Quentin grunted, lifting the final box he had packed onto a moving van. He didn't have a lot of things, just his necessities and a few sentimental items from his time, you know, being alive.

He still couldn't believe he would be working for a gang leader, well, gang in general. He called the gang his family, so hopefully they won't kill him if he accidentally makes something too spicy. Don't dwell on it too long... with that thought, he decided to stare out the window until he arrived.

What the young cook was expecting, he didn't know. What he wasn't expecting was being dropped off at the front of a cafe. The cafe in question had a pale blue exterior with white window shutters fixed open with garlands of presumably fake flowers. It looked way too... delicate... to belong to a gang.

With a sigh, he awkwardly opened the door, the bell signalling someone had arrived. "Coming!" A voice chirped.

Out came a woman with black hair streaked with bleach blonde highlights. She had a pretty smile and her emerald eyes reflected it perfectly, "welcome! What can I get ya?" She asked, wiping her hands on a black apron covering a white blouse.

"Actually..." Quentin pulled out the paper from Carlo, handing it to her, "I was told to come here by a man named Carlo? I'm the new cook."

Her eyes shone even more before she handed it back to him, "of course! You must be Quentin! I'm Monica Morris, I run this café as my duty to the main house," she told him, waving her hand around absentmindedly.

Quentin smiled politely, but he was confused, "main house?"

"Oh! Sorry, I get sidetracked," she laughed, "Carlo is the big boss, so his family is the main house. Aka, the Rubio house, since that is his last name. I'm a Morris, which is a branch house under him, and under me is the Bauer house."

"I see," Quentin glanced to the paper before looking up, "where do I find Carlo?" He asked, feeling like he was asking more questions than getting them actually answered.

She turned towards a door behind the counter, "through here, there's a hallway and a set of stairs. Down the stairs is the bar where everyone usually gathers, and then down the hall is a door that goes outside. Out back there is a house, the main house! Though Carlo would most likely be down in the bar. Check there first."

"Gotcha, thank you Monica," Quentin thanked, tipping his head a bit as he walked behind the counter to the door. After walking in he noticed the hallway right away, leading to a door. Then he noticed a door shaped hole in the wall where a set of stairs going down was.

He walked down them, shivering a bit as the corridor was chilly, and then opened the black door that had a red light in the center. Inside the bar he first noticed a sleek black counter with a man in a black pinstripe suit behind it. Said man looked at Quentin and narrowed his eyes, glancing to another man whom in turn gestured to a camera that was in the corner.

Quentin didn't want to admit it, but he was kinda scared. It wasn't every day he would walk into a bar filled with criminals. Okay there were, like, three people in the room at the moment. But that was enough.

Then a door from the furthest wall opened and out stepped Carlo Rubio himself. He turned to Quentin with a bright smile, "Quentin! You made it! Have any trouble?"

"Uh, no, but I still have the boxes still in front of the café, should I worry?" Quentin asked, laughing nervously under the harsh stare of the bartender.

Carlo seemed to notice that and looked at him, "Kane, it's all good, this is Quentin, the kid replacing your cooking job," he informed.

Quentin paled in the face and looked to Kane, "I am SO sorry."

Carlo burst into a fit of laughter, "it's cool! Kane sucked as a cook, he's a bartender. We just needed a cook as the one before him liked to make... mystery... meat."

Kane visibly cringed at the mention of the meat and nodded to Quentin, "yes, I'm not angry about it. I have enough burns and horrible critics to last me a lifetime," he added, motioning to the wall of alcohol behind him.

"Now! About your boxes, Monica called down to me to let me know my men were putting them in your room, which will be in the upstairs apartment, above the café." Carlo explained, pointing upward.

Quentin nodded, but looked wary, "is it okay to give me a whole apartment?"

"Yeah, well, it doesn't include a kitchen so you have to use ours or the café's, and the apartment is more like a studio apartment, no separate rooms except for the bathroom which has a toilet, sink, and a shower." Carlo answered.

"Better than nothing," Quentin offered with a smile of his own, "can someone show me around or do you want to just let me wander?"

Kane let out a long suffering sigh, "Boss, I don't want to do it."

"Tell me how you really feel."

"I just hate walking, no offense to you, Quentin."

Quentin shrugged, "none taken."

Carlo chuckled softly, pulling out his phone and holding it to his ear, "hey Dax? Is Menny down in his lab?" There was a pause, Kane winced at the name, "great! Send him up!"

Kane looked at Quentin, "whatever you do, do NOT offer to help him with a new experiment," he warned, eyes glinting with a hidden fear.

Not even a moment after Kane said the warning, the same door Carlo walked out from slammed open: revealing a person in a baby blue nurse getup. Upon closer inspection Quentin noticed the person had stitches lining his body in different areas, with a pink liquid oozing out.

The person grinned as he saw Kane and skipped over to him, "Kane! Did you miss me? Is that why you called me?" By the tone of the voice they sounded quite ominous, but in an ecstatic manner.

Kane cringed, "no, it was the boss who called you, not me," he stated coldly.

"No fun," Quentin pieced together that this person was the one named Menny, "so what did you need, boss?" Menny looked at Quentin with new interest, his one (strangely purple) eye shining in mad glee.

Carlo smiled, "I need someone to show our cook around, he's new so please don't try to break him."

Quentin shivered at that, just what did he mean by that? Menny walked up to Quentin and sized him up, looking at Quentin's dark hair the most. He hummed in what seemed to be acceptance, "okie dokie! He looks too fragile anyways, too easy to break," he teased, "follow me newbie!"

"Uhm, okay," Quentin gave Kane a wary look, only to be ignored. Carlo waved them goodbye as he sat down at the bar with the other man that Quentin had totally forgotten was there.

Through the door was another hallway, except this time there was multiple doors. Menny pointed to each door that basically were rooms belonging to members of the gang, the door at the end of the hall was a meeting room for private meetings, reserved for Carlo and whomever he needed to privately talk to.

"Then here's my room!" Menny slapped his hand on a door that had a bunch of gauze taped to it and a plaque next to it that said: The Doctor Is, and hanging from it was an open and closed sign that was set to closed.

"Are you a doctor?" Quentined asked, looking more closely at the stitching on Menny's body.

Menny turned on his heel and nodded, "yep! I had a proper education in health, but I like to cut people open and put them back together for fun more than for benefit," he replied in an eerie tone of voice.

Quentin nodded, choosing not to let the fact he could be dismembered bother him, "so what's with the pink stuff coming from your stitches?"

"Oh! It's my blood! Pretty right?" Menny laughed loudly at Quentin's shocked expression, "I like to experiment~ I developed a way to turn my blood pink and my eye color purple! Don't ask how, I won't tell you!"

"I wasn't going to, but thank you," Quentin nervously looked around, "so is that everything down here?"

Menny nodded, "yep! Onto the main house!" He grabbed Quentin's hand and dragged him up the stairs, much to the surprise of Quentin himself.

Kane watched on in relief as Menny hadn't stopped to bother him again, he silently prayed for Quentin though.

Up the basement stairs, Menny took Quentin to the back door that lead out to the main house. It wasn't surprisingly huge, it looked like it only had two stories. Quentin followed Menny to the house's back door.

"So this is the main house, anyone who isn't part of the main family sleeps in the rooms in the basement of HQ," Menny turned to Quentin, "though you stay in the up-upstairs."

"What about the branch houses?"

"They have their own homes, Monica just runs the café because she likes to," Menny answered with a shrug.

"Ah, I get it," Quentin noticed that Menny's curly blond hair had a patch of a lighter shade on the bangs, "are those from an experiment, too?"

Menny looked confused before he smiled, "yeah! Monica has cool blonde streaks, I wanted some too, but my hair is already super light, and dye fades too fast as well, so I just made my own that permanently dyes it!" He looked thoroughly pleased with being asked about things. Maybe he isn't paid attention to a lot?

Quentin smiled, "you said you were educated in health, does that mean you're a high school graduate?"

"I never went to high school," Menny said, "I got into fights too often... kids were cruel beings, so before I quit I stabbed a kid with a sharpened pencil. But yeah, I did go to college, although I had to do it secretly and stole a lot of information."

"At least you have a useful skill, even if you like to carve people up, you can still put them together," Quentin complimented.

This time Menny was the one surprised. He grew a sheepish grin and nodded, "I guess so..." he cleared his throat, "anyways! Onto the house! Since you'll be cooking for the main family and their personal henchmen-which includes me-I'll only show you the kitchen and dining room."

Quentin nodded in agreement and followed the blond boy inside. The kitchen was fairly big, about three cooks could, well, cook alongside each other comfortably if needed. There were high quality equipment and appliances, even cooking utensils. Quentin almost cried in delight, but kept it together.

The dining room was much bigger than the kitchen, with a table that could seat ten. Menny pointed to the chair at the head of the table, "that belongs to the boss, and the two adjacent are his wife's and his bodyguard's. Got everything?"

Quentin nodded, "mhm, thank you for showing me around, I'll ask Carl-er-boss about the meal times later."

Menny gave a thumbs up, "okie! If you need any help cooking, I can make a killer meatloaf or sushi spread," he suggested, his eye twinkling in mischief.

Quentin snorted before nodding, "thank you, I'll be sure to if I'm looking for something special."

"Ha! Okie, I'm heading back down! Call if ya need~" Menny winked, or blinked (Quentin couldn't tell with just one eye being shown), and waved him goodbye before disappearing out the door.

What have I gotten myself into? Quentin laughed quietly to himself.