We all are animals anyway

Link removed his left glove and placed his hand on the scanner, the machine beeps a few times and access to the building is granted. Zelda could not help but stare fixedly at his hand… it had a big starburst pattern mole covering a big part of the dorsal side of his hand. She was about to comment on it but decided not to.

They finally enter a small white windowless room. In the center of it was an office desk, and a lady sitting behind it, she stood up mouth agape when she saw them. Link chuckles at that.

"Shut your mouth before a fly gets in" Link says to Carla.

"Stop talking and bring him to ME" Carla says stretching her hands trying to reach Zid.

"YES MAM" Link yells as he drags Zid by his shirt towards her.

Carla holds Zids face between her hands and moves it from side to side, then up and down. She giggles and suddenly hugs him with more force that Zid thought possible coming from her.

"He does reassemble you, but I think the use of ¨uncanny¨ was an exager…AAAHHHH" Carla screams when she notices the brunette boy standing next to Link, they both stare at her and smile, it looked like a copy paste. She then turns to Zid.

"You are not Li are you?" Carla asks the Pirate.

Zid frowns and shakes his head. Carla grabs him by the shoulders and turns him 180°, then back.

"You are Zid then… weren't you supposed to have a tail?" Carla asks.

The Pirate looks at her unable to comprehend how the fuck did she knew so much, then he hears Link clearing his throat.

ZID POV

Of course, Ziel must have informed her at some point, who is she? Anyway… time to strip, hehehe lets make this sexy.

Zid begins to laugh at his own thoughts and starts shaking his hips as he slowly unties his makeshift belt. Robert starts laughing like a maniac, Zelda already used to Zid's boldness, grabs a magazine and sits in one of the chairs available in the reception. Carla looks at a stoic Link for help.

"Tell him something" she demands of agent Kid.

"I am not the adult here" Link retorts.

"KID!!!"

Link rolls his eyes and places a hand on Zid's shoulder "No need for the sexy dance Zid, just take it off and show her."

DAMN, I was having fun making her uncomfortable… oh well.

Zid just drops his fanny bag and out goes the tail and it starts coiling on itself a little, Carla gasps in surprise.

"Not that I didn't believe you" Carla says to Link "but I thought it was a small tail, a deformity of some short, but this is… I mean how long is it? Do you want it removed Zid?

Do I want it removed? I mean… I am used to it. I would miss it, but I can live without it. Life would be a lot easier, so yeah… lets remove it.

"""NO!!!""" Link, Robert and even Zelda yelled in unison, Carla jumped startled.

Link begins to explain "He has complete dominion of it, can even hold his own weight with it… it's basically another limb. Why would I want his 3rd arm removed? It's an advantage."

Carla rolls her eyes "But it requires to remain hidden, I think it's more of a bother than anything else"

"Dress him in sweat pants, or anything loose fit. That will grant him space to hide a rod or something to coil his tail around. Believe me… that is ALL he needs to keep it hidden"

"But if he still needs to keep it hidden, would it not be better to remove it?" Carla insists.

Link sighs and shakes his head "He will eventually need to jump, run or fight… you are asking him to take away a limb that aids his balance, and to rid of an extra arm he can use in a fight. The tail stays."

I… have not thought of all that. I am used to seeing it as a bother, a curse even. But it DOES help me run faster, and I can walk on a rope thanks to the balance it brings… I get it, it's an asset, I will keep it. By the way… did I heard a weird echo when Ziel spoke, or did I imagine it?

"All right then, you still have to talk about this with the general, but the boy NEEDS A HAIR CUT NOW, no discussion about it" Carla says with finality.

"Wont object to that, hair is a DNA trace, shorter hair trends to be easily dismissed or blown away, making it safer for us."

Carla nods pleased and rushes to Li, she starts examining him closely, turning him around several times and moving his face left and right. "Uncanny was an understatement… if he dyes his hair blond and puts on grey contacts, he is basically you Kid"

"Or I could dye my hair brown and use and green contacts" Link smirks evilly making Robert smirk too. 

And that statement makes it more real, they really are not related. For a moment I thought they were fucking with me, that is why it took me long to really trust them... those two are going to abuse their similarity to get away with mischief, aren't they?

Zid chuckles and looks at Carla's desk. On it was a small mirror, he picks it up and looks at himself. His big dark eye circles where receding, he was still thin, but his skin now had a healthy glow… he actually kind of resembled Link and Robert a little.

Maybe Zelda's take on all this is not as deviated as I thought. Maybe… I can actually believe we are a family. We look alike, we smell alike… according to her. We even share similar DNA. I have never had a family, and the one I found is AMAZING. How are you going to try and take them away life? I won't let you; THEY ARE MINE.

"Take them to the waiting room over there, I will send a hairdresser" Carla commands Link.

Link nods and whistles to draw his brothers and the Princess attention, then uses his right arm to signal them to follow him.

Nope, it's not the echo, by whistling he covers it A LOT but I still hear it, how does he manage to sound like that? Sounds cool, I wanna.

OH… right, I have to teach my sis how to braid hair before they cut it.

They enter a room with a few old chairs. Zid runs to sits on the only office moving chair available, he spins himself and then unties his braid calling the Princess.

"We have minutes, so pay attention" Zid tells his sister.

Zelda smiles and runs to him, Zid gives her little instruction and starts doing the braid on himself to show her what he meant, then asks her to finish it. Rob approaches curious.

"Wanna learn too?" Zid asks raising an eyebrow.

"Was just curious, honestly I don't think I need to know how to do this" Robert retorts.

"BUT YOU DO" the Princess agues "what if you have a girl in the future? Don't you want to be a SUPER DAD that knows how to braid?" Zelda jokes.

Li starts remembering a toddler girl that used to visit the Li family frequently. He was starting to learn the language, so he read her a lot of stories when she visited to practice. Then she came no more… he later found out someone had shot her dead.

Rob's eyes start to water remembering the sweet girl. So, he approaches Zelda and starts braiding HER hair mimicking what he sees the Princess do on Zid's.

The Princess was not expecting this from Li "As much as I am loving this… my hair is too short Robert; I don't think you or anyone would be able to braid it" Zelda complains.

"SHUT UP AND DON'T MOVE, I think I am doing it" Li answers a little pissed.

Zelda smiles at that, and Zid chuckles at the idea of Robert doing Zelda's hair and Zelda doing his hair, so he decides to complete the family picture.

"What about you Ziel? Get here and be a part of this family" Zid taunts Link.

Link rolls his eyes and approaches, he then kicks Zid's moving chair away from Zelda, she growls at irate.

"You want me to be part of this circus?" he positions the Pirate facing Zelda "I will be, but I am handling HIS hair, it's longer thus easier to braid" Link says as he undoes the Princess work and pulls a strand a little too hard, this earns a weak scream from Zid. Link smiles diabolically.

Zid stares at Li and Zelda with eyes wide open that scream ¨HELP¨ The Princess and Robert sheepishly smile back at Zid, Zelda then lowers her gaze to avoid the Pirate's pleading eyes, and Robert focuses on braiding the Pincess hair easily ignoring Zid. They all continue like that, with some whimpers from Zid now and then, when a lady wearing a stylist apron enters the room followed by Carla.

"What are you doing" Carla asks them.

"What does it look like?" "They are in the middle of a learning Link answers in anger curve… ouch!"

 Zid states

"Learning curve of what?" Carla asks again.

Zelda answers "We are learning how to stile hair with a French braid… French right?" Zid nods at her and receives a smack on the back of the head from Link.

"I said don't move" Ziel growls at Zid.

Fuck, that felt like a whiplash to the head, this son of a damn whore.

"Save me from this torture please" Zid begs the stylist.

"But… he is almost done, and it looks beautiful"

Zelda taps on Robert's hand for permission to stand up. He quickly ties her braid and grunt to let her know she is allowed to move. The Princess quickly stands to see what the stylist is talking about. She gasped at what she saw.

"What is that?" asks the Princess.

"That is a French fishtail braid" answers the stylist.

Link chuckles "You mean to tell me THIS is a type of braid? I was just struggling with a 3-strand braid so I opted to do this… get here Princess, you are going to finish it"

Zelda smiling took his place as he quickly instructed her on how to do continue the braid, he then stood and was about to head out but stopped, he turned and asked Carla to take his brothers to William's office once Zid's hair cut was done. The Hero then turned to Zelda and asked her to dress back on the clothes she came with and wait for him, he still had things he needed to take care of. He said before leaving the room.

LINK POV

Who do I ask? Claudio shaves but with an electric shaver, he wouldn't give me much guidance… who else shaves and currently finds himself in this precinct?

Link then rushes to help a lady who was carrying TOO MANY dishes on her hands, he managed to steady the pile of dishes before it fell down, then proceeded to take the pile away from her.

"You should not carry this big of a load, just take as many trips as you need instead of risking possible injury… who are you by the way?" Link asks with a charming smile.

"Te… no need, I am an eventual that came here to dispose of extra and unused kitchen wares"

She received direct instructions not to disclose personal information… I am sure. She said dispose of… maybe I can benefit from this.

"Te-something, would you mind if I take a look at what has already been discarded?"

The lady laughs "Are you looking for something in particular?"

"I would love a clay casserole, or anything made of clay that can hold 4 liters to a flame"

The lady frowns "I am getting rid of more than 10 clay casseroles, but they are small… 1.5 or 2 liters" then her eyes suddenly shine as she remembers something "you said ANYTHING made of clay… there is a pot of clay in there. Apparently, it was never used 'cause they don't handle kitchen wares carefully, so they were obviously going to break it. I think it holds 6 liters, that ok?"

"PERFECT, thank you Te, where should I go to pick it up?" Ziel asks.

Not 4, 6 liters. Nana is going to be so happy about this… I still need to be instructed on how to properly use a shaving knife. I wanted to avoid asking William since he may still be angry at me, but none of the agents are here to help me, so I have to ask the General… better do it when he is no longer busy with my duplicates right?

Link was thinking as he loaded the dishes on a van for Te. Once he got back, he walked to the bathroom and opened the door, his right hand turned the door knob, his left holding a polypropylene bag that contained the clay pot. As he stepped inside the bathroom, he was received by the image of a tall man in a dark suit. 

"And I thought this was the perfect time to get some fucking privacy… Jesus." Said ex agent Skull as he finished applying shaving cream on his face.

Link just grinned as he approached a urinal "Had I known you were here I would have considered coming here first with my donors, just to see what else we could do to derange you." Links says chuckling. Once he finished pissing, he adds "And I am just kidding George, you know I love you, how much longer for your reinstallation?"

"A month, maybe even less. It will happen soon so I came for warm up exercises" Skull says as he draws a shaving knife and starts using it.

Did I say I loved this man? Because I DO LOVE HIM, he just fell out of the sky to be my teacher… well, more like crawled out of the sewers, but who cares, the goddesses put him on my path and I am grateful.

"George, will you teach me how to use a shaving knife?"

Skull turns to look at Ziel perplexed by the request, but raises both his shoulders and calls him to come closer.

SKULL NEEDS TO COME BACK ASAP, I understand why he got suspended but… he is a great guy, doesn't ask question, just helps when it's demanded of him, I feared this period of inactivity would end up towing him to the dark side… but he did not lend an ear to temptation, his resolve and integrity remained. WHAT MORE PROF DO YOU NEED? HE IS WHAT WE NEED.

ZELDA POV

This chat with Carla has taught me one VERY important thing… I am forbidden to ask or even mention Michelle's death to Ziel. It's a sore spot, he blames himself for it. But there is absolutely NO WAY he could have caused it, or prevented it.

From what Carla has said so far, Link managed to connect with Michelle on an emotional level. SWORD agents have to maintain emotions at bay at all times, since it easily leads to fatal mistakes… like what happened to agent Snail.

Apparently, he believes to have opened a door in her heart and left without closing it. Link believes this led Snail to easily connect with a pregnant woman who was about to be shot death. Taking away the most important person was the gang's way to punish the members who failed to follow orders. Michelle ended up taking the shot herself trying to push away the pregnant lady.

"After Michelle's death, adjustments were made, they deemed that a female is TOO emotional for this job, hence allowing Michelle to work as an agent was a mistake, no matter how good of a fighter she was, or how smart… in the end, she let her emotions cloud her judgment and ended up putting herself on death's path." Carla breaths out slowly "so… that is why I never got the chance to be an agent, got the basic training but was placed here" Carla says smiling, but her eyes showed sadness.

"I would give you a pat on the back to comfort you, but reality is… you are very involved with the cases despite not being an agent, besides… your economic remuneration is not negligible at all" Link says as he stood leaning on the door with his fore arm.

Zelda smiles at that a little, Carla rolls her eyes and sighs. Then Robert and Zid enter the room. They were kind of shaking but smiling.

"I thought he was going to kick you to the curve, I mean, come on. Who answers THAT?" Zid tells Li mocking him.

"I just thought lying was not on the menu, I answered as truthfully and concise as I could" Li retorts.

"Concise my ass, that was a clear threat" Zid replies.

"Care to explain?" Link asks intrigued.

Zid starts clearing his throat "Thanks to agent's Kid influence" Zid stares at Link "and my sister's prayers, we both got accepted"

Zelda yells and starts clapping, Zid smiles and continues "The General greeted us and cut to the chase. He asked why we wanted to be part of SWORD" Zid chuckles at the memory "I gave a very basic but honest answer… I wanna make the world a better place regardless of the measures" then the Pirate points at the Engineer "But this motherfucker said: That is not the question, the question is why would SWORD wants me in their ranks. And my answer is: because you really don't want ME fighting for the other team"

Zelda opens her mouth in shock at that, Link opens his eyes wide staring at Robert, who is currently looking at the floor like it's the most interesting thing in the room, his face is slowly turning red in shame.

My brother is a fucking stud… have I said that I love him? because I fucking do… all of them as a matter of fact.

Ziel clears his throat "All I can say is what William may think of both of you" he points at Zid "he may see you as a wild card. You refuse to share your real motivations, making you deceitful, but he still finds utility in keeping you around." he now points at Li "You… you are a piece from a whole other type of game, you are like a tower from a chess game, you annihilate anything on your path… that level of focus and destruction IS dangerous and NEEDED. I think he may now understand why I pushed for the both of you"

Link turns to Zelda, she had changed into his boxers and his black innerwear, he frowns and then raises an eyebrow.

That bad? It's the same fucking clothes I used when I got here

"Is that all? You are not taking your cellphone?"

"I… thought I couldn't, of course I want to take it" Zelda goes around Carla's desk and opens a drawer with her things, once she retrieves her cellphone, she hands it to Ziel.

"I don't have pockets, could you please carry mine for me?"

Link extends his hand to grab her cellphone, once he pockets it Zid's eye go wide.

"WHAIT… what is going on, are you guy's leaving? YOU CAN'T LEAVE" Zid yells and pulls on his now short hair.

"They are not from here; you already KNOW that" Robert reminds Zid.

"But… it's too soon" Zid says and stands arms wide open to blocks the exit path "you can't leave me… I JUST GOT YOU" Zid screams deviating his gaze, he was tearing up.

HOLY CRAP, he has been alone for too long, and now that he has US, a family not tied by blood but still very real, he must feel like we are bailing out on him… ITS NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL, but how do I explain that to him?

Zelda starts extending her arms to hug Zid but stops herself since she wanted to cry, if she hugged him like that it was going to cause more harm than anything… she turned at Link for help mouthing ¨what should I do?¨ Ziel uses his hand to signal her to wait, and then approaches Zid chuckling.

Zid raises his head to look at his brother perplexed. Link stops and stares at Zid with malice.

"So… you think after everything I did, I would just back off? Seriously? You have no fucking idea to what lengths I am willing to go to continue my torture on you… just because I fucking enjoy it" Link breaths in slowly before continuing.

"Understand just one thing, you didn't get me, I GOT YOU… it's not a warning, is a menace. You will get a cellphone later today; it's to be used for your training… but I will use it to check on you, I will be calling both of you until you abhor the sound of my voice. You may not see me frequently, but believe me… I will be there, following your every move. And you better not fail… because if you do, I will know and there will be hell to pay"

Talking about studs… NO, Ziel is more of a monster. But I must admit this ¨menace approach¨ is working. TOO stern if you ask me, but they needed it like this, since they don't respect weakness. Zid has stopped shedding tears, I guess the idea of being under vigilance by Ziel soothes him, and Robert is trying to hide his smile.

Zelda clears her throat to draw attention to herself "Be sure that I will be asking Link to share your contact info with me, so you are not getting rid of your annoying sis that easy either… next time I see you will be in Hyrule, I will make sure of that, so you better take care of yourselves, I won't forgive you if you don't come visit me because you are sick or hurt"

Link then puts a hand on Zelda's shoulder making her turn to look at him. He then tilts his head to a side. The Princess lowers her head a little and then looks to the side at her brothers… but Link shakes his head.

He won't let me hug them good bye… I kind of get it, if I hug them goodbye, I will start crying, that won't help at all. DAMN IT, I MISS THEM ALLREADY.

Zelda blows a kiss at each of them and waves them good bye, she didn't dare speak another word fearing tears will shed if she did.

"I will see you when I see you" Link says as he places an arm around the Princess's shoulders and starts heading out with her.

ROBERT POV

Damn it, I am going to miss them a lot… and we didn't even spend that much time together.

Li turns his gaze to his monkey brother; on first glance everything seems to be ok with the Pirate… even though he is the one who got to spend less time with this ¨new type of family¨. Robert sighs with relief at that.

"Was all that intimidation necessary?" Carla complains rolling her eyes.

"YES… I would not have trusted him had he said it differently. Now I know that he will carry through with everything he said. Not to torture me and Li… but because he cares" Zid says as he gives a long sigh "being motored by him is not the same, but I am not alone anymore I guess… and I will see him and Zelda again, right?" Zid asks nobody in particular.

Robert smiles and places an arm around Zid's shoulders. "You are not alone stupid, I am here"

Robert stops the hug once he notices Zid freezing over, but the Pirate soon starts roaring in laughter, his face red and his eyes tearing. Once he finally stops, he starts dancing with his shoulders.

"You, my brother, are, fucking, right" Zid chants happily as he raises his right shoulder once then again but this time rolling it back and repeating the movement with his other shoulder.

"He is 13 at most, 13…" Carla whispers to herself fanning her face.