Even though Teito didn't open his eyes, he knew that it was past morning now. His room glowed a dull grey and the rain from the night before continued to pound against his window pane. His body still ached, but the pain was nothing he couldn't handle. With a sniff, he smelled the scent of bacon and eggs that had steadily wafted into his room along with the small pattering of feet constantly moving along the halls and toward his room.
"Teito-nii! Mika-nii says it's time to wake up and eat lunch!"
A small ball of energy hurled his way up onto his bed, jumping with enthusiasm, which forced him to fully awaken from his daze. Teito cracked an eye open and let out a small smile. A boy with tousled, spiky blond hair and honey colored eyes stared right back at him, a full blown smile spreading across his face. He chuckled lowly as he reached out his hand to comb out the tangles in the boy's hair.
"Tell Mikage that I'll be up in a couple minutes, okay?"
The boy nodded his head so fast that Teito was afraid the poor boy would shake his head off. But before Teito could say anything, the boy sprinted out the room as fast as his little legs could take him and raced down the hall. When the sound of the boy's pattering grew distant, Teito pushed himself off the bed which groaned lowly from his weight.
His body was lithe and he wore nothing but a thin blue long-sleeved, turtle-neck shirt and a pair of shorts that stopped above his knees. Standing up, he walked to his bathroom that consisted of a toilet, bathtub and sink compressed into a small amount of space barely larger then a closet. With eyes barely open, he lazily reached into his sink cabinet, pulling out his tooth brush and paste before brushing his teeth. Immediately soon after he washed his face as well and took another look in the mirror.
His green eyes were dull like an unpolished diamond and the bags underneath his eyes had grown larger compared to the last time he looked at himself in the mirror. Teito sighed and brought his hands up, resting them against the mirror as he continued to stare at his own reflection. With another yawn, he broke contact with the mirror and groggily walked out of his apartment room and went down the hall.
With a grumbling stomach, he steadily followed the scent of bacon that wafted his direction. He eventually found himself in front of a white door, and without a hint of hesitation, he walked in. The smell of food overpowered him along with the hint of wet asphalt. Going inside the kitchen, he saw the the window at the opposite end of the room was opened, leaving nothing but a broken screen to stop everything but the wind to enter the room.
"Hey, Teito." Teito turned his head and saw Mikage walking towards him with several plates in his arm. A small apologetic smile grace his features as he spoke, "I wanted you to come eat with us before Capella and I went shopping, sorry if you wanted to sleep in."
Teito nodded silently in response as he took the plates and bowls from the blond's arm and placed them on the table. Within seconds, the table had been successfully made with napkins and plated food that still steamed with heat. After Mikage had called in his younger brother, Capella, the three of them came together and ate in comfortable silence. But as Teito reached over to fill his bowl for a second helping, he caught Capella's eyes staring at his neck with curiosity.
"Teito-nii, is that another owie from work again?"
Teito snapped his hand to his nape on reflex and looked across the table to see Mikage staring intently at his neck as well. He felt his throat close up, allowing nothing but silence and heavy breathing from his mouth.
"...Yes. But keep eating the food Mikage made before it goes cold, or else you won't grow any taller." Teito teased.
The two of them erupted into lighthearted laughter as Capella puffed up like a ruffled bird and ate the remaining food in his bowl with gusto. Following in pursuit, the two older males finished quickly soon after the young child. After their lunch, Capella left the two adults to roam around freely in the living room and the only sound that filled that silence between the two was the constant splashing of the dishes and water from the faucet pouring down into the sink.
"...So what the hell was that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The plastic dishes clashed loudly on the drying rack as Mikage turned off the faucet and turned to Teito, wiping his hands dry with a towel. Teito stared as the blond who leaned against the sink, honey-glazed eyes looking at his neck before greeting his eyes. "You know what I mean, so just show them to me Teito."
Teito sighed as he closed his eyes, letting out a frustrated breath while he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's just hickey. Don't stress yourself out so much-
"Don't stress myself!? Teito, just tell me what you work as already! I won't judge you or anything, I mean, aren't we best friends!?"
"Mikage, Capella's in the other room...don't shout so loud."
Mikage snapped his mouth shut and looked at the door, which left a small slit to where he can look inside. But with hopes dashed, he could see his younger brother stare back at them with a broken and scared expression. Gazing back slowly to his best friend, he offered a bleak smile before walking away to the room where Capella was. But as his hands rested on the knob of the door, Mikage whispered solemnly with his back turned.
"I'll see you later, okay?"
With that, Mikage walked inside the room and softly closed the door till a sharp click sounded off. Teito sighed and threw his head back. He hated how the small things started arguments between the two, but truthfully he was glad that the other never pushed too far.
So, why did his chest always ache when the other dropped the conversation every time he asked him too?
-Rain City-
"...FRAU!"
Frau jumped in his seat, body straightening up like a cadets as he watched his friend's glasses glare ominously in the bright lights of the office. He knitted his eyebrows in confusion before he took in his surroundings. He sat on the left side of a large meeting table which was filled with men in their suits, who were obviously staring him down as well, and coughed into his fist before he spoke.
"Anything wrong, Castor?"
"It's Hausen to you Birkin, and yes, there are a lot of things wrong." Castor replied. "The fact that you fell asleep during an important meeting is a problem."
"It's called 'relaxing'. But a guy with stick up his arse twenty-four seven like you wouldn't know a thing about it."
"Excuse me? I'm not the poor excuse of a twat that can't even get laid-"
"Men! What is going on here!?"
The whole room turned to look at the man who had opened the door to the meeting room. The man's physique was stocky and muscular, his face showing wrinkles and marionette lines around his mouth. And not to mention his number one most notable feature: a jagged scar on his right eye that held it shut tight.
The man searched the room for the outburst and immediately zoomed in on Frau. With a sigh and mumbled curses under his breath, he sent Frau a glare before landing his eyes on Castor.
"Are you sure this man is even capable of performing his duties as a detective, Hausen?"
"He's more than just capable, and you know that more than I do, Mr. Bishop."
With a hesitant air surrounding the room, the man exhaled sharply from his nose and exited the room. After that, the meeting resumed and the small chit chats continued for another hour - with Frau fully awake this time - and by the time the sun had set high in the sky, the meeting had fully ended. People slowly slipped out of the meeting, which had left only Frau and Castor to reside in the empty room.
"Did you read all the documents that I left on the counter yesterday?"
Frau snorted as he placed his legs on the table leisurely despite the cold glare that he received from Castor.
"Yes mom, I did. So what?"
"Well what did you think of it then?"
Frau forced a fake thinking pose as he rubbed his chin, then broke out into a overly sweet smile as he spoke his thoughts. "Hmm...I think, no it's - totally useless four-eyes. Even you should know it already by now."
Castor gave Frau a dirty look before going up to the board they used during the meeting, staring at all leads and theories that had piled up along with the pictures of suspects. His finger tapped on the picture of the two brothers before drawing on invisible line all across the board.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Frau?"
"No dumb ass, I ain't telepathic yet-"
"I don't think they just ran away from home.", Castor interrupted. "I think...there has to be a bigger reason than to just leave. They had the perfect lives and there was nothing negative nor was there any problems at school."
"Well no shit, glasses. It's like you didn't even read the documents you gave to me-"
Castor swiftly pivoted on his heels and chucked a white board marker at Frau's head, who unfortunately dodged, and caught the flying utensil instead. Frau sent the man a dirty look before putting a stoic expression on his face as he walked to the board, the thrown marker uncapped in his hand as he began to write.
"So from what you gave to me, the two boys were born to the ideal family - no financial problems, good reputation, and no abuse what-so-ever." Frau drew lines from the printed profiles and the blond children to an empty space on the board and continued writing down his own theory. "And two years ago, which now makes the older brother Mikage seventeen and the younger brother Capella seven, ran away from home and the last they were ever seen was in Baltos, District Six."
Castor nodded, his eyes staring hard at what Frau wrote before pointing out the gaps between the leads. "But why would they be in Baltos? That's the question, Frau. The city's shady-"
"And that's where your theory comes in Cas," Frau spoke, "They didn't run away, they were kidnapped."
Castor snorted at the bluntness of the blond man. "Could you be anymore frank about this?"
"Castor, I don't think you understand." Frau said as he turned to the bespectacled man. "There's no such thing as 'ideal' and the fact that they were last spotted in Baltos means many things that can only be dumbed down to two ideas. It either means that they decided to take a field trip to the wrong side of town and got lost for over a year, or someone wants them gone."
"I get that you idgit, I'm not a moron like you. But why would anyone want to get rid of them and drop them off at Baltos?"
"It's because Baltos has an underground industry that supports several illegal trades of the Black market. And slavery might be one of them." Frau stared at Castor, his sapphire blues glimmered coldly against the glares of the man's glasses. "Sorry to say this Cassy, but there's a fifty-fifty chance that they might be-"
The door to the meeting room creaked open and Labrador, wearing a white lab coat, slowly peaked in with a light smile on his face.
"Sorry to disturb, but Mr. Bishop wants to see you two immediately after lunch break ends."
With a curt nod from both males, Labrador gave them another toothy grin and quickly left the room as fast as he had appeared. Castor turned to Frau, a worried expression on his face as he came to realization of the unsaid last word.
"Frau...we're investigators. We can't make any assumptions until there's any actual evidence that the civilians have been-"
Frau placed his hands on Castor's shoulder, efficiently shutting the man up before having to listen to another bothersome lecture. "Listen to me, and listen hard. No one ever makes it out of the black market without a scratch, Castor. And sometimes, certain people never make it out, and they," Frau said tapping on the pictures with absolute certainty,"are in that category."
Castor remained silent, and that was fine with Frau. The silence was enough to convey the words that were left unsaid. Then with the quick ring of Castor's wrist watch, the two chuckled bleakly as they walked towards the door.
"Time to go see-"
"The old man who can't even fathom the beauty of women in their prime time."
"Frau!"
