A/N: Suoh's security woes. In case anyone doesn't follow my one shots, I pulled the muscle in my neck/shoulder and have been unable to write for a week which is why this chapter is delayed! This is also probably the only time we see from Suoh's perspective and I'm not sure about how I went with that, but the next few chapters will be back to Aki's POV! I just wanted to have a sneak peek from behind the scenes of Asami's staff. Also I have a week of this week as a birthday present to myself so I plan to have an extra chapter or two out this week :D Tsuru is the name of a local sushi place that I really liked that I have used here in honour of their amazing sushi, hopefully they don't mind!

Hastily exiting out from the boss's office alongside Kirishima, Suoh had the very distinct feeling that this was only the beginning of the drama they would face dealing with one Takaba Akihito. He had never heard Asami refer to a lover by a pet name in the nearly eight years he had been working for him and while he sounded both irritated and amused of all things, by him losing his guards, Asami had seemed unconvinced that they would be able to locate the kid. In the past, a lover showing such blatant insolence would have found themselves forcibly removed from Asami's life but this soulmate changed everything. He glanced over to Kirishima who had paused beside him.

"I'm not quite sure what to make of all this." The secretary looked over at him. "I mean, I've never heard the boss speak like that. He called the kid kitten." Kirishima gave a small, sad smile and pushed up his glasses.

"It has been a very long time." He just shook his head when Suoh looked at him in askance before getting straight back down to business. "I get the impression we aren't about to have an easy time with Takaba. It's clear that even in such a short time this brat means a lot to Asami-sama, I guess that's part of the soulmate thing. But that just means that it's even more imperative we keep him safe. It's only a matter of time before his relationship with Asami-sama is known and we aren't going to be able to play it down. Which guards did you have on him?"

"Ueda, Fujioka and Hayashi." They moved towards Kirishima's office and the man himself sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Those three all cycle through Asami-sama's personal guard don't they?" Suoh nodded.

"They are all good at what they do and have each proven so more than once. I think Takaba getting away has more to do with the fact that they didn't expect him to try and lose them than incompetence. Ueda in particular is hard to pull one over, but if the kid's climbing up buildings that's another story." They had reached the secretary's office and he beckoned Suoh inside. He stood off to the side while Kirishima did an internet search on 'parkour'. Each new video that they watched just drove home how much work was going to have to go into creating a team to protect Takaba. After watching half a dozen or so videos Suoh sighed.

"All right. Fujioka and Hayashi are going back to Asami-sama's rotation and Ueda will be the team leader for Takaba's team. We are going to have to see if anyone can match that and that's none of the current security staff that we had planned to use."

Kirishima nodded; "I'll get a message around to our current staff to see if anyone wants to interview for the team, maybe someone has some hidden talents but otherwise we might need some external hires."

"Alright, all new hire's isn't great but at least with Ueda leading we should minimize any issues caused by fresh recruits. Takaba's probably not going to be found until he wants to be found now. Our focus needs to be not losing him. Tokyo's a big place so once he's given us the slip it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Ideally we need to see what he can do but I'm not sure if he'll agree to give away his advantage."

"I'll talk to Asami-sama and see what we can do." Kirishima sighed. "I would like to think Asami-sama asking him would be enough but after hearing that last conversation I doubt that's going to be the case. Maybe he can be bribed?" They shared a look.

"I'm not going to hold my breath on that account." Suoh clapped Kirishima on the shoulder. "Let me know if anyone applies but I think we'll both be working late tonight."

VFVFVFVFVFVFVF

Suoh's prediction that the main reason Takaba managed to lose his guards so easily was due to the fact that they didn't expect him to try and escape was proven somewhat true. He still managed to lose the team each day but it took a lot more time and effort to be able to do so. Ueda had called up at the beginning of the chase on day two to advise that it seem like he was trying to shake them and checked in periodically until he had to report two hours later that the brat had finally lost them. Suoh had been rotating the other two guards to see if he could work out a temporary team while they recruited his permanent team but was noticing an interesting trend amongst the guards sent to tail him. Those like Ueda whose failure to keep him under guard only spurred him on to try harder and think outside the box for idea's to improve his performance, those who would be discouraged and throw in the towel after being outwitted by a kid and ask to go back to their regular assignment and those who refused to admit defeat to their superiors and didn't report in to advise he was lost and just pretended all was fine. He wondered if he would have time to cycle all his security staff through Takaba's guard team before he settled on a permanent roster. While he didn't think Asami would be impressed with him using his little lover as a test dummy, it would be a great opportunity to weed out the people who were a liability and judge the overall level of fitness, teamwork and intelligence of his staff. Takaba had proven to be incredibly fast, agile and smart although he was a very reluctant participant to his own safety, happily shimmying up buildings and jumping off ledges, causing more than one bout of swearing and yelling over the radio channels. In the end, the Takaba security team had to have their own radio channel because of the sheer chaos of trying to keep up with him and melt downs that ensued as they inevitably lost them, for four days in a row now. The channel was now a great source of amusement for the other security staff and Suoh had walked in to find it going in the break room with a few personnel laughing over the mayhem while they had lunch. Suoh himself would probably find it more amusing if it wasn't his problem to try and fix.

Kirishima had gotten back a number of expressions of interest about joining the Takaba security team permanently, for a number of people it was a good opportunity and an excellent pay packet with perks. Unfortunately some of those had pulled out after the shenanigans that went on but a surprising number were still interested, enough that they might be able to pull up a team without having to resort to hiring externally. Ueda had proven to the perfect choice for team leader as he had suggested and then organised a training excursion to a local gym that specialised in rock climbing and parkour. He had booked out the parkour section for the entire day and even roped in the gym specialist and few local enthusiasts to show them how it was done. All the prospective hopefuls were attempting to copy the tricks and climb up the fake buildings all with varying degrees of success. Ueda had been giving it a good go himself and was one of the few so far who had managed to complete the course. Kirishima and Suoh had spent the morning watching and taking notes to go over later with each of the guard profiles. Asami himself had been watching as well in between fielding phone calls and now they were just waiting for the star of the show to arrive. Somehow Asami had convinced Akihito to come down and show them what he could do. Suoh was surprised that the kid had agreed and even more so once he discovered it had something to do with the incredibly expensive gourmet sushi that the boss had picked up on the way over.

He was pulled from his musing as he noticed the cause of all his current security woes making his way over to them. Takaba had his usual cheeky grin in place and was dressed for ease of movement in a loose singlet, shorts and some very worn looking sneakers. He sidled up to Asami and peered interestedly at the bag he was holding.

"So I heard something about sushi?" Asami's lips twitched as though he was attempting not to smile.

"Hello kitten." The kid flushed at the pet name, glancing over at Kirishima and Suoh before his gaze was drawn back to Asami as he continued speaking. "There is sushi," He held up the bag for inspection but pulled it back as Takaba excitedly reached for it. "But you have to win the course to get it."

"Is it good sushi?"

"Of course." Asami's trademark smirk appeared as he lit up a cigarette. "From that place you were telling me about the other day."

Takaba's eyes went big. "Tsuru?!" He bounced excitedly in place. "All right, I'm in! What do I have to do?" Asami beckoned Ueda over to give Takaba the run down on the course and what he had to do while Suoh watched on in bafflement. He glanced over at Kirishima who was just looking resigned. He hadn't officially been introduced to Takaba yet but as the head of Asami's security, he was well versed on all the information they had on him on paper. While his young age had automatically had Suoh mentally referring to him as a kid, it was shocking to see him actually acting like one. This was Asami's soulmate? Some cheeky little brat who talked back, refused to cooperate in regards to his own safety and dressed in torn clothing like some street punk? And yet Asami himself was regarding Takaba with amused indulgence and was already referring to him affectionately with a pet name.

Apparently done with all the instructions, Ueda and Takaba made their way over to the parkour course and the security team hopefuls respectfully backed away and cleared the area so Takaba could have a clear run. The staff member from the gym got ready with the stop watch and gave a count down.

Suoh could only watch in growing astonishment as the kid took off with incredible speed and managed to hit each obstacle barely losing any momentum. He felt his jaw dropping as he shimmied up the tall building replica with practised ease and jumped off the other side, catching himself and swinging down to land with a roll before springing up and continuing through the obstacles. The time he was making had to cut the best of their prospects in half and he was doing it with breathtaking ease. There was a loud whoop and Suoh realised with a start that he was laughing as he made his way, obviously enjoying himself. He had to give the kid some credit, he had already seen for himself how hard the course was, his agility was his strong point and his small stature meant he had less weight to pull around but it still required a great deal of strength to be able to pull off what he was doing. He crossed the finish line and the staff member called out the time. Suoh was floored, it was less than half the time of the next closest. He looked around and saw more than one person with their jaw on the floor and a few sporting hopeless expressions. He took note of anyone who was still looking interested and determined as it was the determination that would be needed to keep up with Takaba.

The kid himself trotted over, still breathing heavily but with a big cheeky grin in place. "So did I win?" Asami wordlessly handed the sushi over and was greeted with another excited whoop. Takaba pulled himself up onto a nearby low wall that wasn't currently being used and started to dig into the sushi with very loud noises of appreciation. Suoh looked over at Kirishima helplessly.

"I think we underestimated him."

Kirishima snorted, "Well, he's not my concern." Suoh frowned at him but greeted Ueda as he approached.

"What do you think?"

"He's something else." Suoh could hear the respect in his tone. "But I guess no ordinary person would be Asami-sama's soulmate. I think we have a few prospects here for the team but they are going to require some training. We really need to win Takaba-sama over to our side and get his cooperation to be effective."

They all glanced over at Takaba and Asami who were engaged in some kind of banter in between Takaba stuffing his face. They watched as he offered Asami a piece of sushi and he leaned down to eat it out of the kid's fingers much to his apparent embarrassment. Takaba had gone very red and was now glaring at a chuckling Asami.

"Is it okay to be acting like this in public?" Ueda looked concerned. "I mean, they are entitled to act how they want, don't get me wrong, but Takaba-sama's status as soulmate isn't known yet and I figured they would try and keep it quiet for as long as they could to minimise the risk to him."

"It's fine." Suoh gave him a re-assuring pat on the shoulder. "Everyone here are vetted people from our security force."

Kirishima nodded in agreement. "In all honesty it's probably good for those here to see just what he means to Asami-sama, they are going to be protecting him with their lives if needed. It's good for them to understand just how important their job is going to be." The secretary pushed up his glasses and gave a small smile. "It's been a long time since Asami-sama has acted like this with someone, it would be a shame to ruin his fun."

"I can't say I've ever seen the boss act like this." Suoh watched as Kirishima's smile turned sad.

"Well, it's been nearly a decade but perhaps now it's time to move on." The secretary sighed and waived the folder that was in his hands. "Right now, we need to organise the little hellion's security team."

Suoh mentally groaned, looks like he was in for another long day.