49Do You Lover Her?
10th March, 1962
Lilly Layton pranced around her older brother's office nonchalantly. She ignored the mess and the odour of off milk, that had risen out of old mugs of tea that had been neglected from a wash and smiled to herself, glad to be out of school for the day. Even though she found Scotland Yard to be a slightly intimidating place, she surprisingly felt a lot more safe in her brother, Alfendi's, office.
Alfendi walked into find his younger sister spinning around underneath the only light in the room, with important papers surrounding flying around her like doves rising up from the ground. Managing to avoid a chuckle at a seemingly melodramatic scene, Alfendi let out a small cough to announce his presence. Upon hearing this, Lilly stopped suddenly, her brown hair flicking her cheek and chin and turned to face her brother.
"I thought you were sick" Alfendi remarked, walking into the room in his signature white coat, pushing a lock of his deep red hair out of his face.
Lilly rolled her eyes and followed her older brother to the other side of his office and to the desk, where Alfendi carelessly dumped a pile of papers that were only to be neglected along with all the papers in the room.
"Had you not already figured it out that I was faking, so I didn't have to go to school?" Lilly queried, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course I had- you're acting skills could really do with some work. I just thought you'd hold up the act a little while longer," Alfendi flatly replied, turning to his mug of coffee.
The brunette merely let out a small 'hmph' noise, annoyed at his comment about her acting ability, before moving a cardboard box off of the only other chair in the room and sat down. She was beginning to grow bored already, but she most certainly didn't want to admit it. She'd lied to her Father earlier in the morning and complained of headaches in a weak, croaky voice. Of course, being his usual kind self, he'd told her she could have the day of school and had sent her to his son's work place, so an eye could still be kept on her.
Lilly had been glad at first. Day time television really was boring and there wasn't much else in the house to do, without company and a police station most certainly was an incredibly exciting place to spend the day. Well, that was how it had sounded at first, however once Lilly had arrived she'd found her brother's office to be a very boring and dull place indeed. Still, it was much better than going to school.
"What subjects?" Alfendi asked his younger sister suddenly, his eyes not moving from his work.
"Huh?" Lilly raised an eyebrow, looking up from her work.
"I asked what subjects," the Inspector repeated, moving his eyes up to look at the teenager. When Lilly only gave him a more quizzical look, he sighed, "What lessons are on your timetable today at school?"
"Oh," Lilly nodded, "Citizenship, history, double science, then double English."
Alfendi nodded, averting his eyes back to his many mountains of forms, which he needed to fill out. "I thought so," he murmured. He knew perfectly well about his sister's slow approach to learning.
The rest of the morning passed incredibly slowly for the Layton siblings. Neither of them said a thing to each other except for when Lilly began to tap her foot against the floor and Alfendi told her to stop, but even then that was only one word. Alfendi didn't even look up from his work once; he seemed completely sucked into his work. This was unlike Lilly, who was trying to draw, but was finding it very difficult to do so in a room with very little inspiration. In the end, she sketched a cobweb, as similar as she could to the one in the right corner of the office.
Just before lunch, there was a soft knock on the door and a woman in a green jacket, with short brown hair, brown eyes and a brown hat to match, burst into the room. A wide grin was spread across her face and she made a rather bouncy entrance. Lilly found it quite amusing and also reassuring- she was beginning to wonder if anyone happy was around that day.
"Morning, Prof!" the woman greeted, closing the door behind her.
"It's not quite morning anymore, Lucy," Alfendi replied, finally looking up from his work and giving her a soft smile.
Catching a small sparkle in her brother's eye, Lilly was momentarily distracted and quickly turned her head to stare at him. She'd never seen him look at anyone that way before, yet, the look seemed vaguely familiar.
The woman gave a small giggle as she looked further around the room, inspecting every corner of it, quickly spotting the young brunette in a purple dress. Her eyes widened and she excitedly looked at Alfendi.
"Who's this then?" she questioned, extremely enthusiastic for such a simple question, "She's a bit too young to be a suspect in our latest crime, isn't she, Prof?"
"Oh, yes, my apologies, Lucy," Alfendi quickly said, "Lucy this is my younger sister, Lillian. Lillian, this is my assistant, DC Lucy Baker."
"Nice to meet you, Lillian!" Lucy beamed, holding out her hand for Lilly to shake, "I didn't know the Prof had a sister."
"Lilly, not Lillian" Lilly corrected, giving Lucy a soft smile and shaking hand, "Why do you call my brother Prof?"
"What? Oh, it's just a nickname," Lucy shrugged.
"A... A nickname..." Lilly muttered, frowning slightly.
"Anyway..." Lucy let go of Lilly's hand quickly, turning to look back at Alfendi, who had, of course, turned back to his work. "Could I do anything for you, Prof?"
"Could you get me and Lilly some tea, please?" Alfendi requested with a soft smile (one that Lilly had most definitely never seen before).
"Sure thing!" Lucy said, the same grin still plastered across her face, "Won't be long!"
Not even a second later, she disappeared out of the door and the second she did, Lilly turned to her older brother with one eyebrow raised. For half a minute or so, Alfendi tried to ignore his sibling, knowing exactly what she was going to say. However, he found trying to do his work with both Lucy and his sister's glare on his mind was too much of a task.
"What is it, Lillian?" Alfendi questioned, rather irritatedly, looking back up at his sister.
"She gave you a nickname," Lilly replied bluntly, "No one gives you nicknames."
"It... It's not a nickname," Alfendi began to protest.
"No? What is it then?"
"It... It's just a name."
"Can I call you Prof?"
Alfendi stared at the teenager for several seconds, his mouth open. He knew his sister wasn't particularly intelligent, however she was clever. And as a teenage girl, this would be the exact type of thing that she would catch on to. With a sigh, he looked back down at his work.
"No," he muttered.
"Then how come...?"
"Because she can," Alfendi replied, "Now, I need to get this work done. Do you think you could stay quiet for just ten minutes?"
Rolling her eyes, the young brunette turned back to her sketchpad and turned the page to a plain one. For a few minutes, she practised her shading and gradient skills, starting of with a darker shade before slowly lightening the shade every few strokes. Once she got to the middle of the page, she began to press harder on the tip of the pencil, slowly creating a darker shade across the righter side of the paper. Once she was done, she looked back at her work; quickly deciding that it looked a lot like the shard of light that came through into the office, between the door and the wall. Looking back at the paper, she was certain that it had been more than ten minutes since Alfendi had told her to be quiet.
"Alf..."
"Three more minutes," he quickly interrupted.
Lilly closed her mouth again, even though she knew there was no way that she'd only been quiet for seven minutes. Alfendi had been writing the entire time (she'd heard the scratch of his pen louder then she'd been able to hear the one of her own) and surely not even he could write and count at the same time. However, she really did want him in the best mood possible he could be in for the question she was about to ask him.
And, so, she counted.
"Alfendi?" Lilly began, the second she reached the number a hundred and eighty.
"Yes?" Alfendi responded in a rather exasperated tone.
"Is Lucy... Your girlfriend?" Lilly asked slowly. She knew that it certainly was a dangerous question to ask. But, even without a criminal around, Alfendi wouldn't react too drastically, would he?
For several seconds (which felt a lot longer to Lilly) there was no response. And, then, Alfendi put his pen down and rested both of his elbows on the desk and intertwined his fingers.
"No..." he replied carefully, "No she isn't. She's my assistant, Lillian. It would be rather inappropriate for us to have a personal relationship."
"Yes, but... Do you love her?"
Alfendi's cheeks suddenly went a deep red, clashing with his crimson hair.
Lilly's eyes and mouth widened and a small giggle escaped her lips. "You do, don't you? You love her!"
Just as Lilly spoke, the door of Alfendi's office opened and Lucy Baker walked back in, carrying a tray with a teapot. The smile was still plastered on her face, but upon hearing Lilly's question, she raised an eyebrow in excitement.
"Who loves who?" the Detective Constable asked, chuckling.
Glancing at her brother, Lilly immediately closed her mouth. Alfendi, who had indeed gone an even darker shade of red and he was scratching the back of his head, giving Lucy an awkward smile, certainly did feel something for his assistant. And she most certainly did, too (why else would she give him a nickname?), but maybe it would be best if she let them figure things out for themselves.
"Err, no one..." Lilly gave a small shrug, immediately turning back to her sketchpad.
Lilly barely said a word for the rest of the afternoon, but she kept a watchful eye on both of them the entire time. And by the time the Professor came to pick her up, Lilly knew for certain that were was something strong between her brother and his assistant. It looked like she would have to keep a watchful eye out on the both of them.
AN: This was indeed an old fic of mine, which has been put here! Now, my Alfendi theory will come into this fic soon, too, so keep your eyes peeled! I'm also planning to have Lucifendi weddings and babies stuff pop upin here from time to time, sokeepyour eyes peeled for that, too!
Requests are always welcome too! And reviews are much loved!
Nikki~