A/N: Did I lose all but two of my reviewers for this story overnight? What happened?! Where did you all go?! O.o' Oh well, this is for Crysie and nEo-cHaN, and InvaderPadfoot, too. Thanks for staying with me, you guys! ^-^' And if you are reading this story, but not reviewing, please, please review? Just tell me how you think I'm doing, that's all I need.
Finding One
They arrived at the office at eight and began getting prepared to leave. Takeru and Ken arrived at eight-thirty. They would be aiding Daisuke in keeping the office running in the absence of Sirius, Remus, and Cyrus. Matt loaded a gun with bullets, snapped it shut, set it on the desk, and began getting another one ready.
"Matt."
He glanced up at Remus, who smiled and handed him a retractable knife. Matt pushed the button on the knife and the blade automatically popped out. Matt shut it again and slid it into his pocket.
Sirius was running around and asking people if they were doing alright and if they were almost ready. He told Daisuke, Takeru, and Ken what to do in case of an emergency, and he gave them a message to give to anyone who might call while they were gone.
As Sirius was passing by them, barking orders, Cyrus reached out and grabbed hold of his shoulder. Sirius paused and turned towards him, and Cyrus slugged him across the left side of his face. Matt, Daisuke, Takeru, and Ken gawked at them, and then Sirius rubbed his face and said, "Thanks, I needed that." Remus grinned, already used to this type of behavior from them.
Daisuke had been staring at Remus for a while, and then he suddenly pointed at him and screamed, "A-ha!"
Remus turned to raise an eyebrow at him.
"You look exactly like the blonde version of me! Sirius looks like the black-haired version of Matt, and Cyrus looks...actually, Cyrus looks like the black-haired version of Takeru, but whatever."
Remus laughed. "And you've just now realized that?"
Sirius clapped his hands. "Okay, people, let's move out."
They all scrambled for the door, awkwardly shoving guns and knives into pockets and holsters. They assembled outside in a single file, and Sirius walked around them to the front and turned to face them.
"We're on a mission. We are on a mission...to save...Tai. Saving...Tai...is our mission. Ah...I think you got the message."
They all stared at him oddly. Sirius was just plain weird sometimes.
"And I have one last thing to say to you all...please try not to die? If you die...that would, like, suck. Yeah, it would suck lots. Well, I think that's it. Let's *really* move out!"
And with that pep talk out of the way, he turned and began walking off. They all stood there, shifting from foot to foot, and then they began to walk after him. Matt turned to Daisuke and Daisuke instinctively reached out and grabbed his hands. Matt smiled in reassurance and pressed his forehead against the redhead's. Daisuke closed his eyes, exhaled, and then opened them, and Matt could see he was holding back tears. Matt leant forward and kissed him softly, lingering for a while before pulling away.
Daisuke narrowed his eyes slightly. "Go get Taichi and bring him back here."
Matt laughed slightly to himself. Daisuke sounded adorable when he was being commanding and pouty.
"Sir, yes sir!"
"MATT!! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!!"
"Coming!" Matt planted a last kiss on Daisuke's lips and then backed away, still facing him, walking backwards.
"Matt!"
"I'll come back with Tai soon."
"Ma~att!"
"Remember your promise of a threesome."
"Oh, believe me, I will..."
Matt blew a kiss to Daisuke, who waved eagerly. He then waved to Takeru and Ken, who waved back enthusiastically. He turned and ran over to where Sirius was standing, cross-armed, tapping his foot exaggeratedly.
"God, Sirius, you're so bitchy."
"Matt!"
"What?"
"I don't know, I like to scream your name at you."
"That sounded really, really weird."
"Pervy pervy pervert!"
Sirius smirked as Matt stuck his tongue out, and then stuck his own tongue out back at him. Remus looked back over his shoulder, saw the two leaders having a tongue-sticking-out-contest, and smacked his forehead. He suddenly realized that Daisuke was right. Sirius and Matt *did* look like twins that got tired of looking identical, so one dyed his hair.
They were such strong, handsome, mature leaders...
Eh, one out of three isn't that bad.
~ ~ ~ ~
"I'm tired. I'm hungry. I need to go to the bathroom. Are we there yet?"
Sirius whacked Ikarus on the head, and the young, green-eyed blonde stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes.
"That wasn't very nice," he said.
Sirius gave him a dry look and then looked forward. He suddenly spotted something on the horizon and pointed, his arm whacking the back of Cyrus's head in the process.
"Look, there's the safe house! Ne...sorry, Cy."
Grumble, grumble, rub, rubbing his head, and then Cyrus looked up unenthusiastically at what looked like a treehouse. He gawked at it.
"THAT'S the safe house?!"
"Shibby, isn't it?"
"Shibby? Shibby?! What the hell kind of a word is that?!"
"Our word!" Sirius and Ikarus chimed.
Remus, Cyrus, and the rest of the company stared from Sirius and Ikarus to the treehouse, and then back to their supposedly great leader and the oddball standing next to him. They let out a collective sigh and trudged to the treehouse.
"I hope we all fit in it."
~ ~ ~ ~
Luckily, the company *did* fit inside of the treehouse. As soon as Cyrus climbed up the rope ladder and saw his first glance around the inside of the treehouse, he was surprised at how roomy it actually was. There was enough room to fit chairs for all of them around a long table.
"How-"
"Just a bit of magic, by the help of a 'connection' here in the Northside."
"We have connections?"
"Yes, we have connections. What, did you think I'd lead you all over here with no idea how we were going to protect a treehouse from the rest of the town? Wait, don't answer that. Anyways, the exterior of the treehouse looks small, yes, but it's actually quite a deal larger than it appears."
Remus and Cyrus raised eyebrows, skeptical, but nonetheless impressed at Sirius's use of a 'connection' that knew such magic.
"And you forgot to mention to *us*, your mates, who are practically assistant leaders in this, about any sort of 'connection'?"
"Oh, yeah. Um...surprise?"
"Exactly *what* type of 'connection' are we talking about here?" Sora asked suspiciously, crossing her arms.
"What type of...uh...well, that doesn't matter. What matters now is waiting for ten, right? Right, so let's get ready."
Sirius automatically volunteered first watch and sat on a chair next to a window in the treehouse (of course, there wasn't actually any glass, just a sort of hole in the wall), staring out at the surroundings, keeping an eye on the clock.
The rest of them all took chairs and double-checked on plans and looked over their weapons.
"Who's going to search with who?"
"I got Matt," Sirius said automatically from his post, and he looked at Matt as if to make sure that was okay. He smiled at Matt, and Matt fought back a blush as he nodded in agreement.
"Well, I'm going to go with Remus," Cyrus said, looking towards the spiky-haired blonde sitting next to him. Remus smiled affectionately at his mate. They all knew why the two would have to go together. Cyrus had to protect Remus, and Remus had to keep Cyrus in check and help come up with strategies if anything went wrong.
"I'll go with Iori," Jyou volunteered. The young brunette sitting at his left nodded. Both were the only ones present who were mateless, though they were good friends.
"I'm going with Sora, since she's my bitch," Ikarus said, as if tired. He looked at his mate, grinning slowly, and she rolled her eyes at him. She tutted and slapped his arm, but she blushed ever so slightly.
"Right, so it's settled," Sirius concluded. He looked out the "window" again, and Matt slumped down in his chair. Now for the wait. He sighed loudly and leant his head back against the back of the chair, blowing at his hair when it fell over his face.
~ ~ ~ ~
Around twenty minutes later, Iori gently shook Matt's shoulder. Matt cracked an eye open to look at him and Iori smiled.
"It's time to go," he whispered, and Matt glanced out the hole in the wall and saw it was already rather dark outside, except for the glowing face of the clock, which showed 10:05. He wondered how he had slept through the clock's ringing ten times.
He leapt to his feet, checked his pockets to make sure all of his weapons were in place, and then followed the group making it's way down through the entrance in the floor. He crept along the floorboards, hunched over on all fours, like the rest of them, and then dropped through the hole on the floor. He instantly crept to a bush, and rested beside Sirius. Sirius turned to look at him and flashed him a grin.
He raised his eyebrows, as if to ask, "Ready?"
Matt nodded, and then looked forward again. He heard Sirius whisper, "Go!", and all of a sudden they were parts of the shadows, dashing along under cover of night, along the dark alleyways.
He made sure to follow Sirius closely, never keeping him out of his sight, while at the same time looking around for any sign of Tai.
He checked for any places Tai might be hiding, looking around corners and in boxes and even in trash cans. In one brief moment of stupidity, he looked *under* a trash can, but then realized that there was no way Tai could hide under there, as he would have to be as flat as a pancake. He gladly noted that Sirius hadn't seen him looking under the trash can, and set it back down noiselessly, moving on with the search.
They cleared two alleyways when Matt suddenly bumped into something that felt like another body, one he knew wasn't Sirius because Sirius had dropped behind to check a joint alleyway. Matt instantly tensed, falling back, feeling his muscles tighten in anticipation. He didn't know whether to act vicious towards this stranger, like he imagined a Fang would act even to a familiar face when encountering someone in an alleyway at night, or to remain calm and try to blend in, as if he was familiar with this alleyway and knew what he was doing and where he was going.
The figure spun around and growled deeply at him. This was a male, and an adult male, at that. Judging from the deep, subterranean growl and the size of the shadow the figure was casting, it was a large, strong adult male, also. Matt fought the urge to gulp.
"Who are you?" the figure growled.
Matt's mind raced. Should he lie, or tell the truth, or make up a name, or not answer at all? Matt decided to take the last course of action and remained silent, fighting to keep his head, looking for a way out.
When Matt didn't reply, the figure growled a bit deeper and stepped towards him. Luckily, Sirius chose that moment to return, and made himself known with a question.
"I believe the question is: Who are *you*?" Sirius asked evenly, cocking an eyebrow and leaning against Matt slightly.
The figure jumped slightly, not having noticed Sirius creeping up. He looked at the newcomer and looked him over suspiciously.
"What's it to you?"
"Well, what's it to you who *we* are?" Sirius countered.
"This is my alleyway."
"Ah, I don't see your name on it."
The figure laughed coldly. "That's an old insult. Can't you think of anything better?"
"Can't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"This is *my* alleyway, blah blah, whine whine. If it's yours, then why don't you protect it better? How'd we get here in the first place, if it's *your* alleyway? If it really was, shouldn't you have it protected or marked off or something? You should at least get a warning, so you wouldn't have any intruders. Or, is it a trap, perhaps? Do you *make* people want to come onto your alleyway and then jump out of the shadows with some bull about owning the alley? Do you secretly *want* intruders, so you could scare them off, or boast about the alley, to feed your ego, even though the alley smells like crap?"
The figure had stepped closer, and Matt could make out his features now. He was definitely an adult male, with blonde hair that was so light it looked white in the light cast from a street lamp a few feet away. He looked puzzled.
"What?"
"If you couldn't even follow my train of thought, or speech, whichever you prefer, then you mustn't be very bright, are you? Do you think you're up to the responsibility of owning an alleyway, all by yourself? Shouldn't you take baby steps? Shouldn't you start off by owning, maybe, that street lamp over there? You could piss all over that thing all night if you wanted, but you couldn't very well constantly piss all over the alleyway. Or have you?"
"What?" he asked again, sounding more unsure of himself.
"Have you pissed all over the street?"
"No..."
"Then you don't own it, do you?"
The figure stared at him. Sirius smirked. Matt was bewildered. He had just seen Sirius slowly but surely confuse the poor brute until he didn't even know how to talk tough to him anymore.
"Well, if you don't own it, will you let us go?"
He slowly nodded, and Sirius walked past him and along the alley. Matt rushed after Sirius and cast a last glance back at the man they were leaving behind. He was scratching his head and going over the conversation in his head, trying to figure out where he got lost and what was wrong about that exchange of words.
"How did you do that?" Matt asked in wonderment once they were a good distance away from the man.
Sirius looked at him and smirked. "What, confuse him? Oh, anyone can confuse a person. It's easy. Just let them start off and question everything that they say. Then you just...well...wing it."
"Wing it? That's what you did back there? You winged it, and got us out of a beating?"
Sirius shrugged. "Pretty much."
Matt shook his head. "No wonder you got chosen to govern the Southside."
Sirius laughed and patted Matt's head. "You'll be able to do that effortlessly someday, dear boy. Don't you worry."
Sirius suddenly stopped smiling and went serious again, searching about for Tai with intense blue eyes. Matt went back to looking as well.
When they turned the corner to go into the next alleyway, two new figures collided with them. Matt fought the urge to groan out loud at running into not one, but two new guys, but then he realized that they were Jyou and Iori. The two panted for breath and Jyou lifted his head to speak.
"We've found Taichi," he said breathlessly. Matt's heart leapt into his throat. Found...Tai?
"Where?!" he asked frantically. Is he alive? he almost added, but didn't, afraid of the answer, and how white and stricken the two looked.
"We'll lead you to the house; there's no time to explain," Jyou finished, and suddenly there were running as fast as their legs could carry them, out of that alleyway, cutting across to another, weaving around corners. Finally, they got out of the maze of alleys and into an open space that separated the alleys from the rows of houses, and Matt realized Tai was in one of these houses. Had he been found out by the Fangs? Is that why Jyou sounded scared?
What he found was not what he expected. No, Taichi wasn't dead. Not yet, at least. They stopped in front of a large, broken down house. The house had many people inside. They recognized some of the screams as their own friends, and others unmistakably as Fangs. The screams weren't what frightened Matt the most. What frightened Matt the most was the fact that the house, which already looked about to collapse, was engulfed in flames.