Bryan jumped down silently from the tree he had been crouching in a tree and walked quietly over to Ray.

"Xiu Juan…" He heard the neko-jin whimper.

He stopped. Who was this Xiu Juan character? A childhood friend? Most likely. An ex-girlfriend maybe? It was a possibility; he didn't know if Ray was fully homo or bisexual.

He made his way over to his boyfriend, his boots crunching on the soft snow, but he didn't care. He knelt by Ray and pulled the boy towards him, holding his petite frame against his own strong one. He could tell that Ray was crying even though his body didn't shake with sobs; the air around them wasn't filled with crying either; but it was the fact that he could feel the teardrops falling repeatedly on his arm, falling into a rhythm and soaking through the thick jacket.

"Ray…" Bryan, for once in his life, whispered gently. "I'm… I'm sorry…" He held him for a while, in utter silence; Ray's tears slowly stopped. "Who was she?"

Sniff. "Who?"

"This Xiu Juan?" He said before laying a gentle kiss on the top of the neko's head.

"She was my carer… my best friend…" He chuckled slightly. "…My only friend for a while…" He paused. "I ended up in the White Tiger village, not by birth, but because a man from their village found me in the forest when I was a kid. I don't know what had happened, but I know that I'd run away from my old village… my parents… they had split and I-I didn't like it there. But Xiu Juan took me in, even though she had no husband. I was a bit of an outsider in my village; as you can tell. But then I met the future White Tiger team and we all became friends; like in a fairy tale, you could say. But… it happened a few days before I got Driger… the villagers from my old home found my location and…" He swallowed hard. "And…"

"She was…?"

Ray shook his head. "No, but she might have well have been… they wanted me back. I didn't want to go… and… shots were fired… one hit her mid-back, ending right near her heart. We managed to get the villagers away… but… Xiu Juan was hurt bad… she survived, yeah, but the cost was horrendous… she developed severe breathing problems, and worse things than that… she couldn't do what she used to be able to do. She couldn't protect me from the other guys who were older than me; and bigger. But, Lee's grandfather called me, and Xiu somehow knew what it was about. She told me to leave and live her dreams for her; to see the world first hand. The next day, I took Driger and left…"

"And you've lived her dreams for her, Ray," Bryan answered, easing Ray's chin up with his finger and kissing him gently on the lips. Pulling back, he said, "and you've done more."

Ray kissed back, a little more forcefully this time. Bryan replied to the show of emotion and soon the kisses became more needy… desperate… demanding. They lost themselves in the fit of passion, and Bryan kept his instincts under check; the instincts being to just lie down and take the neko-jin right there, right then.

They pulled away, gasping and panting to make up for the loss of oxygen during those precious moments.

But a rustling in the bushes stopped all that. They stared at the moving ferns, expecting a giant bear or tiger to come prowling out, but instead…

"A racoon."

Both teens sweatdropped as the white coloured racoon ran the whole length of the clearing, but it didn't reach the other side; a grey wolf pounced on it.The wolflooked up at them with chocolate brown eyes.

"Ah, Bryan? Do you think…?"

Bryan smirked. "No, cos it wouldn't dare." He growled, fingering the cool metal of his Falborg.

Another wolf appeared; a beige and grey one this time. The two wolves looked at each other, making odd whining sounds; not noticing that the racoon was actually still alive and wriggling to get free, eyes almost popping out of its head under the pressure.

'Aren't those the two humansthe Alphatalked about?' The beige one asked.

'They fit the description…' the grey wolf replied, padding softly over to the teens, sniffing the air. 'Smell likethe Alphadid when he returned too… what shall we do, Shadi?'

'We leave but follow them at a distance… find out where their home is and report back to Ayashe.'

The grey wolf looked down at the wriggling racoon under Shadi's paw. 'What shall we do about the pest?'

'We leave him.'

And the two wolves scampered off, leaving the two bewildered teens and a scared-to-death, white racoon in the clearing. Ray glanced at Bryan then at the odd racoon.

"Do you think it's alive?" Ray asked; Bryan nodded. "Well then," he stood and walked over to the racoon, picking him up. The racoon instantly sprung to life and ran up the length of his arm and onto his shoulders. Ray looked back at the blank Bryan, "I say he tags along. If we leave him like this, he won't survive."

"And if you keep picking up wild animals, neither will you." Bryan pointed out.

Ray pouted. "For your information, this is the first wild animal I've adopted. Tala adopted Moon Child, not me."

Bryan shook his head sadly and, along with his neko and pet racoon, walked out of the clearing, towards their camp.

"Remember to keep those guns away from me and Fai."

"Don't worry, I- wait, you've named that thing?" Bryan exclaimed. Ray pouted once more. "Come on, Ray, it's a wild racoon dog!"

"I know what it is, Bry, they do live in China as well. And don't worry; you'll always be my favourite animal, Bryan."

"Come out!"

The rustling continued as the beast ran around the nearby bushes around the redhead. Tala growled and took up a defensive stance. The rustling stopped. Tala's stance faltered for a split second, but became strong again. His ice blue eyes scanned the foliage in the silvery light of the moon for any form of moving life. Nothing, until…

A large black wolf leaped out of the bushes and landed a few feet away from the Russian. It stared at him with deep mahogany eyes. Tala frowned; usually a wolf, upon meeting a fellow predator, would at least puff out its fur to make it seem bigger, but this wolf hadn't.

The wolf bent one of its front legs and lowered its head in a bow. It stood proud again.

It walked around Tala and away, looking over its shoulder and nodding forwards, as if it wanted Tala to follow…

And that's what the redhead did.

A/N- Another surprise animal. Please welcome, Fai the wild racoon dog! Expect him to cause the same amount of mischief as Moon Child did to Ian… maybe a little less…

But where is that black wolf taking Tala? And will they ever get to Kai? And is Bryan jealous of Fai? Hehe… all questions will be answered next chapter… or maybe in the next few.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Anywho, review!