A/N: Well, I finished my homework, and I wrote three pages earlier, but due to stupidity and past experience, I didn't save what I had written. Then someone came in and clicked the 'X' for the file… and I lost all three pages. So, sorry if the first part of this chapter sucks. I'm trying to rewrite what I lost. Also, thanks to my two reviewers!

"Spoken"

'Thoughts'

Telepathy

/// Flashback ///

"Farfarello! Bring that back!"

Brad winced as Omi screeched in his ear. It was breakfast time the morning after Ran and Yohji's mission, and Omi, Brad, and Farfarello were the first ones to the kitchen. Omi had been using the blender when Farf grabbed it and ran to the refrigerator. He was currently sitting on top of the fridge, stabbing the bananas Omi had put inside the blender.

"Omi, don't yell," Brad admonished, regaining his hearing.

"Why no—Brad? What's wrong?" Omi asked, seeing Brad's glazed eyes and blank face. "Are you getting a premonition?" When he received no response, Omi nodded and returned his attention to the Irishman holding the blender.

"Farfarello! Give that back, now!"

"Why?" The yellow-eyed man asked, cradling the blender lovingly in his lap. "It likes me!"

"How can it like you?" Omi demanded. "You stuck a lizard in there last week!"

"It likes lizards!" Neither bothered to comment on the fact that they were having an argument on the likes and dislikes on an inanimate object. Both had begun to enjoy the argument, strange as it was.

"How can it like lizards? They're scaly, and the blood is hard to clean off!"

"Who says Sakki likes to be clean?"

"Who the *#$% is Sakki?!"

"Sakkidatta [1] is the blender!"

"You named a blender?" Omi asked quietly.

"You named your spoon a few months ago," Farf reminded him. Omi's face scrunched up in a pout.

"That's beside the point!"

"Would you two please stop!" Brad yelled at them, not needing his gift to see another round of the argument coming.

"Brad! You're out of your vision!"

"It stopped around the time you were talking about lizards." Omi blushed, and asked what Brad's vision had been about. Before Brad could answer, Ran stumbled into the room, eyes bleary and still in his pajamas. The others could only stare at him for a few minutes.

"What?" Ran grumbled, confused as to why he had found it so hard to wake up in the morning. He hadn't had trouble waking up in over a year.

"You look… for lack of a better word, good. I mean you look like you just gained a year of your life back or something."

"You do look very good, Ran!" Brad agreed, standing next to the redhead and gripping his pajama top. [2]

"Uhn… Ohayoo, Brad… "

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Tired… " Ran looked up and saw Farfarello sitting on top of the fridge, holding their blender. He blinked. Farfarello blinked. He nodded and headed to the cupboard. Before he could reach it, though, a blender landed on the counter lightly. He turned back around and saw Nagi glaring at the Irishman.

"You're next," Nagi promised the white-haired man. Farfarello grinned and jumped down.

"I got it!" Ken exclaimed, staring intently at Nagi.

"Got what?" Brad asked, worried that his visions weren't showing him anything about this situation.

"Who you guys look like now! You look like Gundam Wing AC!" Everyone stared at Ken blankly, who blushed and ducked his head. "Think about it! Brad looks like that Treize guy, Nagi looks like Trowa, or Triton, or No-Name, or whatever he's called! Oh, and Omi's begun to look like the girly one. What was his name again? Oh yeah! Quatre!"

"When did you get in here?" Omi asked, upset that he reminded his friend of the girly one.

"I followed Nagi in."

"Ah- Ran-kun? Where are you going?"

"Hn."

"You know," Nagi said quietly, "I thought he had finally been broken of that habit." Ken glared at him and stuck his tongue out. Nagi rolled his eyes.

"RAN! Letter for you!" Yohji yelled up the stairs. He set the envelope on the counter and turned his attention to the rest of the mail. "Bill, bill, bill, junk, junk, magazine, newspaper, bill, add for dating service, junk, letter for Brad, doctor reminder for Farf's medication, junk, and that's it!" Yohji looked up from his commentary on the mail and saw Ran staring at the letter he had received, trembling. "Ran? You okay?"

Ran looked up, violet eyes wide with fear. He shook his head violently. "Yohji, I- I can't read this. I can't open it!"

"It can't be that hard," Yohji said, taking the letter from Ran's hand and starting to rip it open.

"NO!" Yohji stopped at Ran's command. It was rare that he gave orders outside of missions (especially now that he knew he had family again), so the others had learned that he usually had a very good reason for it if he did.

"Why not, Ran?"

"I just… I don't know, I've just got a bad feeling about that letter." Ran took the envelope back from Yohji's hand and headed up the stairs. Yohji, following his instincts – which said to find out what was in that envelope – followed him up.

"I don't see what the problem is," Schuldich informed the others. "It's his choice as to whether or not he wants to open that envelope."

"Yeah, but if it's bothering him, he should tell us and let us help!" Yohji argued. Brad nodded his agreement.

"Are you about done talking about me behind my back?" Ran inquired angrily.

The five men faced their leader guiltily. Yohji had told Brad what had happened, and they decided that they should ask Schuldich what to do, since he knew Ran better than anyone. While they were talking, Omi and Nagi had walked past and offered their views on the subject. After a few minutes, they had gotten in a deep discussion, Schuldich saying that it was his choice, and the others arguing that Ran needed help but was too stubborn to get it.

"No offense, Babe, but maybe you should open it?" Ken suggested, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. Ran turned in the embrace and glared at Ken.

"Now you think I can't handle it myself?"

"That's not it at all! It's obviously bothering you, though, and I hate that I can't help." Ran raised an eyebrow at his comment, but let Ken continue. "Until you ask for help, and show us that letter, we can't help. It's not a matter of you being able to handle it or not, it's our need to feel like you can count on us. If you can't come to us with something like this, why would you come to us with something even more important?" Ran leaned his head against the brunette and sighed.

"Fine, I'll go get the letter," Ran consented. He pulled himself from the ex-soccer player's strong arms and headed to his bedroom.

"That was amazing, Kenken," Yohji breathed in awe.

"What was?"

"The way you convinced him. It didn't involve arguing or him getting mad!"

Ken shook his head and sat in one of the armchairs. When Ran returned he was pulled into the brunette's lap. Ken hugged him tightly and pressed a kiss to his temple to reassure him that they wouldn't leave him.

"Dear Orchid… " Ran trailed off, paling to a chalk white.

"Ran? Babe, what's wrong?" Ken queried, worried about his boyfriend.

"That's what he called me," Ran whispered so softly the others had to strain to hear.

"What who called you?"

"Him."

Ran, I'm going into your head to get it out, okay?

Schu? I- Why is this bothering me so much? Schuldich winced. Even Ran's mental voice was quaking with fear.

That's what I want to find out. Can I come in?

Hai.

/// "Ran? Come on, talk to us! Get out of it, Rannie!"

The teenager was trembling violently, unable to get the man from his mind. The five people surrounding him stared down at him, worry filling their features.

"What happened?" The smallest one asked.

"The target caught him."

"How did he get ahold of him?" The blond-ish one demanded.

"He slipped out of my grasp and ran into him. He had Ran by the neck!" the woman shuddered.

"He was almost catatonic by the time I got him home," the oldest man informed them. "I told you to go home! Why didn't you listen?" he whispered. ///

"Apparently it was some guy from a mission, only his team had a woman and two men who were older than him," commented.

"Crashers." Everyone turned to look at Omi. "That was his team before he joined Weiss. One of the members was female, and only one member was younger than Ran."

They all turned their attention back to Ran, who was holding the letter and shaking violently. "He's coming back! He- he wants revenge."

Was that a cliffhanger? I don't know, I'm not good at them. Here's the second chapter! I hope I made it long enough this time. The chapters for this story just seem to want to be shorter than the ones in FS. Ah well. Please review!

[1] – Japanese for Bloodthirsty

[2] – For all who have seen Fruits Basket, picture the scene in DVD three where Haru is holding Yuki's shirt when they're all at the school. You know, before he proved his natural hair color! *snicker snicker*