Chapter 6
"I'm home." I said as I opened the front door.
I stepped into the living room only to find Tatsuo on the floor.
"Tatsuro? Tatsuro!" I said and shook him till he woke up.
"Mm.. Mmm Faye? Why are you here?" He askes still half asleep.
"I moved in, remember?"
"Oh.. That's right. Welcome home Faye." He said and smiled.
"Thanks." I said and pulled him up to his feet. "What were you doing on the floor anyway?"
"I was.. Just so tired. As soon as I got home, I just passed out.."
He looked pale, everything with the Black Foxes must be taking their toll on him.
"I'm going to go to bed." He said and took a step forward but he was so wobbly he fell over.
I took him by his arm and helped him into his room.
"Wow, there are a ton of books here." I noted as we came to his room. "You always were a bookworm." I said and laughed.
"Yeah.. But I haven't had much time to read lately." He said sadly.
I didn't like to seem him sad, I had to change the subject.
"You're room is quite clean for a boy." I said.
He smiled "Well all I do is sleep here when I get home."
"When we were little there was all kinds of stuff in here." I said.
"You remember?" He asked.
"Of course I do! I use to spend the night here all the time! You had your soccer ball, your cleats... plastic models everywhere. Your room was always messy, your mum use to always tell you off."
"I guess you're right."
"Haha! And we read '100 scary stories' in here." I said.
"Oh that's right! Supposedly if you read all one hundred, a real ghost would appear! But after about five stories you and Ranko got too scared so we had to stop."
"That's right. And we were so scared we couldn't sleep so all three of us slept in your bed."
"Haha! Oh yeah!" He laughed.
He then led down on his bed.
"You want to sleep with me tonight?" he asked.
"What?"
"Three of us wouldn't fit anymore, but I have room in my bed for you Faye." He said tenderly.
I couldn't tell if he was joking, flirting or just asking me as a friend.
"You're really rough when you sleep." I said.
"Haha! I remember you and Ranko got so mad at me because I kept kicking you in my sleep!"
"Right? So I'll pass." I said.
"Yeah yeah." he laughed.
I glanced at his alarm clock, it was already 1am.
"I'm gonna go back to bed, I'll see you later." I said.
"Ok. Hey, how's your head? Does it still hurt?"
"I've still got a headache but it's fine." I said.
"If you need anything, just let me know. You're really important to both Ranko and me." He said.
I smiled "I know otherwise why would Ranko kidnap me and bring me here?" I joked and we both laughed.
"Goodnight." he said and patted me on the head.
He was being so nice to me and all I was doing was lying to him. It wasn't fair.
The next morning, I was the first one up and decided to make everyone breakfast.
"Morning." Ranko said as she came into the kitchen. "What smells so good? Is that breakfast? Seriously?"
"Hey, morning." I smiled.
"No way, did you make all this Faye?" She asked.
"Yeah, I just used whatever was in the fridge. I hope that's ok?"
"It's fine, it's fine! Tatsurooooo! Faye made us breakfast!"
Tatsuro came out of his room next.
"This looks amazing!" He said.
"It's no big deal."
"But there's toast, soup, salad, bacon and scrambled eggies!"
"Eggies? You're not a kid anymore Tatsuro. They're called eggs." Ranko said.
"Who cares." He said.
"Anyway, go ahead and eat! You don't have much time, right?"
"That's right. I'll go ahead and eat then." Ranko said.
"Me to." Tatsuro said.
We all sat around the kitchen table and started eating.
"How is it?" I asked.
"Delicious! Right Tatsuro?" Ranko said.
"Yeah, it's really good."
"I'm glad." I said.
They were letting me stay here for free, the least I could do was cook for them.
"Faye's always been a great cook!" Tatsuro said.
"Anyone's a master chef compared to you, Tatsuro." Ranko teased.
"Hey!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot you're not very good at cooking." I said.
"Right?" Ranko said and we both laughed. "Just the other day he tried to eat raw burdock!"
"Ha! Seriously?" I asked.
"He kept saying ' Eww, this is so bitter!'. It's a miracle you even survived this long." Ranko said.
"Who cares? It's not like I have to cook." he snapped.
"All you need to do is marry a good cook like Faye and you'll be fine." She said.
"Yeah right!" I laughed.
"Ranko." Tatuso hissed.
"Didn't you use to have a thing for Faye?" Ranko asked.
I looked at him "You did?" I asked.
He turned away as his cheeks turned right red.
He had a thing for me? How did I not know?
"Who cares? The statute of limitations has passed right? I mean we're talking about elementary school here." Ranko said.
"That's true but..." he said.
"I had a huge crush on you too." I stated.
"What?!" he gasped.
"Yeah but it's not big deal." I said.
"Yep! You were Faye's first love!" Ranko teased.
Tatsuro was just turning redder and redder as Ranko kept teasing him. We were so mean to him, he was so easy to embarrass.
"All right, I'm off to work." Ranko said.
"Aren't you off to work as well?" I asked Tatsuro.
"No I've actually got the day off today." he said. "What about you Faye?"
"Yeah I've got a couple days off work due to the head injury." I said.
"You wanna go somewhere together, then?" He asked.
"Sure. Where would you like to go?" I asked.
"I've got two tickets to the Ottoman Empire exhibit." he said.
An hour later, we were walking down the street side by side.
"Now that I think of it, this is the first time you and I went somewhere alone together on a day off." He said. "Usually Ranko's always with us."
"Yeah I guess you're right." I said.
"It kind of feels like a date.."
"Huh?" I asked, I didn't hear what he said.
"Oh nothing, never mind." He said.
I just shrugged and we continued.
"Oh look, it's that park." I pointed.
"We use to play there with Ranko all the time, remember?" He asked.
"Yeah, hey let's go and play on the climbing frame!" I said and ran off.
I got to the park and went over to the swings and started to move backwards and forwards.
"Bet I can get higher than you!" I said and poked my tongue out at him.
"Haha. You're too competitive." He said but he got into the swing next to me and also started to move backwards and forwards.
We moved higher and higher but we both seemed to reach the same height.
"Never mind." I said and jumped from the swing as it moved forwards.
He used his feet and skidded to a stop before standing up from the swing, we both were laughing. It was like we were kids again.
"Faye... I.. I'm.. I'm in love with you." He said.
"Excuse me?" I asked and stared at him in shock.
Did he just say that he was in love with me?!
"Uh.. But.. I'm not saying you have to answer me or anything. Because I know you don't feel the same way."
"Well yeah but.."
"It's ok, I understand. It's fine this way, I just had to tell you how I felt."
"Ok.." I said.
What should I do? I had no idea he felt that way about me.
We left the park and went to the museum.
"Wow! Look at that traditional dress. Is this a tiara? Faye, you like stuff like this, don't you?" He asked.
He was talking to me as if nothing had happened between us, this was so awkward.
"Faye?" He said when I didn't answer.
"Oh sorry, yes I love it." I said.
"Ranko always made paper necklaces when were little, but you use to make paper crowns."
I remained silent, he was trying to make things seem normal but I just felt so bad. He loved me, I never knew and I was betraying him.
"Faye?"
He then ruffled my hair.
"Should we go home for the day?" He asked. "You just got out of the hospital yesterday, so if you're tired I don't want you to push yourself."
"No I'm fine, I want to stay." I said.
"Ok then." he said and smiled.
His eyes were so gentle when he looked at me. I couldn't stand it and I turned to moved away when I bumped into someone.
"Oh sorry." I said.
"No, you're fine." they said, it was a security guard.
I stopped and took a second look at them, was it Hiro?
Tatsuro phone then started ringing. "Sorry Faye, I have to take this." He said and walked off.
I made sure Tatsuro was gone before walked up to the security guard.
"Hidey-ho!" Hiro beamed.
"Hiro? What are you doing here?" I whispered.
He leaned over to me and whispered in my ear,
"I heard you and Tatsuro are shackin' up!"
"We're not 'shacking up'. We're just living together." I said firmly.
"Really? I don't know, you two looked pretty intimate just now.." he said with a teasing smile.
"We do not." I said.
"If you say so. That's not good. Listen, I don't care if you seduce him, but don't let him have your heart. He might seem nice enough but he's our enemy. Remember that."
"I know, I don't need reminding. Anyway, what are you doing here?"
"Recon for the mission." He said.
"There's going to be another mission?"
"Yep! I wouldn't be wearing this for no reason. See you later at Le Renard Noir later." he patted me on the shoulder and walked off.
"You know him?" Tatsuro asked as he returned.
"Yes, he use to work at my museum." I said.
"Oh really?" He asked.
I hope he bought it.
A few hours later,
"That was a really cool exhibit." Tatsuro said.
"Yeah it was." I said but I couldn't look him in the eye.
"Listen Faye, just forget what I said earlier ok? It's obvious that it's bothering you." He said.
"No, it's not bothering me." I said.
"Liar. I can always tell when you're lying by the look on your face. You've always been a terrible liar, ever since we were kids. I just want things to be back to the way they were. We're going to be living under the same roof for a while, I don't want things to be awkward."
"Fair enough." I said.
"Well, I'm gonna stop by the bookstore on my way home."
"Ok, I'm going to go meet some friends." I said.
"Ok, be careful on your way there." He said.
"I will, bye." I said and waved as we parted ways.
I had never felt so awkward in my life! I went to Le Rendard Noir, not everyone was here yet so I decided to draw. I sat at the bar, got out my sketchbook and started to draw Takuto.
"Will you stop drawing me. It's annoying." He hissed.
I ignored him and continued. Kenshi and Hiro walked around and peered over my shoulder.
"Actually, she's done a good job." Kenshi said.
"Yeah, she's got Takuto's glare perfect!" Hiro laughed.
Takuto stormed over and tried to snatch my sketchbook out of my hands, I moved it away so he could grab it. I held the sketch out so he could see it.
"That looks nothing like me!" He hissed.
Kenshi and Hiro both laughed.
"You've got your Gramps blood in you, that's for sure." Boss said and smiled.
"Thanks." I smiled and admired my work.
CHIME CHIME
"Deserted as usual in here, I see." Riki said as he walked in.
"Hey Riki." I said and smiled at him.
Riki pulled out a chair and sat down next to me.
"I'm really sorry about before. Leaving you like that." he said.
He looked upset.
"It's ok. It was my fault anyway."
"So I hear you're staying at Togoshi's place?" He asked.
"Yes."
"You ok?" He asked.
"There's hasn't been a problem yet."
"Good, let's keep it that way." He said.
He then patted my head softly. Why did everyone like patting my head? I didn't understand.
"How's your head? Does it still hurt?" he asked.
"I still have a slight headache but it's fine." I said.
"Then why are you avoiding making eye contact with me?" He asked.
"It's just.. With everything that's happened..." I said.
It's my fault that Tatsuro is on to us, I fell and got caught.
"Are you ok Faye?" Hiro asked. "You look like you're about to cry."
"Her head's so empty her brain is probably rattling around in there after you patted her." Takuto said glaring at me.
I swiftly kicked him hard in the leg.
"Hey! What did you do that for?!"
I poked my tongue out at him and glared back.
Riki chuckled "Her head's pretty hard actually."
"Ok, enough of that. Just have a sip of this tea." Boss said and handed Riki a cup of tea.
Riki smelt it first and pulled a face "What the hell is in this tea? It smells weird."
"It's love-love tea. It's supposed to give you good luck in love." Boss said.
"Huh?! Here, you have it Takuto." Riki said and handed him the cup.
"No way." Takuto said and gave it to Kenshi.
"Hey, why are you passing it to me?" Kenshi asked.
"Don't give it to me Kenny!" Hiro said and passed it to me.
"Here you go Boss." I said and gave it back.
"Hey! Why won't any of you drink it?" He asked sounding upset.
It was times like this that I forgot these guys were thieves, they were so funny. It felt weird, but I felt like I belonged here. It was a strange feeling.
I spent the rest of the evening drawing everyone, Takuto complained but he still sat for me as I drew him again.
The next evening, Riki asked me to meet him at the bar and insisted that I dress up nicely. I put on a skin tight black dress that went down to my knees, black knee high boots and a brown leather jacket. When I got to the bar, Riki was waiting in his sports car.
"Hey." I said and climbed in.
He stared at me and then smiled "So you do know how to dress up?" He said sounding shocked.
"Of course I do. What's that supposed to mean?" I asked and glared at him.
"Don't get angry, this is meant to be a fun evening." He said and before starting the car.
A fun evening? Wait, this wasn't a date was it? I assumed that it would be about another mission.
He took me to an expensive French restaurant, I saw the restaurant in magazines. Only the rich and famous went here. We sat across from each other at a table but a huge window, you could see the entire city below.
"This table has the best view of the night skyline in the whole restaurant." He said.
"It's nice. So, why are we here? I assume you wanted to talk to me about a mission?" I asked.
"Let's eat first, we'll talk after. Go on and order whatever you'd like." he said and opened the menu for me.
I stared at the menu "I can't read it." I stated.
He smiled "Don't worry, I'll order you something that you'd like." He said.
The waiter came over to our table.
"The fillet d rouget roti and the roast duck." Riki said.
"And what will you have to drink?" The waiter asked.
Riki pointed to the menu "This red wine please."
The waiter nodded, took our menus from us and walked away.
I just sat there looking down at my hands, which were on the table. Other than doing missions, I had never been alone with Riki before. I didn't know what to say to him.
"Why do you look so nervous?" He asked.
"I'm not nervous."
"Have you never been on a date with a man before?" He asked.
"Of course I have but is this a date? I thought we were just having dinner?"
"Don't be so particular, you're so hard headed." he said with a smile.
He then reached across the table and squeezed my hand.
"What are you doing?" I asked and pulled my hand free.
"Since you're so inexperienced at dating, shouldn't you at least get some practice?" He asked.
"No!"
"What? You're no fun." he said with a sigh.
He was just teasing me; I knew he was.
"Why did you bring me here?" I asked.
"To discuss the next mission but also to apologise for the other night."
"The other night? You mean when I hit my head? You've already apologised, it's fine." I said.
He shook his head "It's not fine, you must have been scared waking up like that."
I just shrugged "Tatsuro was there so I wasn't really scared and like I said, it's fine."
"Do you have feelings for him? Because if you do, it will only complicate things." He said.
"I know and no I don't. We're just friends." I said.
I decided that it was best that I didn't tell them about Tatsuro's confession, it would just complicate things.
After we finished eating, we moved to the bar counter at the restaurant.
"Dinner was really delicious." I said.
"Right? The food's great here." he said.
He ordered a whiskey and a cigar from the bartender.
"You smoke cigars?"
"Yeah. I don't smoke cheap cigarettes, but I do like expensive cigars." he said.
God he was such a snob.
"Can you not blow smoke over here please." I said and used my hand to wave it away.
"Sorry." He apologised and moved the cigar out of the way.
"Can we talk about the mission now?" I asked.
He narrowed his eyes and started laughing.
"Why are you laughing?" I asked.
"Nothing, okay let's talk..." he began to explain everything.
"Ok so basically gramps left behind a bunch of his work before the war and one of the paintings is particularly valuable." I said.
"Yes. Your great-grandfather donated some of his paintings to museums and gave others to valued patrons. But he made sure not to sell them to someone who just thought of his art as money. But many of those paintings got stolen in the post war chaos or taken by bad guys. But he tried to hide his masterpiece somewhere, a portrait called 'Lady of the Camellias'."
I recognised that name somewhere.
"Have you heard of it?" He asked.
"Yeah but I don't know where from."
"There are a lot of people who are after your Gramp's work. He left on one clue for us to find it, 'if you collect three paintings, you'll solve the mystery of Lady of the Camellias'."
"You mean the ones called Cherry Blossom, Lily of the Valley and Flowering Dogwood?"
"Yes, they were all stolen by different people. Our first objective is to recover the cherry blossom. Once we've recovered all of the paintings and we find his masterpiece, we can then focus on his invention."
I nodded.
We then returned to the Le Rendard Noir.
"Woohoo! Welcome back Riki, Faye!" Hiro beamed.
Takuto was there as well, he was sat at the table eating.
"You guys here again?" Riki asked.
"My day doesn't end until I eat Boss' fried chicken." Hiro said.
Takuto glanced at us as he slurped up pork noodles. He then started choking.
"Are you ok?" I asked and pounded him on the back.
"Owww! Don't hit me so hard!" he snapped.
"I thought you were choking. Try and be more grateful." I said.
"You two look so lovely dovey, I'm jealous." Hiro said.
"Huh?"
"Are you stupid?" Takuto hissed.
"But since Faye hit you, you stopped choking." Hiro said. "I know it's pretty primitive, but it's effective right?"
Takuto didn't respond.
"Hey, come eat with us Riki and Faye." Hiro said.
"I have to get up early tomorrow, so I'm taking a bath and going to sleep." Riki said.
"Aww, you're no fun." Hiro said. "You don't have to work tomorrow, right Faye? Let's drink together."
"Ok." I agreed.
"C'mon! Sit down, sit down." He said and patted the seat next to him.
I sat in-between him and Takuto, Hiro gave me a bear.
"I'm not giving you any pork noodles." Takuto said.
"I didn't ask for any." I said.
I was tempted to stick my fingers into his bowl of food but I resisted the urge.
"You went on a date with Riki, right?" Hiro asked.
"It wasn't a date, he took me out to apologise for what happened at the museum and to discuss the next mission." I said.
"How are things between you and Tatsuro?" Hiro asked.
"Fine." I lied.
This morning, I made sure that I left the house early so I didn't have to see him and I had been ignoring his calls and texts. I still couldn't face him after he told me that he loved me.
"What's up?" Hiro asked.
"Oh nothing." I said and downed my beer.
I didn't want to go back to the house and see him.
"Can I stay here tonight?" I asked.
"Sure!" Hiro beamed.
After we had finished drinking, I was shown to a small room with bunk beds. I crawled into the bed and instantly crashed out.