FASH: Man, I was forced to clean my room the other day and I had no idea how much stuff had ended up under my bed over time, it was pretty amazing. Anyways, since I'm probably boring you with my idle chatter... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

""-speech

''-thoughts

Hiruma wasted no time in making himself at home and had changed into a dry pair of clothes and sprawled himself out on one of the couches in the drawing room before Sena could manage to worm his way out of Shin's hug.

And, of course, Hiruma noticed that.

"Well, well." The blonde clucked his tongue lightly. "Either he still hasn't become used to anyone except you, or he really likes you."

Sena laughed nervously and finally managed to free himself from Shin's iron grip. "It's just like how you said before. He must just be worried that you're here to take him away. You make him nervous."

And the youngest Shin wasn't the only one affected by the tracker's presence.

"Of course I was right." Hiruma said with a smirk.

Shin growled lowly in response.

"Seijuro, don't be so impolite." Sena reprimanded half-heartedly, sighing when in response Shin grabbed onto his hand and began dragging him away.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Hiruma felt the need to say in a sing-song voice as Sena was towed out of the room.

'How am I supposed to know what you wouldn't do?' Sena thought to himself wildly for a moment. 'Not that I care or anything.'

And really, if Shin set his mind on doing something, then there was probably very little Sena could do to take his mind off of it and oppose him, aside from asking him to. One of the many disadvantages of being physically smaller than most people his age.

As they made their way to the foyer they passed by Sakuraba and Takami. The light haired man reminded them that the lesson would be starting up soon while Takami smiled down at them, his glasses glinting in an all-knowing fashion.

Sena just pretended he didn't see that, he didn't need two people getting him all nervous, thinking they could read his mind.

After Shin had dragged him a 'safe' distance away he turned back to the brunette worriedly.

"Sena are staying?"

"Yes Seijuro, Sena is staying." The brunette assured him before a thought struck him. "Why didn't you talk at all around Hiruma?"

Really, with Shin's borderline possessive nature regarding him, Sena was half surprised that he hadn't said something along the lines of: "Mine!" when he'd trapped Sena in his embrace. Of course, it was probably, no, definitely a good thing he didn't do that. He didn't need Hiruma figuring things out before Sena could find a way to hide them.

"Hiruma?" Shin questioned darkly, his grip on Sena's hand tightening.

"Yes Hiruma. He's not a bad guy, he's just a bit..." Sena trailed off, unsure how to describe the lithe blonde. "... Strange is all."

Shin grumbled in response, clearly not pleased that Sena seemed to be taking Hiruma's side.

"Oh, don't be like that." Sena chided lightly. "He's got to be nice, otherwise Suzuna wouldn't be so cheery around him. I think."

"Capture." Shin mumbled, sending a sharp look in the direction from whence they came.

"Yes, well... If he hadn't captured you and taken you back here, you wouldn't have met me." Sena brightly stated. "And now isn't the time to sulk Seijuro, we've got to go back for your lesson!" He tugged at Shin's hand in a futile effort to get him moving. Shin was as stubborn as a mule when he was set on something, and apparently he was set on staying out of Hiruma's range of sight at all times.

"Come on, now is not the time to turn into some immovable mountain." Sena said with a final tug before giving up.

"Sena likes Hiruma?" Shin questioned, his grip tightening just enough to be a little uncomfortable.

"Well, uh, I suppose I do." Sena answer uncertainly and Shin frowned, so in an effort to rectify the situation Sena quickly blurted out: "But I like you more!"

Shin's frown abruptly disappeared, as though it had never been there at all, and he looked down at Sena almost shyly.

"Seijuro likes Sena." The older boy admitted and Sena wondered if he meant that in a friendship sort of way or not.

He didn't have much time to wonder over it though, as Takami was calling their names and telling them that Shin's lesson was due to start.

Oddly enough it was Shin who now dragged Sena into the room Takami, Sakuraba and Hiruma were occupying. Perhaps not as worried about Hiruma now that he knew Sena was fonder of him than the blonde. Which was a good thing, wasn't it?

The lesson drew on, Hiruma watching from a corner silently in an almost unnerving way until Takami decided they'd all had enough for one day.

Outside the rain was coming down harder than ever, beating down upon people who hadn't brought an umbrella as they left the manor for the evening. It made Sena kind of happy he didn't have to walk home anymore, although he did hope that his mother had forced his father to bring his umbrella, as his father usually didn't worry about that sort of thing.

"Well, isn't this a fine day?" Hiruma said to himself, sarcasm nearly tangible as he looked out the window. "It had better not be like this for the rest of the week, I'll get cabin fever." He stared up at the sky in an almost threatening way, as if he could scare the clouds off by glaring at them.

That actually wouldn't surprise Sena much, Hiruma was already fairly supernatural in his eyes, making him have control over the weather wouldn't be much of a leap.

Suzuna, apparently in an attempt to rid everyone of their boredom, had gathered them all up into the drawing room and had asked Hiruma to tell him all about his latest job.

"How did you finish it off so fast? Everyone thought you wouldn't be here for another four or five days!" She queried brightly and Hiruma smirked.

"Well, it all started when about a month ago I got a letter..."

Hiruma went on with his stories for quite a while before the topic of conversation was changed to be focused on Shin's studies and how he was progressing.

Sena had begun tuning the voices out by that point, focussing more on the light pitter-pattering of the rain as it began to slow down and how Shin liked to rub his fingers along the back of his hand.

It grew darker and darker, even as the rain clouds began to drift out of sight, but still the conversation went on. Sena wasn't even too sure what everyone was talking about anymore, although every once in a while he could hear Suzuna giggle and whisper something along the lines of 'so cute'.

He just tried to ignore that the comment was probably directed at him.

They had been sitting around and talking for a long while, long enough that Sena was so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open and his head kept on tilting to rest on Shin's shoulder, no matter how many times he tried to keep it straight. Suzuna would giggle in his direction every once in a while and coo at him in a way he couldn't entirely ignore, and for some reason Sakuraba was jotting stuff down in his journal at the speed of light.

Sena had just about dozed off when a noise from upstairs startled him into wakefulness.

Hiruma threw a suspicious glance at the ceiling before his eyes drifted over the other occupants of the room.

"Sounds like something fell over." He commented lightly. "Strange, since the only ones who are currently supposed to be inside this house are in this room." His eyes flickered over to Takami who gave a curt nod before the both of them sprung up from their chairs and began heading out of the room.

"Elf bro, where are you going!" Suzuna asked worriedly. "If someone came inside the house to get upstairs we would have heard them pass by!"

"Not if they're a good climber." Hiruma replied before he and Takami disappeared out the door.

Sakuraba coughed into his fist and began fiddling with his notebook nervously. "Well then, I suppose we all should just-"

He abruptly stopped when he heard a shout and leapt out of his seat. "I'll go see what's up, you three wait here!" He yelled as he left the room, leaving the youngest three to worriedly bite their nails, try and calm their breathing and stare at the wall in boredom.

"Sena, this isn't going to be like one of those murder mysteries or something is it?" Suzuna asked lowly and Sena, not trusting himself to speak, shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we should move to a room where we can lock the door?" Suzuna mumbled to herself as she stood up, silently making her way to the door.

"But Sakuraba told us to stay here." Sena whined and Shin, finally seeming to notice Sena's discomfort, wrapped his arms around him and pulled the smaller boy towards his chest.

Suzuna rolled her eyes and reached for the door, not expecting it to open just as she touched the handle.

She flinched a little from the shock, but was quick to control herself when the three young men strolled in, Hiruma cursing under his breath.

"It seems an intruder was able to break his way in via Seijuro's bedroom window." Takami explained when he saw two identical curious looks being sent their way. "He seems to have knocked over the clock on the dresser, which was the noise that we heard earlier. He ran back into Seijuro's room and out the window once he saw Hiruma and I coming up the stairs."

"And it's too God-damn dark to try and track him right now." Hiruma mumbled flatly, clearly not happy with the turn of events. "First thing tomorrow morning I'm gonna hunt that mother fucking-"

"Hiruma! Not in front of the children!" Sakuraba interrupted aghast and the shorter blonde sent him a look.

"Oh come on, I'm sure they've heard worse. In any case, the rain we've had earlier will have made the soil softer, easier to read." Hiruma smirked darkly at this. "Even with a head start of several hours, I'm going to catch up easily."

Hiruma exuded confidence as he said this and Sena had no doubt that he was telling the truth.

"Well, I think it would be best if we all went to bed, we've already had a pretty long night." Takami said, taking off his glasses to rub at his eyelids wearily.

"But what if he comes back? And what if he gets in through Seijuro's room again?" Sena asked worriedly and Hiruma snorted.

"I doubt they'd be stupid enough to come back, especially on the same night, when they know they were discovered the first time."

Sena didn't look relieved by the information at all.

"Fine, you two lovebirds can stay in here for the night."

"L-lovebirds?" Sena repeated with a blush.

"Don't go into cardiac arrest on me, shrimp." Hiruma rolled his eyes.

"Aw, I want to stay in here too then." Suzuna said with a pout. "Can I stay too?"

"Yes! Fine! Now get some blankets, get comfortable and get to sleep!" Hiruma commanded before storming out of the room, Takami and Sakuraba following after him after bidding the other three goodnight.

Suzuna scurried off in search of extra blankets, and Sena was already asleep by the time she returned.

The following afternoon Sena slowly opened his eyes, squinting uncomfortably as light invaded his retinas.

Well, he'd made it through the night without getting stabbed, that was a good sign.

He shifted awkwardly as he pulled down the blanket that had been thrown over him and shimmied out of the still sleeping Shin's embrace. Then he cautiously tip-toed out of the room, carefully not to wake the other two occupants.

The house appeared to be completely empty except for Shin, Suzuna and himself, which probably meant that Takami and Sakuraba had decided to join Hiruma on his quest to find whoever had broken in last night.

'Hiruma is kind of like a detective, when you think about it.' The thought made Sena grin, as he now had an interesting image of Hiruma smoking a pipe and deducing things.

The front door slammed open and in stalked Hiruma, somehow managing to angry and happy at the same time.

"Hiruma, sir, how's the search going?" Sena asked curiously as Hiruma walked passed, briefly waving at Sena in a motion the brunette assumed meant 'follow me'.

"It's a bit of a challenge, since the guy who managed to break in apparently had a horse tied up to one of the fences just off of the grounds. Judging by the tracks it was a pretty decent sized horse too, probably nice and fast, perfect for a quick gettaway. And a couple people said they had seen a stranger in town yesterday, with a strange looking horse."

"Strange? How so?"

"It had a black spotted pattern, like a leopard."

"Oh." Sena respond, his tone seeming to imply 'that's not strange at all'.

Hiruma swivelled to him, eyebrows raised.

"Do you know something about this spotted horse?"

"It's probably and Appaloosa, it's a horse breed best known for being spotted and having striped hooves."

"Oh? As expected of a stable boy of the Shin family I suppose." Hiruma grinned down at him. "Do you know if your bosses own any of those types of horses? Or anyone else in town?"

"They had one a couple years ago I think, but not anymore. And I haven't been in town very recently, but if everyone seemed to think it was strange to see an Appaloosa, then I'd suppose no one in town owns one." Sena said with a shrug before becoming curious. "Why is it so important that we know what type of horse it is?"

"Because, we need to put the pieces of the puzzle together." Hiruma replied, grin widening as he entered the kitchen.

"Takami and Sakuraba are questioning some of the townspeople about this strange man they saw, they told me to come back here and get some rest, che." Hiruma snorted and grabbed onto a piece of plain bread, biting into it harshly. "As if I need sleep." His eyes trailed over to Sena again.

"So I've heard that you and your lover-boy have been put into separate rooms, how did that come about?"

Sena went completely red in the blink of an eye.

"L-lover-boy?"

Hiruma sighed. "Well, with the way he acts around you seems to be a dead give away that he likes you a whole hell of a lot more than anyone else. Now then, back to the question."

"Well, it's because..." Sena trailed off, not really wanting to tell the blonde why at all.

"You were sleeping in the same bed?"

Sena's jaw dropped open. "H-h-h-how-"

"And someone came in and saw, clearly getting the wrong idea. But then how did Madam high and mighty find out about it? Since she seems the type who'd drag you away as soon as she found out instead of waiting to separate you two."

"How do you know these things?!"

"I can read your mind." Hiruma replied with a completely straight face, causing Sena to step back nervously.

"Y-you can?"

The blonde cocked an eyebrow. "Obviously not, but since you're so shocked and mortified about it I must be right."

"Oh." For some reason the excuse did nothing to make Sena more comfortable in the blonde's presence, and, not wanting to be stared at in silence he decided to ask the question that had been nagging him for a while now.

"Why do you not like Lord Shin's cousin?"

"He's an easy man to dislike." Hiruma responded casually. "The only people who like him are related to him."

"Well, that isn't very nice." The brunette commented and the blonde shrugged.

"It doesn't matter what's nice or not. There are very few people who've met Rodchenko and not felt a bad vibe coming from him. Which makes a lot of things a lot more interesting." Hiruma smirked darkly and left the kitchen, leaving Sena to wonder what exactly was made more interesting.

Shin and Suzuna awoke not long after and the three of them spent the majority of the day lazing around the house. Sena and Suzuna not feeling up to doing anything productive since there were no adults around, and Shin wasn't about to go off on his own when he could stick by Sena's side all day.

It was in the early evening when the three young men returned to the manor, Hiruma looking rather victorious while Takami and Sakuraba looked almost scandalized.

"Elf bro, do you know who broke in?!" Suzuna questioned excitedly upon seeing them and Hiruma shook his head.

"But I've got an idea about who's behind everything." He said, looking quite proud of himself even as Takami worriedly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hiruma, it's not good to jump to conclusions like that. Trying to blame it on that man is a big deal. Plus the Lord and Lady would never believe you."

"Which is why I'm going to prove it. Sorry kiddos," he swivelled around to look at the three teenagers. "but it looks like my time here has been cut short. I'm leaving first thing in the morning."

"Awww." Suzuna pouted, clearly depressed at the information. Shin on the other hand looked rather pleased.

"Well, I'll probably wake up before you all do, so, until we meet again." Hiruma abruptly turned and made his way up the stairs.

"So, who is it that elf bro thinks is behind everything?" Suzuna prodded and Takami sighed.

"No one you need to worry about. I shall inform the Lord and Lady of the incident when they return, I assume that they will tighten up the security of their home afterwards and we will not need to worry about something like this again." Takami informed them curtly as he too made his way up the stairs, quickly followed by a rather unnerved looking Sakuraba.

"Well, that's no fun." Suzuna crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. "I would have liked to hear elf bro's theory, wouldn't you?"

"I think we should just forget it happened. I mean, what are the chances of it happening again?"

Suzuna's pout became even more pronounced. "No fun at all." She said before turning and walking off, leaving Shin and Sena alone.

"I guess she just doesn't want to leave well enough alone, huh?" Sena questioned lightly before sighing.

'We slept until around noon, but it doesn't seem like there's much point in staying up any longer.'

"Come on Seijuro, let's get you to your room." Sena took a step forward and paused.

'I know the chances of it happening again are practically zero, but, maybe just to be sure...'

"Maybe we'll go to my room instead, just to be safe." Sena began walking up the stairs, Shin happily trailing behind him when Sena didn't say his goodnights at the top of the stairs, as had become his custom.

That night as they settled into bed, Shin's arms wrapping around him securely, his breath brushing against the hairs at the nape of his neck, Sena couldn't help but think that this felt right somehow.

Maybe he had become too used to it.

"Sena likes Seijuro?" Shin questioned, his warm breath tickling Sena's ear.

"Yes, I like you very much Seijuro." Sena replied softly.

"Seijuro likes Sena. Very much."