The Funtom Company

21: The |Madame| Company

The door was kicked open and a familiar shade of red appeared. "I have arrived! Spill the details! What's the summoning about?"

"This bitch thinks he isn't attractive," Vincent gestured. Le Madame Red eyed the man up and down. She circled around him and occasionally measured a place here and there. "Nina! Get your ass in here we have a blasphemer!" A woman poked her head in the doorway. She gasped at the sight of Adrian and rushed through the door with her notepad and multitude of measuring tapes. 

"By golly we cannot have this! I'm going to fix it, I promise!" she assured Le Madame Red and Vincent. "Or my name isn't Nina Hopkins!"

Adrian was ever more uncomfortable with the situation. He didn't enjoy being touched so much. Especially not by strangers. 

"I called in the cavalry," Le Madame Red whispered to Vincent. 

"Perfect," Vincent nodded. "You're an angel as always, Angel." 

"Oh, hush," Le Madame Red playfully swatted Vincent's arm. 

"I have brought the fabric!" Grell stood with his arms full of rolls. He made eye contact with his former gang leader and his mouth dropped. "What the hell? You? Really? Goddamnit!" 

"I know," Vincent shook his head. He understood completely. 

"Is he fixable, doctor?" Grell dropped the fabric and made his way towards Nina. 

"The chances are grim but I believe so," she let out a disappointed sigh. 

"Then let's get to work!" Le Madame Red clapped her hands and Vincent's office was transformed into a makeshift designer's studio. The trio hastily moved around every which direction in order to create The Ultimate Outfit. Grell grabbed a couple of measuring tapes about halfway through and started getting measurements for Vincent. 

"Wait, me too?" 

"Don't play dumb, honey," Grell frowned. "You need a new outfit for that fundraising thing and I sure as hell ain't letting you go without matching your lovely secretary over there," Grell stated matter-of-factly. 

"How did you know?" Vincent looked to Le Madame Red. She smiled innocently, a Dallas family trait. 

"I may or may not have convinced a few people at the RFA to invite you," she grinned. "My sister and I are very close, you know?" Yes, Vincent did know. He just enjoyed playing the fool. Call it a Phantomhive Family Tradition. 

"Sister?!" Adrian nearly dropped the fabric rolls he'd set himself to cleaning up. 

"Oh yes. Lina is related to that wretched bitch," Nina spoke. 

"Between you and me," Le Madame Red whispered to Adrian. "I wasn't on your side in the beginning. But after getting a good look at you," she put her hand to Adrian's face. "it all makes sense." 

"Boo," Vincent pouted. "I thought we had a connection!" 

"Oh, we do," Le Madame Red snickered."I'm just messing with you. I've never liked my sister. She was always the favorite," Le Madame Red sighed, reminiscing of the terrible days in her past. 

"Oh?" Grell snickered. "Is that jealousy I smell?" 

"Get back to work, asshole," she glared. 

"As you wish, your royal highness," Grell sneered. 

"Wait, ball?" Adrian walked over to Vincent. "What does she mean?" 

"I'm going to a party," Vincent poked Adrian in the chest, "and you're my plus one."

"So let me get this gay," Adrian began. Everyone knows he couldn't get it straight, his brother had given him this habit of saying 'gay' instead. He mentally cursed his idiot brother because now he had embarrassed himself, again. "You make the headlines, your wife is the one accused, so you go to her fundraising ball?" 

"You've got it all wrong, sweetie," Nina looked almost sorry for Adrian. 

"You know nothing about Vincent, do you?" Le Madame Red sighed. "Don't worry, Adrian, Grell is just as confused as you are."

"Will someone explain what the hell is going on?" Adrian snapped. 

"Think about this, Uny," Vincent leaned in to whisper into his ear. "Why would I wear a brown wig? It could've been blonde, red, but it was brown." The gears in Adrian's head began to churn. 

"That was planned?! This was a set up?! You intended for Rachel's life to get ruined?!" Adrian stomped his foot on the ground. "Is that why I had to stay in the fucking closet, you bastard!"

"I don't play games," Vincent lied. The only thing he knew how to do was play games. He used the world, this city in particular, as his playground. 

"Was the bomb fake? Was this all a part of your game?!" 

"I presume, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Lau was completely serious with his bomb. He doesn't take kindly to people undermining his authority, even when they are the son of his favorite toy. But Vincent thought up the plan for revenge on Rachel within moments after...something like..." Le Madame Red paused and pointed to Nina. 

"Save the city by appeasing Lau so that his sons wouldn't have to. Have Lau leak a suspicious photo. Show up at Rachel's ball. Have Rachel beg for forgiveness and then ask Vincent to clear her name, saying that she was innocent. She will use every trick in her book of manipulation to get Vincent to agree. Vincent will play along. He will plan a press conference to address all of their questions. They'll ask him about his relationship with his wife....and then-" 

"Spoilers, dear, the readers want to be left in suspense," Vincent said as he placed a hand over Nina's mouth. 

"How did you get all of that from one news article at breakfast?" Grell raised an eyebrow. 

"We've known Vincent for a long time," Le Madame Red smiled. 

"What are you going to do to her?" Adrian looked to Vincent. 

"I'm going to do what I always do to those that betray me," Vincent's eyes had a darkness unlike anything Adrian had seen before. "I'm going to burn her." Adrian no longer saw the leader of a company, he saw the man from his high school days... the leader of the gang. 

"I like a good burning of a bitch," Grell looked at his nails. "It's too bad I wasn't invited to the party. I look better in red than her," Grell pointed to Le Madame Red. 

"Say that to my face, hoe," she walked over to Grell. 

"You heard me," Grell flipped his hair in that dramatic way of his. 

"Now, now, ladies," Nina stepped between them. "We didn't mean to exclude you, Grell. I just wanted this to be a date between wives, you understand, don't you?" 

Grell crossed his arms. "I thought we were a threesome!" 

"Tell you what," Nina got out her phone, "I know a good handsome tailor. He is going to be there, you can be his plus one," she smiled. 

"He better be a damn dreamboat," Grell huffed. 

"Trust me, he is just your type," Nina winked. 

"We have to finish these outfits, ladies," Le Madame Red clapped her hands. "No time to waste!" 

"Am I just another pawn in your game?" Adrian asked Vincent. He wasn't paying attention to anything but the random thoughts coursing through his mind. Vincent was always a mystery...but now he was an even bigger mystery than before. 

"I don't play games, dear," Vincent's eyes sparkled.