A/N: It's been like forever since I last update, sorry about that folks. The going will probably become slower since I'm in the summer reading program and I'm basically reading by day and typing by night when I don't fall asleep watching movies. Chapter 4 cause ya'll just want it.

Disclaimer: Same as last time along with Phantom of the Opera soundtrack

Word Key:

Text

"Talking"

'Thoughts'

'Hummed words'

Shadow

Chapter Four

. : Ch. 4 Old Memory : .

It was five a.m. at the Moonshine and at that time it was usually dead silent, really you would've thought it was a house of the dead it was so quiet. But today one soul was up; he was up every day at that time for some odd reason. It was the newest member of the Moonlight Bandits, Ryu Suou, the older brother of Mitsuru Suou though one would never be to tell with the attitudes they had.

He was the nicer, less grumpy brother. At the time he sitting on his bed, staring at the one spot on the wall like it was the most interesting thing in the whole entire universe. What he was really doing was practically driving himself insane trying to think of something that his dear younger brother would remember from his childhood. So far nothing, it's hard work trying to remember things from when you're six.

"Where the hell is a brick wall when you need one? Then maybe I could think of that one song she always used to sing. This is frappin irritating." Ryu didn't really refer to his mother as 'mom' but as 'she' since he never really saw her in the motherly role.

Then suddenly like a brick wall re-enforced with steel the song crashed into his mind. The song his mother sang was from something along the lines of a musical, but which one there must be thousands upon thousands of different musicals. "Field trip." Only one way to find out and that was to head to the library.

In his mind Ryu played the Mission Impossible theme as he rolled off the bed and landed in a crouched position. The tengu glanced to one side then another as if searching for danger, Mission theme song still playing in his head, then slowly and carefully he lowered down to the floor on his stomach.

'Secret agent Ryu has almost accomplished his mission…getting to the closet.' Ryu crawled across the floor on his elbows as he smirked at himself. True what he was doing was completely childish and stupid, but he had fun doing it, making him feel like a kid once again. After a good five minutes worth of crawling he did get to the closet and hopped back up on his feet.

"Man, does that ever not get old." The tengu smiled sheepishly at himself. "Doh, I almost forgot where and what I as doing. I've got another mission, somehow getting my brother to not be so mean to me!" Ryu thought that over a bit then yelled out, "WRONG! That is physically impossible he hates my living guts, probably my dead guts too; but I'd rather not think that far ahead into my life. Now what was I doing again? Oh, library."

In a matter of minutes the 'man with a mission' was outdoors strolling down the sidewalk when the sun had barely even started to rise. As he walked along to the library he hummed the tune out to himself hoping it might right a bell on where it had originated from. 'Learn to be lonely. Learn to be your one companion, never dreamed out in the world; there are arms to hold you. You have always known your heart was on its own.'

'Oh damn I know it, it's on the tip if my tongue I just know it.' This was starting to get quite aggravating; that song had to have come somewhere. His mother didn't think it up, no in way in hell; she was creative, but not thatcreative.

As he walked along, Ryu noticed that the only sound he heard was that of his own footsteps and the occasional car driving by. Instead of focusing on the sidewalk like he had been, he looked around; it was like a barren concrete wasteland. "Where is everybody, did they have like jobs or something?" The tengu half-shouted, but stopped short when he saw that he wasn't too far, about half a block, away from the library.

The hysterics he had abandon that half block away caught up with Ryu. He had sprinted from where he was only to find, that it was closed. 'What the hell! It's a friggin week day why the hell aren't they open?' Peeking through the large glass double doors he look for anything in there that even remotely resembled a trace of life; instead he found something more interesting, it was the schedule of the library's hours.

He recited the hours out loud, "Library…opened from…eleven a.m. to… five p.m. on weekdays…noon to seven…on weekends. Today is most definitely a Wednesday so they should be open by now right?" When glancing at the watch on his wrist the boy about smacked the shit out of himself. He had a while before it would open for the day, about four and a half hours before it opened.

He set his watch for twenty minutes after the library was supposed to be open and wondered where to go until that time. Looking around he spotted a few tables and chairs across the street at a restaurant. Ryu half ran, half walked across the street when no cars were coming and sat down. He sat there for the better part of an hour and forty minutes just staring up at the clouds and up into outer space; his body may have been on earth at that time but his mind was up in the stratosphere. It was at that time that he started thinking about that day, the last day he saw his mother in thirteen years.

: Start Flash Back :

"Ryu, I'm going out and I'm taking Mitsuru with me." The woman who was his mother told him. She had spent about the last ten minutes packing bags with all her stuff in them into a rented car.

The little boy with large smoke grey eyes stood there watching, not even truly realizing what was going on, replied, "Okay Mommy, when will you be back?" She had been ready to exit when she stopped and exchanged the quizzical stare that her eldest son gave the woman with on of her own.

She walked back over to him, heels clacking on the hardwood floor as she did so, and squatted down so they were eye level. "Truthfully, Ryu honey, I'm not sure when I'll be back."

"Where are you going Mommy?"

"That's not important. Just do Mommy a favor and don't tell Daddy that I left alright."

"What if he asks where you are?"

She gave a simple reply, "Tell him you don't know alright?" It took a moment before he finally responded. "Alright Mommy. Bye-bye."

His mother gave him a warm smile and kissed his forehead. "Bye-bye Sweetie." With that she proceeded to straighten up and traveled back out to the car. Ryu had followed her until the edge of the porch; from there he watched her go down the steps before he uttered one word, "Mitsuru."

She turned back around. "What?" Her son had on a placid look that he usually wore when he didn't care or understand what was going on. "You forgot Mitsuru." She was always forgetting at least one of them. The last time she had to take Mitsuru for a six month check up she had left him up in the playroom and was gone for several hours; where he had no idea.

"Silly me." She chuckled as she strode back up the walk way and disappeared into the house. Moments later she came back out with a half asleep toddler hoisted up on her left hip, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Okay Ryu, now where's Mommy?"

Ryu was studying the Power Rangers on his shoes when responding, "I dunno." One last time his mother kissed his forehead. "Bye-bye Mitsuru." Ryu told his brother.

Mitsuru at hearing 'bye-bye' burst out, "NO, NO BYE-BYE!" and started flailing in his mother's grasp. If there was one thing he hated, it was car seats and cars; he always threw up. The mother tried and failed miserably to calm down the screaming boy and finally just buckled him in his car seat.

Ryu watched as his younger brother's face became red and puffy from the fountain of tears he cried as he vainly tried to kick free of his restraints. He kept on watching his brother as the car slowly crept off the drive way in reverse then when it was going forward up the street.

Only when it was no longer visible did the young tengu boy turn and go into the house where he then proceeded up to the playroom he shared with Mitsuru. In the closet was a bucket of Legos that Ryu dragged out and dumped out before starting to work on the largest Lego tower ever.

After and hour and three failed attempts Ryu gave up and turned to the alternative of TV downstairs. He flipped through the channels until he found Sesame Street. Sitting there, he watched and he watched until the only thing he was watching was the inside of his eyelids.

The child wasn't aware of how much time had passed until his father had stepped in through the doorway. "Ryu, hey Ryu buddy, wake up." Slowly and reluctantly he opened his eyes. "Mornin' buddy, where's Mommy at?"

"I dunno."

"Where's your brother?" Once again the little boy replied, "I dunno."

The man looked at his son for a moment as if thinking before heading for the stairs. "Maybe they're in the playroom." On the other hand Ryu just sat staring off into space. Sometime later his father's footsteps thundered down the stairs.

In a stern voice he commanded, "Ryu Suou, something's going on and I want to know what now." Afterwards was nothing but silence until Ryu asked, "When will Momma be home? Will it be soon?"

"You mean she left, when?"

"Sometime this afternoon; she put all her stuff in a car and took Mitty with her."

Behind him, his father sighed heavily and muttered the word 'shit' as he practically ran to the phone and called the police.

Ryu didn't hear any of the conversation; he didn't even understand what the big deal was. He just thought it was one of her normal business trips which sometimes she would take Mitsuru on, how was this one any different? Awhile later his father came back in and sat on a chair exhausted.

"When's Momma comin' back from her trip?"

The boy's father beckoned him forward, "Come here Ryu." He did as instructed and his father sat Ryu on his lap, cradling him against his chest and smoothing his hair. His voice was low as he told his son, "Momma…You see, I'm not…not really sure if she's coming back."

"What about Mitty?"

"I don't think he is either…" it sounded like his father had started to choke back tears, "You see, Momma ran away and I don't know where she went and she took Mitty with her…"

: End Flash Back :

The boy who was once six, now twenty sat there thinking of back then. If only he had known what was really happening he would've stopped her; he should have stopped her, his father would've. If he had let her forget about Mitsuru things would've been different between the two of them.

The beeping of the alarm to signify 11:20 am on Ryu's watch started beeping. He turned it off and for the second time that day was ready to smack himself. There were "if"s and "should've"s about a lot of things in life, he could keep regretting what he did and he couldn't change it.

It's a fact of life; you can't change what happened in the past. 'But at least I can try to make up for it.' Ryu thought as he strode through the front entrance to the library and started on his search of the different musicals.

TBC

A/N: It's late by almost 2 weeks but, better late then never right? Any who, I'm proud of myself, wanna know why I'm proud of myself? Because… I CHANGED A LIGHT BULB ALL BY MYSELF! That's all I have to say about that subject, but I'm still very proud of myself. Onto a subject that I meant to ask last chapter but forgot. How would you all feel about a character death in here? Review with your answers and let it be known that when you review I get mail, getting mail is the highlight of my day. Very pathetic I know. Also one last thing, I'm not sure how long it'll be till both of my stories are updated again because, being the little book hoarder that I am, I have more books due soon and I've gotta get crackin on those but at night I'll be typing up chapters and all that good stuff. Thought I'd let you know so that you people don't think I abandon you, I could never do that you guys are like a family to me. Later

Thanks to you guys who make the highlights of my pitiful days:

Scathac's warrior- cool, I can't wait to read it
Writergirl118- I wrote more, I'm hoping to get more written in the wee hours of the morning on Fridays and Saturdays
Jesusgirl883- M-chan…you're scarin me. And I always wanted to do something with the black bra/ white shirt thing cause it's just so damn funny.
Motokonobaka- the evilness shall be coming in later chapters, I already have something planned. (Evil laughter)
Black Dog Goddess Suiyou- sometimes, but most of the times it's just from losing that thing that people call sanity. Truthfully I don't think I ever had any cause I'm still wondering what the hell it is.
Rathgirl89- yes she is, so's my cousin for she is the one who did that once and when I heard it I wanted to put it in something and I have found the perfect opportunity in this here fanfic
Wilddog14- I kinda like my story but don't like how it came about
Ilovekaihiwatari- yeah, nobody understands how I came upon it or my obsession with vampires. My uncle is still waiting for me to crack and go all Norman Bates. (Course if I do it'll be on the preps at my school who actual make the time to bug me.)
Elen- yep it just might…
BlackLadyCharon- I agree Mitsuru torture is interesting. Next chapter after this one should probably be about 2 weeks but don't really anticipate it for right then because I'm horrible with keeping up with my updating dates
Taichi Prime- I do own them and sorry I don't know where to find transcripts because, truthfully, I have no idea what that is.

Thanks one and all who review after I post this! Also keep a look out for a new CM fic by me in the next couple of days, I have a feeling that it's gonna be a cute one and 1 month till my birthday!