaimed cheerfully.
Matthew held his breath and stuttered, "Is… Is it true?"
"Yes, for God's sake. Is it really that hard to believe?" I frowned slightly, his pessimism starting to grate on my nerves.
It was silent for a moment, and then cheers erupted in the small room. Wang threw his chopsticks and noodle back on the bowl on top of his desk and started dancing some kind of a war dance, jabbering in Chinese while doing that. Mattie stayed calm, but his grip on his teddy bear slackened a little, and his expression became less tense than before.
"So what is our next mission, Alfred?" Feliciano beamed.
"It's actually kind of related to our previous mission. Hold on a minute," I said as I extracted an envelope Toris gave me before I left his office. "Here, let's read it together."
I opened the envelope, cleared my throat, and started to read the paper inside. Mainly, it described our next mission, and how the director of Alfroskaya Trading Ltd had asked for the police's help to retrieve the documents. The team listened to it with growing interest. When I was finished, I asked them, "Well, what do you guys think?"
"This document must be very important," Mattie mused. "I mean, permission to annihilate them… That was kind of…"
"Well, that means we have to do our best in this one, aru," said Wang, his expression intent. "We can't afford to fail once more."
"Don't worry guys. We won't fail," I said as I gritted my teeth. "Besides, I've got a payback to be done."
We were sitting, once more, in the empty café in the outskirts of Lussalia. This time, though, we were here to give the documents we retrieved to Katyusha-san, who was sitting nervously in front of me. "Here you go, Katyusha-san," I smiled as I handed over the folder – which had been cleaned by Seychelles once we got home after the mission – to Katyusha.
I noticed that Katyusha's eyes grew wide with fear when she scanned the contents of the documents, but then she covered it with a smile. "Thank you so much, Kirkland-san. This is exactly what I've been looking for!" she said gratefully, but I can tell from her tone that her gratitude was slightly forced to cover her agitation.
I decided that it's not particularly wise to keep the girl for too long, so I smiled back to her and said, "No problem, Katyusha. Anytime you needed help again, just contact us."
"Oh, thank you! And before I forget…" Katyusha rummaged through her handbag and withdrew a thick brown envelope. Then, she gave it to me. "I hope it's enough." She continued, her smile turned slightly unsure.
I decided against opening the envelope, and tucked it safely inside my jacket. "I'm sure it will," I smiled warmly to Katyusha. Around me, though, my teammates rolled their eyes, for they know how nagging I usually am about money. It's not like I'm greedy or something; it's just that I can't bear when people paid us an amount of money that worth much less than the service we gave them. Our work involves a lot of danger, and I can't let people just pay us cheaply for involving ourselves in that danger.
"Now, I'm sorry to say that I'm really in a hurry," Katyusha smiled slightly. "I'm going to leave now; thank you so much for your help!" Then she tucked the folder into her bag and stood up. She headed to the door and left without a backward glance, but I saw that her face wore that agitated expression she wore earlier.
"Now, Artie! Gimme my moneeey!!" Gilbert grinned, and slacked back on his chair.
"That girl's up to something," I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "And certainly it's not something small, if you see her face earlier."
"Yeah, I noticed that too," Vash leaned forward, his expression slightly confused. "I just hoped that whatever business she got herself in, it won't drag us in it as well."
"Aww, come on, guys! We just finished a particularly hard mission, and all you guys wanna do is wasting time on such things?!" Gilbert pouted, his expression irritated. Chelle smacked his head hard to silence his continuous stream of complains. "Ow!! What the hell…" Gilbert cried out in pain.
"Shut your mouth a little! This is serious!" Chelle snapped with irritation. "We certainly can't afford to have mafia or such chasing us all across the country; right, Arthur?"
"Yes. I just hoped that we won't get into such a situation," I said, my voice heavy with worry.
Gilbert's pout didn't slacken, and he started again, "I still want my money here!"
"Oh, for God's sake…" I groaned, seriously irritated at the nonstop whining from him. "Okay, okay. Here, I'll just start dividing our share in this mission, 'kay?"
I pulled out the envelope Katyusha gave me earlier and opened it. "Wow," my breath hitched from surprise.
"What? How many did she pay?" Gilbert asked; his red eyes grew wide with excitement. Even Vash looked a little bit more hopeful.
"It's certainly enough for all of us to live quite comfortably for a few months," I smiled as I pulled out the thick content of the envelope. The other gasped at the amount of money that sat on top of the wooden coffee table. I saw Roderich peeked from the counter to see, and I saw his eyes grew considerably huge after he saw what lay on the table.
"I'd want my share as well, Kirkland!" He said sharply.
"Yes, yes. Everybody will get their fair share," I mumbled with irritation. "Just be patient, okay?"
After about an hour of arguing over the damn money, finally everybody was satisfied with their share. Without any hesitation, Gilbert snatched away his share and tucked it tenderly into his worn-out wallet, but Vash, Kiku, and Chelle stared into their share with a worried look etched on their face.
"What's the matter?" I asked, slightly confused at their expression. "Is it not enough? I can give you more if you wanted to, but..."
"It's not that," Chelle cut across my sentence, her expression worried. "It's just that... I noticed that your share is much more less than ours."
"Oh," my eyes grew wide. I can't believe that somebody actually noticed that.
"Yes, I noticed that as well. In fact, you always gave yourself a much more less share than ours every time we finished our mission, Arthur-san," said Kiku, who had been considerably silent throughout our debate over the money.
My cheeks blushed slightly, and I'm trying hard to cover my embarrassment. "Look, can't you just take your share? My share's already fair enough for me," I said, trying to sound irritated.
"But I thought you still had Peter to take care of?" said Vash sharply.
"Yes, and I believe that this money is fairly enough to cover for our needs," I said indignantly, my cheeks flushed. "Look, I'm completely okay with my share, so drop it will you!?"
They grew silent after my sudden outburst, thank God; although I could sense that those three were still unsatisfied. "Well, then, there's no point to stay here any longer, so let's go," I said as I stood up. I walked to the counter and dropped an envelope to it. "Here's your share, Roderich. And pass my regard to Elizaveta, okay?" I said.
"Yes, I will. Thanks for this anyway," He said as he wiped his precious cups, his expression slightly annoyed at my statement before.
The others stood up, tucking their money safely into their wallets. I nodded to them, and we walked out from the empty cafe; Roderich's gaze followed us as we walked to the door.
Outside, the warm summer breeze blew gently, and the sun had set over the horizon, casting shadows over Lussalia. "Well, I guess it's time for us to part once more," I started as I gazed at the setting sun. "I'll contact you guys again when we got another mission."
They nodded at my statement, and then we broke apart and walked along separate ways; the night starting to fall around us.
"Peter! I'm hooome!!"
"Whaat? You're home already!?" A teenager of about thirteen years old ran into the living room, his expression a mixture of disbelief and disappointment. "You said you're gonna be away for days!" He pouted, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Shut up. I said I'm going away for about two days or so, so deal with it," I snapped with irritation as I put my bag on the cluttered coffee table. "And anyway, it seems that you've done quite a good job messing this place while I was away."
"I got Raivis over," He told me indignantly. "You said it's okay when I told you before you left!"
"Yes, but that didn't necessarily mean you can create this big mess, you moron," I groaned as my eyes scanned the room to find out how much damage had occurred in it. The coffee table was cluttered with empty soda cans and empty Chinese food boxes, and a reasonable amount of video games were strewn on the floor while its console sat with its cable tangled. "What is this?" I said disgustedly as I lifted the empty Chinese food box with my thumb and index finger. "I think I've never gave you any permission to dispose any trash in the living room!"
"It's just an empty Chinese food box, Arthur," Peter rolled his eyes. "It's not a bomb, or something like that."
"I don't care what it is. I want you to clean this room, right now! Am I clear?" I dictated with irritation.
"Yes sir…" He grumbled as he started to tidy the strewn video games.
Sighing painfully, I lifted my bag and stumbled to my bedroom on the end of the corridor from the living room. I saw Peter glanced at me, his expression slightly worried. I smiled slightly as I opened the door leading into my bedroom. Peter was not easy to handle; being my brother, he's got my stubbornness and sometimes he's whiny. But mostly, since our parents' death, we were able to cooperate quite easily, especially after he was nearly taken away before I managed to won the custody of him.
Inside my room, I dropped my bag to my bed and started emptying its content. I dumped all the dirty laundries on a basket I've prepared especially for it, put my toiletries on my table, and put my bag into my wardrobe. I sighed as I lounged on my bed, enjoying the comfort after having to sleep on a cheap couch last night. I closed my eyes, my mind started to drift away… Until they finally got into the memory of that boy.
"Oh, God…" I groaned as I rolled on my back, trying my best to get my mind off the damn brat. What the hell's wrong with me?
Instead of getting calmer, I found my mind drifting to the boy again. His azure eyes, his curiously innocent expression, his… Okay, I've got to stop. I hate that kid, especially since he managed to caught me off guard, although it was only for a few second. No kid's allowed to caught Arthur Kirkland off guard! Satisfied with the thought, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep for a while.
After about an hour or so, I woke up. I shook my head, trying to get the sleepy feeling off my head. When I went out from my room, the living room had become spotlessly clean. I smiled slightly; Peter might be whiny whenever he has to clean up, but he's good at it. "Peter?" I called out.
"Yeah?" his voice issued from his room. "What's wrong?"
"You can just order pizza or something; I'm gonna go out," I replied.
"REALLY? That's awesome! OW!!" muffled voices issued from his room, followed by a dull thump. It sounded like he just rolled off his bed and fell down.
I smiled slightly, and I went back to my room. I snatched my jacket and wallet; combed my hair slightly so it won't look too weird, and then I left the apartment. Unlike the apartment that I used as the headquarters, the apartment that Peter and I lived in was located near the center of Lussalia, although it's still quite cheap and a lot less big in size. It's located – conveniently – near one of the shopping district in town.
I walked into one of the big supermarket there, remembering that there's a discount there for a few days. There are quite a few things that had ran out of supply in the apartment, such as milk, egg, soap, and such. I've never left the shopping business to Peter; he's just too dimwitted to remember anything that I told him to buy, although mysteriously he never forgets the cheats he used whenever he's playing video games.
I entered the supermarket, grateful to escape the hot and humid summer air outside. The air conditioner cooled down my body as I walked through the racks, searching for the things I needed. I grabbed a trolley, although I really didn't need to. I've never bought too many things whenever I went shopping, since I'm way too poor to just waste my money carelessly. Sometimes I would buy some snack for Peter, but other than that, I sticked to the shopping list I've made.
After I asked one of the employees where I can find some fresh eggs, I headed there immediately. When I arrived there, however, there's somebody wearing a brown bomber jacket that's blocking the rack. It seemed that he was also looking for some eggs. I tapped his shoulder and said politely, "Excuse me, but you're blocking the way."
The guy turned around, revealing his plastered nose and azure blue eyes. I froze up as I recognized the figure, recognizing his nose that I've kicked less than a day ago. Oh, crap…
"Okay, then. I guess that's it for today. You guys can go home."
"Really? I'll be off with Ludwig then, ve~" said Feliciano cheerfully, his lips turned into a wide grin.
"Yeah, I think we're done. I'm sure we'll be able to nail those robbers if we meet them again," I said cheerfully, optimism coloured my voice.
The four of us had been working for hours on our new awesome plan on how to deal with those villainous robbers whenever we faced them again. The plan was finally finished just moments ago, and the script now sat on my desk. It was super awesome as usual; full of action and knocking off bad guys. Indeed, we had to cut some awesome part, but mostly it's still awesome!
Mattie sighed on his chair, leaning back and started to yawn. "Wow, it's eight o'clock already?" He said as he glanced to his watch.
"Well, then. I shall be off, aru. I've got Im Yong Soo and Kiku to take care of," Wang declared as he grabbed his jacket and put it on. "Kiku said he should've arrived home today."
"Kiku? That Japanese cousin of yours?" I asked curiously.
"Yeah, he's no big deal compared to that dimwit Im Yong Soo. That kid's pretty quiet," Wang sighed painfully as he grabbed his bag. "Well, see you guys later then, aru."
As Wang left the room followed by Feliciano, Mattie and I started packing our stuffs. "Should I keep this with me?" Mattie asked, waving the paper filled with our plan.
"Yeah, sure," I replied; I'm poor at keeping my things. If I keep that paper, it'll probably be gone by tomorrow.
After a few minutes, we turned off the lights in the room and closed the door. Then, we headed outside and left the police station. "Wanna get something to eat?" I offered to Mattie.
"No thanks, Alfred. I think I'll pass today," Mattie smiled and left me alone, walking to the opposite direction to find a taxi.
I shrugged and left the building, going to the nearest shopping district to find McDonalds. There's nothing better than a hamburger after a tiring day at work. After I arrived at the district, however, I remembered that I had run out of eggs and several other stuffs at home. Knowing myself, I decided to go to the supermarket before I have my dinner.
I walked to the supermarket, and entered the building. It was cool inside, the air conditioner blew hard. I shivered slightly and decided to put on my trusty bomber jacket. I pulled the worn-out jacket from my backpack and put it on to protect me from the severely cold air conditioning in the supermarket. I always hated cold air; it reminded me of my childhood in the northern part of the country, where it was always cold.
After I searched through the racks to find eggs, I finally found it; located in the back of the supermarket. I scoured the rack for the best package of eggs, when suddenly someone tapped my shoulder and said with a polite voice, ""Excuse me, but you're blocking the way."
I thought that I recognized the voice, but whose is it? I turned around to find out and there, right in front of me, stood the emerald eyed thief.
A/N: Thank you, THANK YOU so much for you guys who had reviewed before, especially you guys that had give me very constructive critics! I owe you guys BIG TIME! Well anyway, so I had decided the name for Seychelles (Chelle). I had avoided the name since it sounded like the nickname of one of my friends from school, but I've been so confused so I decided to take the name anyway. I've been debating myself for the name (I've got some like, Adelle, Annabelle, Arielle, Clemence, Clementina, Solaine, Simone, Soleil, Ciel, Chelle... *yawn*), my head felt like it's about to explode ==" Oh, and for Liechtenstein I've got some ideas like Lily, Lilli, Lillie, Liesl, and Liech... I think I'll take Liesl, since people in Liechtenstein usually used German-origin names. Well anyway, see you in the next chapter! =D
