Epic

by Koko-chan1

What was supposed to be a simple fight with a Hunter goes seriously wrong, sending Ayumu and the Blade Children into a downward spiral of events that will either destroy them all, or lead to salvation. Yaoi EyesXKousukeXAyumu Threesome Original character

10. Chapter 10

Title: The Epic

Chapter: 10/ many

Authors: Kyo-chan and Koko-chan

Genre: Shounen-ai

Disclaimers: We do not own the characters or the series. They belong to Kyo Shirodaira and Eita Mizuno. This fanfiction is written by fans purely for the enjoyment of fans.

Summary: Ayumu gets some answers for a very unexpected reason.

ooooo

It was near noon when Ayumu dragged himself out of bed again. He couldn't really say he felt rested, no matter how comfortable Rutherford's bed was. Since the nightmare had woken he and Kousuke, and that very odd span of time afterwards, he'd felt uneasy, as if he wasn't sure what to do with himself, much less what to do about the Blade Children that seemed to be taking up his entire existence lately. He had to wonder if this was what it had been like for Kiyotaka to know them. Had they been this close and this confusing that all the circumstances had just driven him to leave and find out whatever it was that made things the way they were? Ayumu found himself thinking just a little that he couldn't blame his older brother, even if he did resent him for it. The boy bristled. He wasn't going to run away, and in this he was firm. It might actually be the first thing he could hold over his brother's head.

Nodding to himself, he stretched and let out a yawn as he padded towards the hallway. Today would be the day he went home and slept in his own home, in his own bed, with his own peace and quiet. Madoka was going to be pissed when she got home, but if he got there before she made it back from work today, he might be able to crawl into bed without being noticed until the following morning. Firm plan in mind, he set out to find out what Eyes Rutherford kept in his kitchen.

All plans were temporarily derailed when he opened the door. Sitting cross-legged in the hall was Kousuke, wearing nothing but a towel tied loosely around his waist, and another over his head, with one damp red ear poking out from under it. Water beaded along the long crimson tail and over the exotically spotted skin, suggesting the redhead was fresh from the shower. He still looked half-starved, and the spots did little to hide the marks of torture and mistreatment from the lab, but at least the shoulder wound had been bandaged. He was holding one of the Hunter's files open in his lap, expression grave as he read the contents, absently tapping at the side of the folder with one clawed finger.

It took Ayumu a few moments to realize that he was staring, and when he finally did, he coughed and looked away. Unfortunately, that made his presence known, and he cursed his half-awake state for letting the sight of Kousuke catch him off guard. He couldn't remember if he'd seen feline features last night, but he was at war with whether to admire the new changes or wish that Rio had killed the Hunter a little more slowly. Even though he had a very shaky trust of the Blade Children, that didn't stop him from thinking that what had been done to Kousuke was not humane.

Kousuke even blinked in a catlike fashion now, both eyes closing and opening in a smooth and gradual movement. Slitted green-gold eyes glanced at the brunette, and then turned back to the papers and photos in his hands. "Yo, Ayumu. Sleep okay? Eyes's mattress didn't try to eat you?"

"No, but all the blankets tried, I think," the boy responded, running a hand through hair that was even more mussed than usual. "What about you?" He wasn't going to bring up the strange little get-together they'd had last night unless Kousuke did.

Kousuke finally looked up at him and gave a pale imitation of his usual grin, but at least it was there. He still looked tired, the shadowed rings under his eyes not that much better than last night. "Eh, fairly well, once I stopped being so wired from the nightmare. It was a good thing that Eyes was there to help me calm down, or I'd probably have been awake all night, no matter how exhausted I was."

"Mm." Ayumu nodded as if he agreed with what Kousuke was saying without really understanding it. He had a vague grasp of what had happened last night, and from the looks of it, he was somewhere in the middle and not sure how he'd gotten there. "At least it was just a nightmare and not something real." Yet... he couldn't help thinking, and he wondered where that little thought had come from.

Oh, it was real all right... But telling Ayumu that would probably just unnerve the brunette more, so Kousuke didn't voice his thoughts. Besides, there was something else he figured he should do. After all, he owed Ayumu a great deal, and he didn't like letting debts pile up. "Ne, Ayumu. C'mere. I want to talk to you before the others wake up and start the normal chaos for the day."

Amber eyes blinked at Kousuke, but Ayumu came over and leaned against the wall, sliding down so that he was sitting next to the Blade Child. "What is it?" As usual, his mind was at work, trying to figure out what the other boy could possibly want to talk about that required quiet. Quiet didn't seem to be something Kousuke was familiar with.

Kousuke looked at him for a long moment, obviously gathering his thoughts, before giving a deep sigh. "Last night...Eyes smiled at me...a real, true smile...for the first time. And I got to hear him laugh. And the ultimate cause of him feeling free enough to do that was your Web, whether you believe me or not. So for that, more than even saving my life, I owe you. So I'll tell you a few hints about the Blade Children. Not much, because Eyes will skin me if I give it all away before he thinks you're ready, but I can give you some things to think about."

Ayumu took a deep breath, having the sinking feeling that he wasn't going to like what he heard, but that thought was countered by the good things that Kousuke had said. Eyes Rutherford had smiled? The younger Narumi found that a little hard to believe. Not even when he was doing what he seemed to love, playing the piano, had he ever seen the musician even twitch his lips. To think that Kousuke held him accountable for showing such emotion...it was a little strange, and quite unexpected.

Kousuke chuckled softly, his smile turning a little wry. "Don't feel gratified yet. What I tell you is likely just going to make you more confused, because it's out of context. Like riddles from hell."

"I already know you're good at that," Ayumu said, letting out that breath in a long sigh. "You're hard to understand as it is, I should only expect consistency."

Kousuke flipped him off, but didn't look particularly offended. But he soon settled and got down to business. "First of all, no matter where you go, or who you ask, you're going to find one thing in common between Blade Children. None of them can dream about their future. Eyes and I can, now, but we're going to have to get used to the idea before we do. Right now, no one else can do that."

"What's so important about that? It's not as if prophetic dreams are common, and even when they occur, the visions are short and unreliable They usually result in very small senses of deja vu." Ayumu ran a hand through his hair, trying to put it into some semblance of order.

Kousuke rolled his eyes. "Not like that! Lemme put it this way. What do you want to be when you grow up? Or just when you get out of high school?"

Ayumu blinked, shrugging a little. He really hadn't given it any thought. Soon, Madoka would be on his case, wanting him to find some kind of direction. These days, it was nice just to think a day ahead and still be alive. "I dunno... I guess I never thought about it much."

Kousuke nodded. "The difference between you and us is that we can't. We have no future."

Frowning very seriously, Ayumu turned his head to look Kousuke in the eyes. "Look, I'm not stupid. I saw the men with guns; I saw the building that was nothing but explosives and traps. I know that whatever you guys are into, it's a life or death situation. But I don't believe that you have no future, and obviously, you all don't either, no matter what you say. If you all didn't believe that you had a future, you would have let the first Hunter who pointed a gun at you shoot you dead and nothing would have changed." His expression was challenging. "You'll keep fighting as long as you believe you have something worth fighting for, and the future is more than just what someone is going to be when they grow up, or what they'll do in the next five years, two years, next week. Your future is every second beyond this one; it's every breath you take, every single thing you lay your eyes on. If you guys didn't have a future, you wouldn't still be alive."

"What we fight for is that future, Ayumu. And there's only a very few of us who do. Sure, there's something in the future for us, but it won't be us who live what is Fated, if it happens. That's why we need you." Kousuke mentally sighed. He knew Ayumu wasn't going to understand, and probably wouldn't until Eyes gave him the whole fucking story. But the details might get the brunette to start thinking along the correct lines enough not to be too shocked later.

"You need me. I'm slowly getting that impression. So all those grand schemes to try and kill me were just meant to test me and make sure that you really did need me?" Ayumu looked away and shook his head.

"They were meant to test you to see if you were strong enough. The number of Blade Children that I currently know of that want to change Fate are...five, counting the two from the lab. The rest, so far as I know, all believe that they have to follow Fate, no matter what. And you're a threat to that."

"A dual purpose. Test and preparation." Closing his eyes, Ayumu bowed his head and let the hair fall so that it hid the little crease between his brows that appeared when he was thinking too much. "But what does it matter to them? If they believe in this...Fate...and they outnumber you, why should they care what you few do so long as it doesn't affect them. You're not out to get them, are you?"

Kousuke shook his head. "Hell no. I like living, thanks. And explaining it would be going into territory that Eyes would not approve. I've never seen Eyes really mad, and I'm not going to be the one to make it happen." Kousuke shrugged. "Second hint, you'll never find a Blade Child that really knows his or her dad."

Ayumu didn't raise his head, but under the curtain of his hair, his expression became even more perplexed. "Not a single one? What kind of resources are you going from? The small group here or have you known others that don't side with you that don't 'have' a father?"

"From Kanone and Eyes. And Kiyotaka." Kousuke replied. "They're the ones who looked, and have the network. And no Blade Child has ever really known a father."

Ayumu's mind was already working again. Did their Fate have something to do with all of their missing fathers? "That's...confusing... but okay. It's something to think about.'

Kousuke nodded. "I warned you that most of this would just confuse you more. Now, the third and last bit of info before Eyes wakes up and does the whole 'Death From Above' thing for me saying anything. Do you remember what the Hunter called me? Back when we first got into this butt wipe of a week?"

Ayumu reached up and rubbed his temples, finally sitting back to lean against the wall once more. "Not at the moment, no... but I just woke up with a lot of information to process. Remind me?"

"She called me a living weapon, and said that as such, I have no need or right to feel concern for innocents."

The brunette was quiet for several long moments. He had a single thought in mind, but he wouldn't voice it for fear that he might be right. "I see," he murmured after the silence. "So the Hunters understand your Fate and that's why they're hunting you in the first place. It's a threat to those that aren't Blade Children."

Kousuke nodded. "Yup. Your third hint is that on most--but not all--levels, the Hunter was right. And if things keep going as they are, she'll have been right on all levels."

So... the Fate has something to do with the loss of their consciousness. After all, 'living weapons' don't need emotions or dreams of the future. They don't seem to know exactly when Fate is coming, but somehow, they think that I'm going to stop it. But I don't know the hows or the whys... and if they won't tell me until the right time, what if that time is too late? Ayumu had his head back against the wall, his eyes closed, brow furrowed in that way that betrayed how hard he was thinking, even if the rest of his expression seemed careless.

Since Ayumu's eyes were closed, Kousuke took that moment to do some shameless staring, admiring the brunette across from him. He was as beautiful as Eyes, though in a totally different way. Eyes had a very classical type of beauty, elegant, smooth and a little cold. Like a gemstone. Ayumu, however, held his beauty in the homey fashion, scruffy, cute and surprisingly warm. Just the comparison was enough to keep Kousuke puzzling at it for hours, if he let himself.

"Thank you," Ayumu said quietly. "You were right about it making things just as confusing as they were before, but I have more to go on than I did a week ago, so it's better than nothing."

The redhead shrugged, picking up the file he'd been reading. A glance showed it to actually be his own file, and it was currently turned to one of the more graphically described experiments. Still, it didn't seem to affect Kousuke too much, beyond his expression hardening just a little. "Like I said, I owed you. And I hate to let debts sit. Interest is a bitch."

"That it is." Ayumu stood up, glancing down for a moment, curiously watching how easily Kousuke was reading his own file. "How can you do that?"

"Huh? Do what?" Kousuke asked, looking up at him and giving another of those slow confused blinks that just seemed so feline. Then he blinked again, trying to get the hair out of his eyes. He'd need to get a haircut soon. His bangs were beginning to get in his eyes and obscure vision.

"Your files. Doesn't it bother you to read about all that they did?" It bothered Ayumu just seeing the physical evidence. He would think that if it was his own record, all he'd have to do is look in a mirror and know all that he ever needed too. He didn't know if he could handle knowing the complete details.

"Oh, that." Kousuke shrugged again, outwardly unconcerned, but a slightly haunted look hovered at the back of those green-gold cat slits. "Sure, it's a little disturbing, but when I first picked it up, I didn't know what was in it. I just saw this stack of files sitting out in the open and got curious, so I picked up the one on the top. And now...well, it's kind of like a train wreck. It's disturbing, but you can't look away. Besides, it's probably best if I know as much as I can about what was done to me, just in case problems crop up later."

"You're going to be fine," the teen said with confidence that normally wasn't present in his voice. He thought briefly that it was strange that he had more faith in the Blade Children than he had in himself. That might have had something to do with the fact that they'd been fighting this for so long, and he'd only had a slice of it and wasn't sure he could keep up for long.

And for once, it seemed to be Kousuke who was lacking in confidence. Hadn't Rio warned about this? "Maybe, maybe not. All of a sudden, I've got a bunch of new instincts and abilities that I know nothing about. Sure, they're under control now, but my reserves are low. What happens later, when I'm at full strength, and I get hurt or sick? What sort of things are okay for a human, but dangerous for a nekojin and vice versa? With this sudden ability to sense emotions, will I be able to kill others, despite probably feeling it as they die? Or will I be totally unable, even if it means my own life is forfeit?"

"There are some things that a logical answer won't give you, Kousuke," Ayumu said, pushing his hands into his pockets and looking down at the other boy. "I've learned that much in the last few weeks. But if you want a logical answer, I would say that only experience will tell you what you need to know. You've taken the first step to learning, which isn't even something I think I could do. The rest comes with trial, error, and someone who knows a lot about cats."

Kousuke shook his head. "Heh...that last one's going to be tricky. Blade Children don't generally keep pets. It's too dangerous to outwardly show affection to something like that, for fear that someone will use it against you. And I know Eyes likes cats, but he's never kept one." That crimson tail was lashing around anxiously, and Kousuke speared it with a small glare. That was one thing he'd definitely have to get used to. That stupid tail seemed to have a mind of its own!

Ayumu smirked. "I'll give a look into 'Hiyono's Data' for you or something. I'm sure girls know something about cats..."

Kousuke shuddered. "No thanks. The Hiyono-girl drives me bonkers. I'll do my own research. I am not owing favors to some crazy girl who punches with stuffed animals."

That got the other boy to smile a little wider. "I'm going to make some breakfast before I go home."

Kousuke would have replied to that, but was prevented by a loud squeal of excitement as Rio tackled Ayumu from behind.

"You're going to cook?! Wonderful!" she exclaimed, attaching herself the poor stunned brunette.

"Gah!!!" It was mere luck and the fact that Rio didn't weigh all that much that kept him from falling flat on his face. "Uh...I am if Rutherford keeps something worth cooking in his kitchen here..." He thought Hiyono had a bad habit of popping up from out of nowhere...it must have been something all girls could do.

"Of course! He's got the near-impossible task of keeping Kousuke fed, after all! He's got everything except melons!" she bubbled.

Kousuke sweatdropped. "Rio, you're scaring me with just how perky you are. Is his cooking really that big a deal? And how long are you going to hang off him like that, anyway?"

Rio blinked, noticing Kousuke for the first time, and suddenly let go of Ayumu to turn on a new target. "Kousuke! What are you doing out of bed?! You look like crap and should be resting! But no, you're sitting in the halls, haven't even tried to eat, and are mostly naked, to boot! Haven't you ever heard of decency?"

Kousuke crossed his arms and sulked. "I was reading some of the Hunter's files, I don't feel hungry, and of course I know decency. I've got towels, don't I?"

"Don't give me that! If you don't feel hungry, that just means your body has forgotten what it's like to be full! Baka! And towels do not count as decent when there's guests around! Were you raised by wolves?!"

"Well, a cat actually, if the Hunter was right..."

"That's not the point! And furthermore--" Rio suddenly paused, staring at Kousuke in a way that made the redhead very nervous, and he squirmed a little under her gaze.
"What are you staring at?" he asked suspiciously.

Rio's eyes narrowed. "You're glowing. You got laid last night, didn't you?"

"Na-nani?!" Kousuke sputtered, going bright red. Had she figured out what was between him and Eyes?!

Rio smirked. "I'm right! You did get laid! Idiot, you shouldn't be doing things like that in your condition! Who is she? And how the hell did you get a woman past Eyes in the first place? Is he locked in a closet somewhere?! Gods, you're sick!"

Kousuke had gone redder and redder with each word, unable to form a reply past the embarrassed sputtering. Rio was proud of herself. She loved teasing Kousuke about his 'secret' relationship with Eyes. She was definitelygoing to have to ask Jhette to wire the rooms for her.

Ayumu nearly choked on air as she came right out and said it, turning a bright red as he quickly remembered being sandwiched between them. What had he really come between?

Rio planted her hands on her hips, looking for all the world like an annoyed school teacher. "Well, you'd better not do anything like that again, Kousuke! Think of the security risks! Not to mention those to your own health! If you're just picking up girls from the street and smuggling them in, how do you know where they've been?"

"RIO!!! I have NOT been picking up girls! You know I'm gay!" Kousuke shouted, now utterly mortified.

"So you snuck in some random guy?"

"NO!"

"Then who? Hey...don't tell me you were playing around with Jhette...?" Admittedly, that was impossible, but Kousuke wasn't going to know that.

"NO! And who the heck is that, anyway?!" Kousuke wished the floor would swallow him right that second.

"I think you've interrogated him quite enough, Rio," Eyes's voice said from Kousuke's doorway. His elven features were tinted a very light shade of pink, but otherwise, he wore his usual indifferent expression. He had picked up Kousuke's over-sized green shirt from the floor and now wore it over his pale frame, leaning in the doorframe. "I think that Kousuke knows how to avoid unnecessary risks."

Ayumu put his face in his hands and wandered quietly to the kitchen. Maybe he could get away without being dragged into this elaborate production the Blade Children were getting into.

Rio gaped for a moment, and then suddenly squealed in delight! "This is great! I was wondering when you two would come out of the closet!"

"Rio..." Kousuke groaned, burying his face in his hands and slumping against the wall. Even his tail and ears had gone limp.

Rio just gave a happy sigh. "This is so cool. I'll definitely have to install cameras now."

"Over my dead body!"

"Wow...do you think Eyes would be into that?" she asked, her tone falsely innocent.

"RIO!!!!"

"That's enough." Eyes reached down and rubbed gently at one ear to reassure Kousuke, though he was a little flustered himself. "Rio, you can be pleased all you like, but you know better than to make a big deal out of this. Attachments are dangerous. Have your little celebration and then let it go." His expression was almost pleading with the young woman. "Especially since we're about to have some unexpected company."

Rio chuckled and nodded. "Hai. I'm just glad you two found each other. All the tiptoeing was beginning to drive me nuts. By the way, may I say that Kousuke's actually rather cute when he's purring?" And the redhead was, leaning happily into the touch on his ears as always.

"You may," Eyes murmured, looking down at Kousuke for a wistful moment. "After this, nothing can be said. You'll want to be on your guard."

The girl's smile faded into a look of concern. "Is something bad going to happen?"

"Mph...nothing much. Just his Great and Powerful Bastard-sama coming to visit tomorrow." Kousuke muttered.

Rio looked confused.

Eyes answered in one word. "Kanone."

Rio paled. "Why is he coming here?"

Kousuke grimaced. "He wants to look into the mess with the Hunter and its results. I am so not looking forward to this. Especially since he wants to talk to me and Ayumu."

"Do you think that he knows what Ayumu might be?" Riku joined them, standing behind Rio with her arms crossed. She had just woken up herself, her long thick hair messily thrown up into a bun and held together with a couple of sticks. "It's understandable why he'd want to speak to Kousuke-san, but... the Hope?"

Kousuke looked up at her curiously before shrugging. "He says he wants to talk to him about the mental connection we've got. Beyond that, who knows how that guy thinks?"

Rio looked concerned. "Eyes-kun...will you be all right?"

Eyes tilted his head in her direction, almost a curious brand of indifferent now. "I've dealt with Kanone for many years, Rio. Why wouldn't I be?"

Rio shook her head. "I don't know...just a bad feeling. It's almost like dark clouds looming on the horizon. Kanone scares me, and when he's around, things just seem to get more complicated."

"And now you understand why I want what you've discovered this morning kept quiet."

Rio nodded. "I promise. Who knows what he'd do if he found out?"

"Data does not compute," said the mechanical voice of Jhette, his image appearing next to Kousuke. "What is a 'Kanone'? If it is a danger, should I defend this place from it?"

"GAH!" Kousuke yelped, all his hair standing on end in startlement as he leapt to his feet. "What the hell?!"

"Request unclear. Insufficient information to answer query." Jhette replied, looking at the redhead.

"Calm down, it's just Jhette. You didn't get a chance to meet him yet." Riku turned to Eyes. "He poses a good question. Just who the hell is Kanone, and what makes him so dangerous?"

Eyes let out a quiet sigh. "He's the one who trained us to use our strengths against the Hunters. However, he believes that Fate is what we all should believe in and nothing else. He's casual about it, but my opposition to his beliefs causes a...conflict of interest."

"That's one way of putting it," Kousuke muttered. He was still staring at Jhette, obviously trying to figure the guy out. Like why he had absolutely no scent and his emotions felt faded and distant, for example.

Jhette just blinked. "I still do not understand. Rio says she fears him. Kousuke also acts in a way that implicates such. Is one man truly so terrifying?"

"He can be," Eyes explained. "As one who believes in Fate, he has many allies. He's very clever and more ruthless than he lets on." He turned and looked in the direction of the kitchen, where they could hear Ayumu clattering away at the pans and dishes.

"And," Kousuke added, "even though he doesn't look it, he could probably mop the floor with any one of us. I've never seen him do it, but he's just got that kind of aura, y'know?"

"Define 'aura'. Term not in data banks." Jhette replied.
Rio sighed. "Looks like the Hunter didn't bother to actually download a regular dictionary into your data, did she?"

"Negative. All information for use by Program Jhette was chosen and uploaded by Hunter Samantha personally."

Kousuke still didn't really understand that much about what was wrong with Jhette, but considering just what he'd read about himself in the files so far... "Rio, tell me that the bitch suffered before she died."

"Sorry. I only had three bullets and a split second to use them in."

"Damn."

Riku tilted her head. "You know, maybe I could try and get into the system to download some things, but I'd be concerned about ruining what already exists."

Eyes responded. "To answer your question, Jhette, it means that he has a malicious quality about him that we can't really witness but we know it's there."

Kousuke looked pleadingly at Rio, hoping for answers that made sense.

Rio sighed and took pity on him. "The Hunter put Jhette-san's body into suspended animation and fused his consciousness into a computer program. What you're looking at is a hologram that he uses to interact with people. As you can see, he's currently working under some fairly large handicaps and limitations, not to mention gaps in his knowledge."

Kousuke grimaced. "Okay, that's just sick. Even by my standards."

"Tell me about it. I'm Riku, by the way," the girl introduced, giving a sloppy little bow and a smile.

Kousuke grinned. "Yo. I sorta remember you. You were the amethyst despair."

Riku's smile became a wicked grin. "I actually kinda like that!"

Kousuke looked contemplative. "Though meeting you, I get the feeling that normally, it's that you're the amethyst despair of others, not yourself."

"Don't insult her by implying that she's a female version of you, Kousuke." Rio teased.

Kousuke whacked her with his tail. Maybe he could get used to that thing after all...

"Actually, it's not so much an insult. Causing trouble is a perfectly good way to spend the day, especially when you have a Hunter that deserves to have her lackeys beaten up." Riku nodded her head and grinned. A moment later, she was delicately sniffing the air. "Are those...omelettes I smell?"

Rio sniffed the air and sighed dreamily. "I wanna marry him..." she murmured, eyes shining.

Kousuke inched away from her, mildly disturbed. One could practically see the shoujo anime sparkle effects around her. He also took a sniff at the air, but wasn't attracted like she was. If anything, he felt just a little sick. He'd been way too long without real food, and he had a sinking suspicion that just persuading himself to take a single bite of anything was going to be a massive feat.

Riku nudged Rio. "You might have to beat me for him."

Rio glanced over at her. "For Little Narumi's cooking, I'd even lay the smackdown on Eyes."

That got her to laugh and Eyes to shake his head, though the corners of his mouth twitched. "Perhaps you should go see what Little Narumi has put together for us, hmm?"

Kousuke smiled and turned towards his room. "I'll meet you guys there after I've gotten dressed. Oh, and Eyes? You look damn good in green. You should wear colors more often."

Eyes shrugged a little. "I like black." When the two girls practically fluttered to the kitchen after the tantalizing smell, the musician turned to kiss Kousuke's cheek. "I'll be taking my shower. I'll join you last."

Kousuke's answering smile was wry and a little sarcastic. "Probably just in time to see Rio attempt to force-feed me because I can't bring myself to eat."

"Trust Little Narumi to understand. I'll be there shortly." With that, he disappeared into the shower across the hall, the door closing gently behind him.

Kousuke sighed and walked back into his room, pulling on his usual outfit of tan pants, black turtleneck, and green jacket. He rather mourned the loss of his yellow shades, and promised himself that he'd go buy a new pair the moment that Rio and Eyes declared him well enough to leave the building. He dawdled a little, trying to put off going into the kitchen. He really didn't feel like eating, even though he knew he should. And he really didn't want to run the risk of throwing up in front of Ayumu. It would totally ruin his reputation. Still, he couldn't hide forever, and he eventually went to the kitchen, where he paused in the doorway and watched while Rio practically had an orgasm over the first bite of her omelet. That is so wrong on so many levels...

Ayumu dried his hands off on the towel he had and glanced at the two girls. Riku was also making a soft moan of happiness, and he shook his head as it reminded him much of how Madoka acted when he cooked a real meal instead of something out of a box. How he got yelled at when he did that... He lifted his head and noticed Kousuke in the doorway. "It's not going to jump off the plates and bite you, it's safe. Besides, they're too distracted to mess with you at the moment."

Kousuke looked over at him, then back at the girls, then back at him again, one eyebrow raised. "Have you ever considered world domination through your cooking? It seems to work."

"World domination isn't in my schedule, at least not before I get out of high school." He lifted a bowl from the counter and placed it at the empty spot at the table. "Here. This one's for you. I thought about making you an omelette, but I didn't think you'd want it so soon. So I made you some really mild miso broth, barely any flavor."

The nekojin stared at Ayumu, surprised and gratified by the concern. "Thanks," he murmured, not quite sure how to react.

Riku paused in her reverence to Ayumu's breakfast and winked at Rio.

Rio, if anything, looked even happier as Kousuke sat down and carefully sipped at the bowl of miso. This had been a really good morning, even with the news of Kanone coming for a visit.

Ayumu made sure that all of his dishes were clean before he went over to where his jacket was hanging. "As interesting as this week has been, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go home. My sister is going to freak out as it is, and if I'm really unlucky, Hiyono will be camped out on my doorstep. I have to let them know that I haven't died."

Rio nodded. "That's probably wise. Thank you for all your help, Little Narumi. I mean that."

Ayumu waved his hand. "No thanks needed. Just don't drive everyone crazy while I'm gone. Tell Rutherford thank you for me."

Kousuke looked up at him from the bowl of miso he was slowly beginning to enjoy. "Oh, one thing. You are cordially--though not particularly willingly--invited to come back sometime over the next week. Kanone's going to be visiting and he wants to talk to you."

"Kanone...?" Ayumu had heard very little of him. "Why do you make it sound like a bad thing?"

"You'll see," the redhead sighed. "Just one thing, so you don't end up commenting on it at the wrong time. Kanone tends to hang over Eyes like an amorous storm cloud, whether anyone wants him to or not. But we can't do anything about it because Kanone's just a little too dangerous to tick off."

"In other words, I should pretend that I never heard Rio squealing over your apparent relationship with Rutherford, am I right?" he asked as he slid into his coat.

"Exactly."Or our interest in you, was the unspoken statement.

Ayumu nodded. "I'm good with secrets. He won't find out from me." With that, he waved and headed for the door. "I'll see you guys whenever my sister decides to let me out of the house again...or whenever I get finished with all the homework I missed last week."

"Ja ne," Kousuke said, and Rio waved, her mouth full.