Rapiers, Flares And Greek Fire

CHAPTER I - THE DAILY SQUABBLE

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This morning I woke up, as normally as one one can at 35 Portland Row and that was with shouting and arguing. Brilliant just what I needed after a long night's research.

Unwillingly, I forced myself to open my eyes and dragged myself to sit up from my ocean of blankets. When I did that I swinged my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. When the dizziness subsided I stormed down the stairs of my room to the door to the hallway.

I clumsily and heatedly made my way down three sets of stairs and barged into the kitchen with my messy brunette bedhead and my long baby pink nighty and mismatched socks, even still the screaming match went on.

"NO! We don't need anyone else! We are fine as we are! You should have told us before you went advertising it in the papers!" George screamed

"Listen, I admit that I should've told you both before I did it but having new people around with different talents would be good business for the agency!" Anthony fought right back

I looked back and forth between them and decided now was a good time to intervene "Hello! It Is 9 O'clock In The Morning! Why are you arguing so loud!" I managed with minimal rage.

They both stopped their squabbling and turned to me, took a look at me and went back to facing eachother.

"Alright then we're all here, might as well explain why you went and put an advert in the paper looking to hire more agents behind our backs without telling us? We should have discussed this, as a team Lockwood" George sounded less angry and more hurt at this point

Anthony signed loudly " Listen I didn't mean to make you feel like you're being replaced okay. No one is being replaced, we're just adding new talents to the agency." Anthony tried to explain himself calmly.

"Well what do u think about this then?" George turned to me with a hint of annoyance still in his voice.

"Well…if it's just adding more people to the agency then I guess that's fine. But Anthony, are you sure we can afford that? I mean that'll be another person probably living here that won't be exactly easy to get used to." I said hesitantly trying my best to keep the peace but also voice my worries.

"Nah, we'll be fine, we always are aren't we? Come on guys, this could be really good for the agency, more successful cases, going up in the world. Isn't that going to be great for us?" Anthony passionately sold his pitch. I mean I guess it didn't sound awful and I could see George was starting to warm upto the idea of more people being around.

"They're coming tomorrow aren't they?" Anthony gave a small nod "Well then guess I better start cleaning the living room if we're having guests." he begrudgingly left the kitchen and closed the door behind him firmly.

I turned back to Anthony and he looked at me with pleading eyes so I gave him a reassuring smile and did what every good friend would do "Tea?" as I walked to the counter where the kettle sat, he smiled and nodded so I filled the kettle and flicked it on.

I turned to him and he was looking at me with his apologetic eyes "I'm sorry Layla I should've told you. Both of you".

"Why didn't you tell us, did you think we would've stopped you, because you convinced us quite easily just then that this was a good idea. I mean you're the leader of this agency and you have to tell us things like this. But…" I sighed "it's fine for now we won't talk about it anymore. So let's see the advert. What did you put in?" As I said that I could see his mood lifted.

The kettle flicked off and turned back around. I put a tea bag in each mug and filled them with the water then poured in milk. Then 2 spoons of sugar for Anthony, honey for me. George likes his with extra sugar and biscuits. It's a mystery how he's managed to keep his teeth.

I placed out mugs on the thinking cloth and sat down myself just as Anthony pushed the advert towards me. Reading it through it honestly wasn't that bad I mean the message was there I guess. We both sat in silence and sipped our teas.

"Just promise me that this will be good Anthony. We're not doing well, we can't have anything bad happening to the agency, we can't risk it. We need more successful cases, where we're actually  seen as a good agency and not outshone by bigot agencies like fittes."

Then Anthony made his first mistake he promised.

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Hello again, sorry about the short chapter. This will be the shortest chapter in the book just because I was quite anxious to get onto them all actually meeting. The rest of the chapters will be quite lengthy.

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