A/N: Wow, thanks for the kind reviews and faves, guys! Here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own them!

Chapter Two.

By the time the two retrievers pulled up outside the Honky Tonk, the tension inside the small car had become almost unbearable in its intensity. Ban had chained-smoked four cigarettes, and was started on a fifth when they reached the familiar café. He paused for a moment, silently wondering what, if anything, to say to the suffering boy beside him. Ginji's words echoed in his head as he inhaled. The dreams that he gave were usually a representation of his own thoughts, amplified by the target's own terror. For some reason, Raitei had been a near constant presence in the back of his mind as of late. He could understand Ginji's anger. Having the most hated part of yourself used as a tool to incapacitate others with terror was...unpleasant, to say the least.

He knew that from first hand experience.

However, before he could explain his feelings to Ginji, his partner sighed and got out of the car, slamming the door with force.

"Hey!"

His protests to the rough treatment of their beloved Miss Ladybug went unheeded by Ginji. Rolling his eyes, he followed his blond partner through the open door.

The scene that greeted the two weary Getbackers was a reassuringly normal one; Master peering over the top of his newspaper with a non-committal grunt of welcome, Hevn looking up from her coffee, eyeing the cheque in Ban's grasp. But where was...

"Oh, Ban-san, Ginji-san! Welcome back!" Mizuki Natsumi bounded into the main café from the kitchen, somehow managing to balance a tray of coffee cups whilst waving energetically. Sendou Rena entered at a slightly more sedate pace, smiling at the retrieval duo and carrying her own (suspicious smelling) tray.

"How was the retrieval? Did you get paid?"

Hevn tossed back her long blonde hair, and affixed a piercing glare on the two boys at the front of the café.

"They'd better have, I want my cut."

Ginji immediately plastered a happy grin over his previously downcast features. "Don't worry, Hevn-san, we got it!" He slumped into a seat opposite the voluptuous woman, and stretched, the bones in his spine making a crunching sound that induced a wince from everyone in the room. Hevn smiled graciously and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek, her eyes flicking quickly to the brunette in the corner as if to gauge his reaction. It was a little reaction game that she liked to play with Ban; how much could she fawn over Gin-chan before the Jagan user snapped?

However, instead of the usual vehement hiss to back off that she usually enjoyed laughing at, Ban's eyes slid away from hers and landed on a solemn Wan Paul.

"Hey, Master, how about some coffee for a hard-working man, huh?"

Paul gave his newspaper a somewhat paternal rustle, and raised an eyebrow at Ban. "Hard-working men pay for their coffee. Lazy guys get nothing until they get some damn money." Before an outraged Ban could splutter an answer, the café owner interrupted.

"And cheques don't count."

Ban loudly voiced his complaints, and Paul rolled his eyes. It was an everyday occurrence in the Honky Tonk; the two deadbeats would come in and look pitiful, he would refuse them on the grounds that their tab was soon to become a national record, then he would turn a blind eye as Natsumi or Rena slipped them a treat. However, it was more Ginji's oblivious charm than Ban's blunt demands that usually won them over. Paul waited hopefully for the blond's whining interjection, and was only mildly surprised when it didn't occur. Glancing at Ginji revealed that the brown eyed boy was seemingly as happy as ever as he allowed himself to be fussed over by the three females in the room. Not being as easily fooled as the girls, the red haired man noticed that something was still definitely off. He looked sharply at Ban, who in turn looked away. About to say something, Paul was distracted as the bell at the door chimed to announce the arrival of more customers.

Page Break

Fuuchouin Kazuki smiled enigmatically as he and his companions' entrance through the door of the Honky Tonk elicited glad cries of welcome from the two waitresses. He suspected that the pretty young girls had eyes more for his two large followers rather than himself (if the blushing and cooing attention was to be trusted). However, Uryuu Toshiki and Kakei Juubei were not to be swayed from their protective positions by adolescent crushes, and flanked Kazuki defensively as approached the counter. As the coffee shop was in no way a threatening environment, he suspected that this was more for their well being than his. High school girls were rather threatening, after all.

"Three green teas if you would be so kind, Paul-san."

The red haired man winked, and accepted the thread master's money with a smile of his own. Kazuki jumped slightly as a previously unnoticed Midou Ban shouted with indignation.

"What?! You serve the thread spool but not me? That sucks, Paul!"

Kazuki missed the café owner's muttered reply as he swept his eyes over the near-empty coffee shop in search of his wayward emperor. Having not received his customary hug, the Fuuchouin heir was slightly concerned.

Spotting a blond head in a booth at the back of the shop, he excused himself to Paul. He left his two rather nervous guards to the mercy of the giggling waitresses, and made his way over to Ginji. He noticed that Ban's blue eyed gaze followed him silently, and wondered what on Earth had happened between the two. Noting that the blond was barely responding to a baffled Hevn-san, Kazuki concluded that his former emperor was rather depressed. The brown haired boy frowned. A depressed Ginji-san was always bad news.

Making eye-contact with Hevn-san, the silent message to let him take over her efforts was conveyed. She seemed to understand and, with a final concerned look at the blond now laid flat on the tabletop, she vacated her seat. Marching over to an almost definitely sulking Ban, she grabbed him by the ear, and led his yelping form outside. Kazuki would have liked to smirk, but such things were unbecoming.

Anyway, there were more pressing matters at hand.

"Ginji-san?"

Page Break

"Ow...OW! What the fuck, Hevn?!"

The blonde negotiator had managed to drag him quite a considerable distance away from the Honky Tonk before Ban broke free of her stinging hold. Rubbing his ear irritably, he rounded on the furious woman with a glare of his own.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Hevn crossed her arms over her ample chest. "What the hell am I doing​? What have you done to Gin-chan? I've never seen him so down!"

Ban's blue eyes bored into her own, and Hevn found herself becoming inexplicably uncomfortable.

"That's none of your business."

Huffing impatiently, she placed a hand on his shoulder (choosing to ignore his outrage).

"Ban-kun, what happened? Tell me, or no more jobs for a month."

The brunette threw up his arms in exasperation. "I don't even know myself! He hasn't been himself for awhile now. Then some guy calls him a monster on a retrieval and he shuts down, the idiot!"

Hevn's shrewd mind picked up on the unconscious guilt in Ban's statement. "Why did he call Gin-chan a monster?"

Ban huffed, but looked away from her piercing gaze. "I used the Jagan. Made him see Raitei."

"Ban-kun!"

"I know, I know!"

Sensing his distress, she backed up. The blonde woman could understand his confusion. After all, Gin-chan had appeared uncharacteristically down for the last couple of days. She herself had blamed it on a lack of excitement in the monotony of the everyday struggle to get enough money for food and shelter. However, when she had produced a job with her usual flair, it hadn't seemed to help.

She sighed. "There's definitely something wrong here. Have you spoken to him about it?"

"Yeah. Nothing doing."

Truthfully, it wasn't as simple as all that. Upon trying to consult the blond about his unusual bad mood, Ginji had simply replied that he had no idea what was wrong, then changed the subject rather skilfully.

The bite marks on his neck had yet to heal, now that he thought about it.

Sighing, he realised that he would have to sit his partner down, and talk about the odd atmosphere that had been chasing them over the past few days. It was almost like there was a poison in the air that only Ginji was affected by, and this worried him greatly. It wasn't like his partner to hold onto a bad mood, so he suspected foul play. And what of the Raitei as a near constant feature in the back of his mind? At any rate, they were going to get to the bottom of it.

"Don't worry, Hevn, Ginji and I will--"

He was cut off by a screaming sense of danger in his mind. Leaping forward, Ban tackled Hevn to the ground as an enormous shockwave passed overhead, showering them with stray bricks and dust. Ban dully noticed that Hevn was screaming, that the wave must have come from an explosion somewhere nearby, and therefore should be very loud.

However, he heard nothing over the frantic cries of his partner in his mind.

A/N: Wow. And the chapter seemed so slow at first! With so many different P.O.Vs! Sorry about that, guys, I had to build up the plot! Even I was surprised by the cliffhanger at the end! Oh, by the way, posting the chapters seems to destroy my page breaks. Try to ignore that.

Thanks again for your lovely reviews (I'm honoured!), and I hope this chapter wasn't boring! Kazuki is rather hard to write!