A Songbird's love

Chapter 7: Snatch theft

We didn't say a word about what happened today when we were in the car. After we got out though, Len and Rin dragged me into the house with more force than necessary, and we gathered in my room. I knew this was coming and I was prepared. I sat down on the edge of my bed and waited.
Didn't take long. "What happened? Are you hurt?" Len demanded, while Rin looked at me worriedly. I sighed, "I'm fine. Just a little bruising on my knuckles, that's all." The impact when I punched would hurt both me and the guy after all. Rin rushed out of the room, while Len came to sit beside me. I faced him and stayed quiet as he gently took my hand and inspected it. Rin came back in as fast as she went out, this time bringing in an ice pack. Len took it from her and placed it on my knuckles. I flinched slightly at the sudden cold contact. Rin went to the other side of the bed and crawled over to wrap her arms around my waist. I gently patted her back, worrying about her. Is she sick?
Rin mumbled into my side, "We were so worried. You didn't come back to the classroom for so long, we thought something happened to you. Especially with Neru there..."
I continued to pat her back, this time to gain her attention, "I'm fine. I know how to fight, how do you think I became your bodyguard?"
"Although, there's something we have to make clear," I continued, "This is something small, and I doubt Neru would hurt the two of you. But if there's anything bigger and I tell you to stay in one place, you have to stay there. That place where I park you two in would be the most safest place that I know of, so for your safety you are to not leave, understood?" I finished in a firm voice. They nodded seriously, taking my words to heart.
My knuckles have numbed down and there wasn't much pain, so I suggested, "Since we have nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon, do you guys want to go shopping?"
Every single shred of worry was erased from their faces. Rin jumped up, "Let's go!" I'm glad they feel better and are back to their normal selves.

In less than an hour or so, we were strolling through the mall, accompanied by the other two bodyguards that Rin had mentioned when we first met. I didn't manage to learn their names since they rarely talk, but they seemed like brothers. One had white hair, the other had black, so my mental nicknames for them were Black and White. We had gotten ice creams, sifted through key chains on display, and sifted through hair accessories. I had gotten two new rubberbands that is able to glow in the dark when pressed, thought they might come in handy one day. Rin had gotten a new bow, this one was black with a yellow stripe in the middle, saying it could match with one of her outfits. Len had just bought a simple black rubberband in case his current one broke.
We were on our way to find a place for dinner because their parents are coming back late again, when I noticed a suspicious figure lurking near us. He was wearing a cap that shadowed his face, a long-sleeved hoodie, and long pants, all black. Other than that there was nothing to identify him by. He hasn't made any moves yet, just standing really close to Rin. And following us around.
My suspicions turned out to be true, when we finally found a restaurant to eat in (an expensive one too), he snatched Rin's purse right out of her hand and took off. Rin was too shocked to react. "Stay with them!" I ordered Black and White, and sprinted after the thief, not looking back to check if they had followed my orders.
He was fast but the crowd helped to slow him down. He was pushing through the crowd, shoving people left and right to try to get some distance between him and me. It worked a little though, he pushed an old lady and she stumbled. I managed to catch her before she fell to the ground and break her spine. It was frustrating, I wouldn't be able to get to him before I lose sight of him so I yelled, "Thief! The one in full black!"
Definitely most people would not understand what was going on, but there would always be people with faster reaction than others in a crowd. Right now, the thief was pinned to the floor by two well-built men who looked like they went to the gym often, and was struggling to shake them off. I jogged over to them, plucked Rin's purse out of the thief's hands and said, "Thanks for the help. Will you be taking him to the security guards?"
"Yeah, we'll take him to the front desk. You're alright?"
"Yes, and thank you." I bowed to them before walking back to find Rin and Len.

When I got back to them, Len was trying to calm Rin down. She was hysterical, pacing around, shaking her brother, all while anxiously muttering or shouting out her worry. Len on the other hand, was calmer than I expected. There was a faint look of worry in his eyes, which was replaced with relief when he saw me. He grabbed his sister and spun her in my direction to stop her frantic pacing. She stopped when she saw me, her eyes wide. I handed her purse back to her, and she said, "That was fast."
"I had some help. Check if everything is inside." She opened her purse and checked each pocket, then nodded, "Everything's here."
"Let's go home, shall we? I think that's enough action for one day," The twins nodded wholeheartedly.
We ended up not eating at that expensive restaurant, and we got everything we needed. Well, almost everything. When we were walking around the mall, I was peeking into sports stores to see if they had that punching bag I wanted. They didn't have any, which meant I had to order online. We ate homecooked meals which I had called the maids to prepare before we got back.

Today was weirdly exhausting, it didn't feel like my second day at this job. It felt like I've been here for a while. A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts, I got up from where I sat at the window seat and opened the door. Len was outside holding a hairdryer. 'Thought you might need this," he said as he walked in. I shut the door, "Yeah I do, thanks. How's Rin?"
"She's sleeping like a pig in her room. She'll be back to her hyper self in the morning." I let out a laugh, that definitely sounds like Rin. I watched Len as he plugged in the hairdryer into the socket next to the window seat. He then patted the window seat which was bathed in moonlight, "I'll help you dry your hair. Come on."
I silently padded over and settled down in the window seat. It was going to take him a while to dry everything, my hair was long enough to drag on the floor. He turned on the hairdryer and started from the top. It surprised me a little when his hand ran through my hair, and I felt my face heating up. Lucky for me to be facing the window. 
"Your hair is so long, but it's so soft. How do you take care of it?"
It took me a while to answer, "Like any other person would. Wash it with the best I can find. It does take a while to dry though."
"I can tell."
We were silent for the next few minutes, only the sound of the hairdryer being extremely loud in the room. I watched the clouds move peacefully across the sky and thought about Mikuo. Was he stressed with all the work he had to do? He hasn't called or texted since yesterday. Then again, that is normal behaviour for him.

The sound of the hairdryer cut off. "All done," Len announced, and pulled the hairdryer out of the socket. I ran my hand through my hair, "Thanks." He placed the hairdryer on the dressing table, "You can keep this. I have another."
I got up and went to sit on the bed instead, I had enough viewing of the outside world, time to change position. I pointed at an empty spot on the bed, I gave him the spot where he could lean on the pillows. I may be an assassin, but I can also be a nice person. As he settled down, I asked, "Are your parents always late?"
"Yeah. To be honest, we rarely see them around the house. They're always coming home late, and going out early in the morning. Sometimes they don't come back. There was once when we were younger, they didn't come back home for two days. They think we don't know, but we've noticed very early on that they never come back on time. Then we would always have the whole house to ourselves. Sometimes, it feels like they're not our parents and just two strangers coming to rest for the night and leaving again in the morning."
Len sighed, "When they do manage to spend time with us, they're always on their phones as well. Mom not so much, it's mostly Dad. Mom does try to truly bond with us, but I don't think it could be as simple as she thinks."
He looked so down, I regretted asking. I reached over to ruffle his hair, "Well, I'm here. I probably can't make up for the lost time between you and your parents, but I can keep you company."
Our eyes met for a few seconds, then Len started blushing. I quickly retracted my hand, "Uh... sorry."
"It's fine." We sat there flustered in silence for a while, looking at everything but each other.
Len broke the silence, "What about you? How are your parents like?"
"My parents... I don't know where they are. They left my brother and I to fend for ourselves, then took off to who knows where. They send gifts and messages when our birthdays comes though, so I guess they didn't forget about us."
"We don't exactly have the best parents, do we?"
I laughed, "Nope."
We fell back into silence, and just enjoyed the tranquility. Not often do I get peace like this. Of course, that meant my mind would start to think. Len's parents don't come back on time, always go out early, and sometimes don't come back home at all. What's going on? Now that I think about it, I've never seen the twins' father. And what was on the third floor that they didn't want anyone seeing? I turned around to ask Len, "What-"
Len had fallen alseep where he sat. I guess the silence was enough for him to fall asleep. I smiled, amused. I reached over the tuck the blanket around him, and sit back to watch his peaceful face in the moonlight. I walked over to the window and close the curtains, letting the room fall into darkness, then curled up at the foot of the bed so as to not disturb the sleeping boy.