Behind a Cat's Smile [Discontinued]

Chapter 10: Looking for a Needle in a Haystack

((A/N: I apologise for the long hiatus. I had some problems irl and had been busy dealing with them... But here is the new chapter! Also, I might change the title since I'm still kinda on a mental block— ^^"))

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[Timeskip]
Normal POV.

"Hey, Mahiru, why are we going? I wanna go home quick and eat something warm and nice..." A small black fluffy cat says as he snuggles up to a teenage boy's winter hoodie for warmth.

"We'll go home later! Right now we have to go to Misono's place!" The brown-haired boy says as he takes a different direction from where he usually lives.

"Ehhhh, why to Bastard-chan's place again? It's not like we have something to do there...."

"We have! That's because......."

Timeskip
[Alicein Mansion]

"....Bastard-chan's sick? How can that be possible..."

"Kuro, don't be rude! We came all this way to pay him a visit, so at least pay him some respect!"

Kuro sighs as he still snuggles up to the boy's hoodie as a cat, giving him a small 'meow' comment.

"Well, the weather is extremely cold today and his body couldn't handle it, so I guess it makes sense why he got sick..."

They were invited inside the mansion as Dodo takes them to Misono's room.

"Young Master, Mahiru and Sloth's here to see you."

"B-Bring them in...!" A hoarse voice coughs out from the room.

"Misono, we came to-- Whoa!! Just how sick are you, Misono?!" The boy Mahiru yells out in shock as he looks at what's in front of him.

Misono lays in bed in full covers, a surgical mask and a cooler patch on his forehead. His face was extremely flushed as he looks more sickly and he's wearing too many layered jackets. Lily was sitting on a chair peeling some apples with the usual cheery face.

"Oh, it's so nice to see you again, Mahiru!~ I could say the same for Big Brother Kuro~" Lily says as he smiles.

"S-Shirota, I appreciate you visiting me, but could you... Pipe down a notch...?? My head hurts...." Misono coughs out as he lays there panting.

"But you're wearing too many jackets! And they're too thick! Your body needs some air and it's hard to move around!" Mahiru says as he looks up and down at him in shock.

"B-But... It's too cold...!"

"It is cold, but you need to wear loose and comfortable clothes! You don't need that many clothes at the same time!"

"Gaaaahhh... Both of you are too noisy... I can't deal... I don't wanna catch Bastard-chan's cold..." Kuro mumbles from Mahiru's hoodie then jumps off.

"S-Shut it, Cat...!! It's not like I wanted to get sick...!! And I thought vampires couldn't get sick--- Gaahhck!!" Misono's yelling was interrupted by another fit of coughing.

"Ahhh, you need more fluids to keep your body hydrated... Lily, has he taken any medicine?" Mahiru asks as he turned to Lily.

"Not yet~ Miss Céline has gone out to retrieve the medicine prescribed for him, so it won't be long~"

"Miss Céline?" Mahiru tilts his head and raised a brow in confusion.

"Y-Yeah... My new informant... She just arrived here over a month ago... That bastard brother of mine brought her here so she could work here..." Misono explains as he wheezes a bit for air and coughs out.

"Hey, you should really remove thoses extra layers to breathe. So how come I've never seen her before? I mean, I've been here a lot of times with Kuro and the others, but I never met her before." Mahiru says as he helps out on removing Misono's thick layered jackets as he was too weak to move.

"She's always out a lot... Looking for information is her job..... But nowadays, she's been distracted. She usually get things done quickly, but now she takes forever..." Misono explains as he then lays back down afterwards.

"Ahhh, maybe she's tired? You do give her breaks, right?" Mahiru asked.

"Y-Yeah... But even at breaks, she's more distracted... Like as if something is bothering her..."

After that, they could hear a motorcycle noise outside. A few minutes later, Céline walks in her usual biker suit and is still wearing her cat-eared helmet.

"Young Master, I have retrieved your medicine." She says as she puts a brown paperbag with medicine on the bedside table.

"T-Thank you, Céline..." Misono got back up as Mahiru helps him drink his medicine.

Céline nods without a word as she walks outside.

Céline's POV.

I walked out of the Young Master's room in silence as I kept my helmet on. I was planning on going out again until someone stops me.

"You're from C3, aren't you...?"

I turn over to see a blue-haired young man with red eyes leaning by the wall outside Misono's room, playing a type of video game. It was the Servamp of Sloth.

"How do you know?" I ask as I turned to him.

"I can tell... But I've never seen you before... Who are you exactly?" He asks as he keeps playing his game without looking at me.

I became silent a bit as I look away, not knowing what to explain to him. If I tell him why I'm here, he might not believe me and still deem me as an enemy... After all, most vampires doesn't like anyone from C3 because of how they were treated.

If I tell him the reason why I left C3, will he believe me? I don't know, but I'll try to convince him a bit.

"If I tell you, it won't be easy to accept my purposes. And again, I could say that I don't know who I am. Nobody does or maybe they do. That's why I'm looking around for answers... As for now, I'm known as Céline Midnight. Call me whatever you want since it's not my real name."

Kuro sighs as he stops playing and looks up at me. "How troublesome... Not knowing yourself must be a pain..." He mumbles.

I just nod as I sigh a bit. Then he spoke up again after a few minutes of silence.

"Whoever you are, be careful of searching for answers... You could get hurt... The truths aren't so friendly, you know... It's troublesome." Kuro says as he then continues playing his game.

I look at him a bit surprised. I thought he would threaten me since I'm a former C3 member and from what I heard, he had a bad history with them from the past. Maybe there's more things I still don't know about the vampires.

Before I could leave, I felt a sudden chill down my spine. My head throbbed more than usual, but somehow it didn't hurt... Then my body started moving on it's own as I left the mansion, driving my motorcycle away. I was just following what my body was doing as my mind was blank, then stopped at a house.

In fact, it was an old abandoned house I don't recognise. But then again, images flashed in my head that made me flinch and snap out of my trance. Maybe I do know this house, but I still don't remember.

Normal POV.

Céline parked her motorcycle outside as she got off and walked inside the house. It was in a bad state and there were police barricade tapes around the place as if it was a very old crime scene. As she stepped in a room, there was some dried brown stains on the floor and some white tape outlines that shapes of two bodies near the stains.

"Is that what I think it is...?" Céline looks around the room until she heard some noise outside the room. She immediately goes to hide as she makes sure the intruder doesn't notice her.

However, unbeknownst to her, a certain hand reaches from behind her and grabs her, covering her mouth from making any noises.

To be Continued...