Chapter 3

"Little brushes over here," Evans murmured as he stroked blue paint over his canvas with a small brush. He never got his old brush back as it was taking in for evidence, he didn't even want it back, it reminded him of Louis. Everything seemed to remind him of Louis and lately the voices had started filling in along with the nightmares. Evans had decided to put his mind on other things before he went crazy.

 "Bravado!" He called out suddenly, staring at the beautiful art work in front of him. It was of a little girl in a blue dress, she had a long red hair flowing behind her, the wind brushed through her hair bringing wisps of it on her forehead. Her green eyes held a lot of pain as they stared back at Evans. Her right hand held a knife while her left wrist was bleeding, even with this she held a smile on her face.

Evans stood still as he admired what he has created, this little girl reminded him so much of himself. Memories came hurling at back at him, he shook them away and focused on the beauty in front of him, with a smile, he picked it up by the sides and walked to go leave it to dry off. He left it outside along with other paintings. 

Minutes later, Evans was rounding up for the day when he heard talks that the detective was back again, people were looking worried and placed their selves in an orderly manner. Evans wondered why, if you didn't commit the crime then he saw no need for one to be scared. From what he had gathered from Simon yesterday, people were shooken by the questions asked by the detectives, especially Aurora, she was really pissed with Louis being chosen to represent us, while others didn't announce how they truly felt, she did. Evans had once seen her and Louis in a heated argument, the guy was just never really liked, by anyone.

Evans knew that Gin would send for him, he was kinda curious about the detective, he hadn't met him yet, but the detective had caught his attention. He was right because soon he heard his name being called from the speaker placed at the top right corner of the room. He got up quickly and speed walked downstairs to Gin's office, on second though he turned right and headed to the men's room.

He walked in slowly and closed the door behind him, walking over to the mirror, and taking a stand before it, he stared at his appearance, he wanted to make a good impression on the detective on their first meet. He ran his fingers over his hair and brushed them to the side, straightening his collar properly, he then bent down to untie and tie his shoe laces. Just at that exact moment, he heard footsteps approaching, he quickened in his actions and was about to tie the second one when he heard a low whistle behind him. He choose to ignore it and moved on to his right foot, soon he heard the turning on of a tap and a humming began from the lips of the person behind him, Evans still chosed to ignore it when suddenly the person started humming really loud, Evans knew he was definitely trying to get his attention.

He stood up with a sigh and turned around to face the humming man who had turned off the tap and was now drying his hands. "Do you have anything you want to say to me? Just..." Evans tongue got stuck in the air as he stared at the person right in front of him, it was the same man, the beautiful one, Derek.

"Nothing much, just that you've got a really fine ass on you," Derek said not looking at the person by his side. He removed his hands from the dryer and added a little moisturizer on his palms rubbing them together, he did all this unaware of the frozen man beside him. 

"You?" Evans finally spoke. "Derek."

Hearing his name, Derek turned to look at the small man beside him. His eyes slowly opened wide in shock, he stood frozen staring at Evans, then slowly blinked his eyes. "I could swear I thought I would never see you again after you well, ran away."

"I- I didn't run away," Evans said, his voice low. "I had somewhere to be."

"Uhn uh," Derek nodded. "Normally I am the one doing the running, I guess I know how my previous partners felt when they experienced that."

"I didn't run away Derek, I had somewhere to be, I wouldn't run away." He looked round the room, trying to avoid the intent gaze of Derek's eyes on him. He bit his lower lips and rubbed his thumb finger nervously as he looked round.

"I believe... Wait a minute." Evans looked up at him. "You're Evans?" Evans looked confused as he nodded.

"Well, I didn't expect you to forget my name so easily."

"No, not that, Louis Fellingway..." Evans raised an eyebrow at this, the question of who Derek actually was ran through his head, he hadn't thought of that till now. "You're the Evans."

"You're the detective?!" His eyes widened and his jaw dropped open in disbelief. 

"Why didn't I see this?!" Derek slammed his palm on his forehead. "Of course you're the Evans, I mean I couldn't have known but..."

"But what? Do you think I seduced you to sleep with me or something? I didn't even know you then and I- I didn't uhmm... OK, I was going to say something really sassy and defensive but I- I've got nothing." He said with an innocent look and Derek couldn't help the laugh that escaped his lips as he shook his head.

"You're so..." But he stopped short when the flushing of a toilet came from the stall next to them. They turned their head immediately alarmed, their eyes trained on the door knob which twisted slowly, the door creaked as it opened slowly to reveal a certain young man name Simon smiling sheepishly at them.

"Simon?!"

"Hello!" He smiled at the two of them, "I didn't hear anything," he said as he walked towards a sink to wash his hand, turning off the tap he glanced back at them. "I heard nothing at all, not a single word reached my ears." He turned off the tap and walked towards the door. With Derek backing him, he mouthed to Evans. "I heard everything, we'll talk later." And rushed out of the restroom.

Evans gulped and looked at Derek. "Your friend should know that I saw his mouthing through the mirror."

~~~~~

Evans sat beside Derek as they both faced Gin. He tried his best to concentrate on the words that left Gin's mouth rather than the way Derek was glancing at him every ten seconds.

"There would be a gathering tomorrow, I have sent an email to the administrators that there has been a change in our representatives, so your name should be on the list," Gin said to them.

Derek nodded his head and turned to Evans, "I will send you pictures of top drug dealers that operates in this town. We suspect they will be meeting tomorrow, since Louis who I suspect to be their delivery guy is dead, they should be looking for a new one. It won't be easy to sneak in cocaine in the statesmanship award because of the top security, only an artist, participating in the awards can do that."

"Why are they doing it through the statesmanship award? Why not somewhere else?" Evans asked confused.

"Because it safer for them, who would suspect a cocaine business during an award show?" Evans gave no answer to this. "Exactly the point, no one."

"OK, so all I have to do is notice any unusual gatherings or something like that?"

"Yes, exactly." Both Gin and Derek said.

"That's boring, I was thinking I was going to be doing serious spy work, you know like in the movies?"

"Nothing is like in the movies," Derek said shaking his head. "OK?" Evans nodded with a bored expression.

"So, not even any gadget?"

"Well, you would be wearing a wire, does that count?" Evans face lit up.

"You serious?" Derek nodded, "And you said it wasn't like in the movies." He smiled to himself in anticipation for tomorrow.

"Would that be all Detective?"

"Yes, also, Evans will have to move his things to my apartment for..."

"What? That will not be happening, I am not moving nowhere," He shook his head protesting.

"It's for your own protection Evans..."

"I can protect myself, I am not going anywhere!" He insisted.

"OK then, let's look at this. You're asleep on your bed, probably dreaming of Ice cream and..."

"What flavour?" He asked suddenly.

"Flavour?"

"Of the Ice cream," he said.

"Why does the flavour of the ice cream matter?" Derek asked confused, Evans turned around to look at him.

"If you are going to convince me to move to your house then I need to know the flavour of Ice cream I would be dreaming about?"

"But what would that even do to help and it's just a dream, not a real..."

"Just tell me the flavour Detective."

"Fine! Strawberry, are you OK with that? Or is it too..."

"I want vanilla, I don't like strawberry."

"Evans just let the Detective speak," Gin finally spoke up after watching the short banter between the two young men in front of him.

"But-" 

"Let the man speak Evans."

"Ok."

"Thank you!" He said to Gin. "Now, you're sleeping dreaming of Vanilla ice cream-" Evans smiled to that, "- and pizza and please don't ask me the type of Pizza." He said immediately he saw Evans mouth opening, Evans shot him a look before closing his mouth. "Unknown to you masked man had invaded your apartment, and then seeing you asleep they decide to wake you up with torturous..."

"I will come stay with you!" Evans said suddenly.

"You didn't even let him finish." Gin who was getting interested said with a dissapointed look.

"I don't want to hear anymore," he looked at Gin, "Why are you so interested in my torture story?"

"I am not," he gave an awkward laugh and cleared his head throat. "So, it's settled, Evans is staying with you."

"Well, I just have to grab a few things from my house before you cardodle me away."

"Cardodle?"

~~~~~~~

Derek walked into the small apartment Evans that belongs to Evans Stiles, a small teddy bear swung from a rope and hit him in the face immediately he entered.

"Oww." He held the bear in his hands and looked at it. "Why is this even here?"

"I thought it would be funny, " he heard Evans say. "I call him Ser the swinging bear."

"Wow! Nice name." He pushed the bear aside and closed the door behind him, walking further into the apartment. He looked round, Evans wasn't in the living room.

"Feel free to take a seat, I will be done here in a minute." His voice shouted from a room.

"Thanks," Derek said under his breathe and took a seat, his eyes scanning the room. He took in the artworks hinged around, he suspected drawn by Evans since he now knew he was an artist.

Even the wall of his apartment were artworks, he stood up and walked towards the wall. "Your drawings are beautiful!"

"Thank you!" Evans called from the room.

Soon, Evans walked into the room to find Derek beside of photo of he and his grandma. It was taken last year, they had decided to paint each other faces, he had made her look like a cat and she had gone for a dog look on his face. Those were the good days before the first attack had happened. "I am ready," he said.

Derek dropped the frame and turned around. "OK good, let's go."