"So what have you lot got yourself into?" Casper pompously asked as he placed his suitcase on the table.
Adem scowled, "Nothing that concerns you."
Casper sighed, tired of Adem's tsundere behaviour. "How long are you going to act like this? There's only so much brooding I can handle, don't make your starting troubles everyone's problems."
Adem's scowl deepened, his eyes darkening. "I don't brood. And I don't have starting troubles," he emphasized loudly.
Is this kid really lying to me? Casper thought incredulously. He's a hundred years too early to pull this, does he think I'm that dumb?
His gaze flickered to the slight scrape present on his cheek, hidden by a pink band-aid that looked quite hilarious.
"Whatever," Casper said aloud, shrugging as he hung his coat on the rack. "I don't really care."
School yard brawls were nothing of concern.
"What did you get up to in Tingen?" Adem asked quietly, swinging his legs from his seat.
"Not much, met up with an old friend, had a fun little chat and then we came to Backlund," he replied with a small grin, recalling the little prank he played on Klein.
Gods was that funny.
"We?" Adem repeated in surprise.
"Mhmm, he's moving to Backlund so I thought I'd accompany him." Casper stretched and flopped onto the couch.
"I see…" Adem paused before flatly informing him. "Someone came here for a case he wanted you to pursue."
"Someone came here?" he repeated, sitting up sharply. "For a case?"
His eyes lit up.
"Details, Adem. Now." He demanded, licking his lips.
"A kid of about 14 years. He wanted you to find his employer — a detective by the name of Zreal as he suddenly disappeared. He was quite worried about him."
Ian Wright huh? Casper thought at once, So it's that case.
He leaned back and waved his hand. "Go on."
"I told him that you weren't here and to come back later."
Hearing that, Casper stood abruptly with a painful expression and asked with a groan, "Why?!"
"What do you mean why?" Adem snapped, folding his arms. "What do you want me to do?! Take the case and investigate without you?"
"Yes?!" Casper yelled, as if it was an obvious fact. "We're a little tight on money in case you hadn't noticed. You need to pull your weight or else we'll return to your previous situation — but this time I'll be joining you.
"I'm paying you to be my assistant. You should have accepted the case, investigated a little and stalled him until I came back."
Adem deadpanned.
"Seriously?" He asked with an irked expression.
Casper threw his arms up, his expression one of resignation. "You don't know the difficulty of being poor… wait — I'm sorry, that was quite insensitive of me."
After a long silence, Casper exhaled deeply and slumped back on the couch. He raised his head with a seemingly "given up on life" expression and muttered slowly, "Fine, what's done is done. Let's just hope that kid comes back."
He then glanced at Adem and asked slowly. "Where's your sister?"
Adem avoided his gaze and replied indifferently, "She went out to buy some groceries, there's nothing in this house."
Casper nodded. Then added casually, "And whose fault is that?"
His question hung in the air for a moment.
Adem slowly turned his head towards Casper, his expression one of pure shock and bewilderment.
"You're seriously not blaming me for there not being food in this household?" He asked grimly.
"Oh yes, I am." Casper retorted.
"If you didn't turn down that client, then maybe we'd have food in the house!" He quipped.
"Firstly, I did not know that I had to accept cases when you weren't available. Secondly, we aren't impoverished enough that we can't afford food. We simply ran out, and we have enough money to buy said food. So I have no idea why we are even having this conversation."
Adem deconstructed the argument piece by piece, disproving Casper's points.
Casper considered his words for a moment and admitted his mistake, "Fair enough," he said with a shrug, and then added. "I genuinely have no idea why I picked that fight. I'm unusually pissy right now."
Adem let out a heavy, exasperated sigh. "You and your mood swings. Tell me? Is it that time of the month for you?"
Casper stared at Adem, his expression unreadable.
Then, slowly, he rose from the couch.
Adem's bravado faltered, his eyes widened as he realised exactly what he'd just said.
"Wait. Casper, I didn't—"
But his apology arrived too late.
Casper stepped forward, drew back his right arm, and delivered a crisp punch straight to his head.
Recieving his blow, Adem yelped and tumbled off the couch.