~*~*~

That was my first encounter with him. 

That asshole, I thought with fondness, leaving me alone to deal with Mrs. Greenwood – or 'The Bitch Terror' – as I liked to call her.  I should get him back for that.  I grinned to myself.  Nahhhh.  It was funny.  If our places were switched, and it was him on that anthill, I would have laughed my ass off, and fallen out of the tree that I was perched on. 

Yeap, he had been hiding from The Bitch Terror too.

~*~*~

I crept into the dining hall, arms and legs chalky-white from the calamine lotion I slathered on myself before I left my room.  Probing the hall with my mind, I searched for the familiar lecherous mind of The Bitch Terror.  All clear.  No Bitch Terror in sight.  Trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, I sidled over to my usual seat. 

Scratching my arm absently, I sat down with a sigh of relief.  I was itching like the dickens.  Bloody ants, why'd they have to build their anthill there?  Grumbling under my breath, I blocked out the thoughts of everyone else in the room.  My control over my powers had increased greatly over the years and since one could never be too sure what the psychos were thinking in a place like this, it was so much easier and comfortable to just block everybody out. 

My instincts as an assassin rebelled against this lack of defence, but I was beyond caring.  Schwarz and Brad Crawford could go fuck themselves.  I was already doing what I was told, getting detoxed so I could once again be a fully functional, contributing member of dear ol' Schwarz.  I swear; if I had to be on the alert even here, I might as well end my pitiful life.  I was here to recover whatever mental stability I had lost, and listening in on the thoughts of these people would not be conducive to said recovery.  Definitely not.

So absorbed was I in my griping though, that I never noticed the man who had plopped himself down in the seat next to mine.

I stiffened and froze in my seat as hot breath whisked over my right ear, and a voice whispered, "You should have seen your face when you realised you were sitting smack on an anthill, and you really should've seen Greenwood's face when you popped out of that bush like a Jack-in-the-box."  The voice paused as the man sniggered.  "Funniest thing I've ever seen since Omi and Ken replaced all of Yohji's shampoo with some vile-smelling vinegar concoction."

I whipped my head over in the direction of the voice and found myself nose-to-nose with an amethyst-eyed stranger. 

~*~*~