4. Undercover

Therius felt glad that he was accepted into the group as 'Dio Mahogany.'

Thank goodness that moonwalk was decent. He wasn't sure what would have happened if he messed that up.

Apparently today, Zesha wanted to stay low, which meant that they were simply going to stay in this abandoned apartment place all day. Therius was glad about this, because this meant that he could focus on talking to the others around him. He quickly learned about what the goals of the Lazulis Rebels were-to take down the illegal drug work that was going on in Lazulis and not get arrested for it themselves.

He learned that the group had been trailing Jirall and his gang for longer than expected, even before Zesha had been disowned by Zangurak. In fact, the gang had been together for about six years in total now, starting three years before Zangurak had disowned Zesha.

But..why did Zangurak disown Zesha? Therius had to figure it out.

How was he going to figure that out? Well, he needed to get Zesha alone, and that was the difficult part.

It was by halfway through the afternoon, after Zesha had shown him some more hip-hop moves, and the two (and everyone else that was working on said hip-hop moves along with them, which was basically everyone) were absolutely sweating. Zesha wiped some sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, before speaking.

"Dio gets the shower first because he's the newbie, and then me." He told the others. "Rest of you will use rock, paper scissors for it. Whoever loses first goes last for the shower"

There came the sound of groans from the others. "Seriously?" Lowell groaned. "What if I get last place?"

"Then too bad for you, Lowell. Live with it if you must..."

Therius then realized-this could be his chance! He could totally get Zesha alone, right..?

...Of course, this would prove to be the most embarrassing thing he had ever done in his life, but he was willing to do it. And it was risky, but it could work...he just had to make sure to stay in character. He'd been trying to flirt with Zesha using his eyes, body language-and Lisa obviously looked jealous, but still, Zesha seemed to respond...appropriately, though not crossing any line that said that he was going to cheat on his girlfriend.

"Actually, Zesha..." 'Dio' murmured, making eye contact with him, blushing furiously. "Perhaps we could both share...?"

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Zesha..." She started in a warning tone, but Zesha gave her a kiss on the forehead, ruffling her hair with one hand.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. If I do anything out of line you have every right and any way you want to punish me. Promise."

Lisa frowned still, her face scrunching up a bit. "Swear it?" She spit on her palm and held it out to him.

Zesha went down on a knee, still smiling as he kissed it once. "Swear it." He murmured back, before standing and turning towards Dio. "What are you waiting for? Let's go get this sweat off before we start stinking like pigs..."

Therius now knew that this was a very uncomfortable situation to be in.

Why am I sharing a shower with Zesha again...? Therius half-wailed to himself mentally. Note to self-try not to do something like this ever again...

He heard Zesha smirk from behind him. His shower companion was currently using the soap, while Therius was trying to rinse himself off first. Neither of them were facing each other out of modesty, though, which was something he was absolutely grateful for. It did make him wonder if Zesha ever tried to peek at him from behind-Therius couldn't remember whether Zesha was bisexual or completely straight, though he knew too well that Zepha was definitely homosexual.

"So...why did you want to share the shower with me, Dio?" Therius heard Zesha chuckle a bit. "Did you want to get close to me that badly?"

"Er...yeah..." Therius blushed a bit at this. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked-I mean, your girlfriend's obviously-"

"I promised her. It'll be fine."

There was another moment of awkward silence, before Therius spoke up.

"Erm...mind passing the soap?"

"Sure." Therius saw Zesha's bare hand put the bar of soap on the ground by his feet. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

Another moment of awkward silence followed with more soap and water, before Zesha spoke up this time.

"So, Dio...I forgot to ask, but what sort of information do you know that could be useful?"

Therius blinked a bit, but he managed something in response.

"What type of useful information? Rumours? Specific things about specific people?"

"Anything that I'll find useful."

"Erm..."

What sort of information should he spew out first?

"I don't know if this is true, but...I heard that your brother, Zepha Stryker, is a...a drug addict."

Therius mentally cringed. Maybe that wasn't something he should have spoken of...? He definitely wasn't sure about this rumor, even, but then again Zepha's eyes had looked more glassy and bloodshot. He was getting a bit concerned for his friend. Surely Zesha would be concerned...

"Oh..." Zesha paused, before speaking again. "My brother...a drug addict? I just hope that isn't a rumor that will turn out to be true. I don't want that to happen to him."

'Dio' merely spoke a few words of agreement, before speaking up again. "Sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have told you that..."

"No. It's good that I know. Maybe I should even pay you a visit."

"But he's-"

"On the team that wants me arrested, I know." Therius heard the other let out a sigh. "That doesn't change the fact that Zepha is my twin brother and that I still care for him, despite what others may assume. There are a lot of things that people don't know about me, you know."

"...Right. I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. It's cool with me-I'm used to it." There was a slight hesitance in the other's tone as he spoke in response. The two went silent again, before Zesha spoke again. "Want to know why I was disowned?"

Therius' interest was piqued. "Why?"

"It's because I know that he's up to his neck in this drug dealing business, too."

The other's eyes widened at this. Zangurak? Zangurak, the famous lawyer?

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Zesha confirmed. "I have a boatload of evidence if you don't believe me. Jirall's just being used as a proxy, it seems, to play the part of the villain while Zangurak is pulling the strings. No wonder he disowned me-he didn't want me to find out too much about him." He then smirked. "Unfortunately, I had already found out 'too much' about him by then. Though by being disowned, it's been significantly harder to get information and evidence to prove him guilty of the crimes, even when you have two master hackers in the gang to help you out." Zesha then paused, before speaking up. "Are you a master computer hacker, by any chance?"

Therius shook his head. "Sorry, I've got no knowledge whatsoever. Me and technology don't mix well in that area."

"Shoot. So much for that...I could have had you working with Lowell and Mirania on that, but oh well..."

Therius' eyes narrowed a bit. "Then..what would I be of any use for...?"

Zesha smiled. "Spying undercover. Which gets information faster for us most of the time. Good luck."

Therius inwardly smirked at this.

Zesha, the things you don't know...

Author note: For once, this is a chapter not inspired by any songs at all... and yes, Therius is acting as 'Dio Mahogany.' XD

I hope this chapter was alright, and apologies for the delay in updates. Thanks for your patience and reviews! XD