Hm…honestly, I don't know where this will lead to. I often write something without deciding the end of the story. Let's just wait how this story turns out to be.

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Hijiri dropped his jaw. "You've got to be kidding me," he said and looked at himself. He didn't feel sorry at himself but he knew the consequences of letting the bruises stay for too long. After feeling numb for a while, he started to feel the pain again.

Hisoka sensed his pain even though he didn't show it. "Wait here, I'll get some ice," he told his brother. Hijiri pulled his pajama. "It's dark down there. Will you be okay?"

"I'm going to be alright. I'm not six anymore," Hisoka replied, feeling silly when remembering he was afraid of the dark when he was younger. "It IS dark down there, you know?" Hijiri was obviously tried to scare him but Hisoka knew better. "I know it is. Stop scaring me. It won't work anymore. I know you're worried about me but you're bruised. I can't leave you like this," he replied and pushed Hijiri's hand away gently.

His twin smirked, showing the sign of approval. "Okay. If you're not here in 5 minutes, I'm going down myself," warned him. "Five minutes? Do you have any idea how big this house is?" Hisoka scold him. "Seven minutes, then." Hisoka grinned and closed the door.

Darkness quickly consumed him. 'Acting tough, huh?' Hisoka scolded himself. He was still a bit afraid of the dark, though. He flashed his flashlight around and remembered where the stairs was. He slowly climbed down and walked gently to the kitchen.

All of a sudden, he saw a shadow passed through the kitchen pane. He got startled that he let out a small shriek. He searched for a towel in the cabinet drawer and aimed for the refrigerator. He quickly poured all the dozen ice cubes into the towel and wrapped them.

As he rushed toward the stairs, he could hear his own heart beat and breath. Everything else was in unifying silence. And now, he heard the echoes of his breath. Or what he thought was his breath.

He came to a halt and stopped breathing. He heard the same breathing again but it wasn't coming from him. His empathy didn't seem to be working while his nervous so he couldn't figure out what it was.

He could feel it was coming closer to him, though. And suddenly, he felt the hot breath behind his neck. He gulped and got ready to run.

"Hisoka-san? Is that you?"

Hisoka got extremely shocked that he screamed with eyes tightly shut and ran straight to the wall. He bumped to it and fell down after making a series of tumbling, miraculously the ice cubes were safe and sound. "Ouch…my nose…" he moaned in pain.

He looked up and was shocked again when he saw the man was all black and he could only see his white eyes. He was starting to scream again when the man clamped his mouth with his hand.

"Shh…it's me, Tsuzuki," he whispered and at the same time trying to laugh. He took out a handkerchief and wiped the black ash from his face. Hisoka never felt relieved in his life when he saw his teacher.

"Why are you here? How did you get in?" he asked Tsuzuki as the man helped him to get up. "The chimney. I figured the doors and windows are locked so I came through there," Tsuzuki pointed at the chimney.

Hisoka sighed. "Are you stupid or what?" he scolded. Tsuzuki was taken aback but replied in the warmly smile. "But I know you're relieved to see me since you are still afraid of the dark."

The teen felt hot liquid flowing from his nose. "Great, now I'm bleeding, too."

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Hijiri couldn't stop laughing when he heard Tsuzuki retold how Hisoka screamed and bumped to a wall when he called him. The adult had already cleaned some of the ashes from himself.

Hisoka was treating his own nose with some of the ice, too. "Mou, Hiji-chan. Stop laughing at me!" he kicked Hijiri's ankle when he didn't stop laughing despite of the warning. However, it got Hijiri to continue to laugh even in pain.

The green-eyed boy sighed. "Gomen, Soka-chan. We need some entertainment at a time like this. Hm, it's weird to think that both the electric and the phone line are dead. How come you're here, sensei?" Hijiri looked at Tsuzuki who was treating his bruises.

"Yes, sensei. How come you're here?" Hisoka repeated the question and gave him a death glare. Tsuzuki smiled awkwardly. "I was hanging out near your house after I left. I noticed the house suddenly went dark. I knew it was a black out but I returned anyway. I recalled that only both of you are occupying the house. So, as a responsible adult I thought I might come back and take a look at you two."

Hisoka wasn't buying it. He knew the brunette was lying. "Uh-huh, responsible? Then, breaking into someone else's house IS a responsible thing an adult would do?" he spurted. "I told you the doors and the windows are locked from the inside. How else could I break in?"

"HAH!" Hisoka stood up and pointed his index finger at the full of ash man. "So you admit you were breaking in!"

"I…I…wasn't…" Tsuzuki clutched his fists. 'No way am I going to lose this stupid talk over a brat like him! Even if he's under my protection!' "Then, tell me what other ways I could get in unless I use the door, windows and the chimney?"

"You broke in through the chimney, sensei?" Hijiri asked, feeling impressed.

"Yes, he did!"

"I wasn't breaking in! There was no other way!"

"I'm quite impressed."

"Like I said before, I wasn't…oh? Is that a compliment? Why, thank you."

"Hiji-chan, please. Do not feel impress in whatever this dumb, lousy, con man does! His foolish actions might be contagious," Hisoka slapped his forehead upon hearing his twin was actually impressed of Tsuzuki.

"Soka-chan, don't call your teacher names!"

"Hey, take that back! The only thing that's contagious from me is my history knowledge that I possess which will be handed over to my fellow loyal students!"

Silence.

Hijiri clapped his hands in astonishment. He noticed the both of them were growling for another fight again and decided it was it. "Okay, both of you! Stop fighting! This is going nowhere. Tsuzuki-sensei," he said and looked at the angered teacher. Hisoka sighed and took a seat at the end of the bed. He noticed his nose was still bleeding and blamed it for the infuriation he got when he quarreled with the teacher just now.

"Yes, Hijiri-san?" Tsuzuki bent down.

"I don't care why you are here but I'm glad. You see, Soka-chan is afraid of the dark so I hope you can take care of him while I sleep. The pain is killing me," Hijiri admitted and looked at his twin.

Hisoka pouted his mouth, a sign of disagreement but didn't say anything. Tsuzuki was remarkably to regain back him calmness and smiled at the boys. "Sure. As long as I'm here."

After leaving the boys in their rooms, he leaned against the wall in the hallway between the two rooms. He folded his arms across his chest, thinking. 'Where are they? Why are they being quiet all of a sudden? They should've been inside the house concerning how well prepared they were.'

He refused to move from the position where he was now. He didn't want to take any chances just to know the trio whereabouts. He looked at his watch. It was 11pm already. 'I won't leave until morning comes!' he decided.

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"Shit, he's in the house. I repeat, our History teacher is in the house!" Ken reported through his wireless microphone near his mouth connected to his earphone. His fingers typed furiously on the keyboard.

Tooru received his report and ordered Jin to retreat. "I don't think the man will leave the compound until morning. Withdraw!" Jin didn't seem pleased at the order at all. "Next time, Tooru. We'll get that man first if he interferes with our plan again!" Tooru and Ken heard him. "I'll make sure that will happen, Jin."

"Project Gemini suspended, Plan A terminated. Plan B is under construction," reported Ken and that was the last report of the night. "Roger and out!"

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At last... I hope nobody really against my idea of making Hisoka being afraid of the dark…and being silly for freaking out like that! To be continued…