Chapter 4: The Generous, Righteous Person

".... Sorry the number you have dialed is either unattended or out of coverage area, please try your—" 

Cleo smacked her phone down on her lap in frustration. She tried calling Noir the moment she went back to her room after recalling what happened yesterday because of how sick of a bastard was the one asleep across her room. 

Cleo tried to lie again on the bed, but with her bones aching from the soreness of yesterday plus the incidents that she assumed will happen today, it just added stress to the already stressul situation, she was left to made her way out of her bedroom. 

She shut the door closed and glanced at the tall-barred broken window they tried to put back together with tape, but it obviously didn't work out so he just called someone to fix it, which would be in the apartment any moment from now. 

Cleo glued her eyes on the sun rising at the East and remember the last time she saw the sun risen. Even if she's an early riser, the chances of seeing the sunrise were slim or none existent at all, in an organization filled with black walls and thick curtains, she was forbidden to go outside and watch the sunrise, she have no choice but to keep up with the organization because that's what she vowed to do. 

She never thought the sun can beautifully rose like what she was seeing; mesmerized by the huge fireball slowly showing its yellow rays on the far corner of the East she can't helped but to stretch out her hand and touch the glass window as if the heat of the sun can be passed through it and gave her the warmth she's longing to feel.

She stood like that until the whole room was filled with the warm colors of the sun and the sick bastard has woken up. 

"What are you doing there?" He groggily asked with eyes still half-closed. 

Cleo stared at him but didn't budge from her position. "I'm watching the sun." 

He studied her like a math formula he couldn't solve. "Okay?" he replied, his hair's disheveled, he's wearing a white shirt with jersey shorts and flip-flops as his house slippers. 

Cleo looked back on the east, it was already in its full colors and the apartment reflected just the perfect colors of the sun. 

"But you're supposed to prepare me breakfast," he entailed, after passing silence and contemplating like a silkworm on his position.

"Since when?" she replied with a sharp looked toward him.

"In the morning? Because you are my maid, and you're sleeping here for free, at least show some gratitude," he said, as if he was an innocent child who demanded food from his mother, except that he would never pass as an innocent child and she wasn't her mother, so it became as an annoying rationalization instead. 

Cleo glances at the ceiling for a second and then at the sky. Minding his statement and restraining her fangs to come out and beat him to death. 

"Okay, I know I told you that I haven't accepted you yet, but at this point, at least focused on the latter, your landlord is hungry." 

She inspected him like he was growing another head. Two points, first, he has no certainty, one moment he doesn't like her and when the night had passed, he's urging her to cook for him in the morning, seems like Noir and someone who-shall-not-be-named has visited him and pulled nightmares while he's asleep. 

Cleo got the best though because she completed enjoying herself with the beautiful sun. 

"Wait, you don't eat?" he asked with clear curiosity. 

Cleo heaved a sigh and cross her arms. "It's not like that." 

The organization just want to know to what extent or how long thwir spies could hold their hunger. 

"You're also in the no-breakfast club?" he guessed. 

Again, she gave out a long exasperated sigh and led him into his kitchen before asking him what she should cook. 

"I want an omelet, with bacon strips on the side, some green and orange, and a black coffee can you do that?" He suggested and challenged happily like a stupid child who got asked what he wanted for breakfast. 

"Look at you looking jolly and all but one moment you looked like you're going to eat me with the sun as a witness." Cleo's jaw dropped after hearing his request and it's also worth saying that she's already on the step of gouging his eyeballs and putting it together with the jar of his vocal cords.

"What did you say?" 

Cleo almost jumped on her place when the jovial face of his suddenly got on her side holding a tray of eggs. 

Too quick for the morning. 

He flailed his arms and his face contorted with a knotted forehead. 

"Nothing?" she answered, but it sounded like she just asked, but she's positive he couldn't hear her thoughts, why was he acting like someone who knew what she was thinking? 

"That's what people say when they do or say something bad," he stated as if growing up from a child to an adult who knows how the world works, instantly.

Cleo did not answer him instead she continued looking at him with a stony face because trust her when she says: she already lived to know how the world works, and she already know the answer, and it was nothing but a disappointment. 

"I'll just go grab the contract and give you a Thanatos point," he stated and turned his back.

"Fine. I'll cook for you!" Cleo shouted that made the guy's retreating back giggle his way to her bedroom door. "Still minus twenty points." 

- 

Cleo sat on the chair of a small wooden table set parallel to him, she grabbed the contract they made whilst murdering him with a fork that almost split a plate in two.

He has a piece of bacon and egg in his mouth but still dares to talk. "Aren't you going to read that paper?" 

Cleo shrugged, glancing at him with a stern face, he must have gotten the feeling that Cleo would not bother to read it, she doesn't even felt like looking at it.

"No."

"Why?" 

Her fingers touched the rough rimmed of her plate that was caused by the cracked she caused. "I don't like reading contracts."

Because the last time she held one all of her things were thrown at the window, including herself. 

"Why?" 

Because the last time she read, she signed up for a failed assignment. 

Cleo gave him a quirked eyebrow. "Why would I want to read a contract full of minus points?!" she said with a higher pitch than before that made him chuckle.

"Ha, but that's how the world works. You just have to try your hardest next time to receive plus points."

But that's a lie, high pitches in conversation tell that you're lying. She liked reading, but the organization never brought a book, she's not grown to be a bookworm, she's grown to hold a rifle and kill others. That's what they always say, and lo and behold: they got what they want. 

She let the paper fall on the table. It seemed like they would go round and round with this premise before she could take a step closer to him. "How could I earn one?" 

The guy stop munching for a second to wink at her and rest his hand on his chin and clicked his tongue.

After a while, he got his fork and spoon again."I have a show tonight, come with me." 

Sensing the silence that surrounded them he swallowed his food then continued, "on a comedy bar, I work as a stand-alone." 

And if that wasn't the funniest thing she ever heard, Cleo held her mouth to stop the laughter from escaping. 

It's not that, she wasn't expecting that, as a guy who does bad things, of course, he'll do some camouflage, a cover-up to keep his secrets hidden but had he gone too overboard? With his apartment that looks so... Plain and his job, how much could this guy offer for his secrets to be kept hidden?

"It'll also be a thanks for saving my life. The drink's on me." 

She pulled herself back together when she saw that he was serious. "Wouldn't be me staying here would suffice? It's okay to just let me stay here," she said. The fact was obvious that she wrapped herself voluntarily onto a lie. From his killer to his life-saver to his maid real quick. 

"Nah, I'm a generous, righteous person. I know what I'm doing. I'm taking you for a drink," he ended. 

It was a deal. 

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