Gray clouds lined the vast sky as far as eyes could see. It was only a matter of time before it started pouring cold rain, which always mixed with the cool summer breeze. The sky seemed to seek the pity of the overly polluted city, but no one minded the cold air and no one paid attention to the gray and black pigeons and seagulls hovering overhead. It was a dull, monotone day. Nothing mattered and no one seemed to care. At least, that's how Lev McLean saw the day. It was empty, cold and heartless; ironically enough, exactly how he felt.
His previous phone conversation with his mother had not ended well when he insulted her pride and had absentmindedly called her a whore. He wanted to call back and apologize but the courage to pick up the phone and admit his mistakes did not come. Nothing really mattered and all he could do was get into the dance studio, work off his stress and get back home. He wanted comfort for once.
The subway was crammed with teenagers making their way to work or school. They screamed, played around and even insulted each other- screaming crazy profanities without caring who overheard what. Lev listened in on one of the kid's conversations. A girl who looked oddly familiar began to speak, addressing a much younger boy who sat across her-- out of Lev's view. "Cal?" Lev asked, approaching the girl. Cal looked up, noticing the blonde man towering over her. "Lev? Hey," she replied, happily shaking his hand. Lev stared across her, finding Bikky sitting there with his legs on the chair near him, taking up much needed space. "Let Lev sit, Bikky," Cal whispered, ordering Bikky to allow his "uncle" to sit near him.
"So where are you going?" Cal asked, smiling. Bikky had grown tired of listening to her speaking and had turned up his CD player. He bopped his head, mouthing words to the songs he was listening to. Lev laughed, turning back to Cal and her question.
"Dance studio on 125th street," he replied. Cal nodded, giving Lev a blank stare. She smiled and turned on her own CD player, which was now loudly playing pop music. Lev groaned, throwing himself back into the orange plastic chair. For an instance he had forgotten all about his woes, and now they had returned only to be wiped out again by two more familiar faces.
" Is that Dee?" Cal asked, moving her head from side to side and standing up in order to get a better view of the two men walking towards them.
" It is Dee!" Bikky yelled, standing on the plastic chair.
" Huh? Dee Latyner from yesterday?" Lev asked, watching the two kids jump around frantically as they called Dee over. The dark haired detective immediately spotted the loud-mouthed kids, shoving past people and cursing incoherently between shoves. He seemed to be pulling someone with him as he made his way to the back of the train car.
"Hi, Ryo," Cal greeted the honey blonde detective when he came into view. He nodded and smiled, patting her head when he reached her.
"Look who's here," Cal began, pointing towards Lev.
" Hey," the brothers greeted each other simultaneously, bursting into a tiny fit of laughter afterwards.
Dee yawned, closing his eyes momentarily before snapping them open and digging in the pocket of his blue jean jacket. He pulled out a business card and handed it to Lev. "Dude, be there at three," Dee said, staring at Ryo.
" What is this?" Lev asked, staring at the address.
" It's the address for a private investigator in Manhattan. It just so happens he was investigating my parents' deaths." Ryo stated. He received a sad glance from Lev who was having a heated discussion whether or not to point out that Frank was their father.
Dee sighed when he noticed this and added, "It's the detective who was checking out your father and his wife's deaths. Happy now?" Lev frowned, clearly not enjoying Dee's blatant attempt to piss him off even though he had been correcting Ryo.
"Thanks man, but I didn't need that cleared up," Lev snapped back bitterly. Ryo stared at Dee and his brother, wondering exactly what these two were getting at. Lev shook his head, suddenly apologizing for his outburst. The dark haired detective nodded, mumbling his own apologies.
As the subway sped through underground tunnels and traveled at amazing speeds through them, Lev couldn't help but rethink his conversation with his mother. She had lied to him for years, stating that she had left her disgusting vice behind after he had become aware of it. Her words no longer made any sense and Sarah had most likely lied about everything. Was he even Frank McLean's second son? Lev shook his head in disgust as the memory of watching his mother snort cocaine in the privacy of her study played over and over in his mind.
" So you still use them?" Lev asked, wondering if his mother was being completely honest. Her reply was a whisper, something Lev could not hear and maybe did not want to hear.
" What did you say?" He asked, his voice becoming louder.
" I said 'yes,' okay? I said yes! I can't stop myself, the temptation is just too much and you stress me, son. You really do! You grew up so fast and I didn't even know what to do with you until you were almost an adult. Your father abandoned me for his wife and other son! I thought I was failing you as a mother and then your dad comes to see you one last time, parading his brand new- his brand new woman like she were some
'holier than thou' goddess and you liked her! A LOT! Your father even threatened to take you away from me and raise you as Liz's son. And I was scared, so I started using them even more and I-I haven't been able to stop! So if you want to scream at me, scream!" Sarah panicked as she spoke, her voice rising to an alarming level. She seemed to be breathing heavily as she finished.
Lev could hear her sobbing over the phone. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, pulling at the strands hard enough to hurt. Sarah stopped sobbing, listening to her son's breathing. He was calmly gathering the bits and pieces of what she had told him. She was a drug addict, had trafficked drugs continuously in and out of Europe. She was also involved with a huge gang, helping in running a black market. And a mafia determined her existence. It was up to them if she lived or died. If she even dared stop helping them in their "businesses", she would vanish mysteriously and simply be declared M.I.A--missing in action.
" Do you hate me?" Sarah asked, almost whispering the question.
" Yeah, mom, I do," Lev replied, "I hate you a lot." Sarah began sobbing again.
" Tell me, who did you like more? Me or Liz?"
" Liz."
" I'm your mother, Lev! You are supposed to love me the most, you ungrateful bastard!" Sarah shrieked. The blonde man had pulled away from the phone, ignoring her cursing and anguished screaming.
" Alright then, who are you going to defend? Me or Randy?" Sarah asked, calming down.
" Randy," Lev closed the phone, leaving his mother to fight and curse with herself. She had failed him; it was not the other way around. "I hate you, dad," Lev whispered, getting up from his bed and moving slowly into the bathroom, preparing for the inner turmoil that would follow.
"So we'll see you at three. Where will you be?" Ryo asked. Lev hadn't even noticed that his brother had begun a conversation with him.
"Uh, I'll be in the dance studio on 125th street," he replied. Ryo shook his head, writing something down on a piece of paper before handing it to Lev. "My cell phone number and Dee's," he explained. Lev nodded, placing the piece of paper in his book bag and getting up from his seat. "This is my stop," he announced, waving at Bikky and Cal and saying his good byes to Ryo and Dee.
"He's rude," Dee mumbled, settling down in the empty seat near Bikky. The blonde boy frowned, inching away from Dee before sticking his tongue out.
The dance studio provided little relief from the memories floating in Lev's head. He walked slowly out of the building, failing to notice the black car parked near it, with two suspicious looking men sitting there.
" I'm getting tired of stalking this boy," the driver commented, running his hand through his greasy hair and regretting doing so as soon as he removed it.
" I know, but this kid is important. He can get us into a lot of trouble if some of the crap he knows gets out in the open. And his brother's a cop too so now we're doubly screwed," the other man replied, peering through binoculars to get a closer view of Lev. The blonde man seemed too oblivious to notice anything. He walked clumsily into people, apologizing and even knocking down those who were as out of it as he was. He soon bumped into the same familiar face that had pissed him off that morning.
" Hey, Dee," Lev greeted the dark haired detective.
"Hey, man."
"What're you doing around here?"
"About to get something to eat. You dance around here, right?" Dee asked, emphasizing the word dance and adding hand movements to make a point. Lev chuckled and walked alongside the much taller man. "And where's my older brother?" Lev questioned, staring up at Dee. " Bikky got into trouble in school again and he had to rush over there or something. I swear, I warned him about that runt and did he listen? No, because Ryo knows better than Dee. He could've been having lunch with me," Dee grumbled, angrily cursing Bikky's personality and asking God why Bikky couldn't have been a pet turtle instead of a human being. Lev shook his head and laughed at Dee's absurd comments. "Hey, want to go get something to eat, I'm starved," Dee stated. He stopped walking, staring at the surrounding restaurants and stores. "Sure," Lev shrugged and followed Dee into a pizzeria.
"So, what kind of relationship do you and uh, Ryo have?" Lev asked, playing with his napkin as he asked the question. "We're just friends and partners thanks to damn Bikky and that brat girlfriend of his," Dee replied, calling the waitress over. Lev nodded, watching as the woman made her way over.
"Can I help you two?" She asked, listening intently to what each man ordered.
"So back to the subject of Ryo. Do you, like him, you know, sexually or something? There's a lot of tension around you two? Sexual tension, man." Lev pointed out, once more playing with his napkin. He scanned the restaurant for any tasteful décor that could be the subject of his next conversation with Dee; unfortunately, he found none.
"Yeah, I like your brother. Hell, I'd even say I love him, but he's too blind, too naïve," Dee replied, sounded all too sad for his personality, "Why do you ask me this, dude? Are you gay or something?"
Lev chuckled. "Yep. There'd be something wrong with me if I was a straight dancer, don't you think?" Lev asked, smirking. Dee nodded, raising an eyebrow at Lev's response. "Well, Ryo isn't homophobic, but the rat bastard of Bikky is so keep that under wraps."
The waitress, who had just approached their table empty handed, groaned and mumbled, " What a waste of a good man and paper." Lev and Dee chuckled, knowing full well she was headed towards Lev with her phone number in hand.
Both men ate their meals, chatting about useless things and Ryo. Dee had kept Lev at the edge of his seat with his retelling of their cases. Lev's jaw almost touched the ground when Dee explained about Leo and how it was all a mistake that both Ryo's parents had died.
"But you know, something always bugged me about that," Dee added to his story, " No matter how many times I look over the case, there are three things that bother me. Ryo's mom was driving a car that didn't belong to her and there was only one package that looked like the art pieces Ryo's parents were picking up and that was the one with the drugs and there was no other 'couple' collecting a package containing art pieces at the airport. I've checked the airport's flight and luggage records. I've found nothing." Dee lit a cigarette, taking a long puff before setting it down.
Lev stared at his hands, vaguely remembering something. "Was it a Jeep they were driving?" He asked. Dee looked up at him. "Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Then I don't think they died by mistake," Lev breathed.
"What?"
A/N: For those of you who are already wondering where this is going by me making Lev gay, don't worry about it, he's not stealing Dee from Ryo. That'll never happen in any of my FAKE stories. Lev is just gay for the hell of it. Storm Elf and me were just sitting around one night, chatting and she helped me create Lev's character (Thanks, by the way!) and us being rabid yaoi fan girls for life, decided the hell with it, he's officially gay. So here I am, not having writer's block, but I bet a lot of you can guess where this is going, right? There are a lot of plot twists coming, and in the next chapter, we meet Robert Kendall-not that he's special, but whatever. Review my dear readers. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I shall work on getting the sixth one up by next weekend, but that is not completely secured because I have a really full schedule next week. Crap, crap and more crap to do!
Oh and also, please accept my sincerest apologies on the lack of indentation in this chapter. My damn microsoft document won't accept the indentations and this Quick Edit crap doesn't even let me do it correctly.