Assassins and Royals

1-Riordan's shirt

Arden

"Wow, that shirt makes you look fat. "I spin my flat blade in my palm lazily, and sharpen it on the knife in my other hand, as Rio attempts to slice the mannequin in half. Our boss Roman decided to do some budgeting because Rio and I were annihilating the stimulation robots, so for now, we are stuck in the eighties. Mannequins are soo back in the day.

My best friend Riordan gasps in mock hurt and cries. "I do not!" As he tugs on the hem of his new training shirt, trying to cover up the thin, tan line of skin. The shirt was issued for all members a few days ago. I hated it. Imagine people beating each other up in pastel blue shirts. Pastel Blue. No wonder no one took us, people seriously anymore

I roll my eyes at his dramatic hissy fit. "Oh please. Blue is so not your color. I casually toss my knife at the target on the far end of the training room.

It cuts through the tapered canvas, and onto the targets painted with dripping red paint.

Bulls eye.

"Besides, it's probably not the shirt, just your body fat. " I flex my cramped hand muscles.

It's his turn to roll his eyes.

"Really." He grins, flexing his arms to show off his muscles, or what he calls 'guns'. "This is all real man. "

"If you're a real man, then the male species is screwed."

He sighs and puts his arm around my shoulders. ""Ara, you're still in denial."

"Denial about what?"

"That I have a ''rocking hot bod,'" he smirks and flexes his arm. I scrunch my nose in disgust as he lifts his arms. "You smell like shit."

"I do not! "He yells in defiance, but I catch him sniffing his armpit, then cringing away.

"Shut up Rio, just go take a shower. "That's a command."

Benefits of being the leader? I can get Rio on garbage duty whenever I like it.

"I got you doughnuts?" he pleads.

Another bull's eye, and another tear through the canvas. This one doesn't fly as straight though.

"Fine, don't take a shower then, "I wave my arm in front of my face.

Rio grins, and reaches down to his bag, to pull out a pink box. "I hate it when you order me around."

"Deal with it, two"

"Um, excuse me." A small timid voice interrupts our conversation.

We both simultaneously turn our heads towards the door.

It's the new secretary that Roman hired, a male secretary. He made a point of saying that women weren't well equipped enough for the dangerous parts of life. Hahahaha. No.

I had made a specific point of quitting just to make him take that back. I don't know what kind of boss Roman is, if he made the decision to hire that scrawny midget who looked like he was going to shit his pants, I have to question his choices.

"Mister Roman has requested you to go to his office." he squeaks literally.

I exchange a quick look with Rio. He shrugs as if to say I have no idea what's going on.

Roman doesn't take to me much. Being the head of the assassin's corp, he was pretty much eating and breathing paperwork all day. People say that he's not even human, that he's a vampire.

Clearly, they've been reading too much paranormal fiction. Even if he is a vampire, I still feel bad. Poor him, missing out on all the fun.  "Yeah, tell Roman, I'll be there in a few." I say, piling various guns back into their holds, as Rio reaches down for his Dunkin Doughnuts box.