AN:
Before the chapter starts I wanna thank my woooonderful reviewers of the last chapter: DarkMaster98, TheAmazingQwerty, Lily, DeadFicDude, Novaglare, mulzypops & Guest! You guys are amazing, please keep up all the support! :D

I finally uploaded the 20-facts-challenge. I wanted to post it to my livejournal, but it didn't work out the way I wanted it to, so I'll give you the link to the wattpad-upload in my profile! Look it up, I answered the questions you guys had for me as well! =)

Music tip:
LOLO – Weapon for Saturday
youtube: watch?v=7o3jir7J_Kw

Lovers of Freedom

Chapter 11:
Changes

"No. I'm not moving back to LA."

Adam and everyone else fell silent immediately, as Mitch declined the idea of moving back into their old house in Los Angeles. Some were surprised and exchanged clueless glances, while the rest of the newly reunited team looked pissed off. It was understandable – Murphy helped them to keep their jobs, even though Microsoft obviously wasn't keen on having youtubers play their games on the internet. Now they had the chance to revive their memories and their friendship in the house where it all had begun. But Mitch was against it.

Murphy's face was unreadable as he sat down on his chair again.
"And why is that, Mr. Hughes?"

Adam glanced carefully back to Mitch, who had been incredibly pale all the morning. It didn't fit at all to his happy personality and his usually shining hazel eyes, which now had a dirty and dull gleam in them. Something was wrong and Adam was sure that some of the guys had noticed the change as well. They hadn't seen Mitch in a long time, but they still remembered their former friend quite well.
And Adam assumed to know the reason for it. At least parts of it. Again his look went back to Murphy.

"I… I just thought it would be nice to start somewhere new," Mitch slowly began and returned Murphy's stare. "I'm not keen on going back into this big city. Why don't we move somewhere calmer? Like here for example?" The more Mitch explained, the more confident he became and before he continued he looked to everybody around him. "We are nearby the headquarters, but it's not as bad as in LA."

The angry looks disappeared and Ian and Jason actually nodded their approval, but just as they wanted to carry on the conversation, someone knocked on the door and a man only a few years older than Adam himself entered the office. "I'm sorry for disturbing you, Sir. The contracts are ready to sign now."

"So fast?" Ian asked while Adam turned his head back around to watch his new boss. He had a satisfied smile on his face and nodded approvingly toward his secretary. "We already finished the contract a bit earlier due to Mr. Hughes and Mr. Dahlberg. For you we only had to do some minor changes. Why don't you follow Mr. Brice, read and sign the contracts and then we can continue to discuss your future residence."

They all agreed and stood up together – Mitch and Adam as well, to help the others out in case something was unclear.

Of course it took the team a bit to read everything thoroughly and once in a while Mitch, Adam and the secretary Mr. Brice helped them out with complicated passages. About half an hour had passed already and Adam was just helping out Jason, when the chosen part was a problem for him as well. Mr. Brice explained something to Ian and Quentin, so Adam turned around to ask Mitch for help. "Hey, Mitch. Can you tell u-"

Adam interrupted himself and looked around the room, but Mitch had disappeared.
Jerome and Ryan were talking quietly to each other in a corner of the small room, but both looked up as Adam was calling for them. "Did you see Mitch?"

"Murphy wanted to talk to him a few minutes ago. I guess they are in his office."

The last hours Mitch had behaved way too differently from his usual self. Instead of turning his attention back to Jason, he excused himself and went to the door to the hallway. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe Adam was just overreacting, but he couldn't deny at this point that Mitch's behavior worried him. It was not only his way to react and to answer during the morning – there was something else that he was hiding from the beginning on.

Adam had to think back to their first meeting in front of Murphy's office.
The look Mitch had been giving him…
Then his words on the day before, as Mitch had finally let go of some of the tension…
Adam was worried. Maybe he should talk to Jerome, when everything would have calmed down again.

No one was to be seen on the hallway and everything was quiet. Adam closed the door behind him carefully and looked around. Murphy's bureau was the room next to his secretary's and as Adam stepped closer, he could make out voices. Mitch and Murphy.

"…know what that means. One call, Mr. Hughes, it only takes one simple phone call."

"Please don't, I just wanted-"

"I guess you'll only learn your lesson when you finally realize how serious I am about this!"

"I swear I didn't mean to-"

Mitch's voice became more desperate, but something – or someone - interrupted him. Before the panic inside of Adam could take over control and make him burst into the room, the door behind him was opened again and the team left the small office of the secretary. They were excitedly talking to each other and didn't seem to see Adam, so he took the chance to avoid being questioned by them and entered Murphy's office after knocking on the door.

Mitch was sitting on a chair on one side of Murphy's desk, arms crossed in front of his chest and an impassive expression on his face. He glanced over his shoulder to Adam, but as the rest of the team followed as well, he looked back towards Murphy and slowly relaxed his clenched muscles.

Whatever the conversation had been about, both tried their best to not show any signs of it. However Adam was able to see through their masks a little bit, because now he knew that Murphy was at least partly responsible for Mitch's behavior.
While Mitch seemed to be glad about the interruption, Murphy looked unsatisfied for a second, but began to smile as soon as the team sat down on their seats again.

At first Adam had felt certain about Murphy being one of the good guys, who actually tried to help them through all of this mess.
But now…

"So, shall we continue? Mitch had suggested that-"
Ian began to pick up on their previously discussed topic, but Mitch interrupted him with a smile on his face. The situation began to feel surreal for Adam and he furrowed his brows, while he watched every move of the young Canadian.

"Actually I think it's better if we move to LA."

A short moment of silence gave Mitch the opportunity to explain his decision, before any of the guys could question his sudden choice.
"I know, I was against it half an hour before, but during that time I had the chance to discuss the topic a bit more with Mr. Murphy and… I have to admit that he has a point. Sure, LA will be more stressful than for example Seattle, but we would have to travel so much more. Let's face it: we can reach conventions or jobs easier living in LA."

"…you're seriously okay with this? Are you sure?"
Ian's voice sounded as disbelieving as Adam felt in the same moment, but Mitch smile was fucking convincing. He laughed and his eyes were shining as bright as they had done before the break-up of Team Crafted. For a moment Adam actually believed his act and doubted his own conclusions – but then he saw the strain in Mitch's wide smile and the reason for his shining eyes. They were welling up with tears and as soon as Murphy answered another question of Quentin regarding the move, Mitch looked to the other side to compose himself.

Five seconds later he watched the others again with a content smile on his lips.
No one was aware of what just nearly happened, except for Adam.

He was about to speak up and force Mitch to finally tell him the truth, as a hand clutched his arm with a firm grip. Jerome. His stare was fixated on his best friend who ignored him ever since they had arrived at Redmond.

"But we can't just leave everything behind, can we? It's quite expensive as well!"

"Don't you worry, we'll incur any expenses."
The discussion faded into the background, as Jerome leaned forward and whispered, "Not here. It won't do us any good if we confront him right now. Let's wait a bit – I guess we two should talk about what exactly had happened during the last days first."

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What do you guys think will happen in the next chapters?

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