A/N: Thanks to time, Dragon Shadow4, Anime the Fallen Angel, KyraEnsui, taking back Sunday, Manx16, mick, and Kyra2 for the reviews! To Manx16, if you like my use of other characters, read the stories by Berserker Nightwitch. Characters rarely used or almost never mentioned! But anyway, yeah. Here's the story, please enjoy!

"Spoken"

'Thoughts'

Telepathy

"Shh… It's okay. Ran, it's okay." Knight held the trembling body close to him as he walked back and forth across the living room. They had been back from Disney for about three days before Ran had gotten to the age of two. It had been four months since that time, and Ran hadn't changed since. The Kritiker agents didn't know whether they should be grateful or not. On the positive side, he wasn't a baby; on the negative side, they had been dealing with a two-year-old for the past four months.

Earlier that night, Ran had woken up the house screaming from a nightmare. It had been three hours, and the toddler was still crying. "Schuldich, please just go into his head and see what it is that's keeping him screaming." Yuushi was desperate by that time to quiet the sobbing child. He almost cried in relief when Schuldich finally agreed.

Rannie? What is it? What's the matter? Schuldich got images of the man that had attacked Ran in a bizarre order. Ahh… "He had a nightmare about that man again. It scared him because this time Ken wasn't there to wake him up."

Since Ken was sharing a room with Ran, it made since that he would wake Ran up after the child's nightmares. Unfortunately for everyone, Ken was away for a mission. He had had to travel, so he couldn't be expected back for another day or so. When there was no comforting presence next to him, Ran had gotten scared all over again.

They finally got the toddler to quiet down and go back to sleep. He fell asleep in an emptied dresser drawer from the room Queen was staying in. Everyone stood around him and just watched him sleep for a few minutes before exhaustion crept in and they went to their own beds.

"Hey, I'm back!"

"Kenken!" Ken braced himself when he heard the squeal, and, sure enough, was attacked by a redheaded ball of energy less than a minute later. "Kenken's back!" Ran yelled to the house. However, very few actually heard it since Ran's head was still buried in Ken's pant leg.

"Yeah, I'm back. Come here." Ken squatted down and picked the chibi up, flinging the child over his shoulder as he started for the stairs. Ran's squeals of delight were heard across the entire house. Ken had reached the top of the stairs before encountering anyone else.

"Welcome back," Schuldich greeted, peeling Ran off of Ken's neck.

"Thanks. I take it he missed me?"

"If you think you're getting a welcome, you should have seen Farfarello's welcome home yesterday."

"Oh?"

"He brought C-O-O-K-I-Es."

"Why are you spelling it?"

"He knows that word, and he'll demand one."

"So tell him no."

"And get those giant eyes? No way. Even I'm not that masochistic."

"Are you sure?"

"That's Farfie."

"He would do that?"

"In a heartbeat."

"Hey Omittchi. What's with the cake?" Yohji asked, walking into the room and seeing a giant cake on the table.

"Don't touch it Yohji-kun. Naru and I spent the entire day making it perfect!"

"Okay." Yohji immediately withdrew his hand from the tempting icing. "But what's it for? It's past most of our birthdays, and Ran's isn't for another month."

"Tomorrow is our one month anniversary as an eight-member team!"

"You paid attention to the day?"

"Of course I did! It's very important to all of us!"

"Why'd you ask Naru to help?"

"Ran's two, and Reiichi was giving Ran a bath. They're the only other ones who can cook."

"I didn't know Naru could cook."

"I bake better than I cook," Naru informed the blond playboy as he entered the kitchen. "When are you going to present it, Omi?"

"As soon as we've eaten dinner."

"And when will that be?" Yohji inquired, making a face when his stomach growled.

"As soon as Reiichi's done giving Ran his bath and cooks it."

"He finished the bath an hour ago."

"Then what's taking so long?"

"He's trying to catch Ran."

"…?"

"You know how toddlers like to run around the house after their baths? Usually naked… "

"Yeah… "

"Yeah."

"Oh. Where's everyone else?"

"The rest of Weiss is in the shop, Queen and Masato are on a mission, and Yuushi went for a walk."

At that moment, Yohji reached down and scooped something up. The something began squealing, and Naru and Omi realized it was Ran. Reiichi followed behind him, panting.

"I've been chasing that child for an hour."

"At least now you don't have to dry him off," Yohji pointed out. Reiichi tilted his head in agreement and took the squirming child from Yohji's grip.

"I'll be back."

Later that day, everyone was back in the Weiss apartment. Dinner had been made and consumed, and Omi and Naru were in the kitchen, doing the finishing touches for the cake. Yohji and Reiichi were the only two who knew how big they had made the cake, since everyone else had been gone all day.

The talking in the room died down as the two blonds walked into the room, each holding up one side of the cake. Ran started wiggling in Hanae's lap when he saw the mountain of chocolate headed in his general direction. "Calm down, Ran. You'll get some," the redheaded woman whispered to her youngest brother. The chibi immediately slowed his movements, though he was still excited about the cake.

"What's this for?" Schuldich asked.

"Our one year anniversary!"

"Oh, you and Nagi have been together that long?" The redheaded telepath asked sweetly, earning a glare from Omi and a blush and a trip around the room from Nagi. When Schuldich landed back in his chair he smirked. "Anniversary for what? You two are just too easy, though."

"We've been an eight-member team for an entire year now!"

"Really?"

"Well, tomorrow, but I didn't know if I would be able to keep Yohji out of the cake for another five minutes, let alone an entire day."

"How come Yohji knew about it?"

"I didn't have to work today."

"That was excellent!" Queen gushed, leaning back in her chair. Manx murmured an agreement distractedly and Queen looked up. The redheaded woman was busy wiping all the chocolate smudges off of her younger brother's face. The child was alternating between biting at the napkin and moving his face away from her hand.

When Hanae was done, Ran crawled out of her lap and into Farfarello's. The Irishman looked surprised, but he put an arm around the child and let him wrap his arms around Farfie's neck. Both of the women in the room were unable to suppress 'awes' when the child started to fall asleep in the white-haired man's arms.

Once they were sure Ran was asleep, though, the conversation turned to the man and his attacks on Ran. Schuldich finally told the whole story of what had happened in the hotel when they went to Disney, and as he predicted everyone was angry with him for not alerting them to the danger immediately.

"I'm sorry, but I wanted him to have a good time."

"Schuldich, he could have been killed! Then how would you feel?" Hanae growled at him. Her tone could have been described as yelling, but the volume was low enough to not wake the toddler.

"I know! But… I don't know… he wanted to go so badly, and then to be there but not be allowed to go… That's just cruel."

"Schu, I know it is, but his life is on the line. It is even here, and he's safer here than in an amusement park!"

Schuldich winced at Brad's tone of voice. The volume woke up Ran, who started crying slightly at the disturbance. Ken got up and headed upstairs. He returned a moment later holding a large brown teddy bear. He handed the toy to Ran and the child cuddled up to it. It made a comic picture: a chibi with a stuffed bear larger than he was trying to both fit on a very slender man's lap. However, having something to hug quieted Ran down and he was asleep again shortly.

"I promise I'll inform you the next time anything happens! I just wanted him to have one day of complete fun."

"I completely understand," Ken surprised everyone by saying. They would have thought he would be the one to argue most. It was, after all, his fiancé they were talking about. "I really wish that you had told us about it, but I agree with your wanting him to have a good time."

"Thanks Kenken."

"So… what are we going to do about this?" Masato asked, bringing everyone back to the topic.

"I don't know about you, but if he so much as touches Ran again in a nightmare I'm going to kill him. Mission or not," Ken snarled, surprising everyone again, this time with his hatred and ferocity towards a man he had never even seen.

"Agreed," Brad announced. Everyone in Weiss voiced their agreement with Ken's idea. Crashers would rather not kill the man, but they would at least take him to Weiss and let them take care of it. Hanae shook her head slightly.

"I would agree with you, but that would make all of you as bad as him. You would all just be common murderers. Are you sure you want that?" Hanae asked. "And you would be assisting in a murder, so you could be charged as accomplices," she told Crashers.

"That's a small price to pay if it means he'll leave Ran alone."

"But if all of you are put in jail, or killed, that will leave Ran alone again."

"So one of us just won't participate," Yohji declared lightly. "I'm voting that the people not helping be Schuldich and Ken."

"Why us?"

"He'll still have his brother, and his love."

"Oh."

"Persia isn't going to like this." [1]

"Oh well. Persia isn't related to Ran, and he doesn't have the ties and the bonds we share with Ran."

After a few more hours of discussion and arguing, Manx had to leave, and Weiss and Crashers went to bed. There were no more surprises that night, but once again there was an unnoticed figure listening from the alley beside the apartment. The man smirked as he heard their plans.

"They will not be getting me. I will have my Orchid."

A/N: Yeah, this one was short. It's about half the size of the last two. This is just where it wanted to end, and who am I to argue with the muses?

Schu: Exactly!

Elfsong: What are you doing here?

Knight: Helping you ask for reviews.

Elf: Shouldn't you be working on the next chapter?

Knight: Why would we do that?

Elf: Maybe because you're the muses!

Schu: We are?

Knight: *looks down at nametag* 'Knight – Muse #3' I guess so.

Schu: *looking at his own tag* 'Mastermind – Muse #2'. So who's the first muse?

Ran: Why am I still a child?

Knight: You're the top muse?

Ran: Apparently.

Elf: Guys, please.

Knight: Why is Ran first?

Elf: I liked him best first. Then I started to like Schu after I used him as a muse in Family Secrets. I only started liking you after I watched Glühen.

Schu: Really makes you feel loved, doesn't it?

Ran: Bakas.

Elf: Exactly. *turns to screen* Please review. It might actually get those two to be quiet for a little while! *indignant squawks heard in background* Let me know what you think so far!

[1] – We'll say hat Shuichi Takatori is still Persia-he's not dead! He LIVES!!!