When enemies meet

The alluring smell of pork fills my nose as I enter the kitchen. I know because I can smell it even before I entered. It's eleven in the morning, and the sizzling of meat sang in the room as Jean stood on the stove, turning something with a silver spatula. The smell doubled as soon as I entered the room, and my stomach growled in response to the delicious smell of whatever Jean is cooking. He looks at me for a second and returns to his work. Why is he cooking with his armor on? Doesn't he get hot?

"You're up early." Jean remarks as the sizzling intensifies.

"I wouldn't exactly call an hour before noon 'early'. Can't sleep with all that armor?" I ask, to which he replies with a light chuckle.

"I can sleep like a baby, thank you."

"Your cooking smells delicious. What's in the menu this time?"

"Patties made from the bellies of wild boars paired with some good old scrambled eggs. This is personally one of my many favorites." Jean smoothly flips one of the patties into the air.

"That looks and smells heavenly. By the way, can I ask you a question?"

"I'll only answer if I can get something out of you."

"Like what?"

"Can you pass a plate over there?"

"Oh. Sure thing."

I grab the plate sitting just a few meters away from him. Jean scoops the patties one by one and puts them in the plate I just gave him, and I went over to one of the wooden cupboards to get some eating utensils. Jean goes into the table and waits until I sat on the opposite side of him, and he speaks as I give him the plate.

"Back there, when we were training back at the plains. Do you still remember the time when I gave you a fragment of the cleansing crystal I was talking about?"

"Yeah. That happened six days ago. Did you forget it or something?"

"Wait. It's only been six days since it happened?" Jean stops and stares at me for a moment.

"What are you? An old man?"

"Uhh, no... So... What did you see when you ate it? The cleansing crystal I gave you, I mean."

"Oh, that? Sure. I'll tell you."

And told him, I did. The dark room, the woman's voice and even the footsteps; I left nothing out. I didn't know what those meant, anyways. Why bother hiding it from someone who's helped me since I woke up? Jean nodded and stroke his chin as he listened, and I somehow found it funny because from my perspective, he's basically pretending to be an old man who has facial hair.

"Interesting. What happened after that?" He nods and strokes his chin again.

"I'm afraid that's it, Chief. Oh, about the question I was going to ask. Why do y--"

"Hey, guys."

"Whoa! That smells delicious! Did Jean cook it?"

Esmeralda rushes and sits next to Jean with a wide smile on her face. She looks at me, and I couldn't help but smile at her joyful presence. Nelen still looks horrible, but her eyes seem to smile as she watches Esmeralda happily scooping a few spoonfuls of scrambled eggs. She catches me watching her and looks away in embarrassment.

"You didn't do that when you kissed Esmeralda publicly in front of many people." I whisper.

"... Fuck. I really did that?" Nelen's stutters as her face and ears turned red.

"Yeah. It was crazy. You wanna hear exactly how you did it?"

"...No. I... No, thank you."

"Whoa! Jean! This is... Wow. I'm at a loss for words." Esmeralda tries to talk with her mouth full.

"How about we eat for now? I promise you. You guys don't want that food to be cold."

...

It's been one hour after that, but I still can't forget the taste of the patty. The texture on the outside was crisp, but the inside... Gods, it's so tender. And when you pair it with the eggs... Oh, Gods. Time seems so fast. Patties and eggs were meant to be. Wow... I could eat that for the rest of my life... I'm getting too lax. I should focus on work now.

"So who's coming with who?" I ask Jean as we made our way into the subquarters.

"Hmm... Do you want to buy some of the gingerbread from yesterday?" He replies.

"Of course."

"Then you go with Esmeralda and the two guys. Nelen and I will look for more information with the girl. Diversity keeps everything interesting."

"Alright. By the way, you didn't really answer my question when we were back at the kitchen."

"Oh, sure. Ask away."

"Why do you always have your armor on? Can't you get it off or something?"

I laugh, but instead of answering, he only smiled, ignored me and looked straight ahead. Nelen and Esmeralda are holding hands, but they're getting bashful and looking away from each other. We pass by another crime scene. Talk about a complete turn of events. Pellets were scattered around as a man laid on the ground with several gunshot wounds. Screaming like a lunatic, a man with wide eyes struggles as Chimerian officials carry him towards a floating carriage.

"I TRIED REASONING WITH YOU, SON! YOU JUST WOULDN'T LISTEN! GOD DOESN'T ALLOW HOMOSEXUALS! IT'S A HOLY SIN THAT DESERVES TO BE PUNISHED!... FUCK YOU! WHAT ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT? ALL OF YOU WILL GO TO HELL!"

He shouts before his voice gets muffled by the vehicle. I look at the couple standing to my left. I can sense a bit of tension between the two now, and Esmeralda tries to take her hand away. Nelen notices this, grabs her hand tighter, and kisses her on the cheek. Damn. I wish I was as smooth as her. We got to the subquarters at exactly one in the afternoon, Arra greeting us with the two of her companions as she was about to walk out of the building.

"Oh, guys! There you are!~" She nervously chuckles. "Shall we get back to business?"

"Right. About that..."

Jean explains to her about the change of partners, and we waited for a moment before everything went into place. I was paired with Esmeralda, Khrall and Strauss, like Jean said. We waited for a few more minutes standing around the entrance, so I asked Jean about it.

"Oh, well... Someone's going to join us. Arra's brother, I think."

"Arra has a brother? Hmm... Come to think of it, her surname sounded familiar. Farhas, was it?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm..."

Where have I heard that name before? Oh, right. Back at the bar. The guy who got killed was a Farhas. Oh. There's also that bitch who tried to sucker-punch me when we were trying to find Nelen. Don't tell me...

"I'm here, sis."

Oh, no. That voice. I turn my head, and sure enough, he was there. That same undercut and those blue eyes that glowed the same as Arra's. That serious, punch-able face. Yep. How lucky.

"Can you join Khrall and Strauss here? Did Strauss tell you what to do?"

"Yes, yes. Find information about Cerberus. I got it. Who's this pretty lady?" He puts his arms around Esmeralda's shoulder and smiles at her, and Esmeralda's reaction suggested that she doesn't like the unnecessary attention. I swear. This guy's audacity is something.

"Get off her, you rude bastard. Don't you know the concept of personal space?" I snarl as he looks at me with cold eyes.

"Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do? I don't f--"

"Five feet away. Now." Nelen looks at him with a smile.

"... Whatever. Let's just get this over with."

"Alright. Let's go."

For some reason, the rude guy paired up with us. The walk was pretty awkward, the three of them standing in front of us, talking amongst themselves. Esmeralda and I were in the back, walking along quietly. Maybe I should take this as an opportunity to ask questions.

"Esmeralda. Is homosexuality punishable by law here?" I ask, but she shushes me by covering my mouth with her hand.

"Is homosexuality punishable by law here?" I ask again, this time whispering to her ear.

"No. A lot of sects believe that it's punishable by death, though." She whispers back. "That's why there are instances like the one we saw a while ago. Hate crime is pretty common around here. Oh, no. Let me rephrase that. Hate crime is pretty common... Well, everywhere. You know what's even worse than that?"

"What?"

"Everything related to hate crime tends to be shrugged off, and you can't protest about it because there's a possibility that you become a victim as well. They tend to value faith above all else."

"People are that stupid?"

"I don't really like you calling people stupid, Sol."

"Oh. Sorry about that."

"No. It's okay. It's just.... People and religion. They're pretty complicated. I honestly prefer staying away from them."

"That's perfectly understandable if you ask me... Hey, Khrall. Where exactly are we going right now?"

We pass by a slum, as usual, but this particular one felt unnerving. The buildings here are obviously neglected. Smashed windows, scratched gray paint and plastic bags fill the small alley, yet the occasional voice of children playing can be heard. Oh, boy. Dirt poor snake men and dwarves were the majority of the people who lived here, and I couldn't help but think how they can live through this everyday.

"By the way, Esmeralda. Do you know this place?"

"I don't really go outside that often."

"Oh, okay. Cool... When will we go to the gingerbread shop?"

"Oh, right! I forgot about that....."

"Esmeralda?"

"Oh! Sorry. I was just thinking to myself. We'll go there after we finish today's mission." She smiles as we pass through the alley.

"We should separate here. The three of us will go here. You guys go there. Report to us what you find, and we'll do the same." Strauss points us to a rather isolated part of the slums.

"Yeah. No. I can't protect this lady alone, you know. What if we get jumped?"

Strauss sighs as we get to a house near a huge wall.

"Well, here it is. This is the place."