Welcome to Gaia! ::

Waffle was still clueless of what was going on until someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around and saw her father again, so she gave him a hug.

"So what brings you here now, 'sides the obvious?"
"Everyone else is on vacation, and I have nothing to do anyways."
"Oh. Where were they going?"
"Isle de Gambino."
"...so pretty much 80ish degrees out there?"
"Yeah."
"I wouldn't go over there myself. I hate the heat."
"It can be bearable sometimes. We all headed to the beach once, and it was pretty fun...Anyways, changing the subject."

Koteki raised an eyebrow at his daughter.

"Two questions actually. One, why is Gustav still hanging around here? Two, why are my things being moved out of my room?"

Hours later Michelle had arrive from Gambino, and she was exhausted. The first thing she thought of doing though was talk to Luciano. She ran up to their room though to not find him there. She was curious to where he had gone, but she was tired and hungry. The food the had offered there didn't seem so apetizing to her. She thought of what to make on the way down to the kitchen. She decided to make herself a peanute butter sandwhich.

Luciano stood facing the seven foot tall Orc with a rather surprised look on his face. The Orc smiled and shook his hand, "You know my name, but you don't know me-know me. . Anyway, I'm just going to cut to the chase. Word on the street says that you're going on a special assignment for Ricci." Luciano shook his hand, and once Franko mentioned the assignment, his jaw clenched and he said in a low whisper, "How'd you find out about that?" Franko smiled and he said, "My source will remain a secret, but let me just say that they do their job very, very well." Luciano nodded; he understood the need for secrecy. Franko adjusted his tie and then he said to Luciano, "Listen to me. . I can tell you don't want to do the favour for him, and I know what's at stake if you don't do it. . . when someone threatens you like that it means they are desperate. It means they have something to hide." Luciano nodded and he responded, "And why should I trust you? My Grandfather enslaves your kind for a living." Franko smiled, something told Luciano that he wanted him to mention his people's enslavement, and so he said, "How is my dear friend these days? Is he still the happy man I have always known him to be?" Luciano looked at him confused, even though nobody could really see it, due to the fact that his mask covers most of his face, Luciano's eyebrow was raised- letting Franko know that he was confused. Franko let out a laugh, and then he explained, "Horatio has been my friend for nearly a century now. I'm his former employee! He doesn't enslave my people, we work for him for free!- It's the Vampires he enslaves! See, after your parents were murdered, we began kidnapping Vampires and putting them to work inside of the mines. The things you hear about 'Orcs and Vampires' is mostly a myth. Only the foolish believe that we're enslaved. It's actually a mutual partnership- and a wise one at that." Luciano was stunned. He knew Horatio was a good man, but he didn't think he was THAT great. He's related to him and he feels like he still didn't know too much about him. Franko motioned for Luciano to walk with him, and he did, and as they walked along the wooden walkway, Franko said, "Anyway, to get back to the original conversation, you should trust me because: One) I knew the earlier generations of your family, two) I've been working with your Grandfather for nearly a half of a century, and three). . I knew your parents, and they would be very angry with me if I didn't approach you with this issue- Ricci is a dirty man, but he makes a good Cheesecake." At the mention of his Parents, Luciano's eyes seemed to sparkle a little. The only thing he knew of them was merely hearsay, and the home videos that were taken of his parents playing with him. Luciano looked ahead, trying to regain his serious demeanor and he said to Franko, ". . . Forgive me if I'm not easily won over by all of this. In my line of work-"
"- You're not to trust anyone. . . ohhhh, I know. Trust me, I know. Keeping your enemies closer than you keep your friends is a b***h sometimes, but. . in your line of work. . . your friends became your second family. And it kills you on the inside when you are keeping things from them. I do not blame you there, son, but you don't have a choice. . . Or do you. .?"
Luciano looked up at Franko, "What d'you mean?" Franko smiled and he dug around in the inside pocket of his blazer and handed him Ricci's file, "This is your get out of jail free card should he ever expose you and all of your faults- I've seen and read your file, and it's nothing that a week's worth of community service can't fix. I, being a former military man myself, know that you were only following your duties as a Marine. By the way, page four hundred ten was boring. Not enough blood and guts, that and there were at least twelve typos. I couldn't even READ the damn thing." Luciano laughed and continued to walk with Franko down the walkway.

Luciano had been with Franko for a while. They stood at the Docks, conversing, ". . . So, yeah. . now she is just closed off from the world. And I can see why. . it's just she shouldn't be so quick to push everyone away when we were only trying to help. What do I do about it, Frank?" Franko shrugged, "Juuuuuust let'er be, Luc, just let her be. It's better for you if you just leave it all alone. Besides, you have bigger problems than dealing with a moody Elf-" "-Hey. . that moody Elf lost someone she cared about, I'm just trying to figure out a way to help her." Franko patted his shoulder and then he said, "Luciano, she's a woman. She needs to cry it out, b***h it out- whatever. Take it from a man with a century of experience under his belt. You can't help a woman because she helps herself later. That's how it goes." Luciano laughed at the statement. He looked at his watch and then he said to Franko, "Listen. I need to get back to my Headquarters. Call me if you need anything." Franko shook Luciano's hand, Luciano shook back and Franko said with a smile, "Not a problem. I'll send you my number in Binary. See you around, Kid." Luciano then drove on back to HQ. Once he got there, he hid the file in his vest somehow and then went up to his and Michelle's bed room. Luciano was startled when he saw Michelle sitting on the chaise eating a peanut butter sandwhich.

After the long conversation Luciano and Michelle had- about where he had been, next month's runway show, Ms. Sukai's clothing line- Luciano finally convinced his beloved to go to sleep, and that she did; after a long kiss goodnight and certain somethings not to be repeated aloud.
When Luciano knew she was in a deep sleep, he took to his desk Ricci's file and he was reading over the assignment, reading quietly to himself, ". . . Locate the people blackmailing- take them down quietly. ." he skimmed through the pages, looking at the possible suspects of this blackmailing. He took off his glasses and began to think, "Durem is full of Mafias- all of these Gangs and organizations. . . the Kuros seem to be the only family that want peace. ." he looked down at the photographs of the suspects, their wrap sheets, everything needed to find these guys and take them down. Luciano felt like something was missing, and tomorrow he was going to see to it that the missing pieces were revealed. Later on, around two in the morning, he joined his beloved Michelle under the warm cover, he curled up to her, lightly kissed her shoulder blade, and then fell asleep.

Luciano woke up the next morning to find Michelle reading a magazine while drinking some tea. He sat up and Michelle looked up at him and smiled, he smiled back and he said to her, "Hey, beautiful." she said 'Hello' right back and he got up to sit with her. The moment that he sat down, his mobile began to ring. So he got and read the number, sighed and then he picked it up, "Hello?"
"'Eyyy, Luci! Can I meet you some place?"
Luciano looked over at Michelle, who went back to her magazine, he then returned his attention to his call and he said, "No. I'm busy." as Luciano was about to hang up, Mason said "Luciano. . please? We need to talk." Luciano said and then he said, "Fine," and he gave Mason directions to the location he had in mind. Once he had done that, he hung up.
Michelle looked up at him, asked him what was up and Luciano just told her it was nothing and to not worry about it. Michelle was obviously suspicious about it but he told her again just not to worry. Luciano grabbed his clothes and headed into their bathroom to take a quick shower.

Waffle woke up in her new room and looked around again. She didn't realize how large the room was the night before, especially the bed. It looked like there would be space for another 2 people. She got up from her bed and changed into another outfit, then left the room thinking that everyone else was awake. Much to the contrary, everyone was asleep and the whole castle was quiet.

She walked down the stairs and through the left wing of the castle. As she passed by the infirmary, she heard some muffled babbling and stopped.

What is going on in there?

(Moving skotti back to HQ, my gambino plan kinda sputtered)
Skotti got back with Lila in the afternoon of that day, since Rikka still had his car. He hopped out in the garage and notice that one of his bikes was gone. "Luc must have taken it, I wonder where?" he said out loud, checking the GPS on his phone, seeing where it was.
(Thats right, skotti's got an Iphone!)