Chapter 2

About half an hour passed. Ken remained seated in exactly the same position as he had done after sending Omi to bed. A light patter of rain began at the windows, getting louder as time went on. Glancing at his watch, Ken frowned. It quarter past midnight. Where were they?
A light knock on the door answered his question. Dripping and soaked through to the skin, Aya and Yohji stalked into the apartment. After taking off huge coats and shaking out T-shirts thoroughly, Yohji and Aya took places on the edge Ken's bed.
"Well?" Ken was the first one to speak.
Aya shook his head.
"Nothing," murmured Yohji. "They don't even know what he looks like yet... But Manx says they're working on it."
Glancing across at Omi, by now securely curled into blankets, Yohji continued, pushing stray bits of hair behind his ear slowly. "How is he?"
"Tired, irritable," said Ken in an offhanded manner. "Just as you would expect." Looking up, Ken took Aya's gaze. "How much longer is this gonna take?"
"As long as it needs to," was the red-head's gruff response.
Ken looked to the floor for a moment before looking up again. "I don't know how long Omi's gonna be able to hack this school thing. He doesn't like it, I know that much without him telling me."
Aya nodded. "That doesn't make the mission go any quicker thought does it?" He paused. "Maybe he should just quit school here and catch up when we get home."
Yohji took off his sunglasses and rubbed at the absently with a sleeve. "Would he do that even if you told him to?"
"Probably not," murmured Ken in agreement. "He'd feel like he was running away from it."
Yohji nodded, wondering if it was possible to convince Omi that school was a bad idea. He then decided against it.
After a pause, Ken continued. "Do we even have a name yet?"
"Richard Stevenson," murmured Aya, his expression not changing as he looked up to meet Ken's gaze. "18 years of age."
Ken blinked. "18? Is that it?"
Yohji nodded, then muttered, "The guy's father's been around. That kicked him off."
"Doing what?"
"Drug and gun running, kidnap, murder, rape, you name it, it's been in the family somewhere."
Ken nodded slowly, visibly thinking hard. He then shot a look towards Omi, who was even more securely cocooned in blankets than before. He then met Aya and Yohji's gaze in turn. "How much should he know?" Aya carefully narrowed his gaze at the tuft of brown escaping from the top of the blanket. "How much should he know?" Thoughtfully, the redhead closed his eyes.
"Nothing."