As Hiro and Elizabeth walked side by side, Hiro noticed the way she concentrated mostly on her feet, and how she only gave short answers to his questions.
Was she somehow nervous? She had no reason to be.
He tried making some small talk numerous times, but she cut it short. Clearly not invested in trying to make it less awkward like he was. He sighed. It was tiring trying to keep up a one-sided conversation but he persisted nonetheless.
"Elizabeth right?"
He tried one more time.
"Yes," came her one word answer. Another huh?, he thought.
"Elizabeth what?"
"Just Elizabeth," she said, disinterest leaking through her voice.
"Only Elizabeth?"
"Yes," she replied, almost exasperatedly.
"What about your surname?"
She halted, as if remembering something, peering up slightly before focusing on her feet again. She remained silent and his question; unanswered.
"If you don't want to tell me that's fine, you don't owe me anything anyways" he shrugged.
Another pause, this time she looked at him, as if considering something before her head went down once more.
"It's Lemmings, Elizabeth Lemmings," she murmured within earshot, before walking ahead of him.
"Thanks,"
He said, secretly elated that she finally responded with more than one word.
"Don't mention it,"
She replied without turning to face him.
He smirked, before increasing his speed, breaking into a slight jog to catch up.
"Since we're not friends yet; can I be your friend Elizabeth Lemmings, or do mafia lords not do friends?" He joked, jovially beside her. She increased her pace, seemingly stumped on how to respond.
He yelled, "Wanna build a snowman, bestie?!", cringing despite himself and then continued his jog, finally catching up to her once more.
She turned her face to him once he was beside her, with a slight grin.
"Should I remind you, we just met thirty minutes ago?"
"No need, I remember it perfectly. Now, I believe you have yet to answer my question, Miss Elizabeth Lemmings," he teased.
She looked at him at first, staring at him, her eyes dancing with light he knew all too well. A dance he danced too.
Nobody had ever been able to match her, to not stutter in fear of her presence and actually have a conversation with her, let alone ask to be her friend, so to her this front the man was an entirely new experience, a one she somehow liked.
"Hmm, what is in it for me? If you must know, I don't make ties with useless baggage," she smirked, looking forward once more. To her reply, he stuttered, caught off-guard.
"I-uh..."
Quietly, she snickered, beginning to enjoy their playful banter.
"My irreplaceable charm and my dying humour?", he helplessly tried.
At this she laughed, "Well, I'm not sure about the charm but your humour is definitely there. Even if it is supposedly dying," she snickered.
"I could use that. Not much to laugh about in my line of work," she finally relented, smiling despite herself. Behind her, she could hear his soft cheer as he started to catch up with her again.
"And one more thing, Hiro Holmes," she began. He froze at the mention of his name before realising that names and faces were mere child's play for people like her. "Mafia lords don't do snowmen, we melt them," she said, before walking towards a cul-de-sac lined with various modest houses save for one, which very clearly stood out from the rest.
Unlike the other buildings, this one's plain white and brown theme, was sprayed with different colours and paintings.
On one side there was a painting of a red Sea Dragon, on the other side resided a blue one. In the middle was a skull sign with ivy creeping through the sockets, out the jaw and around the skull. It give the apartment an unique aesthetic look.
The house itself was more like a villa than a house. It had gold gilted glass frame windows and a shining glass door, even the doorbell had a special design,with intricate golden, red and black patterns of dragons intertwining.
Everything screamed rich.
They walked up to the house, skipping up the steps and onto the plush maroon welcome mat on whitewashed floors. She rang the doorbell and automatically, as if it identified her fingerprint, the door slid open like an elevator.
"Uncle, I'm here!"
She yelled, with an indecipherable expression on her face.
Suddenly, the sound of loud footsteps running down the stairs rang through the larger and richer still, looking foyer. A tall young man appeared from the side of the wall.
"Elizabeth, you're back!"
The man, more or less exclaimed
He did not look like a man at all, the word boy most likely described him best. He was tall maybe up to six feet, with lanky arms, and was dressed in a simple t-shirt with baggy trousers.
But his features had not defined at all, his face was like the face of a teenager. Maybe he's one of those freaky baby-faced men, Hiro thought studying the newcomer.
"Uncle?"
Hiro asked biting his tongue after, he might have just been rude.
"No, he's my little brother, he'll be sixteen this year," Elizabeth explained, seeming unfazed by Hiro's nervousness.
"Yo, what's up? The name's Caleb"
The teenage boy said offering his hand.
"Hey, Hiro Holmes,"
He said, taking the teenagers hand.
That's when a man dressed in a velvet suit with fine black edge finishes, walked into the room
Both siblings went down on one knee, and Hiro followed, albeit slightly delayed.
"Uncle,"
They both said.
The older male looked from Elizabeth, to her brother and finally to him before speaking.
"Rise,"
He commanded which sent shivers down Hiro Holmes spine.
____
17/3/2040
Hiro Holmes sat up from his couch, reliving his talk with Elizabeth's Uncle five days ago.
**********
~Past~
After they had risen, he welcomed his niece with a warm hug. The man seemed soft with Elizabeth but immediately when he turned, what the nineteen year old saw were cold platinum eyes.
Did the temperature drop a few degrees?
"Who are you?"
He asked with a barely decipherable expression on his face, it wasn't haughtiness or over excessive pride, it was more out of dominance.
A kind of dominance that made Hiro's knees weak in the face of its authority.
Hiro realized he had not answered the question and quickly spoke up, his voice small.
"Hiro Holmes...sir"
"What do you want Hiro Holmes? Why are you here?"
This time Elizabeth spoke up for him.
"Hiro is looking for answers to an encounter he had three weeks prior."
The man seemed to pause at his niece's words, as if he knew what the latter had seen.
"I see,"
He said, looking at the nineteen year old, who was regaining some of his confidence back.
"Come with me young man,"
The man ordered, gesturing for the latter only, leaving his niece and nephew.
They walked down a spiral staircase that looked endless in Hiro's perspective, even though he knew it couldn't be more than a ten minute descent. Still agonizingly long, he thought.
Given the ache in his thighs, their descent felt like hours, but in reality was no more than a couple of mintues, they had finally reached a door with the same blue and red dragon insignia that was on the man's building and now that he looked closer, the tattoo peeking out from his collar on his neck as well.
He opened it, and stood still for a moment, surveying the place.
It was a dingy room, with a single lightbulb, table and two chairs.
Yet, it was clean and inviting, with it's intricate golden patterns on the wall, and the portraits of men and women in a variation of ages from young to old ornamenting it.
It looked like they were former mafia bosses because they all had the blue and red dragon insignia on their necks and uniforms, which was just a plain black, golden, purple suit.
He quickly stopped looking at them when he heard a creaking sound.
He turned to see the man already seated with the same serious glare that seemed unchanging.
"So, what did you see?"
_____
They talked for hours in that room.
Hiro Holmes told him everything he knew, starting from the first encounter.
The man confirmed that there were, indeed, miniature Gerenuks in a few recent cases however, he knew nothing of the arrow apart from the known fact that it was from a caster. The older male also mentioned that the casters were formed seventeen years ago, and that the Gerenuk had spent it's thousand of years weaving through suitors, and now that hopefully it was dead, the threat of the Gerenuk and all the people will die along with it.
The remaining of the questions the nineteen year old threw were answered with either, "I don't know." or "I can't answer that."
Eventually, the latter grew tired and searched for a question to ask last.
"Are there other people like me?"
He asked.
The man seemed to hesitate for a second before speaking.
"Yes, but there are only a handful."
"Who are they? Where can I find them?"
He paused again before speaking.
"There's a case of a man that reported seeing a monster with his friend, Cara Helmes, appear in his driveway. His name is Cane Anthony. There's another who saw it in his garage, his name's Alex, and there are some few others that spotted it in their yard, like my... niece.
"Elizabeth?"
"Yes," came the familiar one word answer. Definitely related, he thought.
"Wait, what? Why didn't she tell me?"
The only reply was the sound of footsteps upstairs, and the latter couldn't spend one more minute in the room.
"She owes you nothing. Don't be mistaken, boy. And if someone was to tell you, it'd be her story to tell. Now, if you excuse me, I must be on my way. I trust you'll see yourself out?"
Hiro quietly nodded, the atmosphere arctic. "Good day," he bidded as he stood up and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door, even though Hiro could tell the male was furious.
As Hiro eventually willed himself to get up, he made his way back to the foyer where he met Caleb in the living room, his eyes told the latter that he wanted a conversation, but Caleb was undeterred.
"Long talk you had there," he drawled, resting his head on the back of the sofa.
"Yeah, I know."
Hiro said, increasing his pace.
"Where are you going?"
Caleb asked.
"I'm leaving, tell Elizabeth to not look for me."
Caleb seemed to pause, and Hiro wondered if the Lemmings' favorite things was to pause or use one word answers.
"Umm, okay..."
Caleb said, getting up and opening the door for Hiro.
--
~Present~
Never mind Elizabeth, he needed to contact the rest of the people, who had encountered these deadly creatures.
He did not need the privilege for friendships as he previously thought he did; rather what he needed now were to find the people whose pictures were spread over his center table
His targets...
____
18/3/2040.
Hiro Holmes heard the doorbell from his room.
Quickly, he dressed up, wondering who could be on his porch at five in the morning.
Whoever the person was, they seemed to be impatient, because it didn't take long before a doorbell cacophony filled his home.
"Coming!"
He yelled, irritated.
Hurriedly, he walked towards the door and opened it, meeting a tall girl, maybe up to five foot ten or eleven, with a dyed blonde afro, and sand brown skin.
She wore a light pink crop top, with a light denim blue jacket on top, and plain black baggy trousers with combat boots.
Her afro was packed, with two long plaited braids that stuck out, framing her face. She wore bright red lipstick, and her blue eyes glowed in the glimpses of peeking daybreak.
She looked dangerously beautiful.
It took a second before he realized he was mad at her, and he hardened his gaze.
"How did you find me?"
He asked, wearing a bored expression.
"Looks like you finally regained your ability to speak Mr Starer, if that's a word," she scoffed with a smirk tugging at her lips.
"No, it's not, and I repeat how did you find me?"
He spoke through gritted teeth, his eyes averted.
"I run one of the top organizations in America, and you're asking how I found you? Did you also forget what it is that I do?"
He scoffed, "Well, Miss 'head of the top organizations in America', pardon this humble soul for not knowing of your existence. And I believe I don't know exactly what it is you do." She rolled her eyes, "Snarky piece of crap."
"What's your business here?", Hiro griped.
"Why did you leave two weeks ago?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe I couldn't just understand why you didn't tell me you're part of the people who encountered those creatures", he scolded.
The realization clicked, guilt eating at her. She opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.
"Save your breath, I don't want to hear it,"
He said, which she ignored.
" Look... I was going to tell you-"
"When? When, Elizabeth?"
"At, at the right time... But it's not like I owe you anything," she reasoned.
"Regardless, you should have told me. You knew what I was looking for, we even talked about it for thirty whole minutes! Even though this doesn't matter, I thought we were friends, Elizabeth," he sighed.
"Friends don't share everything. To be frank, we're not even friends friends, we just met two weeks ago. You barely know anything about me, what did you expect? That we'd be BFFs, telling each other everything that happens in our lives?!"
She raised her voice up a notch.
"Not everything, but at least the things that concern the other person. It was something I needed to know, and it wasn't even a secret! It was just -"
"Something I didn't want to tell you yet Something I don't even owe to tell you"
She interrupted, staring at him with her cold blue eyes.
"Oh, I get it now. I understand you mafias... All of you are the same.."
"Spare me your melodrama and tantrums We're in a Goddamn war Holmes! We're only five plane tickets away from WWIII's destruction. And even though it's peacefully wearing off, people are still alert!
We don't have the luxury for friendships."
"The friendship isn't the point. You're right, you don't owe me, and I don't owe you, but I deserved to know Elizabeth. All this shit could've have been resolved by now. We'd be on our way to finding the others if you had just told me, don't you see that?"
She didn't answer... She didn't need to. Her eyes told him all he needed to know.
"So that's how it is huh?"
He asked, staring at the girl.
"If you want it that way sure,"
She replied gruffly, holding her ground
"Fine... leave then..."
She hesitated before walking towards the door, before, walking away, leaving him alone, left with nothing but the hollow feeling of loneliness once more.
A/N: Yes yes sorry I know; plot hole, I know I didn't mention Elizabeth having a brother, but she does, her brother was born before Arjun, and wasn't there when Arjun attacked, he was with his aunt in Mexico.