Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Art of Seduction-Chp Finale

Jinggo and Joned had finished their dinner and were getting ready to bathe and hit the hay. Today has been a seriously long day and they found themselves seriously tired. They were in their own room and Joned had just fnished his shower. As he rubbed his hair dry, he began to contemplate today’s event.

First, it started out with just a simple lunch with Ryo’s Dominion Restaurant reservation ticket, but then it turned out to be an unplanned ‘date’ with Jinggo who got his ticket from Dee. Well, that’s OK, because he get to be extra alone with Jinggo and eat together just he used when he and Jinggo were back at their home country. He remembered Dee saying that he should stop being such a loser in love and tell Jinggo right to his face that he has a crush on him. He had gathered enough courage to do so, but Ryo and Dee had to blow it up. He couldn’t believe that they would just go and spy on them. What were they thinking? Didn’t Dee trust him to do this? Then there’s this Cloud the cat which they found in the middle of the road and sent them miles and miles into the outback just to return him back to his mistress.

They sure had an interesting event going on here.

But then it wasn’t too interesting as he didn’t get to confess his love to Jinggo. He was right there in front of him and he almost blurted it out, but he didn’t make it. When he thought about it, he suddenly felt like a total doofus. He had loads of chances back at his home country to tell him, and he had loads of private time with him especially when he was in the office with him. Why didn’t he tell him then? And here, he and Jinggo were living under the same roof and pretty much had every single second together. Why did he tell him then?

Joned then realized that the package was on his bed. Jinggo didn’t want it, not after the incident in the restaurant, so he tossed the package to Joned before he went into his room. Ryo did say that they should open when the time is right. Well, Jinggo didn’t want and Joned’s hands were getting itchy. If this wasn’t the right time, when is it? With his nimble hands, he unwrapped the package and saw that there was a pair of matching men’s rings. He looked closely at the engraving on both rings and they read ‘Jinggo’ and ‘Joned’ each. It was obviously a ring you can buy at any accessories store and ask the workers there to carve the names on it.

The other thing that was in the package was a note. Joned took it out and read it:

To Jinggo & Joned,

I suppose that you two have finally gotten together so we thought of giving these rings to you as a sort of congratulation gift. Don’t worry, they’re not expensive. Just some typical accessory shop type of ring. I’ll have to say that Joned has finally got the guts to say it out, huh? Like Dee said, all you have to do is just find the right time and then just say it directly to Jinggo’s face. It’s that simple! That’s how Dee got me to be interested in him now, isn’t it? All you need is love and guts.
We just hope that happiness will be with the both of you and we hope to have more fun working together in the days to come. Remember, you guys are gonna be here for about 2 ½ years, and we promise you we’re gonna make the best of it once you guys get together.

We could even go out on a double-date. Wouldn’t it be nice?

Signed: Ryo & Dee

P.S.: If you had opened this before you guys got together, you better start working on it!

That was when it struck him in the head. All these while he had the golden opportunity to confess but all he did was using that silly admiration act on that unconcerned Jinggo. No wonder he wasn’t going anywhere! Dee was right; he was doing this feeling thing all wrong. How stupid could he get? How lame could he possibly be?

‘Stupid, stupid me!’ Joned hit his head with his comb. ‘I had so much time and so many chances, but I didn’t do anything! Stupid~! That’s it! I won’t be a fool anymore! I’m telling him tonight, right now!’

With that, he slipped the ring with the name ‘Jinggo’ on it and stomped towards the room where Jinggo slept, walking towards the surprised Jinggo with a determined look on his face. Jinggo looked at him, questioned.

“What is it, Joned? Don’t you know how to knock?” Jinggo asked in his usual cold voice.

“I’m through with keeping secrets now!” Joned said with his face flushed. “I’ve been keeping this secret all these years and it’s driving me crazy! I don’t care what you think about this and what you’ll say, because I’m practically immune to your cold, unconcerned attitude, and I don’t care if you’re a straight guy or not! I’m telling and that’s that!”

“Well, don’t let me stop you,” Jinggo said as he put his hands on his hips, looking at him with his usual cool face.

“First of all, I…” Joned hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and continued, “Well, what I want to say is…that I, uh…I have…I…”

“If you can’t even think of what to say, you might as well hit the hay, ‘coz I am,” Jinggo said briefly before walking towards his bed. Without warning, before he could even turn to his bed, he was grabbed by the singlet straps by the strong hands of Joned and found his lips in contact with Joned’s. He was so caught off guard that he didn’t have any reaction. He could feel Joned’s tongue fondling with his, tasting every inch inside his mouth like he was kind of delicacy. That kiss lasted for a full 3 minutes before Joned finally opened his eyes and let go.

“I love you,” Joned whispered a little breathlessly. “That’s all I can say right now. I love you more than a partner and more than a friend. I love you.”

Jinggo fell onto his knees as he stared at Joned blankly. Joned looked slightly awkward and was swinging his left leg back and forth with awkwardness. His eyes didn’t dare to meet Jinggo’s, but one thing was for sure—he had finally let go of a truly heavy burden. Before he realized it, he felt Jinggo’s arms around him, hugging him tight. His body was slightly trembling and he could hear him, for the first time, sobbing.

“Jinggo? Jinggo, you OK?” Joned asked.

“So long…I have waited so long for you to say that, Joned,” Jinggo whispered as he hugged his little shorty sweetheart closer. “So long…”

“Jinggo? You don’t mean…?”

Jinggo nodded. “I love you too. I always have. Ever since you came into my agency with that poor, lost look on you, I knew…I’ve found my soul mate.”

“I thought you never cared about me!” Joned exclaimed. “Well, not literally, but you don’t even notice my gestures and my signs showing how much I like you. It’s always that cold, unconcerned face of yours, nothing more. I thought you were never going to notice.”

I thought you were never going to notice that this cold attitude of mine is showing how much I like you!” Jinggo said tearfully. “You’re always happy and upbeat about me going about like this. I thought you like my cold, cool look! That’s why I’m doing it for you! Isn’t this what you like?”

“Yes, yes, of course I do. Why do you think I fell in love with you for? But sometimes I just hope you’d loosen up a little, you know, give that cold face a break and warm up a bit.” Joned replied, wiping the tears off Jinggo’s cheek. “About like this. Isn’t it better now?”

“Yeah…it does feel better not having to be cold-faced all the time…” Jinggo admitted, sniffing.

“I can make it even warmer if you want…” Joned grinned as he took out the other ring that bore the name ‘Joned’ on it and slipped it into Jinggo’s finger. How Ryo and Dee got their finger size, they had no idea and they didn’t care anyway. Seductively, Joned slipped his hand into Jinggo’s singlet, caressing his broad chest. Jinggo lowered himself to allow Joned to kiss him. As they kissed, they removed each other’s clothes one by one, leaving them in a careless heap on the floor. Both of them were soon naked as they lay on the bed, kissing some more.

Joned reached over to dim the nightlights, making the place almost dark and that they could only see silhouettes of each other. He kissed Jinggo again and Jinggo consented. This time, he was playing the game and Jinggo went along with it. Like Jinggo said to Ryo, for once he wanted Joned in charge. And boy, was he in charge. As he kissed Jinggo, he grabbed his tongue with his lips and sucked it like a lollipop. He bit lightly at Jinggo’s lower lip and sucked that too. He started giving him playful butterfly kisses, from the neck to the throat—licking his Adam’s apple while doing it—to his chest and slowly advancing towards the lower part of his body.

Jinggo felt as if his whole body was beginning to heat up at Joned’s touch and was getting into the ‘mood’. He had never thought that the ever emotional, enthusiastic, loud-mouthing guy like Joned could be so suave and gentle in bed, going slowly over his body, enticing every inch of it. Jinggo let out a moan as he felt Joned sucking his penis. His face felt so hot that he feared that he would steam like a kettle.

“Joned…” Jinggo breathed out his sweetheart’s name as Joned lifted his legs, ready to do the ‘big thing’. He was all sweaty and breathless, getting more and more into the ‘mood’.

“I love you, Jinggo,” Joned whispered into Jinggo’s ear and nibbled on it to distract him while he finally made his ‘entrance’ into his tall, strong yet cold statue.

Jinggo winced. He didn’t think it would hurt. As Joned continued to thrust into him, it dawned to him that it was going to get even painful.

“Joned…Stop…It hurts…” Jinggo whispered, tears welling up again in his eyes.

“It’s alright,” Joned whispered back as he stroke Jinggo’s face. “It’s alright, I’m here…Just relax…I love you…”

Joned continued to thrust, the next one deeper than the first. Jinggo continued to let out moans and groans. It really hurt him, it really did. Tears fell out of his eyes and he could feel Joned’s hands wiping it away occasionally, hushing him and speaking sweet nothings to him gently. As he continued to feel Joned’s thrust getting deeper and more frequent, he felt something warm flowing down his butt. Jinggo guessed that it could be blood; he had never done this before and was pretty much a virgin. He tried to relax just as Joned told him and he was right—it didn’t hurt that much anymore.

In fact, in the midst of the pain, it felt so good.

He reached out his hands to his love and hugged him, letting a moan of pleasure as Joned thrust into him again. He took Joned’s earlobe to his mouth and nibbled. He kissed his neck and breathed down it in ecstasy. He winced once in a while but the pain didn’t bother him anymore. All that matters was that Joned was before him and will be by his side forever more. There’s nothing else he would like than be with Joned till the end of time.

Gently, Joned rolled him over so that he was lying on his stomach. He kissed Jinggo’s bare back and let his tongue run down his spine. Jinggo shivered, enticed by the feeling of his wet tongue on his back. He could feel Joned’s finger tracing every inch of his back and his hands on his waist as he try to raise his lower half of the body.

“What is it…?” Jinggo whispered.

“Go on all fours. Raise your butt up,” Joned whispered back. Jinggo obeyed. This time he was in control. He would like to see what wonders Joned could do.

That was when he felt the thrust in him again. Jinggo let out an ecstatic groan and grasped the pillow case tight. He was thrust again and again and he could his body heating up. He was burning. It was like some kind of heat disease. It was a heat he found pleasurable and happy with. His body has finally been taken possession by Joned Polar, the man he had ever loved. He felt pain, yet he felt joy. It was a complicated feeling; he couldn’t put words into it.

As Joned thrust in deeper, combining them into one, Jinggo’s body continued to burn. He continued to sweat, cry and endure the pain and pleasure inflicted into him, all at once. He was drowning into the sea of passion. He was finally turned from a cold and cool virgin statue into a warm, hot-blooded man.

He was finally his…

“I think things are going pretty well over there, don’t you, Ryo?”

“Dee, you peeping Tom! Get out of the window! They might see you!”

Our Dynamic Duo was at their bedroom and Dee was curious about whether anything good has happened between Jinggo and Joned or not, so he peeked from his window at the bedroom of Jinggo which was facing their side. Judging by the dim nightlight, Dee guessed that things are going well between the Asian recruits.

“Come on,” Dee grinned as he egged Ryo on to join him to watch the house. “Don’t you want to know too? Besides, I think they’re too busy doing their ‘thing’ to realize anyone’s looking.”

“I’m not a pervert like you,” Ryo said as he tugged at Dee’s shirt. “So move away from the window before they see you peeping at them.”

“Alright, alright,” Dee replied as he drew the curtains and lay down beside Ryo. He gave Ryo a seductive look and had his naughty hands up into his pants. Ryo could tell what he wanted. He pouted for a while before closing his eyes and kissing Dee’s lips, succumbing to his fondling hands on his bare body and him removing his clothes one by one.

“I think for the rest of their recruitment, we are certainly going to be in for more fun.”

The Art of Seduction-Chp7

The foursome in Dee’s car was still in the middle of the busy road, trying to find some way to beat the traffic to get to the airport quicker. Joned was getting a little anxious.

“Dee, can we actually get there before 4 p.m.?” Joned asked.

“If we take the main road, you’ll have to kiss that flight goodbye!” Dee replied as he dodged another car which was blocking his way.

“What?! But we have to give Cloud back to his family! Pearl might be missing him already!”

“Don’t worry! I know a highway and a detour which would get us there in a jiffy!”

With that, he accelerated slightly and sped off down the highway, asking Ryo to check out and see if there were any traffic cops around who might catch them. Lucky for them the highway was pretty much deserted with less cars, but of course some of the cars honked at them because they were speeding past them like there was no tomorrow. When the road ahead looked pretty much no cars at all, Dee sped as if his life depended on it, catching Ryo, Joned and Jinggo off guard and making them fall backwards.

“There it is!” Ryo called out. “The sign that said ‘Detour to Airport’!”

“Then let’s go!” Dee exclaimed and swerved to the left into the detour. Ryo, Joned and Jinggo yelped as their bodies swerved together to the right by the impact. Jinggo, who was sitting at Joned’s left, fell and crushed onto him, his shoulders meeting his. He had a good mind to blush there and then but he was still too cautious to let Joned see his true self. When they’ve all regained composure, Jinggo pretended as if it didn’t happen. Only Joned was looking pretty blissful, behind Jinggo’s knowledge, that is.

The Asian recruits soon were taken aback to find out that this detour had led them to a quite dense forest ahead. They crashed through trees, ran through ponds, barged through thick bushes, and even scared a few animals along the way. Joned was the most shocked one among the foursome.

“Are you crazy?! This road is practically the death of us!!” Joned exclaimed.

“Well, you wanted to go to the airport so much, and I’m offering you the quickest way possible!” Dee replied. “You wanna let Cloud go back to that Pearl benedict girl or not?”

“We still have 10 more minutes before 4 p.m. Are you sure we’re going to make it?” Jinggo asked, looking at his watch. Before Dee could reply, Joned had already made a head-start.

“Yes, we can! As long as we persevere, we’ll get there!”

Jinggo suddenly realized that he had seen another side of Joned and couldn’t help feeling that he looked so gallant that way. To distract himself and stop him looking at Joned, he turned to stroke Cloud. He still didn’t want him to know his true self. He was afraid, so afraid to show it and he felt so stupid for being such a coward when Joned wasn’t.

No sooner did Joned say those words than they saw the airport up ahead. Everyone, except Jinggo, cheered in victory as they moved closer and closer towards the airport. But luck wasn’t on their side. Halfway towards the airport, Dee’s engine suddenly ran out of gas. The sudden acceleration and the non-stop driving must have exhausted it. It stopped in the middle of the road and the car bonnet popped open by itself, emitting smoke. Dee groaned—not only did his car ran out of gas, but it has also overheated.

“Oh man!” Ryo slapped his forehead. “We were so close!”

“I’m…I’m sorry, Dee…” Joned apologized. “If I wasn’t such an asshole and insisted on going on this, your car wouldn’t have…”

“Don’t be silly, Joned!” Dee slapped the shorty on the back. “What you’re doing now is the right thing, and now you have to finish it. Go now!”

“What? But what about you guys?”

“Forget about us, you baka!” Ryo exclaimed. “If you don’t make it, everything we have done for will go to the dumpster, and I’ll personally shoot you for that!”

“Come on, go! We’ll be fine!” Dee agreed. “We have a car to protect us from wild animals.”

Joned smiled and picked up Cloud from inside the car. He took to his heels and ran as fast as he could towards the airport. Jinggo followed suite. They both ran and ran and didn’t stop until they’ve reached the airport entrance. Inside the airport, they tried to check the list of departure on the TV screen. They ran their eyes through the list but couldn’t seem to find the flight to India anywhere.
“There it is!” Jinggo said as he pointed at a small section on the TV screen. Sure enough, there was a flight to India at 4 p.m. and the sing showed that it was…BOARDED?

“What?! They’ve boarded the plane already?!” Joned ran towards the glass window that displayed the arriving and departing planes. That’s when he saw the plane that was leaving to India flying away and soaring up into the sky. Joned stood there, staring in disbelief for a minute or two before his legs went weak all over and gave way. He sat abruptly on the floor, his eyes looking blank. He continued to stare at the flying plane until it disappeared out of sight before looking down at Cloud in his hands in total disappointment and failure. Jinggo noticed that his eyes were welling up and tears were dripping out like rain onto the cat. Jinggo’s heart ached to see Joned sad like this.

“How can this be…? I’ve tried…I’ve tried so hard…I’m sorry, Cloud. We didn’t get to your mistress…”

Jinggo knelt down beside Joned and patted his shoulder. He picked the cat up from his arms and closed his eyes as he hugged Cloud close to his chest, holding back his tears that were induced by his aching heart. He whispered, “It’s OK, Joned. It’s gonna be OK. We’ll take good care of Cloud. He’s not going to be alone. We’ll take care of Cloud and take him back home with us once our exchange course is over.”

“Yeah…I guess you’re right…” Joned replied as he tickling Cloud’s throat. “Maybe everything is not all that lost. But I can’t help feeling that I’ve failed Cloud…”

“You did your best, Joned,” Jinggo said, smiling slightly. “Let’s go home.”

When they were about to leave, they heard a little girl talking to her father, “Daddy, when exactly is our flight to India? That plane to India has already left.”

“Our flight is at 5 p.m. I’ve mistaken it for 4 p.m. How clumsy can I get?” the father chuckled.

“I told you to get a pair of reading glasses!” the mother complained half-annoyingly. “Now we have to wait for an hour before we can really move out of this place!”

“Sorry, darling,” the father replied apologetically. “You can go around and do a little shopping if you want.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” the mother said delightfully.

“I wish Cloud was with us. I couldn’t find him anywhere,” the little girl sighed as she stared at her empty animal box. “We’ve done everything we need to take him with us and now he’s gone.”

“It’s alright, Pearl,” the father said. “I’ll get you another cat back at India.”

“It’s just not the same without him…”

“Excuse me,” Jinggo voiced out, alerting them. “I believe this cat is yours.”

“Cloud!” Pearl squealed in delight as she reached over to take her Persian white cat into her arms. The cat purred happily and nuzzled his nose with hers. “Daddy, look! That big brother has brought Cloud back!”

“That’s great, sweetie,” Mr. Benedict said in all smiles. He then turned to Jinggo and Joned and shook their hands, “Thank you so much for bringing Cloud back to my daughter. She has been crying all the way to the airport this evening and had only calmed down just recently. What can I do to repay you?”
“Just don’t lose him again,” Joned replied. “Take really good care of him from now on and you’ll make us very happy.”

Jinggo nodded too. For once, he didn’t ask for payment (In the manga, Jinggo is a very money-minded man and only accepts the case if there’s something in it for him). He smiled as he looked at Pearl dancing around with Cloud in her arms, looking very happy indeed. He laid his hand on Joned’s shoulder and said, “Come on. Let’s go and meet back with Ryo and Dee.”

And so they did.

“Hey, guys! Looks to me like you’ve made it to the Benedict family!”

Ryo and Dee were sitting in their car fairly dressed (Well, you can guess what they’ve been doing while waiting for our Asian recruits) and waving at Jinggo and Joned to show where they were. Joned and Jinggo moved towards the car and saw that the bonnet was still up.

“Sorry about the car,” Joned apologized again. “So, is it OK yet?”

“Not entirely,” Dee replied. “We managed to cool it down a little but without gas, I don’t think we’re going to go anywhere. So how did it go?”

“We were lucky,” Jinggo replied. “The father made a mistake of the time of flight and had to be sitting ducks for another hour. We got there just in time.”

“I think there might be a gas station somewhere nearby the airport,” Ryo said, pointing at the right side of the airport. “Maybe you guys can tell us about it while we push the car to the station, if you don’t mind.”

So, while the foursome pushed the car towards the gas station, Joned the chatterbox told them everything. Ryo and Dee were pretty impressed at how lucky Joned could get just when he thought he had lost hope. At the gas station, Dee filled up and bought some tidbits from the shop inside before the four of them hopped into the car and drove back home.

Once they’ve reached home, the sky was pretty much dark and starry. They couldn’t believe that they have spent a whole day running around just for a small cat. But they were glad inside for they knew that they have done someone a great favour today. Jinggo and Joned thanked Dee for the ride and got off the car.

“Hey, Jinggo,” Dee said as he took the package he just gave him this morning out from the back seat. “You forgot your package.”

“That’s for me? But I thought that’s for your so-called ‘friend’,” Jinggo asked, slightly surprised.

“It’s actually for the both of you,” Ryo replied sheepishly, still a little bit guilty for busting their almost-date. “Open it when the time is right.”

Both Jinggo and Joned blushed. Jinggo quickly took the package from Dee’s hand and dashed off into the house. Joned thanked Ryo and Dee for today’s ride and followed suite. Ryo took a look at the duo’s front door before turning to Dee and asked, “Do you think this would work out?”

“I’m pretty sure this would. Today has been a pretty fruitful event, isn’t it? Besides, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to know if they actually…well, you-know-what.”

Ryo sniggered and followed Dee behind as they both went into their own home sweet home.

The Art of Seduction-Chp6

The cat was a white Persian cat, and it was in the middle of a busy road where big and small vehicles were coming to and fro. It looked pretty terrified and didn’t know whether to go forward or turn back and the vehicles didn’t seem to notice it either. Wherever they’re heading, they sure were going pretty fast.

As the compassionate, emotional person he was, Joned immediately rushed towards the middle of the road to catch the cat into his arms. Yet he was so bent on saving the poor cat that he didn’t realize that a huge truck was coming his way. Its presence was so sudden that Joned didn’t know how to react. Lucky for him, Jinggo has jumped forward, grabbed both Joned and the cat in his arms and rolled safely down onto the opposite side of the road, much to the surprised and awed passers-by.

When Joned opened his eyes, he found himself in Jinggo’s arms. This was the second time Jinggo has saved his life but he never expected to be in his embrace. He wouldn’t mind dying right there right now; he felt like dying in blissfulness anyway. Likewise, Jinggo has also realized that he had Joned close to his chest. He blushed. What was he doing? Throughout their private detective life, he had never had this close contact with Joned before. All he ever did was take his hand, that’s all. He knew he had to let go of him right now but somehow his arms just wouldn’t respond to his wishes.

“Jinggo! Joned! Are you guys alright?”

Ryo’s voice finally made the both of them tear away from each other. They were blushing like mad but Jinggo was trying to control his. Not much luck though. Dee came running ahead of Ryo and tried to see if anyone was alright.

“You guys OK? Anything broken?” Dee asked.

“No, we’re OK,” Jinggo replied, patting the dust off himself as cool as he possibly could.

“We’re cool,” Joned agreed. “And we saved a life in the process.”

The cat in Joned’s arms mewed and nuzzled his chin in a sort of gratitude way. As Joned patted the cat and reassured it that it was alright, he noticed a name tag hanging from a collar on its neck.

“Hey, look. This cat’s name is Cloud, and it has an address engraved on the name tag,” Joned said as he took a closer look at the tag. “41 Street, Edison Road, Phase II. Where’s that, Dee?”

“I know where that is,” Ryo suddenly voiced out. “That’s where we investigated the robbery crime last year. Remember that housing estate named Wendigo?”

Dee tapped his chin before saying, “Oh yeah! That one! That crook wasn’t too hard to catch for the likes of us now, was he?”

“What are you thinking of doing, Joned?” Jinggo asked.

“I’m gonna return this cat to its owner, duh! What does it look like?” Joned replied in an as-a-matter-of-fact way.

“We are no SPCA members, Joned. We do detective work, not open a pet care centre or run a pets’ lost and found agency,” Jinggo said coldly.

“Well, then you’re no nice man either,” Joned replied briefly. If he had looked at Jinggo when he said it, he would’ve noticed that slightly hurt look on his face for a second there. Only Ryo noticed.

“Are you sure about this?” Dee asked. “I mean this cat looks pretty OK although it might have been in the street for quite some time.”

“Yes, I am,” Joned replied determinedly. “I know how it feels like to be out in the streets with no one who cares and no one by your side, and I hate to see that happen to this cat.”

“Alright,” Dee let out a sigh of defeat. “It’s your call. Makes up for what we blew off today. Let’s go.”

Soon the foursome was walking towards Dee’s car and was on their way to Edison Road, Phase II. They had to beat the traffic like usual using highways and shortcuts, but finally they’ve reached the quiet housing estate, Wendigo, at Edison Road, Phase II. Joned got off the car in a thrice and started looking for the house at 41 Street, with Jinggo and the rest following behind him. He looked closely at the tag again and saw that this cat belonged to a girl named Pearl Benedict. He went to one of the houses and knocked on the door. He was answered by a middle-aged woman with silver-blonde hair and a pair of really thick glasses.

“Yes, can I help you, young man?”

“Err, sorry to bother you, ma’am,” Joned greeted. “Do you know anyone by the name Pearl Benedict?”

“Yes, of course!” the woman replied. “They live just next door, or so they used to be.”

“Used to be?” Jinggo asked.

“They’ve just moved. A huge truck just stopped by and carried a whole lot of their furniture and stuff. You just missed them,” the woman replied. She looked down and saw Cloud in Joned’s arms and exclaimed, “Oh my! Isn’t that Cloud? They forgot about you? Oh, poor Cloud! And your little mistress Pearl said they’ve went through all the trouble to vaccinate you and all just to bring you along to India.”

“India? Did you say India?” Dee asked, surprised.

“Yes. The Benedict family has all moved to India together with their little girl Pearl, and they’re leaving today on the 4 p.m. flight later,” the woman replied as she took Cloud into her arms. The cat mewed, looking disappointed. Ryo took a look at his watch.

“It’s about 2 and half hours away before 4,” Ryo replied. Cloud mewed again, trying to see if his mistress was going to come and get him.

“No one’s home, Cloud. They’ve all gone,” the woman tried to coax Cloud. “We’re gonna have to find someone else to take care of you now.”

Joned stared at the cat for a moment. The whole family has left. Cloud was left all alone here without anyone to take care and he was sure that no one is going to adopt him. He was sure of that; he was an unwanted child once. Even if someone else wanted to adopt him, he was sure he would end up in a reckless family who would never show as much love as Pearl had shown him. Quite suddenly, he took the cat into his arms, thanked the woman and walked towards Dee’s car.

“Hey, hey, Joned, where are you going?” Dee asked as he followed close behind Joned. The others thanked the woman and followed suite.

“I’m going to return this cat to Pearl,” Joned replied determinedly.

“Are you kidding me?” Dee asked in disbelief. “You can’t make it there! It’s miles and miles away from here to the nearest airport! You’ll never make it there in time!”

“If we don’t try, we’ll never know!” Joned said. “I’m not going to let this cat be adopted by some people who don’t even have money to feed themselves, let alone feed a cat! And I don’t want it to be adopted by a family who has some mangy children who would abuse him or stick a piece of firework onto his tail! And I’m definitely not going to stand here and watch him live off scraps and rubbish in the streets where he could die at any second! I don’t want him to end up like me!”

“OK, OK, calm down, Joned. You’re making this personal. You gotta think straight here. You cannot just go barging around doing whatever you want and think that you’re gonna make it…”

Joned, who was opening the door of Dee’s car, slammed it shut and scowled at him. He glared deep into Dee’s eyes and said, “Fine! If you’re not going to take me to the airport, I’ll go on foot out of here and take the bus.”

With that, he walked off with Cloud and ignored the frantic calls of Ryo and Dee. Jinggo just stood there without a word. When he was about a few feet away, Jinggo said, “I know him very well; he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants. I’ve seen him like this before when we did the case on the missing ambassador’s daughter.”

As the Dynamic Duo turned to Jinggo, they saw a slight smile on his face and said, “So, are you going to go with his silly fantasies or not?”

Ryo and Dee looked at each other for a second or two before finally driving the car and honking at Joned to stop running away from them so that they can get to the airport.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Art of Seduction-Chp5

“What? No work today?”

Ryo and Dee were at Jinggo and Joned’s house enjoying another great breakfast of omelette and toast. After that case on Stanley Blue and the shooting accident, Joned has fully recovered a week later and was allowed to go home. Somehow, Ryo and Dee had made this more of a habit to drop by at their house for some breakfast before they all head off to the NYPD. Ryo could’ve sworn that he had gained a little weight recently. Dee had to agree to that.

“Yeah, you’re gonna be free for the whole weekend,” Dee replied. “The inspector said it would be a sort of reward for you guys after being able to finally put that Stanley Blue scoundrel behind bars and all. So you’ll be excused for this whole weekend. Let us do the job.”

“Phew!” Joned wiped off an imaginary sweat off his forehead. “For a minute I thought we’re being fired or suspended or something.”

“Now that wouldn’t be a fair treatment for someone who had risked their lives to give us information about Stanley Blue’s next smuggling business now, would it?” Ryo said. He and Dee exchanged knowing glances. They were definitely onto something.

“It’s all in a day’s work,” Jinggo replied in his ever familiar cold way, but by then Ryo and Dee has already known what’s beneath that cold and unconcerned exterior of our tall, built recruit. As soon as they’ve finished breakfast, the duo was eager to get things done with.

“Let me help you with the dishes, Joned,” Ryo said as he and Joned carried the plates to the sink. Dee got that as a cue and called for Jinggo.

“Hey, Jinggo. I almost forgot that I’ve got a delivery for a friend of mine at the Dominion Restaurant, but Ryo and I have to rush off to the NYPD to report in. I have it in the car right now. Would you mind…?”

“Sure, no problem,” Jinggo replied nonchalantly as he followed Dee to his car. As soon as they were out of the house, Ryo put his plan into action.

“Hey, Joned. Remember that restaurant you said you would love to try out the exquisite food and all but couldn’t afford the reservation ticket?”

“Yes, of course! How could I forget that?” Joned replied, his eyes filled with eagerness. “That restaurant is so exquisite and famous that you have to buy reservation tickets in advance to be allowed in and man, they cost me a bunch. Why do you ask?”

“Well, since this weekend is your day off,” Ryo said as he dug his pocket to show him a flashy gold ticket. He waved it in front of his face with a grin and had expected to see Joned widened his eyes with amazement.

“The reservation ticket for Dominion Restaurant! For me?! How did you get it??” Joned exclaimed as he took the ticket and marveled it in awe.

“Dee and I have just had dinner last night there and we thought that it might be a good idea for you to have one. Well, unfortunately, there’s only one left, and if the person who ordered this lunch ticket hadn’t cancelled it, we wouldn’t have bought it at all. Oh, and their food might a slight bit pricey, so here, you can borrow my credit card.”

“This must cost a fortune. And you want me to sue your credit card? Really, I couldn’t…” Joned’s words were stopped short by Ryo’s hand on his shoulder.

“Come on. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. You’re not going to waste it out on gratitude now, are you? We bought it just for you. Go on. Try it. My salary is enough to cover it p, just as long as you don’t over-budget, that is.”

Joned hesitated for a while. Ryo could tell that he didn’t want to accept the ticket because it was only him going and not with Jinggo, but that has to go as part of the plan. Ryo put on a pleading face that kind of took into Joned’s heart. He smiled and nodded, pocketing the ticket. Ryo beamed.

“There. That wasn’t so bad, right? Hope you enjoy yourself,” Ryo said before leaving the kitchen and out of the house. Jinggo, who was just coming in, made way for him to leave before entering the house and closing the door.

“So did you give it to him?” Dee asked as he started the car and drove off.

“Yeah, I did. What about you?” Ryo asked.

Dee put out an OK sign. Ryo sniggered and kissed Dee’s cheek.

“This is definitely going to be so much fun.”

Jinggo has found his way to Dominion Restaurant where Dee said his so-called friend was going to meet him. Under his armpit was a package which Dee had told him to give once he has seen his ‘friend’. He showed his reservation ticket Dee gave him to the receptionist near the door and he was allowed in. another waiter came to his service and took a look at his ticket before leading him to his seat.

Dominion Restaurant truly lived up to its name. There were so many customers in the restaurant that if he hadn’t had a ticket, Jinggo didn’t think that he would be able to find a seat among these people. His seat was somewhere near the window and while he waited for the ‘friend’ to come, he ordered himself a cup of coffee. He shifted his gaze towards the window to try and enjoy the scenery and that’s where the shock came in.

Right opposite the restaurant, ready to cross the road, was Joned—his secret love—in his quite well-to-do clothes. Jinggo almost choked; what was Joned doing here?? He remembered Joned telling him that he was going to check out one of the greatest restaurant in New York and couldn’t come with him for the meeting with Dee’s ‘friend’ he was assigned to meet. But what in the world was he doing here? ‘Don’t tell me that he’s coming to this restaurant! He could never afford anything without him paying the debts! What the heck was he hanging around here?!

His eyes followed him towards the receptionist where he presented the flashy reservation ticket and being led by the waiter to his seat. He was even more taken aback when he saw that the waiter was leading Joned right to his seat. Was he the one—the ‘friend’—he was supposed to meet? It couldn’t be! If it was him, Dee could’ve just given him the package when they were having their breakfast this morning.

“Jinggo! What a pleasant surprise! Err…what are you doing here?” It was obvious that Joned had no idea Jinggo was going to come here.

“I, uh, I thought you were going to be eating at a famous restaurant,” Jinggo tried to regain composure as not to reveal his true feelings. To be honest, he was half-glad that he was here, or else he would’ve felt pretty much alone.

“I am!” Joned replied as he took a seat in front of him. “This is the restaurant I was talking about. Ryo got me this cool lunch ticket to come here and I rushed here as soon as possible. What are you doing here? I thought you’re gonna meet Dee’s friend to give him a package or something.”

“Well, I am,” Jinggo said as he showed his reservation ticket. “Dee said I was supposed to meet that guy here and gave me his reservation ticket, so here I am. Did you say Ryo got that ticket for you?”

“Yeah, that’s right…” Joned’s voice trailed off as he realized what was this all about. Both of them cursed silently at the person who gave them the tickets. So that’s why they were so generous!

“Well, since we’re already here and my John Doe isn’t going to come,” Jinggo let out a sigh, “we might as well order something to eat. I’m kinda starved. I suppose I’ll have to pay, just like always?”
“No,” Joned beamed as he took out Ryo’s credit card. “This time it’s on me.”

“You never had a credit card,” Jinggo looked at Joned with a leveled trace of surprise.

“It’s a long story, really,” Joned replied. “Just order whatever you like. It’s on me, really.”

So the couples-to-be ordered a set lunch each, and when the set lunch came, it was quite a hefty meal. Joned’s mouth practically watered at the sight of the food. Jinggo raised his higher eyebrow with interest. As they ate their lunch, Joned chattered on about his journey to come to this restaurant, from meeting the queerest people on the way to the taxi stand to his frustration about unable to get a taxi to the doofus driver who can’t seem to find his way to this restaurant because he was a foreigner himself and was quite new to the road. Jinggo listened with much revered interest and also made a slight conversation about his journey to this restaurant.

Their conversation was pretty great so far that they didn’t notice that Ryo and Dee were sitting somewhere a few tables away from theirs, watching their every move. It was quite a laid-back day at the NYPD this morning and once the lunch break came, Ryo and Dee were only too eager to get out of there to see how Joned and Jinggo were going on. They moved at quite a speed and had to find suitable shortcuts so that they can dodge the traffic (luckily they didn’t run into any red lights or any traffic cops or they would be a disgrace to the NYPD) and got there just in time to see Jinggo and Joned sitting together looking surprised at each other.

“We are so going to start eating instant noodles for the next month. Those tickets cost almost half of my salary, not to mention the gift inside that package,” Dee complained as he kept a close eye on the recruits.

“Hey, don’t complain. It’s going to cost me a sum too, what with Joned using my credit card,” Ryo replied, chuckling bitterly, imagining the kitchen filled with instant cup noodles and instant noodle packs. “But look on the bright side; we’ll get to eat a decent breakfast every morning at their house.”
“For that, I am definitely going to ask a second and third helping for this!” Dee said, clenching his fist in determination.

“Look, Dee. Jinggo’s facial expression is showing a slight change! Something must be going on!” Ryo hissed excitedly as he pointed secretly at them.

Ryo was right; there was something happening between Joned and Jinggo’s conversation. They have stopped talking about their stuff for a moment there when Joned suddenly asked, “Err…Jinggo, how long have I been with you?”

“For about 3 ½ years,” Jinggo replied briefly. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’ve been wondering…” Joned hesitated before asking, “Is there anything about me that you like?”

Jinggo almost dropped his spoon. What was he trying to say? Has he found out about his feelings towards him? Has he seen through his cold exterior who he really was? Has he…? Jinggo kept a leveled face before replying, “Well, you do have the potential to succeed in whatever you do, that I can see, and you have a strong spirit and a determined mind. You’re jolly and enthusiastic and all. Quite the opposite of me, but I don’t find that disturbing at all.”

“Is there anything that you…don’t like about me?”

“Not that I can think of, except that you panic easily and that you’re too emotional, but I’m used to it.”

“Well, I…” Joned raised his voice a little but was afraid that the customers present would look at him, so he lowered his voice again and said, “I have something to tell for quite a long time now.”

Jinggo looked at him half-curiously and half-anxiously. What was he going to say? Is he going to say what he had hoped he would say for his whole life? Has his wait being paid off? He had to get ready for this! Adjusting his slightly excited face back to the cool mode, he said, “Then fire away. I haven’t got all day.”

“What I want to say is that…well, I have…Actually I…”

“RYO! DEE! What a pleasant surprise!!!”

Joned and Jinggo together with the other customers present in the restaurant turned abruptly towards the loud booming voice of a man who was standing beside Ryo and Dee’s table, beaming from head to toe. He looked pretty plump but tall, like a big fat giant, and he had a long beard and long hair, like he had never shaved or cut for a very, very long time. It was lucky that he did keep them clean though, judging by the richly-dressed attire he had on him. Ryo and Dee, on the other hand, were trying to hide more from Jinggo and Joned than from him.

“Bless my lucky stars! It’s you guys!” the man said as he clapped their backs hard.

“Hello, Mr. Denver,” Ryo greeted sheepishly, praying hard that Jinggo and Joned hadn’t seen them.
“So glad to be seeing you guys again—hold your horses, will ya?” the man whose name was Mr. Denver waved away the waiter who was trying to lead him to his seat. “I could’ve sworn I saw you two when I passed you by. If it weren’t for you, that awful terrorist would’ve taken away all my secret plans and the whole world would be catastrophic!”

“Yes, yes, well, it’s part of our job,” Dee laughed nervously as his eyes shifted towards the Asian duo who were looking at them with accusing eyes. Both of them had their reasons to be angry with them, that’s needless to say. Joned paid for the meal and stood up abruptly, leaving the table with a grudging look on his face. Jinggo left too, looking just the same, although it wasn’t anger but a much colder face than usual.

“Err…excuse us, Mr. Denver,” Dee said hurriedly after paying for his and Ryo’s tea and cheese cake. “We got a case to run.”

“OK, boys. See you soon! I got an open house tomorrow night to celebrate my daughter’s birthday,” Mr. Denver said as the Dynamic Duo got ready to leave. “Hope you guys can come!”

“We’ll keep in touch!” Ryo replied as he and Dee tried to catch up with the leaving Jinggo and Joned.
Jinggo and Joned, on the other hand, would not want to acknowledge the Dynamic Duo’s calls. They practically ignored their frantic explanation and were bent on getting as far away as possible. They were pretty annoyed at them actually spying on them and ruining their perfect moment, especially Joned who was almost going to confess his feelings towards Jinggo.

That was when they saw the cat.

The Art of Seduction-Chp4

The Dynamic Duo and Jinggo waited just outside the emergency ward, waiting for Joned’s results of the operation to come out. When he was taken into the hospital, Joned lost so much blood that the doctors thought he couldn’t make it. But they tried their luck anyway. Jinggo’s blank eyes have returned to normal but he was still silent throughout the whole wait. None of Ryo or Dee’s questions did he respond to. Ryo and Dee were a little worried about him.

Soon, the emergency light above the ward door was turned off, signaling that the operation was over. Ryo and Dee quickly stood up and rushed towards the door. Jinggo followed suite a minute later. The doctor came out with a slightly relieved face.

“So, doc,” Dee asked. “How’s Joned?”

“He has lost a lot of blood and we almost ran out of blood from the blood bank,” the doctor replied gravely at first, then smiled and said, “but he pulled through. He’s OK now. The bullet is out and he’s all taken care of. He does have a strong spirit now, doesn’t he?”

“Asians. They never fail to surprise us,” Dee grinned.

“Can we go and visit him?” Ryo asked.

“I don’t see why not. But not for too long though; he needs his rest,” the doctor replied. “He’s in Room 601.”

“Thanks,” Ryo replied before turning towards the slightly dazed Jinggo and said, “Hey, Jinggo. He’s OK. The doctor said the operation was a success. You wanna go and visit him for a while?”

It took Jinggo 5 minutes to register everything in his head before he slowly replied in his cold voice, “Maybe later. I want to go and freshen myself up first. I need some time alone.”

The Dynamic Duo stared at him as Jinggo disappeared into a junction towards the direction of the toilet. After a while, Dee gave Ryo a nudge on his waist, gesturing him to go follow him. Ryo frowned.

“What? Me? Why me?”

“He’s gonna blow up in there, as in going into buckets and buckets of tears,” Dee said. “I can tell. Go on. Besides, I think he’s what you Japanese—or what’s half of you—call a uke like you. I think you can get it through him.”

“Then what about you?” Ryo looked at his boyfriend suspiciously.

“I’m gonna do a little ‘personal investigation’ on this Joned guy,” Dee replied naughtily. “Go on, run along. You can brief me about what you heard and I’ll tell you mine!”

Before Ryo could protest, Dee has already given him another encouraging shove and bounded off towards Joned’s room. Ryo sighed and shook his head helplessly. Soon, he found himself walking towards the toilet looking for Jinggo. Once he stepped in, as he expected, only one cubicle was occupied, just like the one in the NYPD. Ryo didn’t bother to keep his presence secret anymore. He walked directly towards the door and knocked.

“This…This toilet’s taken,” it was Jinggo’s voice, and by the sound of that he could guess that he was trying to control his crying.

“Jinggo, it’s me, Ryo,” Ryo called. “Are you OK?”

“I’m…I’m fine…I just need to be alone for a while. Please go away.”

“Come on, Jinggo. You know you can talk to me. No need to bottle it all up to yourself. It’s not healthy,” Ryo said as he continued to knock on the door. “Come on, Jinggo. Let me in and let’s talk.”

It took about 5 long and silent minutes before Ryo heard Jinggo unlatch the door and opening it for him. He was fairly surprised to see Jinggo with his dark eyes red and sodden and went about sniffling, close to another verge of breaking down. Ryo smiled and went into the cubicle.

“Now would you tell lil’ ol’ me what exactly is the matter here?”

Dee peeked into Room 601 and saw Joned sleeping on the bed. He walked quietly in and dragged a chair so that he could sit beside the bed. The slight sound of the chair being dragged woke Joned up. he turned to see who it was and smiled when he saw that it was Dee.

“Sorry if I woke you,” Dee apologized.

“It’s OK. I can’t sleep forever now, can I?” Joned said. He looked around and asked, “Where’s Jinggo and Ryo?”

“They’re in the toilet,” Dee replied briefly before showing him a solemn-looking face. “You know, it’s about time you’re being a little honest with me.”

“Wha…What do you mean?” Joned asked, taken by surprise.

“You know what I mean. We’ve been working together for a while now and I don’t seem to buy that excuse about you and Jinggo just being partners.”

“Wh…What makes you think anything’s going on between us?” Joned averted his eyes, blushing.

“I can see whether someone is in love with a person or not, and I’m guessing that you have a crush on our Jinggo Kilimano here, aren’t you?”

“That’s stupid.”

“Oh, you think so? Because my gay instincts never fail me before, nor does my expertise in reading people’s faces.”

“You’re…You’re gay…too…?” Joned’s eyes were looking at Dee in surprise and belonging.

“Mmhmm,” Dee nodded. “No point of being ashamed about it anyways. In fact, Ryo and I are lovers. Having the hicks for him ever since he became my partner. Didn’t you notice?”

Joned shook his head. “I must admit, I don’t have your talent in reading people’s faces. Besides, if I know I wouldn’t want to bother. It’s your private life.”

Dee smiled and told him a little bit about him and his relationship with Ryo and how it came to be (A/N: Well, I guess we all know about their story through the manga, so I won’t have to say much about it and cut the long story short). He ended his story by saying, “Now that I’ve been honest to you about me and Ryo, how about you share a little of your side of the story? We never get to actually talk to each other. It’s just work, work, work. You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

“I guess I should be having a little heart-to-heart talk with you by now,” Joned replied. “Yes, I do have the hicks for Jinggo. No, to be even more honest…I’m seriously in love with him. He’s so smart and good-looking and knows everything in life and practically more street-smart than I am. I was raised in an orphanage, you see, and I didn’t get much exposure towards the outside world until I was old enough to leave the orphanage. No one wanted to adopt me, I just don’t know why. I was so new to the outside world that I didn’t know where to start.”

“So then you met Jinggo?”

“No, not yet. At first I tried to live my own life and try to get by. I’ve done loads of odd jobs and all, but it could only feed me, not shelter me. I slept wherever I can sleep, bathed and cleaned myself wherever I can find clean water, ate whatever my poor salary could afford to buy and such. I practically lived in the streets. Then one night, I witnessed a gang trying to take protection money from an old man. I tried to stop them but they beat me into a pulp. I was badly wounded and was close to unconsciousness when I heard a loud gunshot and the incoming blows leaving me one by one. I opened my eyes and there he was, holding his hand out to me and asking if I was alright, and I tell you, I almost thought that God has sent an angel to rescue me. He took me to the hospital and paid my medical bills for me. I was in debt with him since. I asked if there was anything I could repay him and he offered me a job as a partner in his private detective agency.”

“He sounds like the great Samaritan and all. So you’re telling me that you’re just feeling grateful to him and that’s why you followed him around all day?” Dee wrinkled his nose at upon hearing the story. “You have just got to be kidding me! That’s not love at all!”

“No, no, there’s more to this than just gratitude,” Joned said hurriedly. “I was his partner for quite a while and we did hire another helper named Kido into our agency. He was running away from his multimillionaire father because he didn’t want to live the life of ‘captivity’ and chose to work in our agency. He was the one to make me realize that my feelings towards Jinggo were more than just mere gratitude. It was that fateful day when our country was hit by the most terrible scandal of all. Do you remember the internal war between the president and the vice-president?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it before,” Dee recalled the news he watched about 5 months ago. “What about that?”

“Well, we were hired to become the vice-president’s bodyguards. Somehow, the president came up with some sort of a device and put it into Kido’s brain, making Kido turn against us. He was completely brainwashed and he was ordered to kill the vice-president. We fought really hard to both stop him from killing and bring him back to reality, but he was in too deep. He fired the shot and I instinctively shielded the vice-president. But that was when I realized that Jinggo jumped over and shielded me. He was hit at a very critical spot and was going down fast. He would’ve not been able to make it into the hospital if the paramedics didn’t do the bullet extraction and the blood transfusion in the ambulance. Since then I knew I would never live another day without Jinggo around.”

“Ooh, now’s that’s interesting,” Dee complimented. “What happened to that Kido boy?”

“The doctors couldn’t cure him. He was too brainwashed and at the nick of time when he realized that he had fired the shot to his boss, he snapped. The device put in his brain malfunctioned and the docs couldn’t take out—it was too deep into his brain. He became a vegetable and we had to send him back home to his multimillionaire father. You can say that he had finally got his son back.”

“No wonder he had that blank reaction…” Dee muttered to himself before looking up at Joned. “So, uh, does Jinggo know about you liking him?” Dee tried to ask him, even though he could tell from Joned’s face that he didn’t. As expected, he shook his head.

“No…I can’t tell him that. He’ll throw me out of the team. He looks like a straight guy and he totally acts like a straight guy. He would never tolerate someone of my ‘kind’. And if he found out that you and Ryo are like my ‘kind’, he’ll definitely be so sorry that he had taken my advice to come here.”

Dee rolled his eyes and sighed, “You didn’t even try, darn it! Don’t you see? You’ve been trying so hard to catch his attention and make him like you, but you’re just not doing it right! You made it as if it was obvious but you can’t see that it wasn’t obvious to him at all. Your ways doesn’t work! You gotta try another approach! He’s not going to see it if you keep using the same way!”

“Then what do you suggest I should do?” Joned asked, curious.

“Tell him,” Dee said solemnly. “Tell it directly to his face. That’s the only thing that Jinggo will ever get the message into his head. The way to make him see things your way is to shoot it directly into his face. That should make him through. Just like I did with Ryo, and look how happy we are together.”

Joned stared at the grinning Dee for a while before replying, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I suppose I am a little too old to be beating about the bush when I’m supposed to be barging through it.”

“Now that’s the spirit!” Dee replied, chucking Joned’s chin playfully.

“One thing though…how do I exactly tell him to his face?”

“So that’s why you’re acting so strange just now! You like him, don’t you?”

Ryo and Jinggo had finally come out of the toilet and were in the lobby where Jinggo finally let go everything that was bottled up in his heart. Thankfully Ryo was a great listener.

“I just can’t handle it anymore,” Jinggo said between tears. “I mean, I’ve been a goody-good figure all my life and I want Joned to like me that way. Joned has always liked me like this—cool, suave, street-smart, knows everything, cold and unconcerned. That’s what he liked in me! I’m putting up this kind of figure because I want to impress him! Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

“Not if he doesn’t know that you’re doing this for him,” Ryo replied. “You never told him you liked him, did you?”

“No…” Jinggo looked down at his shoes. “I…I want so much for him to hold me in his arms and take me, claim me and control me, just for once. I want him to be in charge over me just for once. I…I want my body to be his forever. I know, it might sound crazy for a tall, manly guy to be, like you said, the uke…but…I…”

“Don’t worry, everything will pull through,” Ryo said as he handed him another tissue paper. “We’ll figure out a way. Just leave it to me and Dee. Why don’t you go and visit Joned now? I’m sure he’s wondering where you are now.”

Jinggo nodded and, after blowing his nose, steadied himself and made his face into the ever familiar cold and cool expression before walking side by side with Ryo towards Room 601. As soon as he entered the room, Dee came out and took Ryo to another corner outside the ward, leaving the Asian recruits alone.

“I just got the scoop of the century!” Dee said excitedly.

“So did I! My gosh, we’re actually having a mission we can actually relate and have fun on!” Ryo admitted, his face flushing red in gladness.

“Talk it over a nice hot cup of latte?”

“Sure!”

The Art of Seduction-Chp3

Ryo, Dee and our Asian recruits hid out of sight as they gained closer and closer towards the old abandoned warehouse near an old unused jetty really far from New York City. They prepared themselves with their guns and were waiting for Dee, who was ahead of them all, to give the cue to attack.

The foursome has been catching up with the case of smuggled drugs and have been talking and asking a lot of people who might be involved with this case on any information about it. Most of them weren’t too cooperative and refused to talk even though they were given the hard way. They also did a lot of secret investigating and following the suspect Stanley Blue close to his heels but they were still unable to get anything out of him. It was only recently that Ryo and Dee were woken up in the middle of the night by Jinggo and Joned ringing the door bell. Dee was forced out of the bed and was sent to answer it.

“Who is it?” Dee asked groggily. His sleepy eyes came into focus and saw that it was the tall Jinggo and the short Joned standing at the door. Without waiting to be asked in, they dashed in quickly and slammed the door shut, as if trying to block out anyone who might be chasing them. Dee was wide awake now when he asked, “Do you guys know what time it is? What are you guys doing here?”

“Got any place that’s more private than the doorway?” Joned looked frantically around, looking more panicked than his partner Jinggo as usual. “You got any place where no can ever hear us?”

“We’ve got a clue about Stanley Blue,” Jinggo replied before Dee could even ask the question. Joned’s panicky commotion had brought Ryo out of his slumber land and soon, they were all in the study room talking about the duo’s find. It turned out that our daredevils Jinggo and Joned actually followed Stanley Blue and his crew to a restaurant and when the villain was about to finish his dinner, they quickly rushed to the parking lot and snuck into the villain’s trunk, hitching a ride all the way into Stanley Blue’s territory and were able to eavesdrop on Stanley Blue’s conversation with another man who called himself Lionel Maltose and were striking a deal on getting the latest batch of coke. When they have heard enough and was about to get away from there, they were almost mauled by Stanley Blue’s Alsatian dogs—5 of them altogether! They were lucky that they climbed out of the gate just in the nick of time before the guards came out to see who it was that aroused the dogs.

“You guys are the most suicidal recruits I’ve ever seen!” Ryo said in horror. “You could’ve been caught, or worse, killed!”

“Now that’s what I call serious police business!” Dee, on the other hand, was impressed. “Way to go, guys! We don’t even get this close into investigating a case before. You’re earning credits as you go!”

“Well, that’s what we do when we were working as private detectives back home!” Joned said proudly. Jinggo remained silent, but his very slightly curled lips showed that he was proud of his job well done.

So there they were at the abandoned warehouse, bracing themselves for any incoming threat. After seeing that everything is coastal clear, Dee signaled them to move. Quickly, they rushed into the warehouse as soundlessly as possible and crouched behind a large oil tank, waiting for their next cue to move.

Soon, the foursome heard the sound of an incoming car, almost like a Volkswagen type of car engine. They ducked out of sight and peered from the edges of the tank. A few moments later, the person they were waiting for has entered the building—Stanley Blue, in the flesh. His face matched the description of the picture in his files: sallow skin, long unkempt hair and a pair of striking copper-brown eyes, almost like a hawk. Dee grinned.

“Yup, that’s our man alright. Let’s see what plans they have next.”

After looking left and right to check if he was safe and secure, Stanley Blue gestured one of his men to go to the jetty to “check and see if the coke has arrived”. The man nodded and went off with a thrice. Dee, using eye contact, gestured Jinggo and Joned to check it out while they stay there and keep watch. Jinggo and Joned nodded and slinked their way out of the warehouse and out into the jetty, following the man’s trail.

While the Asian recruits went out to check out on things, Ryo and Dee remained in the warehouse to see if there were any progress on this deal and to see if there were any loose ends they could step in without having to alert them or call for backup. About a few minutes later, another sound of an incoming car was heard, probably a Volvo. They hid out of sight again. When they peeked out of their tanks, they saw a man with the darkest hair you’ve ever seen and a silver streak in the middle. He had a pair of beetle eyes but they were as cold as dark tunnels. He was followed by another man who had silver blonde hair and gray unkind eyes. A few more men in dark suits tailed behind them.

“Ah, my favourite customers,” Ryo quickly turned on the tape recorder he had brought along to gather evidence as soon as Stanley Blue started talking. “Mr. Lionel Maltose and Mr. Simon Sez. Welcome to our ritual gathering.”

“Cut the chase, Blue,” the silver-streaked hair man called Mr. Simon Sez (I know, stupid name, but I was in a funny mood) said coldly. “Where is the coke? You gotta deliver the dirty drugs before you can get the clean money.”

“Relax, Simon, no need to rush,” Stanley replied coolly. “You’ll get the coke. I’ve called my men to check it out. They’ll bring it in soon. While we wait, why don’t we have a cool drink of real Coke, hmm?”

“I wonder how are Jinggo and Joned doing right now,” Ryo whispered to Dee’s ear while he took out his mini camera and took some pictures of Stanley and the other men Lionel Maltose and Simon Sez. Dee nodded in agreement.

Good question, ‘coz while the Dynamic Duo are spying at their target, Jinggo and Joned were having a bigger target at hand—waiting for the boat that carries the coke to arrive and waiting for the chance to capture them red-handed. They sat huddled together behind a mouldy crate and waited for the right moment.

Soon, the sound of water splashing was heard. They craned their necks to see who was coming before they stared in awe—the coke deliverer was actually coming to the jetty rowing a small boat which was practically ignorable to other people’s eyes. The person rowing the boat was also wearing a fishing outfit and was carrying fishing gear to make him look like he was out on a typical night fishing. A practically foolproof disguise!

As he rowed closer and closer towards the jetty, Stanley’s man walked up to the end of the jetty and waited. As soon as the guy reaches the jetty, he opened the cold thermos container which was supposedly filled with fish. It was, until the guy poured out the fish and opened the bottom of the thermos container and poured out its contents. Packets upon packets of white powder came showering out of the container. Stanley’s man took one of the packets, opened it and tasted it from the tip of his little finger. He nodded and muttered, “You’re clear.”

“Where’s my dough? You said there’s something in it for me if I do the job well,” the man on the boat demanded.

“Sure,” Stanley’s man replied as he pulled out a gun quicker than you can say “Look out!” He aimed it at the man’s forehead and said, “Just right here.”

BANG!!! The fire was shot. The man immediately fell motionless onto the floor of the boat. He acted quickly. First he threw in the fishes and anything else heavy into the thermos container, then got a rope from the boat and tied it to one of the dead man’s leg. Later he threw away everything else that was in the boat and capsized it before shoving it out into the vast open sea. Jinggo and Joned stared in awe.

“No wonder the cops here couldn’t find any evidence against them!” Joned hissed excitedly. “They practically clean up after themselves!”

“Looks like they’re not so simple after all,” Jinggo whispered. “Come on, let’s go get him before he rushes off to deliver the goods to that Stanley guy.”

With that, Jinggo took his partner by the wrist and rushed quickly towards the man who was stuffing all the packets of coke into a briefcase. It was two against one, so within a matter of minutes, Jinggo and Joned had apprehended the man and had the briefcase in their possession.

Inside the warehouse, everyone else heard the gunshot but didn’t seem to move. It seemed as if they were used to that kind of gunshot. Ryo and Dee looked at each other with mixed feelings—what was that gunshot? Are Jinggo and Joned OK out there? Has anything happened to the duo? Stanley heard the gunshot too. He smiled as if it was all too familiar for him and said, “Ah, our shipment has arrived.”

“Freeze!!! Nobody moves!!! This is the police!!!”

Ryo and Dee practically wanted to topple down to the floor when they heard their new recruits barging into the warehouse and Joned shouting like he has brought the end of the world onto Earth. They have practically blown their cover. There’s no use hiding now. Ryo and Dee came out of their hiding place and aimed their guns at the surprised lot of criminals. Simon Sez glared at Lionel Maltose and Stanley Blue venomously.

“You double-crossed me, you son of a…”

“We didn’t do it! Honest! We had no idea they’re here!” Stanley replied, his voice steady but his face tense with shock.

“Alright, guys,” Dee said as he moved towards the recruits. “We’ve got you now, Stanley. There’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. We’ve got pictures and a recording of your conversation. You can’t wipe that evidence clean now.”

“Yeah, and we’ve got your goods too!” Joned said as he held up the briefcase of coke for them to see.
“We’ve called for backup and they’ll be arriving soon. You can’t escape now,” Jinggo said, his cold eyes as if bearing into the minds of those criminal who were trapped like rats.

“Who do you call for backup?” Ryo whispered, not taking his eyes away from the criminals.

“No one,” Joned replied sheepishly. “It was just a bluff. We thought you called.”

“You mean to tell me no one has called for backup yet?!” Dee hissed.

“Nope,” Jinggo replied briefly, his face remained cold and nonchalant.

“Great, just great! How are we—Yagh!!”

Dee’s complaint was cut short when someone behind the three main criminals took out his gun and shot at them, barely missing inches from Dee’s shoes. Immediately, the whole warehouse became a shooting frenzy. Fires were shot everywhere and they scattered around like ants. The foursome had to give chase, firing shots as they went. Fighting as in butt-kicking and face-punching assured. In the midst of all the commotion and confusion, Ryo managed to finally call the NYPD HQ for backup. About a few minutes later, backup came and the whole place was surrounded. The criminals were finally apprehended.

“Good work, everyone!” the inspector had actually took the liberty to come along to this heist and was congratulating the Dynamic Duo Ryo and Dee. “It took us almost years to try and catch these criminals red-handed. How did you guys manage?”

“Well, we can’t take all the credit,” Ryo said. “We had a little help.”

“Yeah, and it was those two cool Asian recruits!” Dee agreed with a thumbs-up.

“Them?” the inspector was slightly surprised. “But where are they?”

That was when the Dynamic Duo realized that their recruits were missing. They went back into the warehouse to look for them. They searched the whole area until they reached a secluded end of the building. They were shocked to find that Jinggo was sitting motionless on the solid ground, his dark eyes going blank as he cradled Joned’s head that was lying on his lap. He had a serious gunshot wound on his gut and was bleeding terribly. There were a few bruises here and there on both Jinggo and Joned’s body but those weren’t the issue. The issue was that Joned was seriously hurt and needed medical attention.

“Jinggo! What are you doing here?!” Ryo asked, horrified at that sight. “Why didn’t you carry him out and ask for help? What you are you doing sitting around here?”

“Hey, we need an ambulance here ASAP!!!” Dee yelled out loud at his fellow colleagues that were nearby. One of them quickly rushed outside to his car to radio in for an ambulance. Ryo went over to Jinggo to see if he was OK, because despite the huge commotion about him, what with Dee shouting impatiently for the ambulance and the paramedics to hurry up and the sound of the ambulance and the police car sirens blaring, Jinggo hadn’t moved an inch.

“Jinggo? Are you alright? Are you OK?” Ryo tried to shake Jinggo in vain. “Jinggo, Joned’s alright. He’s going to be alright. The paramedics are here. He’s still alive, Jinggo, don’t worry. Jinggo…?”

Realizing that he wasn’t going to move at all, Ryo called for Dee and, together, tried to pull him up to his feet. He didn’t fight it. He just let them do whatever they want. He showed no indication of reacting to anything of any kind, not even when the inspector tried to thank him for his cooperation. His eyes trailed over towards Joned who was slipped on the breathing mask and was carried into the ambulance before driving off. He hadn’t uttered a word.

And that’s what scared Ryo and Dee.

They had never seen a blanker pair of eyes than this.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Art of Seduction-Chp2

“Ohayo! Mr. Kilimano? Mr. Polar? Rise and shine, fellas!”

Ryo was at the new recruits’ door, calling them to come out for their reporting in to their superior. He heard a muffled yell from Joned about the door being unlocked and he let himself in.

A strong whiff of pancakes filled the air as Ryo entered their humble home. Dee, who came in later after his reasonable dress-up, was the first to exclaim, “Woah! Who’s making breakfast? This smells heavenly!”

“It’s me!” Joned called from inside the kitchen. “We Asians often practice the ‘Breakfast is the most important of the day’ policy. Come on in and join us if you want.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Dee replied, but Ryo was hesitant.

“Are you sure? I mean, it’s not polite for us to let you make breakfast for us. We were thinking of taking you guys out for coffee or…”

“There’s plenty for everyone,” Jinggo replied, coming down the stairs in his cold, cool appearance, as always. Ryo and Dee unconsciously shrank back at his presence—they still need to get used to this one.

Soon, Ryo and Dee found themselves sitting in the dining room enjoying dinner together with their recruits. Joned has made pancakes and sunny side-up eggs. He chattered merrily between mouthfuls to Ryo and Dee in his good-natured way while Jinggo ate in silence, reading his newspaper. Ryo and Dee couldn’t help looking at each other in awkwardness as how different these two characters can be but still were able to stay together as a team.

“So, uh, boys,” Ryo tried to make conversation with Jinggo, who was buried in his newspaper. “It must be hard for you to leave your loved ones there at Asia and come all the way down here. I mean, did your girlfriends say anything about you guys coming here?”

Jinggo and Joned looked as if they were going to choke in their coffee and pancakes, although Jinggo tried not to show it in an obvious way. Joned managed to swallow his eggs before replying, “Oh no, we’re…we’re single. No strings attached.”

Dee looked at Ryo with an I-told-you-so look, which resulted into an annoyed I-get-the-point glance from Ryo. Dee turned to Jinggo and said, “Well, looks like you guys don’t have to worry about cheating on someone. We have great gals here in New York, and I’m sure you’ll find them very attractive. Or should I say, they’ll find you very attractive.”

Ryo gave a slight kick at Dee’s shin when he noticed that Joned was having a dark look on his face. Dee noticed and, realizing that he was out of ideas and not too good in talking his way out of a situation, glanced at Ryo to try and change the subject. Ryo got the cue.

“Well, I’m quite stuffed now. If you allow me to help you with the dishes, Joned, we might make it to the NYPD in time.”

The breakfast adjourned willingly. Ryo helped Joned wash the dishes while Dee told Jinggo what he and Joned might expect the inspector to say to them. After doing the dishes and double-checking to see if anything was forgotten, Jinggo and Joned were soon in Dee’s car and were on their way to the NYPD.

At the NYPD, Jinggo and Joned reported to the inspector’s office and as expected, they were given a respectably warm welcome. Obviously, the inspector wanted the new recruits to have a good word or two about the police department. He gave them their recruit badges and wished the best of luck and happy cooperation between them and our Dynamic Duo. Their first job was to assist Ryo and Dee in investigating a case of smuggled drugs done by one of the city’s most wanted criminals. The new recruits followed Ryo and Dee into their desks to check out the case.

“Who’s this critter about?” Joned asked, looking at the picture of a man with sallow skin, long unkempt hair and a pair of striking copper-brown eyes, almost like a hawk.

“This man here is Stanley Blue, one of the most wanted criminals in our list,” Ryo replied. “He was wanted—or to put it a little lightly, suspected—of a number of illegal deals and that includes smuggling drugs, weapons, banned food products and merchandise and also smuggling in female immigrants from other poor countries and sell them as slaves or as PRO. A very, very nasty kind of guy.”

“You said that he was suspected of all these offences,” Jinggo said as he rubbed his chin and ran his eyes through the man’s file. “Yet he’s the most wanted criminal. Why do you put in the term ‘suspected’?”

“That’s because although we knew that he was the one behind all these offences,” Dee said grudgingly, “we cannot find proof of any kind and we still couldn’t pinpoint out how was he able to do all these crimes without leaving a single evidence. You know the rules, boys. We cannot arrest them unless we have at least one proof to bring him down. He practically cleans up after doing all the dirty work; we can never catch him in the act.”

“Hmm…” Jinggo had that cold, contemplating face as he stared long and hard at Stanley Blue’s file. Joned was looking at him with the have-you-figured-something-out question written all over his face. Ryo and Dee watched Jinggo and Joned with fascination. They were really such a mismatched pair: one who tries hard to get his attention while the other wasn’t even looking at him (or pretending not to) at all. Dee could see that Joned was a persistent person. He knew that his partner was practically ignoring the lights out of him and yet he still tries without giving up.

While the team tried to discuss and put out an analysis of what to do with this case and where to start, the secretary of the NYPD came towards their desks with a tray of coffee. Jinggo was still staring intently at the file when the secretary handed him his coffee and when he looked up to take it, she was taken aback by his coolness in his eyes so much that she went butterfingers all over. She spilt the hot coffee onto Jinggo’s vest and he let out a startled small cry.

“Oh dear! Oh dear, I am so sorry! I don’t know what got into me!” the secretary apologized profusely. Jinggo waved it away coolly, muttering something about being alright.

“Looks like someone has a little crush on the new Asian recruit!” one of the police called out of the blue. The secretary went into a state of denial. Ryo and Dee stole a glance at their recruits. Ryo saw a jealous, dark yet not so conspicuous look only a gay like him could see. Dee noticed the same look on Jinggo’s face, but it was a leveled one and seemed more like embarrassment and awkwardness than dark.

“Excuse me,” Jinggo said briefly before moving towards the direction of the toilet. Ryo waited a minute before following suite. Dee let out a sigh and patted Joned’s shoulder.

“Don’t you mind those guys, Joned. There are loads of crazy monkeys around here and this is only your first day. Just ignore them.”

“Yeah…” Joned’s voice trailed away, his eyes fixed on the disappearing Jinggo.

Dee walked after Jinggo, wanting to help him out with the coffee stain and to tell him that this happens everyday and that there is nothing for him to worry about. He knows how it feels to get all embarrassed and stuff on the first day of the job. When he reached the toilet, he saw that only one of the cubicles was closed, so that means there’s no one else to bother when he and Jinggo have a get-to-know-each-other talk.

As he rose up his hand to knock the cubicle door, he thought he heard something. He pressed his ear onto the door slowly to listen to the sound. His eyes widened in surprise as he heard that it was sounds of sobbing. There a few muttered words between sobs and Ryo had to strain hard to hear what he was saying.

“I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean for this to happen…The only one I love is you…I’m so sorry…”

The Art of Seduction-Chp1

Started: 9-17-03 Completed: 10-26-03

THE ART OF SEDUCTION

“New recruits?”

Ryo and Dee, who were called in to see their superior, were standing with surprised looks on their faces in front of him when the Big Guy announced this news to them. They looked at each other questioningly, thinking that one of them had an explanation to all this, but none of them did.

“Don’t look too alarmed,” the inspector said as he took out two files for them to read. “They have just been undergoing an exchange squad course our department is having right now. Another two of our men will be taking their place in Asia. Take it like an exchange student kind of thing. You two are assigned to recruit and let them know the ways of our rules and work here. I have heard that they are one of the best in their hometown.”

Ryo and Dee took a file each and opened it to read. Their eyes lit up at upon looking at the pictures on the files and their resume.

“Jinggo Kilimano,” Ryo read his file. “25 years old, 7 feet 1 inch. Past experiences: private detective for about 4 years before making it into the police force under recommendation of Chief Officer Hiro. Served the force since then. Solved many cases involving anything ranging from rapes to robberies to evil villain conspiracy. Awarded with a number of medals and certificates. Well, I can see that he is good.”

“Joned Polar,” Dee read his. “22 years old, 4 feet 6 inches. Past experiences: partner at work when Jinggo was a private detective. Went in together with him into the police force and barely scratched the tests. Became Jinggo’s partner at work ever since. Also had his share of work and awards like Jinggo,” he lowered his voice for only Ryo to hear, “They both sound almost like us, don’t they?”

“They are expected to come here tomorrow evening at about 6 p.m. You boys have to go there and meet them and show them around town. Their accommodation has been set to be just right next to your house, Dee, so that you can keep an eye on him and it would be easier for them to come here in the department as you can drive them here.”

Ryo and Dee stole another glance at each other. It seemed as if their superior had already intended to let these two new recruits revolve around their lives.

“That’ll be all, boys. Remember, I expect you to make them feel at home and do their job well. They’ll be here for the next 2 ½ years, so bear with it even if you don’t like them. This exchange course is part of their training and I would hate to see them going back to their hometown telling their police department that we don’t provide good training for foreign recruits.”

“Yes, sir!!” Ryo and Dee saluted before leaving the inspector’s office, taking the files with them. As soon as the day ended, the two lovers walked into their car and opened the file again to check the new recruits out.

“This Jinggo guy looks more like an outlaw than an officer,” Ryo commented. “I think he’s better off being his private detective than let him mess around with the police business.”

“Yeah, and I personally think that this Joned is more of a rookie kind,” Dee agreed as he eyed Joned’s resume. “I don’t expect him to have any abilities in him to qualify for the police force, unless he sucked up on his Jinggo here to get him into the force without question.”

“Well, we’ll never know for sure until we actually get to see them,” Ryo closed the file with a huff. “What time did the boss said we have to meet them? 6 p.m. tomorrow, right?”

“Yup, and I have a serious feeling that they would be quite an interesting pair we’ll be working with.”

“You and your sixth sense,” Ryo sighed in defeat.

“Well, that’s what got me to believe that you will love me, isn’t it?” Dee asked before he laid his lips on his blonde half-Japanese lover. As expected, they kissed as if they would never break away from each other.

Ryo and Dee shared a bag of potato chips as they sat there waiting for the new recruits. Dee looked up to check out if the plane from Asia has landed. Not yet. Only the sign that bears the word ‘CONFIRMED’ was shown on the list of arrivals on the TV screen. Ryo let out a small tired sigh as he turned back to his novel he brought along to read. Dee grumbled and looked at his watch.
“When are they coming? I’m getting impatient here!”

“Well, it was you yourself who wanted to come early so as not to give a ‘bad impression’,” Ryo replied calmly, not looking up from his book. “You’ll just have to wait like everybody else.”

“If they don’t show up within the next few minutes, I’m outta here! you wait for them yourself!”

As if complying with his demand, a ding was heard and the CONFIRMED sign changed to the word LANDED. Dee made a glad ‘yes’ motion and ran towards the arrival gate. Ryo shook his head helplessly and followed suite. Always the impatient one.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, they saw the people they were waiting for. A really tall man followed by another short teenager that fitted the photographs’ description appeared and they went over to get their luggage before coming out of the arrival gate to find Ryo and Dee. It was a good thing that Dee decided to write a small banner bearing the names JINGGO & JONED to the airport or those Asian people would be looking forever.

Ryo and Dee had a good look at these new recruits whom they were going be working with for the next 2 ½ years. Jinggo Kilimano stood tall, a real 7 feet 1 inch guy with the darkest eyes they had ever seen. There is a hint of coolness in him, yet there was something in him that made him look cute too at the same time. His raven-black hair was cut to form the shape of his head and he had sideburns and a small tail. He was muscular and of strong built and his right eyebrow was slightly lower than his left, making him look like he only had one eye. He was wearing a singlet and a pair of fashionably torn jeans, revealing a sort of tattoo on his right shoulder.

Joned Polar, on the other hand, was short and stood just above Jinggo’s elbow level. He wore his bandanna across his head, revealing his long brown hair. It was obvious that he dyed his hair because Ryo noticed at the end of his hair was black. His eyes were larger than Jinggo and he seemed to have no eyebrows. Although he wasn’t, his eyes looked angry. They found it hard to believe that a 22-year-old man would look so young, like a 15-year-old teenager.

“Welcome to our country, Mr. Kilimano and Mr. Polar,” Ryo, the ever courteous one held out his hand to shake with the Asian recruits. “My name is Ryo and this is Dee, and we will be recruiting you and be at your service throughout your training here.”

“Glad to meet you guys in person at last,” Dee offered his hand too. Jinggo took it coolly while Joned shook their hands with much enthusiasm.

“I am so thrilled to be here in a foreign country! I have never been out of our country before, and it wasn’t easy for me to coax this hard-headed Jinggo to take this course,” Joned chattered all the way to Dee’s car. “It’ll earn us more credit for our record, you know, and I’m sure this extra credit would also do some good to your two colleagues. They’ve already reached our station yesterday afternoon and…”

“Joned, don’t get carried away,” Jinggo’s sudden authoritative voice silenced the enthusiastic little Joned. Ryo and Dee were quite taken aback by Jinggo; looks like they were going to be utmost entertained by this pair.

The rest of the day was spent by giving them a brief tour around the city. Joned practically enjoyed himself with all the sightseeing and Jinggo took in everything coolly with some brief compliments or remarks. It was really tough for Ryo and Dee to impress this tall, cold man but Joned’s carefree and jolly attitude compensated with that.

After the tour, Dee drove them to their home. It was a double-storey, moderately furnished house with a small front yard and back yard to match. They helped them with the luggage and showed them around the house. Jinggo nodded Dee’s introductions away and Joned practically walked around the whole house admiring everything there is in store for him. Ryo helped them to put their luggage in their bedroom.

“Thank you, Ryo,” Jinggo immediately addressed him by his name and stopped him from helping them unpack. “I’ll take it from here. I won’t be bothering you until tomorrow morning.”

“Right,” Ryo said. “Well, we’ll be seeing you tomorrow so that you may report to our inspector. Dee will be driving.”

Jinggo nodded. Joned barged in and hollered, “Jinggo! You should check out the living room! It’s the bomb! Come on!!”

“Later, Joned. We have to unpack.” Again, Jinggo’s authoritative voice tamed the wild side of his partner. Ryo glided awkwardly out of the room, putting out a forced friendly smile.

“Well, I guess we’ll be going then. If you need anything, just come over to our house next door or call us. I’m leaving our home number and our cell phone number right here.”

Ryo then walked as quickly as possible towards Dee’s home which he and Dee shared together ever since they started going steady. Dee had already parked the car into the garage and was waiting for him to come home. As soon as they were inside the house, Ryo tugged slightly at Dee’s sleeve.
“I don’t think I like that Jinggo guy. His partner Joned was OK, but that Jinggo gives me the creeps.”

“I don’t blame him,” Dee said with a sigh, relieved that he was not in the presence of the tall, cold guy. “What with the lead figure he had to keep and the good impression he had to show in front of everyone else, he had made his coldness a habit.”

“What do you mean?” Ryo asked, questioned.

“He is suppressing his feelings. He wanted so much to make a good impression on us as a calm, collected guy so that we might give him a good word or two to his superiors and he wanted so much to succeed in this training that he had made his cold attitude and coolness a permanent mark on his heart. Not that it can’t be undone.”

“But Joned said that he didn’t want to…”

“That’s what that Jinggo guy wants the Joned shorty to think. I told you, he’s suppressing his true feelings. I bet you a thousand bucks that his true feelings are just dying to get out,” Dee said in an as-a-matter-of-fact way.

“How do you know all this?” Ryo asked.

“I didn’t become a police and be trained to read the truth and lies on questioned people for nothing, did I? and I’ve also found one thing that links the similarity between them and us.”

“What is it?” Ryo was interested.

“They both love each other, but they both are unable to confess it to each other and they are not sure if the other loves them.”

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Who's My Daddy?-Chp Finale

CHAPTER FINALE: WHO'S THE DADDY NOW?

The war was over. Victory had finally been achieved. As soon as Harry delivered the deathly blow on Lord Voldemort, news of his death spread like wildfire. Big major headlines of Voldemort’s death made it into every newspaper and magazine ever existed in the wizarding world. As soon as Hogwarts reopened, the whole school, together with the Ministry of Magic, celebrated the end of a long war and a new beginning of the wizarding world along with the students and their families present. The Ministry declared the death day of Voldemort as Independence Day. Many people from all different countries in the wizarding world celebrated the great day like the time they celebrated the defeat of Voldemort by the Boy Who Lived, only this time, it was more open and more joyous than before.

Of course, the heroes behind the victory were not forgotten. Special titles were given to Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Sirius-Kiaran Featherworth and Harry James Potter, who got the best title of all as Grand Wizard, Saviour of Wizards and Witches. Many toasted to their names and their contribution and were sure to remember them for years to come. The Weasley family, Draco’s mother Narcissa and Hermione’s Muggle parents who were there felt ultimately proud that their children were being revered as heroes. Now, not only Harry was being idolized by fans all over the world.

That didn’t mean anything to Harry. In fact, while they were still celebrating and talking about the defeat of Voldemort, Harry sneaked off and walked all the way towards the Forbidden Forest, leaving Ron, Hermione and Draco to boast about how they single-handedly defeated the Death Eaters and rescued all the innocent babies from their grasp. After killing Voldemort, Albus and the professors helped Harry give Naga a proper burial. Harry had chosen a spot deep in the forest where no one would think of looking and buried Naga there. He wanted the grave to be surrounded by bushes of roses and lilies and be visible to only the people he wished them to see, namely Albus and the professors and his best friends. Reporters still asked about who the father of his child was, but Albus took care of the problem by saying that the father was a Death Eater who raped him under Voldemort’s orders and that he had confessed his act before being given the Kiss. It certainly raised a few eyebrows and a chain of pity by the public but Harry didn’t care anymore. He was just glad the whole ordeal was over.

Harry passed by a few centaurs quietly before reaching to the grave where Naga was buried. On the tombstone it bore the words ALBERTO ALEXI ZEPHYR JANPHEN CANINUS GENERUS POTTER a.k.a. COOKIE, SON OF HARRY JAMES POTTER WHO LIVED & DIED IN PEACE, just as he requested Albus to conjure up. As he knelt on the soft earth attending to the roses and lilies, memories of Cookie came back to him. They were all so clear—from the day he found himself pregnant to the day he gave birth under the help of Winnie Dumbledore to the day he had to kill him with his wand. His heart ached with sorrow and guilt at the thought of them all. So much time he had with him while he was pregnant yet so little he appreciated till the very last minute. Warm tears began to flow out of his eyes. He made no attempt to stop them.

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming his way. He spun round and saw a tall, dark figure slowly moving towards him. He couldn’t see his face at first because the figure’s back was facing the light, but as soon as he came within his eyesight range, he immediately recognized the face that belonged to the figure.

“Are you alright?”

Harry wailed as he ran into the figure’s arms.

--:--

“Push, Harry! Push!”

Harry was back at St. Mungo maternity ward coached by Winnie Dumbledore and her fellow medi-colleagues, heavily pregnant and heavily breathing as he tried to push his baby twins out of him. This time, he wasn’t alone with only Winnie for company. His husband was there to hold his hand and help him through the birth.

Much have changed after the death of Voldemort. Ron and Hermione resumed their jobs in the Ministry, but they were awarded with a much higher position than their current occupation. Just last fall, Harry had attended their wedding, but not before finding out that Hermione was pregnant with Ron’s daughter. Draco was awarded to Head Auror and led his team with full tenacity and vigilance. He and Harry eventually became friends, and would occasionally have tea together to chat about old times. He would sometimes join Harry, Ron and Hermione whenever they wanted to just hang out, and had his share of experiencing the Muggle life once in a while.

Sirius finally found a new body to possess. Albus Dumbledore had helped him locate someone who had recently died young somewhere in another country and told Sirius about it as soon as he received the news. They made sure that this person had no strings attached and had lived such a simple, normal life that no one would even miss him dying before Sirius happily left Kiaran Featherworth’s body and took him to possession. Sirius did a few face-altering changes towards his new body to make it as similar as his original Sirius looks as possible and asked Remus to marry him the following year. Remus gladly accepted and soon moved into Grimmauld’s Place with Sirius where they ‘lived happily ever after’.

After waking up from his long spiritual hibernation, Kiaran Featherworth was rather surprised at his sudden promotion to become Head Auror alongside with Draco Malfoy since he couldn’t remember anything about saving Hogwarts or fighting Death Eaters, but Draco convinced him that he had a blow to his head during the battle, resulting to amnesia and told him to play along with whatever was showered at him. He eventually did and soon became very close with Draco throughout their missions as Aurors. Rumour has it that Draco and Kiaran had started dating.

The day Harry threw himself into the stranger’s arms was the day that brought their relationship to the next level. After the mourning, Harry had decided to take the job as a DADA professor and teach the students everything he knew about the Dark Arts. He and the stranger would occasionally meet up for a drink and small talk, but it usually ended up in wild, hot and saucy sex. Harry had traumatized his female parts so badly during the war that his hermaphrodite state was irreversible, but he didn’t care anymore. All he cared was that he honestly loved the stranger too much to leave him and that the stranger loved him for who he was and not what he was. One night, after a long and passionate unadulterated sex during a batch of students’ graduation night, Harry revealed to the stranger that he was pregnant with his child. The stranger proposed to him that very minute, and by two months later, the stranger became his husband.

“It’s OK, Harry. I’m right here,” his husband coaxed as he kissed his sweaty forehead.

“I hate you…!” Harry whined as he clutched his hand harder.

“Not as much as I will hate you if you don’t get our twins out. You can do it. I’m here for you.”

Harry took a deep breath and pushed. The familiar feeling of being ripped into half came in folds as he strained with all his might to push out the babies. The feeling of warm blood on his thighs and cold sweat all over his body was no stranger to him. He had been through this before, but it was worse, being that it wasn’t just one child he was trying to get out, but two. He screamed out his husband’s name as he bore down as hard as he could.

“I see the head. I see the head. Keep going,” the doctor coached as he reached over to hold the lump between Harry’s legs.

“Oh God…Oh God…It hurts…!”

“It’s alright. It’s alright. It’ll be all over soon. Keep going.”

Harry grabbed his husband’s sleeve and pushed, threatening to tear it. His husband sat him up a little and held him close to his chest, coaxing him and urging him to keep going. Harry let out scream after scream as he put all his strength into getting the babies out.

“Almost there, Harry,” Winnie said. “You’re almost there.”

He could feel it. He could tell from the pain that the doctor had got the shoulders out. No sooner he felt the rest of the baby being pulled out than he felt another lump between his legs painfully edging its way out of him. Harry cried, his voice echoing down the entire maternity ward.

“OH GOD! HELP ME! IT HURTS! OWW! IT HURTS…!”

“Shh,” his husband rocked him in his arms. “You just got one out. It’s just the other one coming, that’s all.”

“DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT! YOU BASTARD, I HATE YOU!”

“Just keep pushing. I’m right here.”

“I hate you…!”

“No, you don’t hate me, Harry. Now push!”

Harry lunged forward and bit his husband on the shoulder, bearing down hard. His husband didn’t do anything to stop him. He just let him bite as Harry continued to push and let out muffled screams. Harry felt his back being stroke soothingly and he let go. He was shocked to see bloodstains on the blue T-Shirt he bought him for his birthday but he didn’t seem to blame him one bit. In fact, he claimed his lips and kissed him deeply before saying, “Your pain is my pain, Harry, and so will be your joy.”

Harry cried as he bore down one last time. After what felt like forever, he let out an agonizing wail as he felt the doctor pulled out the other twin out of his body. At last, he could hear two tiny squalls of his babies as they took in the air. His cries followed as he buried his face into his husband’s chest and sobbed. It’s only when Winnie asked his husband to cut the umbilical cord of his twins that he lay the tired, gasping Harry back on bed.

“Open your eyes, love. It’s both our daughter and son.”

Harry opened his eyes slowly and saw the two bundles in his husband’s arms. He took one bundle and examined them closely. Both of them had his husband’s dark-ebony hair and his emerald-green eyes. He had never seen anyone more beautiful than them, well, after his first Cookie, that is.

“What shall we name them?” his husband asked.

“You do the honours,” Harry replied tiredly. “You’re the father.”

“Well, I was thinking…maybe Serena Amber and Serione Ash. Those were the names of my great-grandparents, as far as I know.”

“It’s perfect. I love them.”

His husband reached over and gave him a deep, passionate kiss. It was until they were in need of air that they parted and he whispered, “I love you, Harry.”

“And I you, Severus.”