A/N i know this is filler, i had more for this chapter. but when i write i like to do chapters 1200-1500 words. that is my comfort zone.
March rolled into April and then before anyone knew it, June was here. The HOG's made their home on floor 10, Beast started taking the boys to higher floors when they all reached level 20 doing the quests for those floors, but always returning to their home on floor 10.
June 25, 18th floor:
"What level are you?" Roku asked as he helped Beast organize the drops of the day to get them ready for selling. The others had headed home for supper.
"Forty-seven," Beast replied quietly. "What gave me away?"
"You have not leveled while hunting with my brothers and I since December, Ryoko just hit thirty-nine two days ago.
"Once we were sure we could protect you we started to slow down our grinding."
"Do you ever go to the floor boss raids?" the child asked.
"Only the twenty-fifth, maybe I will join them on the fiftieth ," Beast answered "every twenty-five floors the boss is a hell of a lot harder then other floors"
"Where is the front line? How far have we gotten?" the boy asks again.
"Two days ago we reached the 30th floor."
"So that's 29 floor bosses in 7 months?" the kid asked doing the math.
"Think of it like this, it took one of those months just to get the first boss. Since then they have beaten 28 bosses in less then five months. So that's what six floors a month…a month is roughly 30 days, so that's a floor every five days."
That seemed to do the trick, Beast was sure his math was messed up but he didn't care, the boy had relaxed and returned to his normal calm state.
"Don't tell the others about my level, the three of you are not ready for power leveling yet, Ryoko has trouble keeping up with me and she nags me when I go out soloing." he chuckled as the boy laughed.
"Are you and Ryoko going to get married?"
Beast started laughing, "Maybe, we have not yet discussed it, we are both happy the way we are."
"If you do I get to be best man," Roku proclaimed loudly.
The boy got quiet for a minute as he thought about something, Beast just watched and waited.
"How do you do it? My dad is a good man but he never really hung out with us, he was always so 'proper' and was about 'respect', but you, you hang out with us, play, help us with our school work…you're such a better father then he was I sometimes forget you're not my father" he said.
"I had a good role model," Beast started. "My father was a good man, hard worker but in all aspects he was not a good dad, my mother divorced him and married another man. My step father showed me a lot, he took the job he did not have to and showed me what it truly means to be a father. I would not be able to look him in the eyes when I get back if I did not live up to him."
"We better get moving Ryoko will have us on dishes if we don't get back on time for supper."
The boy laughed as they gathered up their stuff and headed for the market. Beast smiled these little talks had become common between him and the boys. Some talks were simple, some were hard and important, but he always felt he did the best he could.
Naturally they were late for supper, and just as Beast said he and Roku were doing the dishes. The older boys were trying to convince Ryoko to let them go out the next day, she was not thrilled with the idea, Toma and Kiba were pure trouble makers.
"Come on, look Beast said he figured out how to ask the NPC guard to watch for someone, and there is that local guild that has made public safety for the town their job." Kiba argued.
It was true the NPC guards could be asked to watch out for certain people and Leaf Alliance Warriors (LAW) have decided that they were not the kind of players to do front line runs. They figured they could at least help make it safer for the lower levels on this floor.
"If you get in any trouble," Beast started as he stood at the sink. "You will be grounded for three, that is THREE months."
At first Ryoko was stunned and began to argue, but stopped. She could not keep the boys cooped up it would not be good in the long run.
"Fine," was all she said.
The next day started simple, Toma and Kiba ran out the door as soon as they were allowed. Roku went to the stone quarry, he had been hanging out there a lot, they paid him good Col for him to make the massive rocks into little rocks, and it helped him train his Two-Handed Hammer skill.
"How long before the boy misbehave?" she asked.
They were cuddled up on the sofa sharing soft kisses and caresses.
"Soon enough I overheard them talking about a tree that over looked the baths at 'Jimmy's."
"The brothel you helped start?" she asked surprised.
"Yep, so if they are not caught by three I'll go get them," he smiled. "We will still have to punish them with a week of grounding but if they can stay unnoticed till then it shows they are thinking with the right head."
She couldn't hold it in; her laughter came out as she realized he had set the boys up to fail.
"You, my amazing Beast are an evil genius," and she kissed him again only this time deeper and with more passion. She had just unbuttoned his shirt…
'Knock knock knock' the sound came from the door and Beast looked at the clock, 12:35pm
A soft growl was heard from the woman that lay on his chest.
Beast got up and went to the door praying it was some random sales man, a church preacher, the Easter bunny…anyone but.
"You two in your rooms, now," Beast growled and the boys quickly ran upstairs.
At the door stood a man, he seemed to look apologetic since he noticed the state of dress Beast was in.
"James, let me guess, a tree overlooking the bath?" Beast asked.
"Yep," he nodded. "Look, don't be too hard on them, there young boys starting to become young men, I don't know about you, but I was trying to peak any chance I got when I was that age."
"And if we were not stuck here," Beast interrupted "They would probably be burning their computers out on the internet porn sites, I was just hoping they would think enough not to get caught."
"Oh about that, they were only caught cause' I hired ten new guards for the house." James told him.
"What happened?" now Beast was concerned and alert.
"In the last week a former front line guild that lost big has come down to the lower levels, they have started to attack and rob people, and as you know my goal is to protect the girls."
"Ok, yeah thanks I had not heard about attacks," Beast replied and he started thinking. Taking that as his cue James turned and left.
"Attacks?" Ryoko asked as she walked up and closed the door for him.
"It was only a matter of time, in fact I am a little shocked it took this long." he replied and looks in her eyes.
"Do me a favor if you run across them just hand over the money, and everything…its just stuff."
"And what if you run into them, what will you do?"
He smiled and kissed her "Do as I say not as I do."
"Don't get killed." she warned him. And he just nodded.
"I will go get Roku, you deal with them, right now would not be a good time for me to face those two.
She walked out and hurried up the street, he turned and headed for the kitchen.
"BOYS!"
A/N if you don't like let me know, let me know why. i might be able to fix a problem. Review, respond, Burn if you want.