Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kassa stared at the album, gradually losing focus she had on the pages. She lost grip of the book, letting it hit the floor. There was no point to picking it back up and looking through the pictures again; she had forced herself to do look at them in the first place. Kassa slid down against the wall until she was sitting on the floor, staring at her feet. Putting the pieces together, something about this place gave her chills. Maybe it was the mix of childish decor and the harsh -or was it sweet?- smell of sleazy cologne that drifted throughout the room. Maybe it was the awful folder mixed in with normal books. It could have been that she barely started searching for clues, but still found so much information.

Sabe took the handkerchief and only wiped off the trails left behind by dripping makeup; why ruin the rest of it, right? He mumbled a 'sorry' and a 'thank you' and got up, leaving without any other words. All that mattered to him right now was to calm down in his room. Irwin stayed behind, not sure of what do do, until a jar on the fireplace mantle caught his eye. A faint little ball of light floated lazily inside it; it looked like a firefly that didn't flicker.

Nariana's eyes got big when Luciano spoke, but she managed to only let out a small squeak when her brain went into overdrive. 'H-how?? Where did this happen? Who did it? Why her sweet self?!', she thought in disgust while biting her lip. When another man came in with a gun, Nariana shot up in alert and put the tray on her chair. When the man approached Luciano, Nariana said with caution, "What are you doing..." She saw the gun, saw Luciano get smacked, saw the guy point the gun, and she flipped. She did the only rational-seeming thing to do at the time; she lunged for the guy and tackled him, trying her best to keep the arm with the gun pointed upward away from anyone.

The entire time Ari was being held down, he was fighting to get free. "Let me go!! He let my daughter die!!! Let me go, damn it!!!" Ari couldn't hold back his tears anymore. He gave up fighting and cried. Luciano wiped his tears and he slowly made his way over to Ari, he looked at Nari and KD gave them a nod; Hinting to let him go. And Luciano said "Ari. . . I'm sorry. . There's nothing more I can say except. . that there was nothing I could do. . We were out in the open, and then this loud shot was heard -" "- Sniper fire? In Durem?" Ari got up from the floor, and moments later Ari's son Raph came in, "Whoa! Pops!" Raph ran over to Ari and helped him to his feet, "Yo, sorry about my dad, Luc. The minute he heard my sister was dead, he lost it. . I know it wasn't your fault." Luciano didn't need anyone to believe him right now. He really just wanted the a*****e that shot his fiance dead. Luciano looked down at his hands, and his clothes,. . Michelle's dried blood was still all over him. Without another word Luciano walked away. There was nothing more he could say, or do to make any of this less painful. Sure, his friends were there, but none of them can bring back what was taken from him. Luciano then started up the stairs, holding back more tears as he held onto the banister.

Koji had been silent since Luciano explained what happened. After narrowly evading Michelle's father as he came bursting through the door and standing back as chaos ensued in trying to stop the attack, he finally moved towards Luc. "I.." the words I'm sorry wanted to come out, but he know that couldn't even halfway express what he meant, or what his friend needed to hear. Instead he gently set his hand on Luciano's shoulder before heading to his room.

Nariana left HQ and walked toward Maximilian's black Mercedes Benz. She said nothing as she sat in the passenger seat and buckled up. Max started the car up and drove off to Lincoln Tech's headquarters. "You smell nice," Max said nonchalantly to break the silence. Nariana cracked a small smile in the dark and tilted her head to the side. "Would you like to know what held me up?" she asked him quietly. "Only if you feel like telling," he continued with his nonchalant attitude. Sighing, Nariana recalled Luciano crying and said, "Long story short, our chief's lover was murdered in front of him." "I see..." he replied and frowned. They said nothing else, respecting the solemn atmosphere of the situation.

Once at their corporate headquarters, Max proceeded to the private executive garage and parked. They got out and went up the elevator to the top of the building, the executive floor. There, they immediately began discussing the newest business contracts Nariana had missed while out on the last mission. After discussions, they agreed to accept four major contracts, type and suggest formal revisals of three major contracts, and completely reject another three major contracts. They went through one pot of coffee, two bags of tea, and half of Max's secret snack stash-- approximately 5 hours of work.

"So now what?" Nariana asked tiredly. The nap she took earlier was not enough to get her through this paperwork; she was ready to sleep. "We put this down until another day. When we are fresh, we can check this work and send it off. But for now, I should take you back." "No...Perhaps we will use the private room for tonight. It's not good to be out at this time." As a plan for the future, the executive floor was built to include a suite with conjoined rooms in case of overnight stays due to extreme work projects. She and Max used it during periods with important deadlines. "Oh, I suppose. However, you better not try anything...impulsively indecent in there." Nariana glared at him and smacked him on his forehead before getting up and leaving Max's office. "Goodnight, Maximilian," she said with her back facing him. She walked down the hallway to the final door on the left, punched in the security code on the pad above the door handle, and called it a night.

(Time Skip, I'm am tired of sitting around)

Skotti was up early the next morning, pouring his coffee. He had no clue what happened to luciano that night, but he assumed that he slept in the lobby on the couch. Skotti sat in his office, finishing his paperwork and sipping his coffee.
Out of the cornet of his eye, Skotti spyed his sniper rifle, and thought about slipping into his old routine of 2 hours practice every morning.
"After a year behind that scope, I think I can afford one day off." he said to himself.

(I was gonna say more, but I have to leave for a meeting, lol.)

Nariana woke up to the sound of classical music. Groggily, she muttered, "Wha'...what time is it?" before rolling over and looking at the alarm clock on the night stand. "7:08...Maaax, time to get up already?" Normally, she would have been halfway dressed for the day by now. However, she still felt the fatigue from last night's workload. She sighed and decided to check on Maximilian. After crawling out of bed and getting her slippers, she shuffled to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Max was sitting on a couch in his suite, just relaxing and listening to Mozart. When he heard the faint groan of his work partner, he got up and started a pot of coffee on the mini stove. As the coffee brewed, he returned to his position on the couch and waited. Nariana came through the conjoining door of the suites moments later in her PJs (which had been conveniently waiting the night before in her master closet with other spare outfits). Max got up, grabbed two mugs from the cabinet above the stove, and poured each of them a cup. Without saying anything, Max handed her her cup. Nari thanked him and sat down on the couch; he took his and did the same. They enjoyed the silence for quite some time.