What can I say but a million sorry's? Well, it's here, more years than I'd like to think about. (Jayzus, it's been a long time.)

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, faved, followed and generally just held on with hope. You shifted me off my lazy ass that little bit and a new chapter is here.

I'm not abandoning this story, i've never intended too, but I'm a lacksidasical writer with more stuff in my life to do than I'd like. So, expect updates sporadically - though hopefully not in a year and half's time.

Take this puny offering and don't eat me please.

Rhode looked down at her phone, checking it for new messages. There were none, and she clicked her gold plated iPhone shut with an inaudible sigh, clunking her platform boots against the stone leg of the table. Reluctantly looked up at her gathered family as they sat in the meeting in a silence arrayed in a spectrum of bored to fucking angry. It wasn't total silence of course; Rhode's persistent boot clunking and Skinn Bolic's irritating gobstopper crunching punctuated with jaw aching cracks, gave some noise to an otherwise stubborn silence.

Willing for her phone to beep, to no avail, she shot off another anxious text to Tyki. 'Whr r u? Evr1's w8ing + Erl V pissed, his nose is all red.'

It was true, the Earl's nose was red and viciously scribbled over with throbbing veins.

'Oh Tyki is in so much shit,' She thought to herself, only slightly gleefully. Usually she'd be full out giggling with joy if it was any of her other family, but Tyki was her favourite brother/uncle/cousin. She didn't really know, their family ties were more than a little fucked up. Because he was her favourite, she was – mostly – worried about the Earl's reaction. She'd only ever seen him so angry once before when the twins decided to blow up their fashion warehouse because they couldn't decide on the decor. The twins had then turned the ruined lot into a massive parkour and skateboarding place.

The Earl had been livid.

He took away their guns, their park, their pocket money – anything that they deemed important- and gave them the threat that if they ever did something like it again, they'd be collecting debts from the most slippery of the Earl's debtors.
'Including,' he had muttered, in a viciously sweet singsong, 'that slimy, red-haired exorcist bastard. And that would be fun, would it not!'

The threat had worked, but it hadn't stopped the twins from crashing their various modes of transport in expensive ways as pay back. The latest transgression was only yesterday, when they had crashed their third helicopter in a row, into the building next to the Black Order Hotel.

She looked out idly through the long, expansive window that made up the wall to see if the helicopter was still there. It was.
The blades of the helicopter spun slowly, propelled by the weight of the pigeons who had made nests on the blades and she snickered at their expressions of surprise every time they moved.

The amusement factor of this faded quickly though, and Rode found herself looking at her phone once more. She winced as Skinn delicately chose another gobstopper and with all the precision of a nutcracker, bit down, sending a sharp crack ricocheting through the room. The Earl's veins throbbed in response and Lulu Belle twitched and glared, becoming visibly more riled with every crack and crunch.

There was another minute or so of this before Lulu finally snapped.

"Would you stop that!" She cried, as she slapped her hand down on the table.

Jasdero and Devit, always fans of discord, twittered to each other from the chair they shared. Warily, Rhode glanced from each member of her family to the other, from Skinn to the malevolently glaring Lulu Bell, to the giggling twins, to finally look at the Earl who was sitting at the head of the head of the table and grinning like a demented crazy man.

"What was that?" Asked Skinn in a carefully careless and unconcerned confrontational manner, which was sure to piss Lulu Bell off even further. Skinn smiled at her and with not one whit of deliberation, crunched down again.

The blonde and usually beautiful bombshell twitched and glared again. "I said," She snapped, "Would you stop that!"

Skinn smirked at her, and then staring her straight on, still grinning like the devil, reached a hand into the bag of gobstoppers and slowly drew out the largest on yet.

"Don't you dare." Hissed Lulu Bell. If her nails were any sharper, she would've made claw marks on the glass table top.

If it were at all possible, Skinn smiled even wider. Then with an agonisingly slow movement, hand inching towards his mouth, put the gobstopper in his jaws as Lulu went whiter and whiter with rage.

The sound that echoed around the room when Skinn bit down was only overshadowed by Lulu Bell's scream of utter fury as she flung herself over the table at Skinn, trying her hardest to throttle the life out of him.

Skinn chortled to himself as he fended his cousin off, "Crazy pms'ing bitch!" he cackled over her inordinate screams. Jasdero and Devit bounced gleefully in their seat, giggling madly and egging both of them on in turns. Rhode only sighed as she rested her chin on her palm, and sent another text to Tyki, feeling a headache come on. She was bored of waiting, and there was only so much boot clunking one could be entertained by. Her phone buzzed as Tyki's hastily spelled reply stated, "I knw, almst thre."

Then, joy of joys, the Earl decided that he'd had about as much yelling as he could take.

"ENOUGH!" His angry bellow cut through the insanity that was her family, stilling all of them where they where. "Lulu Bell, control yourself. It is most unbecoming, nee? And Skinn, kindly refrain from riling dear Lulu Bell up. This is supposed to be a family meeting after all, even if dear Tyki is most unfortunately delayed, hum?" The Earl said all this in a kindly sweet tone that brooked no argument. There was a muffled thumping sound outside and Rhode straightened, "AH! That must be him now!" Cried the Earl, who sounded so genial that Rhode could almost ignore the fact that he looked as if he was about to commit murder.

He was right, moment later Tyki strode into the room looking a little harried, but nonetheless almost unconcerned.

"Tyki!" Rhode cried, running over to him. Her uncle swept her up into a hug.

"Hello Rhode. How's my little mischief maker?"

She giggled at him. "Boorredd!"

"Thought so."

A polite cough stopped both of them and they turned to look at the Earl. He smiled at them, and it was not a nice smile, it was the smile of a crazy man about to snap. "Take a seat Tyki, you are most late."

"Really?" Said Tyki, ignoring Rhode's warning glare as he took his seat. "I wasn't aware. The traffic was terrible. Still, what can one do?"

"Yes." Lulu Bell interrupted sweetly, "What can one do? This is what, the fifth meeting in a row you've been late to?" If sugar were cyanide, the smile she sent him would've dropped an elephant.

"Like I said," Tyki muttered, gritting his teeth, "time got away from me."

The Earl's mad rictus relaxed slightly as he frowned, "Well down to business. Tyki. It has come to my attention that you are having trouble making it to meetings. I think that perhaps a little responsibility will teach you the value of punctuality."

Tyki eyed the Earl warily. This couldn't be good. "What do you mean?"

"Why, I think I shall give you the Black Order. A little high class responsibility would do you good."

"What?"

"Yes. I am well aware of the deplorability of that casino yours Tyki, The Tease." The Earl paused, and then said musingly, "It really is a stain on our name. So I think I shall give The Tease to someone else and give you the Black Order instead."

Tyki froze and Rhode froze as well. Everyone was very quiet.

'What?" Tyki said again, very slowly.

It wasn't a big secret that Tyki's casino was a dive, but only Rhode knew how much the place meant to Tyki. During his time on the streets, he'd sometimes sheltered in a seedy and part abandoned building, home to an illegal gambling ring. When Tyki had turned 21, he'd asked to be given it for birthday and subsequently turned it into The Tease. He'd done it up, but only so that it just tiptoed the edge of respectability.

He'd had a close hand in its running, picking people who had stories much like his, ex homeless people now become waiters, cooks, croupiers, cleaners. The head manager was a man is his late fifties, singlehandedly supporting a large extended family. Tyki had found him two seconds away from jumping off a bridge. He'd stopped the man and upon finding out that he'd lost his job due to business closure, gave him the well paid position at The Tease.

The Tease did a Monday night dinner for the homeless with the profits from the gambling. It also was well known among the streeters that of you were really desperate, you could work at some of the really bum jobs for a day and get a decent day's feed and a safe place to sleep.

"You can't." Said Tyki, knuckles tightly white under his golden sun kissed skin, which was turning an ashy grey.

The Earl's nose throbbed and his smile grew to gigantic proportions, "Can I not?"

That was when Lulu Bell interrupted with a tinkling laugh. "Oh come on Tyki. You couldn't have possibly thought that you could let it continue like this without the Earl stepping in. It's a hole of vice. Any police officer knows that all they have to do is walk in, haul out some worthless scum, give them a questioning and they will come away with some kind of useful information. It's a hive of whores, drug dealers – both of which you just let loose so that we don't get a cut. It not right. The Tease is scum, and it brings the Millennium name down."

The Earl smiled and nodded. "Dear Lulu is correct. The Tease must be removed."

Rhode could see Tyki gritting his teeth, fingers twitching in the way that she knew meant he was desperate for a cigarette.

"May I have at least a week to settle The Tease and close it down?" He gritted out, knowing that he couldn't fight it and hating every second.

"Of course my dear." The Earl said benevolently, the glint of his small round glasses masking the evil glimmer in his eyes. "I've already taken the liberty as of five minutes ago to have your effects and personal belongs moved out of that sewer you call an apartment into one of the suites near the top floor of the Black Order. You shall move in today. Your apartment key shall be handed in this afternoon. I trust that you shall uphold the reputation of our top hotel flawlessly."

There was bared steel in his voice and Rhode watched as Tyki bowed his neck in acquiescence. It was submission, but Rhode could tell it went against everything that Tyki valued. Admittedly, it there wasn't much that he valued aside from personal freedom and money, but what was there went deep to the bone.

"Very well, Millennium Earl." Tyki said evenly, the shake in his voice belying his true feelings. "May I have your permission to leave?" He asked, already shifting in preparation, keys out of his pocket and on the table.

"No you may not." The Earl said pleasantly. "This is a family meeting and you shall wait until it is over."

Tyki nodded again stiffly and sat in silence as the Earl continued, "Now Rhode, dear heart, I've been told that you are gaining particularly high marks in psychology. Remind me again, are you doing Freudian dream analysis this term?"

The rest of the meeting passed with Tyki sitting in stiff and bitter silence, speaking only when spoken too. He steadfastly ignored the self-satisfied jibes of Lulu Bell, and the attempts at a rise from the twins. He was the first to get up and leave when the meeting was over.

Rhode caught up with him afterward, he was sitting in a secluded area, dragging on his cigarette viciously.

"I'm sorry about The Tease Tyki." She said hugging him tight and with sympathy.

"Thanks Rhode." Tyki said, exhaling smoke with a taught breath.

"I'll try to look after some of them, like Ease." She frowned as Tyki didn't reply or acknowledge her. She tried to brighten him by saying, "Well perhaps you can give them new positions, in the Black Order. I think I can sneak some of them – the cooks and waiters and cleaners that is – into some of the Millenniyum restaurants which the Earl owns." She frowned and wrinkled her nose. "I know that Daddy is looking after my business for me, but it think I can get some of them jobs if I explain it to him. Especially that one with the blond hair. He's a cutie."

Finally Tyki sighed and looked down at her. "Thanks for the offer Rhode, but I'll work something out. I don't want you getting into trouble with the Earl as well. Its best if I just do this on my own."

He tapped the cigarette out on some black marble masonry, and then flicked the ash away with heavy fingertips.

Not able to bare restraining her true feelings and hating Tyki's non-reactions, she stamped her foot, finally causing Tyki to look at her in surprise.

"It's not fair!" She burst out. "I know that we barely get anything in the way of a cut from The Tease, but it's not a total business loss! You're not a total business loss! So what if we don't get any of the money from the drug dealers, or the whores! You still keep running costs down – even through you hire actual people, and not just use Akuma."

Akuma was the family's nickname for the army of drudges that the Earl owned. As a general rule, they were easy to order about, not able to complain, easily replaced, usually slightly psychotic and infectious with disease. They were cheap labour, and The Earl had somehow managed to get the state to turn a blind eye to what was essentially slavery. The family regarded them as useful, but otherwise not worth very much.

"It's not fair Tyki, it's really not!"

"Enough Rhode." Tyki snapped, "I get it, okay. Thanks for the support, but I have to break the news to my workers tonight, and I just really want to be left alone right now." he brought his fist down on the wall heavily, just barely managing not to crush his cigarette between stiff fingers.

"Okay Tyki. I understand." Rhode hovered for a couple of moments more before she sighed. "But if you need help, just ask." She gave him another hug and left him still sucking bitterly on his cigarette. Sometimes it was best to just leave Tyki alone with it.

She swung her umbrella as she walked, musing that she was very emotionally sensitive for a 16 year old when she wanted to. She stepped over a heap of glass and she turned her head to at the Black Order. One of the windows was missing she noted. Fairly recently too.

'I wonder how that happened, Someone should warn people about the glass everywhere.' she thought as she walked over to where she'd left her driver in her custom painted blue-purple mini. She shrugged and decided to cast it off as one of those accidents, just something that happened all the time. She has a psychology report to get one of the akuma to do.

Tyki stared at his new front door. It was a heavy dark wood and the lock actually worked. There would be no casually swearing and kicking it into an open submission. Oh no, kicking and swearing was too good for this place, he would have to use an actual key, what joy!

He hated it. It was going to be such a bitch to get through when he was drunk.

The Earl had informed him that his new digs were designed for longer-term stays, and so included a kitchen along with the usual fair. Tyki just hoped that there was a bar.

The sight that greeted him when he opened the door was one that would've come out of from minimalistic interior design magazine. Not that he read those – okay, so he did. What of it? He got bored in waiting rooms too damn it!

Dumping his duffle bag unceremoniously on the floor, he gave a sigh of farewall to comfortable squalor as he looked around.

The entire apartment was on an open plan basis; that much Tyki knew. The other ideas the place seemed to be built around was make everything 'fucking minimal' or 'fucking huge'. The whole place was many, many times the size of his old apartment and had a colour scheme of: black, black, greyish black, 'I hope you really like black', and finally with some stark snow white to throw some contrast in for funsises.

Wishing for some sunglasses, Tyki stomped around the apartment, inspecting and critiquing everything.

First off, the living room – an easy one because the front door opened right onto it. The window made up the entire long lengthways wall and let in the red-yellow sunset, which tinted everything with an artists' light. It was a large space, floored with fluffy white carpet. A pair of white leather couches faced each other with a low granite coffee table between them. The coffee table – if Tyki wasn't mistaken – actually contained a fire place in the middle. There was no TV, but he bet that the damned thing would come out of the floor of the ceiling, or some other bullshit nonsense. Placed in eye-catching positions around the room were pieces of abstract art. The largest of which took up an entire bank of wall opposite the window. A large granite and glass dining table, with appropriate chairs, stood on the left side of the room just in front of the sleek kitchen. What's more, to Tyki's joy, it even had a bar. On the right side of the room, there was a door under a floating glass staircase. Through the door, Tyki discovered a bathroom.

Once more built on the principles of 'make it minimal, but also, make it fucking huge' the bathroom alone was half the size of his old apartment.

The shower cubical was made of glass; the rainshower head was twice three times the size of Tyki's face. He knew, because he measured it. Moulded almost organically into the dark granite flooring, the granite bath was just smaller than a double bed and carved into a naturally curving shape. It would be great – if Tyki were a bath person. He could understand why people would like it, but personally could not see the appeal. He'd rather relax with a hand of cards and some alcohol than sit in a bath for three hours.

Upstairs though, was a real treat. The floating glass staircase led to loft styled bedroom with a walk in wardrobe the size of the bathroom and stocked with clothes that Tyki knew he wouldn't have picked out. However, the rest of the apartment was put to shame by the sheer scope of the bed.

"Now that is a bed built for entertaining." Tyki said musingly. If beds came in a size called 'emperor of the world', this bed would've been a little bit larger. It was plush, and, as Tyki discovered to his delight, deliciously bouncy. No squeaky springs or rusty coils in the middle of his back, not here, no sir-ee!

It was, overall, not a bad looking apartment. There was a lot of granite and glass, and it had clean lines with some nice furnishings. It was a space worthy of highlife parties. But Tyki couldn't help but hate it.

It wasn't a place where one would bring a one night stand and avoid questions like 'why are you dressed like a hobo miner when you live here?'. Admittedly, his old apartment was great like that either; the syringe minefield and elevator of death was turn off enough for most. So if Tyki said that the last time he'd had sex in his own bed was a long time ago, he wouldn't be lying. Not coincidently the last time he had sex elsewhere was ohh – okay, don't answer that either.

Still. It was nice to have a lift that wasn't a flirt with death every time it was used.

Hoping that the bar was stocked with something other than tonic water, Tyki decided to steel his nerves for tonight when he had to break the news to The Tease with a drink. A stiff drink. A really, really, so stiff someone's died of Viagra overdose, stiff drink.

And score, the bar was stocked. After a quick poke about the cupboards, Tyki pulled out the largest glass he could find and poured a scotch on the rocks, not skimping on anything but the rocks.

The couch moulded comfortably under him as he draped himself on the butter soft leather and rested his long legs on the stone coffee table.

Late afternoon sun on the glass towers and buildings made the outside cityscape glint and glare uncomfortably in his eyes, while giving the apartment a light that made it seem warmer and softer than it actually was.

Tyki tipped the scotch down his throat, wincing a little at the burn. Toeing off his dress shoes, he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and ran a careless hand through his hair, disrupting it's slicked back style.

About to pour himself another scotch, his mobile rang from his pocket. Pulling it out, he winced at the caller id. It was The Tease, most likely Dave his manager. Oh he was not looking forward to this.

"Hello?" He said, wishing that he had a cigarette or at least something stronger than scotch to drink.

There was a faint crackle of interference, then, "Mr Mikk? It's Dave."

Tyki restrained a sigh, "Dave, Yeah. What can I help you with?"

"Just checking if you're coming to The Tease tonight?"

Now Tyki let himself whistle out a sigh. "Yes, I am. But it's business, not pleasure. And you're not going to like what I have to talk about."

"Oh." Dave said, then continued with trepidation. "What is it?"

"Can't talk about it over the phone. But I don't like it either Dave. Can I meet you in my office at The Tease, at 7:30? I want to talk to you first. Also, I want you to have all the staff gathered at 8, somewhere away from the customers. Keep a skeleton shift of some casuals working, but I need to speak to all, if not mostly everyone."

The concern was much stronger in Dave's voice now as he said, "Yes. Of course Mr Mikk."

"Thanks Dave."

Tyki moved to end the call when Dave said, "I know I've said thank you many times for this position, Mr Mikk, but I really am thankfull. You've given me and mine an incredible gift, and mine don't even realise the full scope of it. I never asked for you to give me a job – or pull me off that railing. Truly, I thank my lucky stars everyday that you were there Mr Mikk. My sister's daughter just went to university; she's going to study law. She's the first of any of my family to go – and she wouldn't be going if not for me. So, Thank you. My granddaughter just turned four today. I was so happy that I was there to see it. I just wanted to say thank you, Mr Mikk. Thank you for all that you have done for me."

Tyki closed his eyes tightly and hated everything – himself, Lulu Belle, the Earl – for having to do this.

"Thanks Dave. I'll see you tonight."

"Okay. Bye Mr Mikk."

Tyki sighed as he ended the call.

Well shit. This had just gotten a whole lot harder.

Another chapter, another couple of years.I'm not a consistent writer, I will admit, if you've just started, you notice that there's been a shift in both writing style,and in future chapters (hopefully soon) in characterisation. I started this in year nine, I'm now second year uni with a lot less prejudice about certain characters (see. Lenalee, Kory, Elienade).

Anyway, your reviews make a difference! Review now and improve the life of yours truly!