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Prodigy
Special #2: Concerning Hilde
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…I was supposed to get attached to Quatre Raberba Winner. So I did. I never expected it to get so crazy- no, not crazy, deep. I didn’t think I’d end up caring.
See, I’ve been ER (Extended Reconnaissance, to those not in the espionage business) since I was five, found wandering around in Munich with a bag of all my clothes, and twenty euros clutched in my grubby little hand. When he found me, he was kind enough to take me in. Not many would do that, if you didn’t know. Orphans aren’t in high demand.
I’ll always remember those two words. They were the first words I ever heard in English.
“You’ll do.”
They changed my life. He took me in, and taught me to watch. Plenty of people don’t even see half of what’s going on around them. It’s almost pathetic. Cheating couples, cheating poker players, cheating students…you name it, you can see it. They shift, they squirm, they freeze up. The world’s a series of tells. And he taught me every single one.
When I was six, I met Noin. She was only eight or nine or so, and we looked a lot alike actually, so we got put together as sisters for a lot of our work. She’d look out for me, and I’d try to keep her out of trouble.
Lucrezia Noin couldn’t be ER if she even wanted to be. Hell, I doubt she’d be able to just be a spy, period. Noin’s definitely into the more straightforward method. It’s actually kinda refreshing, but back then it just seemed to get her into trouble. So, I’d try to teach her to say nothing while jabbering, to disappear in a crowd, to simply…watch.
We’ve never been real friendly, though. She never appreciated my efforts in teaching her the “subtler arts”, as he called it.
But, back to the real story. Time went on, jobs went on, and eventually I was told to watch Quatre Raberba Winner, the infamous heir to an infamously dark fortune. And I’m the best. So, I went about it perfectly.
…Okay, almost perfectly.
God, the first time I saw Duo it was like looking in a mirror. Everything I could have been if he hadn’t taken me in was staring me in the face. Well, glaring, actually, but who really cares?
I broke the rules. I got attached. I made friends. I gave up my place in the shadows to chat with them, to get along with them, to feel friendship. Maybe even a little love, too. I’ll admit I’ve got a little crush on Duo, but come on, who doesn’t? He’s just plain hot. Then again, so is Quatre…
Anyway, I broke the rules, and it cost me dearly.
I panicked the first time I realized it was THE Heero Yuy my boys were hanging out with. And don’t say that’s an overreaction- it’s not. Yuy gives new meaning to the phrase ‘mad scientist’. And have you even SEEN his art? It’s creepy.
I wanted out. So, I decided to finish my job, and then I could go back home and pretend I’d never met my boys and I’d never had friends and everything would be normal again.
It’s too bad things didn’t work out that way. I don’t want to be stuck owning a scrap yard the rest of my life.
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