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“Dearest, this is a lovely picture of you three!” Elizabeth cooed. “Barok looks so incredibly happy here!”
Klint chuckled as he pressed a kiss against his beloved wife’s cheek. The photograph of himself and Gregson congratulating Barok, who had just received his prosecutor’s badge, had finally finished developing and was sent to their manor in the post.
Elizabeth dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief and sniffled, “That sweet little boy is so grown up!”
“He’s going to make his own way in this world, that I’m sure of,” Klint nodded, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “Maybe he’ll be almost as handsome as his brilliant older brother.
Elizabeth laughed out loud, she had a hearty belly laugh, as she playfully swatted at her husband’s shoulder.
“Klint van Zieks!” She giggled. “Don’t be mean to darling Barok!”
“Hah! He’s plenty of darling until you wake him up too early in the morning!” he cackled. “Then, he’s a downright brat!”
“I wonder where he gets it from… perhaps his handsome and brilliant elder brother!”
“Lizzie!”
She stood up on her toes, maintaining her balance as best as she could in the later stage of her pregnancy, to kiss Klint playfully on the lips. Thinking fast, he quickly took hold of her and held her close to keep her from falling, earning a soft feather light kick against his own stomach.
“Someone’s active today,” He sighed as he tucked soft pink hair behind Elizabeth’s ear. “They’re happy for Uncle Barok too…!”
“I think we should do something nice for him…” Elizabeth said softly. “I think we should throw a small celebration for him…”
Klint hummed and drummed his fingers against her shoulder, “Would that be a good idea? Barok was always more of a homebody…”
“It’s a great achievement, especially at his age, and it wouldn’t be a big gathering,” Elizabeth explained. “In fact, I think it should just be our closest friends of course… I just want him to know that we are proud of him…”
She looked up at him, her eyes were wide and already watery, and her lower lip was wobbling. Klint’s heart stuttered as the famous “Elizabeth Eyes” peered deeply into his soul. He took his hand and covered his face, trying to shield himself from it, but Klint van Zieks was a man who was weak for his wife.
And she knows she can get what she wants with that gaze.
To say that Genshin Asougi had his work cut out for him would be an understatement, especially when Barok van Zieks was a habitual homebody.
‘Keep him out of the house’ they say, ‘it’ll be easy’ they say! Genshin thought. I’m starting to think that Klint and Elizabeth put me up to this so that neither of them would have to!
“Mr. Asougi, I really should be getting home by now…” Barok sighed. “We clearly can’t find this important thing you desperately wanted to show me…”
“It’ll be around here, I just have to remember my way around here!” Genshin chuckled nervously. “You know me, I’m a foreign man in an unfamiliar city…!”
“I would buy that excuse if you hadn’t been living here for nearly six years,” he said dryly.
Damn the boy, he’s got a point… Genshin thought. Why didn’t I think of a cover story beforehand?!
Just then, a group of five men circled around the duo. They were all big and grisly, with fierce faces and bloodshot eyes. In their hands they all carried makeshift weapons, crowbars, planks of wood, even a pipe, as they sneered at Barok.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” The biggest thug grinned. “The little darling brat and his little dog too…”
Genshin groaned, remembering who these men were— the last remaining whimper of the Stevenson Street Gang.
“Still haven’t had enough from when we last rounded you up…?” Genshin huffed, keeping a hand tight on Karuma’s hilt. “I remember cutting up your old boss pretty good…”
“So these are the cowards that ran away?” Barok smirked. “This should be easy then… how much would you wager, Asougi?”
“Hmm, your brother got the rest of them five years of hard labor,” Genshin mused. “Think they’ll be just as lucky…?”
“Depends on if either of us gets injured, but they won’t be that lucky,” Barok chuckled.
“You little shit! I’m going to bash your face in so hard, no one will recognize your body!” A weasel faced thug shouted, raising his pipe to hit Barok.
Like lightning, Barok raised his leg high up in the air, kicking his would-be attacker in the jaw and sending him stumbling.
“At least this is self-defense,” Genshin added, unsheathing Karuma.
Adrenaline soared through his veins, like white hot energy, Genshin focused only on the strangers around him. The rest of the world melted away as he sliced at the attacker’s weapons, splitting wood in half and swiping at hands that gripped old metal. Every so often, he checked back up on the younger man, who was certainly holding his own despite a lack of a weapon.
Like a dancer, Barok jumped back, letting his pursuers lunge at him before he would use their momentum to his advantage. When one man ducked down low, Barok raised his leg and kicked down with a tremendous force, knocking him to the ground. Another man pursued him, but he turned quickly like a top and hit him with a left hook so hard that teeth flew out onto the pavement.
As each thug fell, one by one, the officers out on their beat noticed the commotion and rushed to the scene. Unhooking their manacles, they locked each man up and stood on standby for a paddywagon to collect them.
“Well, I’m assuming that wasn’t what you wanted to show me…?” Barok huffed.
“You know, all this excitement’s made me forget,” Genshin replied. “I think we ought to head back to the manor, eh?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see dark red dancing across Barok’s knuckles. While it was mostly dried, Genshin still picked it up and examined it. With a press of his finger, Barok hissed through his teeth and jerked back.
“Actually, let’s get you patched up quick,” Geshin said. “Wouldn’t want to have Her Ladyship fussing over you…”
“Or worse,” Barok shuddered. “ Klint .”
Barok couldn’t shake the niggling feeling in the back of his mind as he and Asougi were on their way home to the van Zieks manor proper. Barok watched as the older man tapped his fingers rapidly onto his thigh in no particular pattern, how he watched out of the window of the carriage almost expecting something from just the other side.
“Mr. Asougi?” Barok cleared his throat. “Is everything okay? You’ve been rather jittery all day…”
“Eh? Oh, I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?” he chuckled.
Barok crossed his arms and simply stared at the foreign student, the man couldn’t tell a lie to save his life.
Once they finally drove up to the front, Genshin took a spare head wrap and tied it around Barok’s eyes, causing the younger man to shout.
“What on earth?!”
Just as quickly as the white fabric came into his vision, his world succumbed to darkness and he felt Genshin’s strong hands on his shoulders, awkwardly trying to guide him up the steps.
“Sorry about the shock there, Barok, but I promise you will be delighted,” he said. “Just take little steps, and I won’t drop you…!”
When it was made clear that Asougi wouldn’t remove the head wrap, no matter how much Barok protested, the younger man finally acquiesced and let the elder guide him. He awkwardly reached up, blindly waving his hands for the brass doorknob while Asougi knocked three times on the front door.
With a creak as Barok pushed the door forward, Genshin untied the makeshift blindfold. Barok blinked three times to adjust himself to the warmly lit hall, only to be faced with Klint, Elizabeth, Inspector Gregson, his close friend, Albert, and the Lord Chief Justice smiling at him and raising their arms up as they cheered and clapped.
Barok blubbered for a moment, unable to find any semblance of speech as words escaped from him. Genshin clasped his hand on his shoulder proudly and grinned.
“Surprise, my friend, surprise,” he said.
“What’s going on…?” Barok asked, his eyes wide and his jaw dropping.
“We’re throwing a party for you, silly!” Klint laughed, ruffling his younger brother’s hair. “We’re proud of you, we all are!”
“Brother…!”
Elizabeth hugged him tightly, and even dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief, “We’re so proud of you, Barok, and you should be as well…” She said, “You’ve worked hard for this, and we’ve had the staff make all of your favorites…!”
“You’re too kind to me, truly…!” Barok gasped.
“And this is only the beginning, Prosecutor van Zieks,” Justice Kildare added. “I know your brother isn’t the only one who is excited to see how your career progresses!”
“And I can tell everyone that it’s my best friend down there!” Albert grinned. “Or that it’s my best friend who’s the future Attorney General!”
“Albert, I think you’re more ambitious than me!” Barok chuckled.
“Hey now, Attorney General Barok van Zieks has a good ring to it,” Klint snorted.
“Great, now you’ve given my brother an idea,” Barok huffed, but his smile never faded.
Pride blossomed in the young prosecutor’s chest, from the high accolades from the Lord Chief Justice, to his hairbrained friend’s high hopes; from his gentle Sister-in-Law’s embrace, to his foreign mentor’s efforts, to his beloved elder brother’s optimism; Barok van Zieks was with all the people he loved the most in this world, knowing that they loved him just the same, and that was far greater than any title or badge he could have earned.