Let's just cut to the chase. Enjoy.
- Bar Hopping Contest? -
Link liked his bed to be soft and cozy but decently sized.
He rarely got what he liked.
When he woke up, he found himself in a small room, lying on the most uncomfortable bed ever. He rubbed his eyes and took in his surroundings. And in the next moment, he died of a heart attack.
Well, no, not really. But he was damn close to having a heart attack.
Link liked his room to be clean and organized. As stated before, he rarely got what he liked.
This room was anything but clean and organized. The corners were covered with cobwebs, the floors creaked when he walked, the ceiling looked like it was about to fall on his head any minute, there were no windows, and the bed was so hard and stiff that Link had a backache from sleeping in it. Needless to say, he was not feeling much love for the room.
Well, at least it has a bathroom. Otherwise, Link would really have had a heart attack.
The bathroom had a window. From there, Link could see that it was dark, meaning it was still night. Maybe it was midnight? Probably. But where exactly was he? As soon as that occurred to him, he mentally smacked himself for not noticing earlier. This was not his house. So where was it?
Link shook his head and washed his face. And pretty soon, he started remembering the events that had lead to him coming to this shady place.
That white-haired kid. Ugh. Link shivered just at the thought of him. He was convinced that the kid was devil incarnate.
Link figured that the place he was in right now must have been one of the rooms in the bar where the white-haired boy had dragged him. Come to think of it, what was his name? Link was getting tired of referring to him as 'the white-haired boy'.
Link wanted to get out of his room and find that guy but then he wandered whether it would be wise to go out like this. After all, he was still wearing his pink pajamas.
And then he remembered the white-haired boy's comment about his pajamas and thought, oh what the heck. He was going to go out like this, even if it was just to spite the boy.
Link went out of his room and went downstairs. As soon as he entered, he felt as if he had just walked into a zoo where all the wild animals had gotten out of their cages and were running rampant. People were shouting and fighting and eating and making out and what not.
It looked like food had been served for everyone, and it looked like the food was really good. Everyone was stuffing their faces with as much food as they could. But there was one person at the center of everyone's attention.
It was that white-haired boy. And he was practically inhaling his food.
Just by looking at him, people were starting to slowly lose their appetite. Not the Link could blame them. That guy had so much food on his plate, Link wondered how he had even managed to fit them in his plate. Or rather, he wondered how the chef here had even managed to cook that much. And also, he was somehow managing to follow all table manners and looked like a perfect gentleman.
Link wondered whether to interrupt or to wait until he was finished. He decided to wait. Mostly because he wanted to be nowhere near the white-haired teen when he was eating.
The teen finally finished eating and grinned in a very satisfied way. Link decided that it would be safe to approach him now.
He walked up to the whitette and cleared his throat. The boy looked up at him and various emotions passed through his face at once. Surprise, expectation, disapproval, disappointment and finally, a resigned sigh released itself.
Link was a little irked.
He crossed his arms. "What is this place?"
"A bar/inn," the boy answered, grabbing a glass of wine and calmly sipping it. Link had an urge to remind him that minors(he was a minor, right?) should not be drinking, but then he remembered what had happened the last time tried to pull the underage card on him and decided to wisely keep his mouth shut. He was still wearing his pink pajamas, after all.
"Why did you bring me here?"
He got a shrug in return. "I was hungry. I wanted to eat."
"I see," Link said, trying to look composed, when in fact, he was itching to punch the whitette.
Link was about to say something else but suddenly a weird guy with red hair, wearing an eye-patch, appeared out of nowhere and draped an arm over the white-haired boy. The whitette gave the redhead an annoyed look but the redhead ignored him in favor of grinning at Link.
"Hey, you didn't say you were here with a friend! Come on, Allen, introduce us!" said the redhead in an over-enthusiastic way. The whitette, whose name he only now learned was Allen, sighed as if he was suffering and wanted nothing more than to get out of this situation. Link could relate.
"Link, this is Lavi. We just met. And Lavi, this is Howard Link, an... acquaintance," said Allen.
"Oh, cool!" Just what did he find to be cool about this situation? "Nice to meet you, two-dots~"
At that moment, Link decided that he did not like Lavi. At all.
Two-dots? TWO-DOTS? Who does he think he is? I am an inspector, for god's sake. Show some respect! Oh wait, he doesn't know that I'm an inspector. But still, that is extremely rude. Does he go around calling people rude names all the time? He just met me!
While Link was too busy rambling to himself, Lavi had started talking animatedly to Allen. He was talking about some girl that had bumped into him and how she was totally his type but it had turned out that she was here with her boyfriend. Allen was nodding politely, but it was clear that he was feeling uncomfortable. Come to think of it, why was Lavi being so buddy-buddy with him, anyway? Hadn't they also just met?
"Hey, beansprout! I just got an awesome idea! We decided to go bar hopping since there are so many bars around here, would you like to come with us? We were just planning on sleeping originally, but then we decided that since we're here, why don't we make the most of it? Say, say, will you come?" asked Lavi, almost jumping from excitement. What was he, five?
Allen looked like he really did not want to come. But still, he said, "Yeah, sure, why not? I would love to! But can Link come with us too?"
Link looked at him with horror. Allen looked at Link with a look that said, If I'm gonna suffer, you'll suffer with me. Please, was making him run across the whole town in his pajamas and then dragging him to an unknown place not enough? Now he had to bar hopping?
How had it come to this? He was just supposed to investigate the Noahs and get a sample of their drugs. Now he was stuck bar hopping with said Noah and some other unknown people.
If he could survive tonight, he was definitely going to quit being a police.
Allen took a sip of the whiskey and proceeded to leave the bar. It was the fifth bar he had visited so far.
How had it led to this? Well, what was supposed to have been a normal bar hopping with Lavi, Lenalee, Kanda and Link, had somehow turned into a contest of who could visit the most bars within the night. And so, here he was, making his way around the town, trying to find the next bar.
Allen had no doubt that he would win this. He had experience with this sort of thing, after all. (Don't ask)
But he made sure not to drink too much at one bar. He had no wish of turning into Cross 2.0, after all. He was very much happy just being Allen 1.0, thank you very much.
[ It should be stated that Allen 1.0 is actually not much better than Cross 2.0 ]
Allen took a turn and entered an alley. It was dirty and shady, just the kind of place where you could find criminal hideouts. Also the kind of place where you were most likely to find some bars ridden with crime-lords. Allen would fit right in.
Allen turned left and just as he had expected, he was greeted by the sight of a rather large bar. A large billboard hung on the top, 'The Misty Calf'' written in bright colors. It was almost blinding, and the sound coming from inside was deafening too.
Yes, this was exactly the kind of place he was looking for.
Tentatively, Allen stepped inside. And then again promptly left.
Nope, it was too crowded, and a really messy bar fight was taking place. He did not fancy being punched in the gut or, god forbid, worse places by random strangers. He would need to take some mental preparation first before entering it. He took a few deep breaths and steeled his nerves. He had seen worse than this. After seeing the Earl in his underwear, nothing really gave Allen a fright anymore.
He stepped inside again, and this time, he was prepared. He dodged the punch that came flying his way and then dodged a kick from his left. He dodged lots of similar attacks before finally making it to the counter. Sighing, he ordered a drink.
The bartender gave him a suspicious look.
"Aren't ya underage? We don't sell to minors."
Allen sighed again. He took out a card from him pocket and showed it to the guy. In it, it was clearly written that Allen was twenty-one, when in fact, he was actually nineteen. At least the bartender did not cause anymore trouble and gave him what he wanted.
While drinking, Allen made the mistake of letting his guard down.
A punch came flying out of nowhere and Allen, too busy drinking, failed to react in time and got punched in his gut. He flew out of the chair he had been sitting on and hit the wall before landing on his butt. Hard.
"Ow..." he said, clenching his stomach.
He failed to notice that the transmitter that had been in his pocket had come out and that he had been pressing on it with his elbow for quite some time now. When the shock passed, Allen became aware of something beneath his elbow. When he looked, His face immediately went whiter than chalk.
He had accidentally transmitted an emergency signal to Neah.
He was in deep shit.
Neah was baking cookies when his whole body suddenly started vibrating.
It took him a while to figure out that it was his transmitter sending an emergency signal.
It took him another minute to figure out that it was an emergency signal from Allen.
He quickly took the transmitter out of his pocket and fumbled, trying to grab it properly while wearing mittens. Eventually, he gave up and passed it to Cross to read. Cross was sitting on a sofa, a safe distance away from Neah just in case he ended up setting fire to the kitchen.
Cross took it with an eyebrow raised. He looked at it for a moment before saying,
"'The Misty Calf', that's where he's at. What sort of name is 'The Misty Calf'? Must be a bar or something."
"Wherever it is, we have to go there! Now!" said Neah, frantically trying to put away his apron and put on some presentable clothes at the same time.
Crass raised eyebrow, again. "I recall you saying that you won't go anywhere until your cookies are finished. Come to think of it, why are you baking at midnight in the first place?"
Neah sighed. "That's not the problem right now. The problem is that Allen is in trouble in some weirdly named bar and you are wasting my time not cooperating. 'The Misty Calf'. Just the name oozes suspicion!"
Cross once again raised eyebrow. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"Really? I think it just shows that whoever named the bar is an idiot dickwad who couldn't come up with anything better."
Neah sighed again. He also seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"Are we seriously arguing about this right now? the point is, Allen is in trouble and we. Have. To. Go. Save. Him!"
"Fine, fine," said Cross, knowing that it would be pointless to argue with Neah, "I still think that the brat can handle himself just fine. Or rather, I think we should just leave the dirty brat to die."
Neah gave him an extremely charming smile. "What did you just say, Cross? I couldn't hear you. Would you mind repeating it again?"
"Uh, nothing. Nothing, really. Let's go find my idiot apprentice."
Neah smile broadened. "That's what I thought."
I think that was the longest chapter yet. I was supposed to post it yesterday but couldn't due to some inconveniences. I haven't edited it or anything, so there are probably some mistakes, which I apologize for. I am pretty tired right now, so I am gonna reward myself with some food. Don't forget to follow, favorite and review! Until next time ;)