The gentle scraping of the many knives and forks against plates filled his ears. He hummed gently, looking around casually, silently observing and analyzing the people around him. There was not a single person he recognized, which was something he never was sure he liked or didn’t like. To him, if there was no one he recognized or at least he had a faint idea of, something was sure to happen. With a deep breath, he exhaled and ate the last bit of lasagna on his plate.     
    From the corner of his right eye, he saw someone getting up. He didn’t turn his head to look, he simply put his utensils down and picked his glass up to finish the rest of his vanilla thickshake. As soon as the glass’ bottom touched the table, a person slid into the chair across from him. Slowly, the platinum blond lifted his gaze to greet the other one. He met familiar light brown eyes sparkling with mischief and amusement.
    “Lyosha-chan,” Yasutomo Beilschmidt greeted him with that annoying suffix added to his name again, with an English accent to boot. The Japanese suffix didn’t go well with the accent either. Lyosha flattened his lips with distaste, a gesture Yasutomo never missed. The ash blond laughed at him, “No need to get so riled up about that suffix, Sha-chan! Well, forgetting the suffixes, I’m sure you know why you’ve been called here, yes?”
    “If I didn’t, would I be here?” Lyosha’s violet eyes narrowed then rolled.
    Yasutomo laughed again, “You’ve got a point. Well of course you know you’ve got a job. But, you know, protocol?” the half Japanese pauses, “Well, you don’t know who you’re here to kill though.”
    Lyosha nodded mutely, “So who?”
    “An Italian politician. You don’t need his name.”
    He raised an eyebrow at the other man, “Why don’t I need his…” Lyosha trails off, “You want me to kill everyone don’t you.” It’s a statement, not a question. He got his answer when Yasutomo gave him a toothy grin. He never liked looking into the man’s light brown eyes when he smiled like that. Yasutomo had a sort of feral and sadistic look lurking in the depths of his eyes. But, it wasn’t as if Lyosha was any better.
    Yasutomo gave him the address and the date he was to make the kills, “... Twenty-fifth of December, at the family's holiday house. That’s what the client wants. How very cruel of them…”
    “Christmas…” Lyosha muttered, not particularly bothered, he didn’t care about minor details as such, “Who’s the client? A fellow politician who wants him dead because he wants no  competition or what?”
    Yasutomo gave him a disappointed look, “You know you’re not supposed to ask questions like that, but…” he smiled and clasped his hands together, “I’ll tell you anyway! Nope, he’s not a politician, in fact, he’s a CEO of a very well known company, which I won’t say. That would be a complete violation and we don’t want that, do we?”
    The blond rolled his eyes again.
    “Anyway,” the half Japanese shot a faux glare at him, “The CEO wants the politician dead because of what he did to him. A personal matter, really. I talked to him about it and it was real nasty, the story he told me. I won’t tell you, because you wouldn’t want to know and you don’t really care either way. To sum it up, it’s a personal grudge.”
    “I wonder if it’s...” he paused, “... Child pedophillia…”
    “What?”     
    ​“Child pedophillia,” he said slowly, “That’s what happened. Now that he’s rich and has the means to kill him, he’s taking revenge.”
    ​“Sharp as always Lyosha-chan,” Yasutomo winked at him, “You’re right. Now,” he paused to pull an extremely  thick, battered envelope out of a briefcase Lyosha always managed to never notice, even with training like his. “Here’s half of the payment. Enclosed in the envelope is five hundred thousand grand. You’ll get the rest when I see you next.”
    “You mean as soon as I finish the job,” his voice was light and bored.
    “Mm, I should tell you, but there’s a very troublesome bodyguard there.”
    “And you want me to?”
    “Oh, Lyosha-chan you know me so well! I’ll throw in another four hundred thousand,” he smiled with his eyes closed.
    “I don’t need your money just tell me what they look like.” Lyosha sighed, rubbing his temples.
    ​“You’re such a good guy Sha-chan,” Yasutomo paused to think of the person’s appearance, “They’re quite tall, they’ve got blue eyes and blond hair. I’m sure that they’re American. They’re quite lanky like you, he’s quite good at gunplay, but I’m sure that you’ll be able to take him out easily.”
    “Plus, everyone in the household?”
    “Everyone in the household.” Yasutomo nodded and with everything said and done; the pale man stood up, “I’ll see you soon Lyosha-chan~”
    He sauntered away with a smile, leaving Lyosha sitting alone. The chatter of people filled the silence.