A/N- Time for Tsubaki to lay down the law? Or nah?

"Masamune," Tsubaki hissed out between clenched teeth, eyes glued to Black*Star, not even glancing at her brother, "would you please excuse us for a minute?"

"What, you've come all the way here to visit me and I don't even get a proper greeting?" Masamune said, in that mocking tone he'd picked up somewhere on the road to the sharp, cold man he was these days..

She spared a single cutting glance for him. "The reason I came here was to ask you about him. Since he's here now, I really don't need to talk to you at all, Masamune." She marched over to Black*Star, who was standing stock-still with an uncharacteristic look of panic on his face. "You and I have a few things to talk about," she said sternly, and, channeling her inner Maka, she seized the back of his collar and physically dragged him away from Masamune.

Despite Black*Star's protests and the difficulty he seemed to be having walking backwards, she didn't stop until they were several streets away at the edge of the public park that housed the D.C. Botanical Gardens. She pushed him onto a park bench and he went down easily; it wasn't a testament to her strength, but a sign of respect for her, which mollified her slightly. But only slightly.

She paced back and forth in front of him, fists clenched at her sides. She felt as though she had acid in her veins, a furious stinging anger that boiled through her and threatened to leak out her eyes. But she bit it down, because she had things to say and none of them would be helped by tears.

"'Baki…" Black*Star said weakly.

"No!" she shouted, stopping in her tracks and whirling to face him. "You don't talk right now! What can you possibly say for yourself? No, don't answer that!"

"That doesn't make sense," he muttered petulantly, crossing his arms.

She resisted the urge to kick him. "I knew you weren't being completely honest with me, but I never thought you were doing something like this again— and don't try to tell me you aren't. I saw you with Akane tonight. You're involved with the Star Clan again, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?"

The temptation to physically attack him increased tenfold. "How could you? You lied to me, Black*Star!"

It was telling, she thought, how he flinched when she called him by that epithet. It was a name he had chosen for himself, a name he insisted on going by, but coming from her, he reacted as if he had been slapped. As painful as it was to call him by his street name, his reaction gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't too far gone to reason with.

The revelation did nothing to calm the fury she felt, but it gave her an opening to pursue, a direction in which to channel her anger, and that in itself was a relief. She had never been comfortable with anger for its own sake. It wasn't an emotion that she wore well or one that came naturally to her. But passionate feeling with a purpose driving it… that fit more easily. She pulled it around her like a warm coat, a shelter that numbed her to the chilly drizzle that still fell around them.

"You had a fresh start, Black*Star," she said pleadingly. "You didn't have to get caught back up in all this stuff! You're better than this."

"You're damn right I am!" he proclaimed. "When I'm the boss, the Star Clan's going to be different, none of this gang-banger bullshit, and—"

"And what if you get caught before that happens?" she interrupted. "What if you get thrown in jail for real this time? I don't want to watch you get ripped out of my life again."

"Tsubaki…" he said, the wind taken frighteningly easily from his sails.

She sighed, staring at the ground to avoid meeting the eyes she knew had gone soft as he looked at her. "The Blake I knew didn't lie to his friends. Didn't lie to me."

"I just wanted to keep you guys safe, especially you! A god protects his followers! The only way to do that was to keep you out of it."

She shook her head sadly. "Why don't you get out of the loop instead? Then everyone's safe, including you."

That lit a fire back under him again, and he jumped to his feet, eyes blazing as she looked up, startled at his sudden movement. "You just don't get it, do you?" he demanded. "It's my destiny to take over the Star Clan!"

"Says who?"

"Says—" He stopped, clearly stymied. "Says… says me, that's who." He sank back down on the bench.

Tsubaki settled gingerly beside him. "There are a lot of paths to godhood, Blake," she said, hoping speaking in his idiom might help him really hear her. "You don't have to choose a violent one, an illegal one. I know you, or at least I thought I did, and I believe you're better than this."

A silence descended between them, and she became very afraid that she'd failed to get through to him. She was very certain that if she didn't cut this off now, she would never be able to, and she would lose him. She had no idea what she would do if that was the case. Losing him once had been painful and difficult, but losing him for good…

"Do you love me?"

She whipped around to look at him. "What?" It was the last question she had ever expected to hear from him, let alone at this particular moment.

For someone ordinarily so confident, he looked surprisingly vulnerable. "Do you love me?" he repeated. "And not as, like, a friend or any of that mushy stuff. I mean… well, you know what I mean."

She felt frozen and oddly fragile, and she was terrified of giving the wrong answer. "Does it matter?" she asked hesitantly.

"I think so," he said slowly.

"Then—" She swallowed hard, took a shaky breath, and tried again. "Then I can't tell you right now. I don't want to be the only reason you leave, or the reason you stay. It's got to be your own decision."

She could see that it wasn't the answer he had wanted, but he nodded, accepting it.

"I'm going to go now," she said. "I left my car back at Masamune's house."

"Okay."

Tsubaki got to her feet, arms wrapped across her midsection as if she were trying to hold herself together. "It might be best if you don't come to the studio until you've made a decision." It was the closest thing to an ultimatum she was capable of issuing.

She walked away, and she didn't look back. No matter how badly she wanted to.

It wasn't a big job, really, just a simple smash-and-grab of the kind they'd done a hundred times before. It shouldn't even be a big deal, but his skin was crawling. It felt different from nerves— and besides, he'd gotten over tweaking during jobs years ago. But now he was jumpy and uncomfortable, and he had the overwhelming urge to just… well, not run, because gods didn't run off with their tails between their legs, but he sure as shit didn't want to stay here. He didn't want to be a part of this.

Which was fucking stupid to begin with, because he wasn't even doing anything this time, he was stuck on watch duty. It was probably Tsubaki's fault, because Masamune, despite being a royal fucking ass, still had a soft spot for his little sister. Pissing her off had landed Black*Star on the boss's shit list, and it was not a fun place to be.

None of this was fun, to be honest. Once upon a time, it had been a real thrill, running around with older guys, knowing they respected him, respected his daring and his godliness and his ability to give not one single fuck. Somehow, though, it all felt pretty been there, done that lately. Ever since he got out of juvie, really.

He hissed out a curse under his breath and kicked at the brick wall of the building he was skulking around, and immediately regretted it. He was pretty sure he had chipped a toenail even through his boots. Tsubaki was going to kill him the next time they practiced…

Were they going to practice again? He'd been trying not to think about it all week, how weird it felt not to show up at the studio in the afternoon, how damn much he missed it. Because yeah, okay, fine. He hadn't just missed 'Baki while he was in lockup. He had missed the dancing, too. He'd pushed it away, pushed her away, because that was what he had to do to make it with the Star Clan. The guys weren't gonna respect anybody who spent half his time in a leotard, even if he was on the fast track to godhood. Assholes could be narrow-minded like that.

But his friends— his real friends— had never thought that way. Never. He could dance and be their glorious leader, he didn't have to choose with them.

And 'Baki…

"Shit," he muttered again, and this time he punched the bricks, feeling only momentary satisfaction as his knuckles split against sharp stone.

"You okay?"

He glanced up at the dark-haired guy standing watch with him. Akane leaned against the building, a cigarette lit and dangling from his fingers but nowhere close to his lips, watching him with that look like he knew more than everybody else.

He hated that look. "The fuck are you lookin' at?"

Akane raised an eyebrow, looking insufferably smug behind those stupid smart-guy glasses of his. "You look like you're getting cold feet, Black*Star."

Fuck this. He was done.

Without a word he turned and walked away, hands in his pockets and head high.

"Where are you going?" Akane called after him. "Black*Star? Black*Star!"

He whirled around. He didn't intend to look back, but he needed to look the other man dead in the eyes for this. "My name is Blake," he shouted at the top of his lungs. And shit did it feel good to say.

Three blocks away, he paused for a moment when he heard the police sirens. A grin crossed his face. Looked like bailing was a good idea for more reason than one reason. With a cheerful heart, he sauntered down the road in the direction of Harvar's place.

He should have known it wouldn't be that easy, but somehow he still wasn't expecting Akane and six other guys to corner him the next day.