New Recruit

Opening the car doors we step outside, the gravel crunching underneath our feet.  Looking up to the wooden mansion the doors slammed open, and a man with wispy platinum blonde hair and rich caramel skin exited in a rush.  His tall figure bolted down the stairs towards us. "Lucio I'm glad to see you back, who might this be?"  The mystery man wore a white button-up shirt tucked into black dress pants, and a pair of round glasses clung to the brim of his nose. 

 Although tall he had a stocky build with a triangular shape. Muscles rippled underneath the surface as he moved. His attention turned to me and was not yet hostile as I had originally thought. “Tokala, this is Noah Fletcher, my bodyguard." The man grins, showing off a perfect smile, "Nice to finally meet you, Lucey has told me a bit about you. My name is Tokala Maji, I'm Lucio's consigliere." He sticks out his hand for me and I grasp it in a firm handshake. 

I don't make a move to explain my mute situation after realizing he probably already knew I couldn't talk. We both pull away and Lucio begins to speak, "Is Ajax home?" Tokala shakes his head, "He's been out since about five or so, I'm pretty sure he's doing errands for his grandma but I could be mistaken…" He trails off, grabbing his chin in thought. “Tokala, could you show Noah around? I have some business to attend to.” He shifted his weight from foot to foot ever so slightly in urgency or annoyance. My eyes catch the slight movement as I’m silently handed over to the beaming man.

I move to join at his side, Lucio gives a final curt nod before getting back into the vehicle. The car promptly speeds off after a second thought. The hum resonates in the background as the man beside me takes a deep breath. “It’s nice meeting you Noah, I don’t know all the sign language you may refer to but I know a good variety. I’m still learning as of right now.” He looks down at me with a slight grin. It was very obvious Lucio and Tokala were opposites. It made me wonder how well they work when working side by side with each other. 

“Follow me.” he gestured with his hand as well. We make our way up the wooden staircase leading to the entrance. Double-wide doors greet us as Tokala shoves them open. Taking in the marbled flooring, beautiful arching wooden pillars, and long staircases on either side. The stairs lead to an overarching balcony leaning over the entrance hall. A stunning glass chandelier hangs overhead in warm arrays of spindling light. 

The wooden staircases were rich oak coloring with small little carpets on each step. Weirdly enough the room felt warm and comforting. My eyes took in the deep maroon carpet that stretched along the center of the large hall. “So who exactly all stays here? Lucio only gave me vague answers to everything and anything I asked.” He chuckled, “I’m honestly not surprised he left it vague, you’ll learn rather quickly that he’s easily irritable when having to explain something. Yet he probably remained so ambiguous because he doesn’t know you yet. Don’t take it to heart though.” I wasn’t going to, I thought in a sour mood.

He leads me up the staircase to the right, mumbling out, "Watch your step." We make it past the spiral staircase and up a smaller set of stairs and stand at the railing overlooking the entrance. I could imagine one of the men standing here acting all intimidating overlooking a scenario in front of them. It was irritating. We walked along the balcony, my hand trailing across the railing peaks. 

Walking down a hallway he begins gesturing at doors, "This is Nico's office." Tokala raps on the door, behind the wood you can hear the shuffling of papers along with mumbling profanity. The door swings open as a short young man glares up at the right-hand man beside me. "What the hell do you want?" He bites out in an irritated Italian accent. Tokala raises his hands in mock surrender, "You don't have to be so rude you little shit." 

The fury builds in the man's green almond-shaped eyes. His pasty skin glowed with a soft blush that reached the tip of his ears. "I will fucking shoot you—" "I do not doubt that you will and desperately want to but right now, I'm a tour guide." Niccolò finally takes my appearance in with his calculated eyes and for the first time I don't shrink away at the gaze. "He the mute new kid?" I cringe at his bold accusation but nod in return to his question. "Yes, to put it simply, this is Noah Fletcher. He'll be working as Lucy's bodyguard. Oh, and I wouldn't call him a kid, he's got some age on you."

Nico very obviously bristled with anger before taking a deep breath and simmering down. "Where is Ajax?" He mumbled, looking away from me and back to the man beside me. "He's out." Tokala put simply, not bothering to elaborate. "Well it was nice meeting you, I guess. Can I get back to work now?" He grumbles out. "Yes, yes, go back to work, you moody little bastard." Anger coats his face but he doesn't bother to reply as he slams the door in our face and storms off inside the room.

"Don't mind him, he's going through his emo phase." I let out a soft chuckle and the blond snapped his head in my direction. “I thought your vocal cords were fucked up from that nasty scar on your neck.” I shake my head, “No, after a while I stopped talking in the war, I need to go to a speech therapist.” He nods, glancing around before walking away, gesturing for me to follow. 

“The next door across from Nico’s office is Ajax’s office, maybe you’ll meet him later on. Giovanni’s office and then mine. Lucio’s is down the hall similar to his office building. Various meeting rooms are stuck between his and our offices. Now and then we use them but it’s fairly uncommon.” He pauses his movements and grasps his chin, “Um, I’m pretty sure that’s it for this hall…" He scratches the back of his neck. "Did you see the hall that led down the middle?" I thought back and nodded, "That's Lucio's private wing, you'll be doing most of your work in there." 

He huffed, "I'm not used to doing shit like this, usually when we get recruits it's always flunkies and they're not necessarily allowed in these halls. Just down to the basement." I looked at him with a lost gaze. "I'll show you later, Lucio should be back soon." The man pulled out his phone to check the time, "I'll show you to the living room." We wandered back down the hall and down the flight of stairs. I couldn’t help running my hand along the railing again but I jolted away from it after a second thought. 

Circling the stairs and underneath the balcony to a large arching doorway. It expanded into a luxurious living room with a movie screen size tv with multiple different types of gaming consoles and rows of different console games. The TV screen blared on with a video game on display. The gunshots of a pistol sounded through the speakers forcing my head to snap towards it. 

"Giovanni, you could come say 'hello' to the recruit." My eyes traveled to the tan man with dark brown hair. He sat with one leg on the couch and the other sprawled out on the coffee table. He raised his hand slightly in greeting, making Tokala sigh. "I swear that I'm sometimes surrounded by children."  The sound from the TV ceases, "Hey fuck you man, you were just on here with me up until Lucio called for you like a damned dog."

The echo of footsteps from behind caused us all to snap our heads around. "That's quite rude Giovanni, I called on him beastie he'll actually get the job done unlike someone else…" Lucio trails off locking eyes with the man on the couch who couldn't help but stir in anger. 

"Why you…—!" "How did the meeting go, Lucy?" I watch silently from the side as Lucio’s jaw locks in annoyance. "There has been a change in plans but it'll all smooth over soon enough" I shifted on my feet as the sound that once ceased continued in the background. The redhead's gaze soon met my own. Addressing me he muttered, "Did you get a chance to meet Nico?" I give a firm nod in reply causing Lucio to mumble a soft 'good'. 

"I'll be in my office, I have some paperwork to finish up." His footsteps retreat into the halls as Tokala drags me through the living room. "What do you want to eat? I can make you a quick sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit if you'd like?" He questioned quizzically. I thought for a second before nodding, "That would be nice, thank you." We walk into the large kitchen and the blond quickly laps the island pulling out ingredients left and right. My eyes watch him like a hawk.

Loud footsteps bellow from behind forcing my attention to the obnoxious noise. My jaw drops as I come face-to-face with the brute from the elevator. Only this time he's dressed clad in a dark burgundy t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. "Nice of you to finally join us, Ajax." His eyes travel to my tour guide's, a mean glare fixes on his face as he makes his way over to the bar in the corner. "I'm too sober right now to deal with this shit."