"Well, professor you didn't let me specify whether it crispy or smooth peanut butter" -Athens
꧁________꧂
As the rain, soaked into the material of my shirt, I giggled lying on the dew grass, feeling droplets of water splatter against my face like paint on canvas.
"You're going to get sick, why are you down there?" Berlin frowned peering over the balcony.
"Because the rain is painting me" I grinned tucking my hair behind me ears and smiling up at him. "You look like a god from up there, towering over me with that suit of yours" I laughed.
I was fond of that suit, the crisp, velvet material in the powerful royal blue colour. Always elegant and pressed with a matching white undershirt and azure tie. He looked more like royalty than a criminal. If you walked past him in the street you would want to take a second look, if anything he relished the attention it got him.
More so, I was even fonder of the person wearing that suit. I didn't know Berlin back then, always the scary, arrogant dude, that sat behind me in class and only ever spoke when he felt like it, always having impeccable table etiquette and the idiosyncrasies of a perfectionist. An introvert that attracted way to much attention to himself.
Good and bad.
The others despised him. Conceited and self-assured, Always wanting to be right, thinking he was above everyone else, in short, a prick of psycho. So how did I fall in love with him?
I guess right at that moment even though I didn't realise it.
The moment where he joined me in the fields. Where I finally found him to be much more interesting then it had appeared to be. Where I found him to have a heart.
He rolled his eyes, strolling back into his room, as I chuckled pulling at the ends of my shirt. It had stuck to the sides of my body and was now freezing me from the outside in like an ice cube. I tucked my hair behind my ears once more before leaning up against the wall and staring up at the sky.
Grey sky and grey clouds. A melancholy monotone canvas. No colour, no saturation, no blending just grey. In that little patch of my world, I was like a coffee smudge on a blank canvas. A little dot of colour on a blank page. Essentially nothing but you're still drawn it to it because it is different from the rest.
I enjoyed the rain as it drowned out the sounds of others. Where you could only hear the battle of the rain and your own heartbeat rattling inside your chest. Where the only person that mattered was you. You could be living in a city, remote countryside, the plains of a desert, but in the rain, it was only you.
I rolled up the sleeves of my shirt, unbuttoning the first few buttons, to stop the rain freezing my collarbone. I slumped down on the floor letting the water soak into the fabric of my jeans. It felt nice just sitting there in the cold, alone with my thoughts, it was refreshing.
Through the music of the rain and its steady rhythm, two footsteps continuously grew louder before stopping out on the gravel patio, the stones crunching underneath their shoes. I turned my head gradually to face the door as I smirked, noticing Berlin stood there trying to shield his head with the collar of his jacket.
"It's going to soak through that even more and ruin it if you keep it up like that" I called watching him shrug it back down to his shoulder and placing a hand over his eyes.
"Come inside its freezing out here" he yelled as I shook my head raising my arms up into the air.
"The rain is nice, it's like a free shower"
"A shower that is going to freeze you to death" he hissed, shuffling over to me.
"See your absolutely soaked," he said holding up the edge of my shirt and pulling it in front of my face.
"Oh no" I gasped sarcastically, "I thought the rain was going to tan my skin and remind me of my days in Italy"
He rolled his eyes ignoring my remark before pulling his jacket off and throwing it onto the patio leaving him standing there in his undershirt. "Well, what's so nice about the rain then? all I'm feeling right now is... wet" he whined.
"It's not supposed to make you feel anything, it's supposed to make you let go"
"This is stupid," he said.
"Then leave, nobody invited you"
"It would be foul of a gentleman leaving such an innocent lady in here alone in the cold" he smiled.
He leaned over to the door, shaking off the loose peoples that had clung onto the fabric of his velvet coat and hung it over my shoulders. "It's a bit big but it's warm"
I beamed up at him, hugging the coat closer to myself before sitting on the steps of the house, tapping the stone beside me for him to sit to.
As he stiffly sat down beside me, I draped half of the coat over his back and then the other over mine. "This thing is massive and you freezing to death over being a gentlemen doesn't seem very nice" I laughed.
He sat beside me in silence, looking over the trees an intense look on his face. "You're different you know"
I looked up at his face confused, noticing the lazy grin slapped across his face.
"Well you know, you sit around in the rain and not the sun, you always relax inside and read, you don't care what other people think, the others judge you about it all the time and you just laugh it off you don't even say anything back," he said as my face stoned over at his words.
"I don't see the problem with it, just because you've never seen anyone like me doesn't make me insane"
"No, what is insane is that I admire for you it"
"How you would rather a stroll in the moonlight then a diamond ring because that walk meant more to you" he shrugged. "How you're so tiny but feisty, like a little firecracker"
"Throw one into a dry forest and all the other trees ignites, people can't ignore you because your different" he shrugged.
"I've noticed you amongst the others, Nairobi shes a sweetheart but she's mad, always shrieking and howling like a demented wolf"
"Tokyo stands out but not in a nice way either, and on top of that shes with Rio, I'm sure you've heard the stories that go on in their room early in the morning" he laughed.
"And then there's you, the burning firecracker with her nose stuck in a book, always happy and bright and who doesn't give a damn about the world" he smiled turning to my face.
"A burning firecracker... Was that just a declaration of love?" I smirked.
"Trust me it was a lovely metaphor and I'm notably flattered but I'm just not looking for a relationship now, The professor said no personal relationships and we need to focus on the heist right now" I groaned shifting uncomfortably underneath the jacket. Why did he have to bring up a relationship right now?
It finally came to how close together we were, I could feel his breath brush against the top of my head and I could feel his scent already lingering on the fabric of my shirt. I buttoned up the top of my blouse, turning away from Berlin and staring out in the opposite direction.
"You know I've always been a bitter man. A man who essentially never knew how to love. 5 times. 5 times I had united in marriage and 5 times my heart has shattered and I vowed off women. But every time I see you there's a voice in my head that says "Don't you see? She's the one. The girl we have been waiting for. She has come to break the spell."
"Did you really just quote a candlestick from a child's book" I laughed staring up at his exasperated face.
"I appreciate the effort but it seems you've been paying a bit to much attention to me" I smirked.
"Well isn't that what you want, a man who pays attention to small things about you?"
"I may want many things but I certainly don't want a stalker" I laughed.
"I'm not someone you can fall in love with, I'm not someone who can offer you my entire heart because the entirety of it isn't sweet, I'm not someone can promise you a felicitous and fulfilled life because I'm not like that. I'm not a simple person, falling in love with me isn't easy as it seems" I sighed.
"Well aren't we all a little imperfect? I wouldn't be able to promise you won't shed a tear over me, or at times become so infuriated with me you could barely breathe, but I'm not just the man you assume me to be. I might not just be the beast you see me as"
"You can't fall in love with me," I said simply cupping a hand to his cheek. "I'm no good for you"
꧁_________꧂
I swabbed a cotton ball underneath Rio's neck, wiping up the dried blood with the back of my sleeve.
"Watch him," Berlin said walking out towards the door.
"I didn't come in here to be a nurse"
"You came in here to do exactly that Athens, weren't you brought here solely as a doctor and nothing more?" he said coldly.
"Well if I was here only as a medic, well then at least don't steal my spotlight and start therapy sessions without my notice" I hissed, drawing closer to stand in front of his face.
"Aren't you worried about the professor, Berlin? He isn't around and you don't seem to give a flying fuck about any of this"
"And because he's the professor and spent half of his life planning these 12 days, why should I care because we're still fine in here?" He shrugged biting into an apple.
"Have you gone nuts? have you started eating the apple seeds and gotten cyanide poisoning? Do you not care that the professor could be in big trouble right now?"
"Any more questions you have to submit to the suggestions box"
"But as you've seen with Rio, who had to be put to sleep due to his troublesome suggestions, it's futile because this is the fucking patriarchy" he screamed.
"Are you hearing yourself right now? Are you sure you're feeling fine?" I asked trying to hold a hand up to his forehead.
"You are here as fucking nurse, I ask of you to not worry about the professor and more on yourself, just because I fucked you once doesn't mean we are exclusive or that I'm going to be nice to you, you're just as boring and bothersome as the rest" he spat, storming out the door, leaving me standing in the middle in the room.
"I can't move" A voice whispered, as I shook my head out of thought, kneeling down beside Rio.
"Of course you cant, I had to give you a sedative-hypnotic drug,you've been down for a couple of hours now, you should slowly start feeling better now" I reassured, sitting down beside him in an armchair.
He gradually lifted himself up, staring up at my stoney face. "Why's the princess angry?" he asked, crossing his legs and smiling up at me.
"Hey, you know what, I'm not going to ask, you look like your about to kill someone" he laughed.
"Let's talk about something else, how about the money, what are you going to do with your share of the money?"
"I want to buy a gaming studio, with the fastest internet and a big flat screen and I'm going to have three monitors around that, then I want a sports field, where I can play basketball, tennis, football and It's going to be huge so then I'll also be able to run around it as well, Then I want to go to Rio and be like Hey I'm named after you" He babbled as I rested my head in my arms letting the sound of his voice drown out my thoughts.
"Well what do you want then?" he questioned.
"Well you know what I want, I want a massive castle in Greece, with those big stone walls, marble pillars and statues at the end of each corridor. I also want to install a private library in the biggest room and have thousands and thousands of books I've read over the years. I also want a rose garden with its own personal gardener and then I want a massive skylight so I can look at the stars every day. And it's going to have a big lacquered fence so nobody can get in and I also want a massive sign at the door" I said.
"What are you going to write on the sign?" he asked.
"That if a man named Berlin dares sets foot inside, that I will personally shoot him myself" I snarled grabbing my gun and marching out the room.
"And you know what, I'm not going to wait until I get out of here to do it"
I marched into an office, leaning against the door frame, watching the hostages work in front of me. Their hard work was going to send me on a private plane to the Bahamas at the end of this week.
"I've done 30 boxes like these, it's pulling on my scars" complained Arturo gripping his shoulder. "Not to mention the psychological scars we are going to have to deal with," he said as Mercedes shot him a tender look.
"If your feeling depressed Arturo, you can always come and chat with me over a cup of tea" I smiled noticing him jump.
"I've helped patients who have had to deal with post-traumatic stress and if you didn't hear my colleague Berlin shout about it earlier, well then I am only here as a nurse to serve the patriarchy," I said moodily before rolling around the corridor and shouting behind me
"Or you could put on your big boy boxers and shut the fuck"
As the hour 12 rolled by, Berlin leaned a shaky phone against his ear, his breath rattling around his neck, almost suffocating him. As I marched up back to the control. I snapped my head around suddenly to see Rio, banging against the railing of the stairs a demented glint in his eyes.
"Hostages, did you sleep soundly having the idea of a million euros lull you to sleep?"
"Well keep letting that idea sing to you because it was all a ploy, all of it. None of you are going to get the money, it was all a lie to keep you working"
"So we can all wear happy little smiles even though even the gang are planning to rip each others brains out. Am I right? Miss Maria De La Rosa" He cackled aiming his gun to my head.
"And you know your little friends who chose freedom? He said turning to the hostages. "They are tied to a pipe in the basement, they were never set free, this was all a game to have you working for us, this is all like a videogame"
"But you want to know the glitch? The glitch is that we aren't even leaving through the hole you guys are digging, it's absolutely insane, we actually going to be leaving through a tunnel our friend has been digging from inside a vault," he laughed.
As Berlin hurried down the stairs noticing the gun pointed to my forehead, he drew back leaning against the pillar of the stairs. "You seem to have let a patient escape from the psych ward, Athens" he laughed, noticing the strained look on my face.
"Rio enough," I said sternly gripping onto the end of his gun. "Come we can talk this out peacefully"
"Are you the same peaceful person who marched out with a gun saying she was going to shoot up Berlin?" he hissed as I felt Berlin's eyes burn into the back of my neck.
"I was angry Rio, and so are you, let's go to the control room and talk," I said benevolently.
As I gripped his arm softly, pulling his gun over my shoulder, I tried to push past Berlin who was blocking my way upstairs.
"Is there some sort of password now?" I spat, staring into his cold eyes.
"You said you were going to shoot?" he whispered.
"Berlin just let me walk past and we can talk about this later" I sighed gesturing my head over to Rio.
"Well actually I thought that you and I could sit down for a discussion while Helsinki took over Rio's treatment" he purred as I watched Helsinki grip, Rio, by the neck and kick him down the corridors as shrieks bubbled out his throat.
"What are you going to do to him" I murmured.
"Give him the punishment he deserved" he shrugged latching onto my arm and pulling me away.
He pushed me down roughly into a chair as he sat sternly behind a desk, resting his arms on the table. It was like a headmaster scolding a rogue student.
"What are you going to do to him" I yelled as he pressed a finger to his lips, grinning smugly.
"A paradox. Tokyo will be outside with the police keeping quiet because of little Rio, and he's going to vanish without her even knowing" he chuckled.
"Your sick" I spat.
"You don't have to remind a dying man he's dying Athens" he smirked tapping the side of his head. "But it's also important to face death with a bit of humour" he laughed.
I jumped out of my chair as the phone suddenly rang. "The professor he's alive" I cried, a genuine smile on my face. Maybe we weren't so fucked after all. Before I had pulled down on the door handle, I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, and smoothly push me back down onto my chair.
"We haven't finished speaking, And I'm still waiting on the part where we address your idea to have me resembling a slice of swiss cheese, I don't think chocolate cake can get you out of this one" he grinned.
Three shots rang out from down below as I jumped once again, staring down at the floor.
"Didn't you like to say three shots, three hits to help you concentrate on your target? Turns out Helsinki adapted to your method of shooting as well" he laughed as I felt the vomit rise in the back of my throat.
Oslo dead. Tokyo thrown out like a Christmas present and Now Rio. Innocent, sweet, little Rio.
"You disgust me" I spat before throwing open the door and racing up to the control room.
"Status update" The professor's voice shook over the line.
"Smoothly as peanut butter" I chuckled resting against the side of the table.
"Smoothly..." he hissed over the line. "Smoothly as in you having your identity leaked, Or Tokyo being sent out to the police, Or Rio nearly being executed"
"Well, professor you didn't let me specify whether it crispy or smooth peanut butter, but it was mostly Berl..." I laughed before I felt the poke of a needle pierce through my skin.
Before I felt my eyes close, a worried face peered into mine as a distant voice softly breathed into my ear. "I'm sorry I'm no good for you"
Chapter 12 is finally here. Please vote and comment if you enjoyed, it really motivates me to write. Thank you all for over 300 views in 2 weeks it means so much to me knowing that there are people that actually enjoy my writing. I've decided that even after the story of the royal mint finishes I'm going to add a couple of my original ideas to it just for the fun of it because why not? If you have any requests you can either comment them or message them to me.
Love Roza 🌹