Chapter 5

Stepping up, to the podium, a tall man with black hair, glasses, and teal eyes scans the room and smirks.

"My name is Caio Níserraté and with my twin brother, it is an honor to work with you all on behalf of this city. I hope we can both learn something from each other while spending time together on different cases."

He steps down and Pierre rolls his eyes.

"I can already tell he's gonna be a problem."

Kazimir shrugs.

"You both seem to act the same."

Stepping up to the podium, a tall male with dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes folds his hands on top.

"Good afternoon. My name is Dayne Níserraté and unlike my brother, I'm going to be honest with you all. You people aren't even making .5 of a dent in lowering the crime rate."

He holds up a piece of graph paper, pointing to a rising red line.

"This is both murder and drug activity. Notice how it barely lowers."

He then points to a blue line that was significantly lower than the red one.

"And this is where you all stand. So I'd like to ask you, what the hell do you all even spend your time doing?"

A man from the group of detectives stands up.

"To answer your question, we have had a lot of disappearances and unsolved murders of fellow police officers happening inside this place as well. We try our best but it's honestly too much to bear."

Dayne shakes his head in disappointment.

"Too much to bear or are you just not pushing hard enough?"

"Sir?" The confused detective asks.

"There's no such thing as "too much to bear." That's a made up excuse that some idiot made up in order to justify themselves into not trying their hardest."

Dayne looks around the room and nods.

"Starting now, none of you are going to use an excuse of having "too much to bear." If you think that this work is overwhelming, then this job isn't for you."

He steps down and stands next to his brother as Mr. Uzini blinks a couple of times, before clasping his hands together.

"Thank you both for your, um, words of encouragement. This briefing has been dismissed, have a good rest of your day."

The room quickly fills back up with chatter, some of the detectives heading up front to introduce themselves to the two men.

"I'm going to go get the girls." Pierre says, standing up. "Go talk to them for me, we'll be waiting in the car for you."

"And why can't you do that yourself?" Kazimir asks.

Pierre scowls.

"I'm tired. And blondie's attitude is pissing me off."

The young detective rolls his eyes and the two men go separate ways.

Standing aside, he waits until most of the other detectives start to clear the room before introducing himself.

"Uh, hello. My name is Kazimir Cizetto."

The teal-eyed twin, Caio, turns to him and smiles.

"It's a pleasure meeting you."

He looks at Kazimir for a few seconds, who raises a brow.

"Sorry, I was just trying to figure out part of your identity. Your original nationality must be Russian, but your face looks of both Japanese and Caucus descent."

Kazimir's jaw slightly drops and he nods.

"That's actually correct. How'd you know that?"

Caio shrugs and smiles.

"Just a hunch."

Immediately, the two were interrupted by a couple of women who also wanted their chance to speak with the dashing, dark-haired man.

Backing up, Kazimir crashes into the back of someone.

"Oh fuck."

The taller, blonde-haired twin, Dayne, turns around, a serious look plastered across his face.

"My bad. Didn't notice anyone was behind me."

"You must be volunteering, son."

Kazimir nods and gives the man a concerned look.

"You could tell?"

Dayne nods.

"Even rookies know how to watch their surroundings. That's your homework for tonight, practice watching your surroundings. Could come in handy one day"

He turns back to the other men he was talking to and Kazimir quickly walks out of the building, towards Pierre's car.

"So how'd it go?"

"They're weird." Kazimir replies, closing the car door.

"That's not a very nice thing to say, Kazimir." Pierre says, chuckling.

"Then you meet them yourself and see what I'm talking about."

"Like I said, I can't deal with their attitudes right now. I'll meet them tomorrow; see what's all the hype about."

He pulls out of the parking lot and drops Khristina's friend off at her grandmother's house before dropping both Kazimir and Khristina off as well.

"And this is the last bag. See you tomorrow." Pierre says, shoving it in Kazimir's already full hands.

Khristina waves as Pierre speeds off and the two quickly walk inside the apartment building.

Unlocking the door, the small girl runs in and turns the light on, followed by Kazimir who sets the bags down and immediately heads to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.

"Mr. Kazimir?"

"Yes, Khristina?"

He watches as the young girl happily skips into the kitchen, holding two dolls in each of her arms.

"Do you have an extra shelf so that I can put these two dolls on?"

"I think I do."

Walking out of the kitchen, Kazimir looks around the small living room, nodding.

"Here we are."

Khristina smiles and opens up the boxes, carefully taking both dolls out and handing them to Kazimir to put on the shelf.

The two take a step back and the young girl clasps her hands together, the young man letting out a soft chuckle.

"See! It's both me and you! And maybe one day, you'll get to add a wife doll too!"

"Maybe one day." the stunned man replies. "Anyway, what would you like for dinner?"

"Takeout!"

"Takeout it is then."

Kazimir dials a ramen restaurant, ordering four bowls of different flavors of ramen.

After placing his order, he sits down and stretches, closing his eyes before feeling a tap on his shoulder.

"There's a lot of smoke coming from your coffee maker, Mr. Kazimir."

"Shit!"

Jumping back up, the tired man runs into the kitchen, grabbing the coffee pot and putting it under cold water to cool it down.

"I suppose it's just better to have a glass of water, anyway."

DING DONG!

Walking over to the front door, Kazimir opens it and grabs the bag of food, paying the deliveryman.

He closes it and sets the bag on the table, giving Khristina a bowl of ramen.

"What're these?" Khristina asks, holding up a pair of chopsticks.

Kazimir takes another pair out of the bag, placing them on his bowl.

"These are chopsticks. They're used to eat the noodles with. Kinda like this."

The young girl watches as the man quickly scoops up some noodles with the pair of chopsticks.

"Teach me please!" She says, trying to hold the eating utensil just as like Kazimir demonstrated.

He chuckles and nods.

"Alright. Take your pinky and ring fingers and put them on the bottom stick like this. Now, with your middle, index, and thumb, place it on the upper stick."

"Is this right?"

"Almost. Here, I'll fix it for you."

He corrects her thumb and ring finger and nods.

"There you are."

She smiles and watches as the older male picks up the noodles with his chopsticks and follows his lead.

"Oh! I did it!"

Kazimir couldn't help but smile at the small girl's excitement.

"Yes, you did. Good job, Khristina!"

After the two finish eating, he cleans up as Khristina gets ready for bed.

"Can I stay up just a bit longer?" Khristina asks, brushing her teeth.

Looking up from his schoolwork, Kazimir shakes his head.

"Nope. I know you're on winter break, but it's still necessary that a growing girl like you gets her proper rest."

"Like sleeping beauty?" she asks.

"Like sleeping beauty."

She runs off to rinse the toothpaste out of her mouth before coming back.

"I'm ready to be be tucked in!"

"Okay. I'll be right there."

Finishing up a paragraph, Kazimir gets up and enters his former bedroom, smiling as the young girl plays with her stuffed animals.

"I thought you said you were ready for bed?"

"I am!"

She climbs onto the large bed, Kazimir pulling the warm blankets over her.

"Can you sing me a lullaby please?"

The young detective nervously chuckles.

"Well, I don't think my singing voice is that good. I can-

"It's alright! Your singing voice doesn't have to be perfect, I just want a lullaby." Khristina interrupts.

Sighing, the young man nods.

"Okay. What would you like for me to sing?"

"Twinkle twinkle little star, please."

Kazimir nods and clears his throat, before singing.

"Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are."

He watches as the small girl's eyes grow wide in amazement.

Upon singing the final verse, he takes a small bow as Khristina claps her hands.

"You have a really, really, really good singing voice, Mr. Kazimir! You should use it more!"

"Oh, uh, thank you. That means a lot, actually."

He stands up and pats the young girl's shoulder.

"Goodnight and sweet dreams, little one."

"Night night." Khristina replies with a yawn.

She quickly falls asleep, Kazimir turning the light off and closing the door behind him, breathing in relief.

"Jeez, who knew taking care of a kid could be this complicated?"