A little warning: this isn't a fluffy or funny story. I'm going to let my psychopathic or sociopathic side run free for this one. If you stay put until the interlude between chapter 2 and chapter 3, you'll know what I mean ;)

Don't let the first chapter fool you! It's just preparing the setting for the story (if you want to know my reasons why I used this way, you are free to ask ^^) The main characters are Takeo and Suyi (and no, no pairing.)

Chapter 1

Yuna felt tears burn in her eyes. She wouldn't allow them to fall, but it was hard to keep them from making their way down her cheeks. It was not like she was in pain, but Suyi was. Literally and figuratively.

Just a few minutes ago, Yuna had seen the bruises on her best friend's arm as they were changing for their last PE lesson, and after a bit of persuasion, the other girl had told her the whole story. And that was what had literally left Yuna on the verge of breaking into tears.

"But you'll have to tell somebody! You can't allow him to harm you just because he's the bodyguard assigned to you for the next few weeks!" Yuna insisted forcefully even though she kept her voice down and had to bite her lower lip to stop herself from crying. Suyi didn't need someone who cried. She needed someone to help her!

"No. If word came out, it would be disastrous. Can you imagine the headlines? 'Im Suyi falsely accuses bodyguard of harassment' or something like that? No, I can't do it. I have to endure it until the three concerts during autumn vacation are over. It's okay."

Suyi's voice was calm and composed. So much like business that it reminded Yuna of the superficial world her friend lived in. In school she was a girl like everybody else as much as she could be with her status as idol. But to the outside world, she had to be perfect, a mature woman in the disguise of a teenager. Following a sudden urge, Yuna hugged the other girl, keeping her in a tight embrace.

For a second, Suyi's body stiffened, but then she returned the hug, resting her head on Yuna's shoulder and heaving a deep, sad sigh. And that was the moment Yuna had decided that it was not okay and that like hell she would leave Suyi helpless in the hands of that bastard! She was weak and insignificant, but she wouldn't allow someone to mess with her friends! And as she wasn't powerful enough to help Suyi, she just had to ask someone who could and who was reliable enough to keep a low profile so the media wouldn't catch wind of it. And she knew a trustworthy person that fitted that description. Now she only had to ask him for help.

"I don't think that it's a good idea."

"It is a good idea. He's going to help us. He has to."

M-21 could hear the girls perfectly clear through the door to his room. He had retreated to his room, catching up on some novel that seemed to be a classic in the normal non-Union human world, but he had stopped reading a while ago. The hushed voices of the girls had caught his interest as they lingered on the corridor since a few minutes ago, speaking lowly and conspiratorially.

Normally, he wasn't someone who would eavesdrop, but they headed to his room. And, additionally, Yuna's voice sounded definite, while Suyi sounded uncertain. In other times it was more the other way round.

A knock snapped him out of his reverie. He dropped the book about a white whale and some revenge-hunting man on his nightstand and headed for the door. As expected the two girls stood in front of him, but he didn't think that Yuna would be the one standing in front, keeping Suyi's hand in her own as if she was afraid the other girl would run away. And he hadn't expected the confident look on her face. There was something really out of the ordinary.

"Ajussi, we have to ask you something… We need help. Please!"

The first demanding voice got weak and almost begging in the course of seconds. Also there was a look on Yuna's face that he didn't like. It was so anxious. He saw how Suyi looked any way but at him. He saw the intertwined fingers of the girls, their knuckles white from gripping so hard, and he saw the unshed tears of desperation in Yuna's eyes, which were fixed on his.

Without questioning them further, he stepped aside and opened the door farther to let the girls enter. If he thought properly about it, this was the first time one of the human children had stepped into his room, but on second thought, it wasn't important right now.

He expected them to comment on the room, the lack on personal things or photos, but the girls didn't even take a proper look. They just stood in the middle of the room, seemingly a bit lost. M-21 nodded towards the bed while he took the only chair in this room, which stood at the desk. He sat down on the chair as he turned it towards the girls and looked at them expectantly.

"What do you need my help for?"

M-21 caught the short glance the girls threw each other. Suyi's was almost begging, Yuna's steely. What the heck was happening here? Why were their roles reversed in a way? M-21 couldn't prevent it, but he felt kind of on the edge.

"Ajussi, well…" Yuna stopped and looked to the ground. She was still holding Suyi's hand, sitting close to the other girl as if she had to protect her.

This fragile girl protecting someone? The thought would have made M-21 snort in amusement if his heart hadn't felt like someone clenched it. Then Yuna straightened her back and looked him in the eyes again, her face determined.

"You may know that Suyi is giving a few concerts during the vacation. She has to go to rehearsals, and there are always crowds of fans or media so her agency assigned a bodyguard to her. But… but he is the worst! He hurt her! Please, Ajussi, you have to help us. I beg you, help us."

Yuna's strong façade broke as she begged for his help and finally he saw her tears fall. Now it was Suyi that squeezed her hand, but M-21 didn't really pay attention to it. There was a guy that dared to hurt one of these human children! M-21 clenched his teeth. That so-called bodyguard would curse the day he had thought about harming Suyi; he would make sure of that.

He only noticed that his face had to be kind of scary as the girls looked at him in an almost shocked way. Did they think he was angry at them? With all his might, he forced the scowl down. Inwardly, he was growling, ready to tear that guy's throat out, but he tried his best to keep his face in a stoic mask.

"Why don't you ask your agency to change the guard?" M-21 now logically approached the problem. It wasn't really easy to focus with all the anger boiling just below the surface, but he tried for the girls' sake.

"I would, but if word came out, the media would jump right onto it. I would need a good reason and NOT being harassed by a guard that should protect me. It would be a disaster for my reputation."

Suyi calmly presented the facts even though M-21 could see how hard it was for her to not break out into tears, too. Yuna was still crying silently, and that was almost more than M-21 could bear; two crying girls in his room would be more than he could take. But he came to another conclusion: This was far out of his league! If it was only a guy to beat up, he could do it without breaking a sweat. But keeping a low profile? Thinking about the media? Being sneaky and not directly charging at the target? He needed Tao!

"Let's switch rooms," he calmly, at least outwardly, said. He pushed the chair back to the desk as soon as he jumped up. He threw the still sitting girls a look, and they hurried to stand up, a clearly confused look on their faces. "I know, what I'm doing. Trust me."

"We do."

M-21 stopped for an instance at Yuna's words while opening the door. The girls had asked him for help, and he wouldn't let them down. Even if that meant to include Takeo and Tao in this, not that those two would mind.

He led the two girls back the way that would lead to the living room as his own room was the last in the corridor. He had chosen that place as he moved into this house because it provided a bit of safety in his mind. Now it was only convenient if he wanted a bit of peace as the children tended to make a loud ruckus whenever they were present.

Instead of heading to the living room, M-21 stopped after a few steps and knocked on the door next to his. He could hear someone moving in the room so the one living there was present.

"Takeo! Into Tao's room. Now!" M-21 ordered after a short knock at the snipers door. He knew he was rude and even curterthan any other time, but he was furious. There was no way he would keep himself occupied with trivialities like etiquette when someone had threatened one of the children!

Without lingering, he went the few steps towards Tao's room. He didn't have to knock as the door flew open to reveal a curiously looking hacker. Of course he was too nosy to stay in this room as soon as it got lively outside. But M-21 was used to it.

"What do you… Woah! You made Yuna cry!" Tao hurried to the side of the girl. She had stopped crying, but there were still traces of tears on her cheeks left and her eyes were red and puffy. Too preoccupied with keeping his rage in check, M-21 only now thought about how it had to look for others. Not that he minded. The inhabitants of this house and the children knew him, and he didn't care about any other person.

Stunning the two girls and M-21, the hacker patted Yuna's head while saying, "There, there… don't take it to heart whatever the mean guy over there said or did."

"Tao!" M-21 growled, glaring at the other man. As if he would ever knowingly harm one of the children, and Tao knew it and… To his surprise, he could hear the two girls giggle weakly. They stopped themselves as soon as he turned to them with a surprised look on his face, but they had giggled nonetheless.

Tao shot him a triumphal glance, and M-21 only rolled his eyes before heading into the hacker's room without looking back. But at least the human children behaved a bit more relaxed. If it was Tao's little stunt just now or the fact that they saw that they were taking their problem seriously, M-21 couldn't tell. Although he was relieved that it turned out this way.

Tao's room was the same size as M-21's, but he had stuffed it to the brim with electrical equipment. The shades were closed and illuminated the room in a dim half-light, making the black curtains and bed sheets even darker.

M-21 leaned against one of the few places on the wall not lined by cupboards or other things and waited for the others to settle. Tao flung away a few cables and projects from his bed to make room for the girls to sit. He, himself, flopped backwardly onto his chair, rolling to the edge of the bed. Before he could ask something, Takeo stepped into the room, too. His clothes were a bit disheveled, and his almost dripping wet hair showed that he had been under the shower just minutes ago.

Without another place to sit, he sat down next to Suyi, still drying his hair with a towel. If he was surprised about the girls being in one of their meetings, M-21 couldn't see him show it. The only reaction he showed was a raised eyebrow at the sight of Yuna's red eyes and the way the children still held hands.

"So, what's the problem?" Tao broke the silence after a few seconds, for once not showing his wide grin as he cautiously glanced at Yuna's puffy eyes. M-21 explained it shortly with some words added by the two girls. Suyi even rolled up her sleeves to show the bruises on her arms. But it struck M-21 that the physical abuse wasn't the thing that kept her on edge the most. It seemed like the bodyguard was pretty rude and suggestive with words, too. After a few moments the other two enhanced humans showed the same grim face M-21 knew he was making himself.

"That's really a complicated problem."

"That's why I came here. I'm not good with these kinds of things."

"Yeah, you would love to go drag that guy out of town, shoot him, and bury his corpse somewhere in the woods."

Inwardly, M-21 had to admit that it was pretty close to the things he had imagined the second Yuna told him what that guy had done to Suyi. On the other hand, he knew that that would only draw unwanted attention to the idol so he had refrained from it.

"Tao, stop spouting nonsense when two girls are sitting in the same room. You're scaring them," Takeo reprimanded before M-21 could do anything other than glare at the hacker.

The two human girls exchanged glances the whole time and tried to follow the ordeal with silent astonishment. It didn't happen often that they were witnesses of their conversations, so maybe it surprised them how chatty they were when it was only the three of them. Well, Tao was always a very chatty guy, but normally Takeo and M-21 would let him do the talking. Now, they were discussing the ordeal, considering the possible things to do and the influence it would have on Suyi or her reputation.

But after a while M-21 noticed how Suyi, who had been following their conversation with rapt attention up till now, let her gaze fall to the floor. Where they perhaps overdoing it? Was this more than she wanted? Or was she afraid that they wouldn't come out of the planning state and leave her alone with the problem? "Everything's alright?"

Suyi's head snapped up. Her face was pale, but it had been the whole evening so that wasn't something new. As the rest of them were looking at her and Yuna was squeezing her hand again, Suyi spoke with a weak and insecure voice. "I'm sorry for all the inconveniences I'm putting on you and…"

"Oh, we would do almost anything for you. We're friends, right?" Tao interrupted Suyi's words before she could suggest something stupid like leaving the problem as it was just because she felt like bothering them.

Yuna and Suyi looked at the hacker and then at Takeo and M-21. The sniper nodded under their curious glances while M-21 snorted before inclining his head once, too. That brought a small smile on both girls' faces. Tao encouragingly grinned at the two girls, and M-21 left it to him to light up the girls' mood.

"Now that you're able to smile again, we can earnestly think about a solution."

M-21 saw Tao furrow his brows. And this time Takeo and he stayed silent to give Tao a few seconds to ponder the idea they had discussed up till now by himself. Even if he hadn't been enhanced for gathering and working with information, Tao was the one with the most insight into how the normal world functioned. How did Frankenstein say it? He was made for society.

"In the end, we just have to provide a good reason for the media why you changed the bodyguard, that's if they are interested in it at all, so that no weird rumors spread, right?"

Suyi nodded to Tao's question although it was more of a rhetorical one.

"So let one of us be your bodyguard for a while. Just say that you know us and that you feel more secure around a man you know since you will have him around you for the next two weeks."

"But I can't do that!" Suyi said in a rush. She seemed to catch onto how that had sounded as she added a further explanation in a matter of seconds. "Not because I wouldn't trust you, of course I do. It's because… You have your own work, and I don't want to cause any more problems and…"

"You would only cause problems if you'll get hurt," M-21 interrupted her rushed words, causing her to stop sputtering stupid things and blink a few times.

"What he wanted to say is that we are worried about you and that you're precious to us. And it's no inconvenience to help you. We're doing it out of free will and not because someone forced us. So let us help or else we would still worry the whole time anyway."

M-21 nodded to Takeo's "translation" as the girls looked his and Tao's way before glancing back to Takeo. Whatever it was in Takeo's words, the girls seemed to believe him. At least now, they accepted their offer for help, even though still reluctant on Suyi's side.

"And which of you three is going to play my bodyguard? Or are you switching?"

"Takeo," was the instant reply of M-21 and Tao. The sniper nodded in agreement. The two girls just blinked a few times at their immediate answer. They seemed to have expected a longer conversation about this one. M-21 looked at Tao who took that glance as indication that he should explain their decision.

"You see, Takeo is best suited for it. I'm not sure I can keep a calm expression and stay in the background like a bodyguard should do. And saving your reputation is what we want to do here," Tao told the girls, and they instantly nodded.

Sure, they didn't know about Tao's earnest side that he showed if he had to, but even M-21 wasn't positive that Tao could keep his composure in such a job for longer than an hour. As Tao turned around at him, M-21 knew that a small jab would come in his direction now by the way the hacker grinned.

"And he, he would scowl at anybody coming too close to you, Suyi. No reporter would dare to take your interview," Tao said and pointed towards M-21. He used an exaggerated voice so the two human girls wouldn't believe it word for word, but there was a bit of truth to it, too. As M-21 saw the broadening grin on the hackers face, he knew that he would hate his next words even more. "Additionally, he's not good with crowds. He's more the lone wolf."

M-21 glared at Tao with a full intensity that could make misbehaving students apologize immediately, but Tao only grinned even brighter if possible. Takeo tried to hide his own grin by toweling his hair once again, but it wasn't conclusive as he had dropped the towel into his lap a few minutes ago and didn't even touch it again up till now. The girls seemed to notice that they missed a joke the way they looked from one to another, but they didn't ask for details.

"So call whoever is in charge of the bodyguards and tell him that you would like to switch. If possible, now. We'll take care of our side. And in case your manager wants to see some credentials, we'll prepare those too for Takeo as soon as possible."

It was quiet for a while after Tao's words. Maybe it was M-21's imagination, but Suyi seemed to be closer to tears now than the minutes before. However, she was smiling slightly at the same time. He only understood that she was on the verge of breaking into tears because of relief as she started to mutter her thanks in incoherent words.

Tao chuckled dismissively at her words while M-21 felt a diminutive smile grow on his face, mirroring Takeo's. Seeing the girls ease up loosened the knot inside his stomach that he had felt since they had entered his room a while ago.

"So I'd better go call my manager and settle things. And please keep it a secret from the others. I don't want them to worry."

The three men nodded in understanding. The problem was solved. There was no need to make the other children feel anxious. Well, they would find out about it eventually, but hopefully only after the autumn vacation lay behind them and Suyi was done with the concerts.

While Takeo, Tao and Suyi quickly settled a few things about how the switch of bodyguards should be done or what they wanted her to tell the manager, M-21 turned to Yuna who was approaching him.

"Thank you, Ajussi. Thank you for taking us seriously. Thank you for helping," the girl said in a low voice but with sincerity. M-21 felt kind of funny for being thanked for something this minor.

"I only could lend a hand because you let me know that there was something wrong, and Takeo will do most of the work. But you did really well in asking for help," M-21 told Yuna. The girl hadn't asked for herself, even though they would have helped her of course, but for Suyi. This was the kind of companionship he had held dear with his own comrades. The girl blushed slightly, perhaps she was embarrassed or maybe just surprised by the unexpected praise.

"She would have done the same for me. That's what friends are for," she timidly said. She just smiled again before hurrying after Suyi who was heading out of the door, calling for Yuna.

M-21 felt Tao and Takeo approaching him as he still stared at the closed door, thinking.

"So, who's going to tell the Boss that we'll need Takeo to have a few days off?" The sniper and M-21 both looked at Tao simultaneously. The hacker rolled his eyes but nodded.

"More importantly, we have to explain the situation to him. He wouldn't like the fact that there is someone harming the children without him knowing. Even if it's not for his sake, he would like to know for Rai."

"I think the Boss is fonder of the children than he would admit."

"The kids grow on you, don't they? So make sure to keep Suyi safe."

Takeo nodded. "Piece of cake." Or so they had thought.