This will probably be updating slower because I'm working on my other story more, and I really have almost no clue where I'm actually going with the plot of this story. So it'll just update when inspiration hits me, really. But, even so, this chapter was especially fun to write. I hope you enjoy! Thank you for all the reviews/alerts/favorites!

Chapter Three

It was colder than usual that Saturday night. Not colder than his home in Russia had been, Ivan thought, but it was still fairly cold. He stood waiting in the hospital lobby as his partner questioned the receptionist on four specific patients that they had admitted to the hospital earlier that afternoon.

"We're here to investigate what happened to them, ma'am," his Chinese partner informed her.

"Oh, you must be here to see those four boys then. Hold on one moment while I look up their room numbers on the computer," She told him politely. Yao nodded, darting his brown eyes to the tall Russian, giving him a thumbs up. Purple eyes scanned over the lobby, noting its bright lighting and it's exceeding whiteness. He had never really been fond of hospitals. He suspected that it was colder in here than it was outside, because he could feel his nose becoming cold, and he just knew it was red. It always turned red easily in the cold, as he was of extremely pale complexion. Both his skin and his hair. His partner was probably what a typical Chinese man would be expected to look like. He was thin as a sunflower stalk, but he was deceitfully strong as well. His hair was long, and pulled back in a tight ponytail at the nape of his neck. Both men were dressed warmly in preparation for the cold night. They were both investigators at the police station, and someone had called 911 when they found four men beaten up severely in an alley. The two of them were sent to the hospital to question them when they were finally notified that they were awake and it was safe to do so. While the CSI team worked the crime scene for evidence, it was Ivan and Yao's job to work the witnesses, victims, and suspects for information. Yao wrote down the four room numbers that the clerk gave them and walked over to Ivan.

"The closest is in room 212," he told the taller than average man. And since Yao was a bit shorter than average height, the two contrasted each other perfectly. Ivan was of light complexion, and Yao had both darks skin and dark hair. Ivan was quiet, and only spoke when he felt the need to, but Yao had a tendency to ramble. Ivan preferred to take things slow, but Yao was very impatient when it came to things that caught his interests, though he could be patient at times as well. The two of them stepped in the elevator and punched the second floor. Ivan fiddled with his hand-made scarf unconsciously out of habit. It reminded him that his sister hadn't called him yet, as she usually called him every night to see how he was doing when he hadn't gotten home yet by the time she had returned from her evenings at the gym. He not only had an overload of paperwork to do, but then this investigation was suddenly sprung on him. He would be getting home later than usual. His sisters were used to him having odd hours because of his job though, so he didn't really worry. But still, he liked checking up on them, and it made him happy when Katyusha called him. His little sister... not so much.

Though his elder sister was already twenty-eight (though she had always been youthful and looked younger than Ivan... or maybe it was the height?), and he twenty-five, and his little sister Natalya twenty-one, all legal adults, they all stuck together in an apartment to help split living costs. After all, they only had each other to rely on. But it really wasn't so bad, and Ivan liked that he could be close to his sisters. Though, Natalya a little less than Katyusha. He loved them equally, of course, it was just that he preferred the company of one over the other. Katyusha was very sweet and kind, and Natalya was... a bit abrasive. The elevator gave a sharp 'ding' and the metal doors slid open smoothly. The two men stepped out and followed the signs to the direction of the door they wanted. They entered the room, but Yao immediately frowned. The large, heavy set guy in the bed had his face all wrapped up and a cast on each leg. Yao went to the foot of the bed and looked at the medical clip board.

"It says that his jaw, cheekbones, nose... mostly his whole face is completely shattered, along with his Fibula and Tibia in both legs," Yao told Ivan, "It doesn't look like we'll be talking to this guy anytime soon. Let's go check on the next one." They exited the room and went down the hall to room 223, and stepped in. There were doctors in this room, conversing with the nurses.

"Oh, I'm sorry, gentlemen. But he won't be able to talk right now. He suffered extensive damage to his intestines, and has severe internal bleeding. He's knocked out completely right now, and is being monitored. He has just came out of a very sensitive surgery in order to repair his intestines. I'm afraid you'll have to check the other two," one of the doctors spoke to them. Ivan frowned and Yao nodded before thanking the doctor, and the two walking out.

"What the hell man, these guys are torn up. I wonder what happened to them," Yao spoke up.

"That is what we are supposed to find out, da? And I am very curious as well. This seems to be a very violent attack. Either it must have involved more than one person, or they had some serious weaponry. There was only a single baseball bat found at the scene," Ivan replied, "The damage is very extensive for just that, however. I only hope that one of the two remaining is able to talk." They moved down to room 248, and entered. There were two patients in this room, one sitting up and the other seeming unable to sit up due to a full cast around his pelvic area. Yao grimaced as he saw it and Ivan's eyes only narrowed. The other had a cast on both his upper arms. Thankfully, they were both awake.

"I am Officer Wang, and this is Officer Braginski. We would like to know exactly what happened to you," Yao informed them. Ivan smiled pleasantly, folding and clasping his arms behind his back. Or at least, he was going for pleasantly. However, his smile came off much more menacing than he intended, unbeknownst to him. The two men each exchanged terrified looks.

"It was a fucking demon, man. A demon. The guy had fucking wings. Like some fucking demon of death man. It was unreal," The one with the broken pelvis spoke, "The guy crushed my hip by just stepping on hit, man." Yao's eyebrows furrowed. He looked down on the man's medical board on his bed.

"You suffered all of that damage to your hip by being stomped on?" Yao asked, is tone of complete disbelief.

"I'm not lying to you man!" The guy cried, "You should have seen it! Frank here was holding the guy by his arms and then suddenly he screeches out like a fucking bird from hell and these huge ass wings rip out of his back and break Frank's arms and slam him into the wall and knock him out. Then he went all ape-shit on Don and smashed his face in with his fist. He fucking punched Don once and his face looked like a pot hole! It knocked him all up against the wall! And then he grabbed Don by his shirt and lifted him up off the ground like he didn't weigh a thing, and then threw him on the ground like a rag doll. Then he took Don's bat and set his devil eyes on Carl. They were like, all gold and shit and glowing! And then he swung the bat and hit Carl in the stomach, and he fucking spewed out blood like his organs just exploded. I tried to tell him to stop man but he just fucking shattered my hip man. It hurt so fucking bad I passed out." Yao listened to the story in mild disgust, not even bothering to hide it from his facial expression. And Ivan counted how many times the man said 'fucking' during his speech. He had counted eight times.

"Ok, first question... this guy, could you describe him for us?" Yao asked, "And try to be specific as possible." 'Are we really going to trust a single word this punk says?' Ivan thought to himself.

"Let me think... uh..."

"He had real blond hair, remember Richie?" Frank spoke up from the other bed.

"Yeah, man! Blond hair! It was all weird and had a piece sticking up too. I remember it cuz I was thinking how fucking dumb it looked," Richie replied, "And... what else? Before he went all crazy and shit, his eyes were more blue." Yao nodded and wrote them down in his notepad. Ivan still felt like they were wasting time.

"Is that all?" Yao asked. The two men exchanged looks before agreeing that they were done.

"Blond hair and blue eyes, how very specific," Ivan couldn't stop himself from saying sarcastically.

"Hey man! His eyes had a ring of gold in them though! Blue AND gold eyes!" Richie yelled out. These idiots were so pitifully easy to manipulate it made Ivan want to cry.

"Ok, then, next question," Yao said, "To sustain the injuries that... Frank was it? sustained, in the way you said he sustained them, he had to have been holding this blond man from behind... why exactly where you four men restraining him in the first place? From what you said, he had only gotten angry and attacked after he encountered you four and was held, presumably against his will, am I correct in assuming that?" The two men's eyes got wide and they both fell silent. Ivan scowled and cracked his knuckles.

"I believe that we asked you a question. If you do not answer truthfully, you may find that you have one extra injury~. And no one will be questioning it, da?" Ivan spoke menacingly, a small, threatening, closed-mouth grin on his face, his eyes narrowing to slits. Yao knew that they really shouldn't be threatening them, but Ivan got most of their answers this way anyways, and the method was extremely effective for these thug types.

"O-ok! Ok! We were just following him and this chick for some fun! Really we weren't going hurt them or nothing! But then they started to run when they noticed us trailing them, and Don told us that we better follow them and punish them. So we ran after them, but the chick fell, and so the guy had turned around to fight us! So we were just pushing them back into this alley and we really didn't want to hurt them but Don ordered us! And we're afraid of him! So we just came at him and at first he was like a regular guy and wasn't no big deal. He punched Frank in the face, kicked me in the stomach, and kicked Carl in the jaw. But then Don got him real good on the side of the face with his bat and sent him into the wall. He was bleeding out of his mouth and that's when Frank smacked him good on the head for getting punched and he fell to the ground. So me and Carl started kicking him in the stomach and he was coughing blood on the ground. That's when Frank grabbed him up," Richie explained fearfully. Ivan was starting to like them even less than before. Which was saying a lot.

"And the girl? What happened to her?" Yao asked in concern.

"Uh... well... Don, wanted to have fun with her, so he ordered me and Carl to hold her arms. She started to scream and stuff, but Don smacked her across the face to shut her up and made Carl gag her. That was when the other guy freaked out and turned into a demon." Both Yao and Ivan both furious at this point, and were actually a bit glad the man had beat these thugs up.

"And what did she look like?" Yao asked.

"Aw man! She had the hugest rack I've ever seen!" Richie exclaimed, Frank nodding furiously in agreement. Yao and Ivan's scowls only deepened.

"Yeah, and she had these big watery blue eyes and pale skin and hair. A real looker. Kinda looks like you..." Richie trailed off as he realized only too late his mistake. Ivan's face contorted to pure rage, and his hands clenched impossibly tight at his sides. Low growls and words were spilling from his mouth, though they were too low to be made out, and a dark aura seemed to grow around Ivan's figure.

"How dare you filth lay a hand on my dear sister," Ivan snarled, and slammed a fist into Frank's stomach before Yao could stop him, and punched Richie violently in the nose.

"Ivan, no! You can't do this! We're not supposed to do this! Remember last time you went on a violent rampage? We almost couldn't cover it up that time and that annoying weasel reporter Beilschmidt, brother of the Chief of Police almost managed to find out what had happened? Do you remember the scolding that we got? You were very close to getting fired!" Yao spoke to Ivan, frantically waving his arms. Ivan stopped his assault then, holding himself back from doing more damage. He needed to call Katyusha, right this moment.

"I must call Katyusha now. You can handle the rest for me, da?" Ivan asked, but didn't give Yao enough time to answer before stepping out of the door. Yao gave out a frustrated sigh, and knew that he had to talk to the nurses now and try to come up with an excuse for what happened. He wasn't as nearly as convincing as Ivan could be, and he was loath to do it. But still, he didn't blame Ivan for doing what he did. Just thinking about anyone touching his nephew Kiku like that, or any of his other family members would probably have gotten that same reaction out of him. So really, he didn't blame Ivan. He just wished that Ivan wouldn't dump all of his work onto him! Outside of the room, Ivan pulled out his cell phone and dial his sister's phone number. He didn't care that it was 9:30 at night. He was already power walking toward the elevator door. He was going to go and see her now, no matter what. The phone rang a few times before being picked up.

"Hello? Is that you brother?" Katyusha's familiar voice rang through clearly. Ivan gave out a sigh of relief.

"Sister, please tell me how you are doing," Ivan spoke frantically.

"How I am doing? I'm fine... Oh! You must be upset because I hadn't called you yet. I'm so sorry, I had completely forgotten! I just... ran into a problem on the way home... but my buddy from the gym, Alfred, he helped me, so I'm fine. I'm staying with him and his roommate tonight. I'm so very sorry for worrying you." Just hearing her voice was almost enough to reassure him of everything. Almost. As in, he was still going to go see her whether she liked it or not, and he still wanted to know why she hadn't explained anything to him yet.

"That is very interesting, because I was just at the hospital. My partner and I were sent here to interrogate some thugs about why they were found half beaten to death in an alleyway. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?" Ivan asked in his fake sweet voice that was just positively dripping with the silent promise of a threat.

"Oh, brother, please don't be angry! I really didn't want to worry you about it because I really wasn't harmed at all! Please don't be angry!" She pleaded, and Ivan could already tell that she was about to cry. Ivan was out in the parking lot by then, taking out the keys to the car that he and Yao were driving. Ivan always drove, so he didn't have to worry about getting the keys from Yao. It just occurred to him that if he took the car, Yao would have to find another way to get back to the station. 'Oh well~!' he thought, 'Walking is so good for you, Yao~! You will thank me for this later~!'

"The only way I will forgive you is if you tell me the address of where you are staying this instant. I am coming to see you," Ivan replied to her. He had to make absolutely sure that she was ok. He didn't trust the words of those scum for an instant, and he would be seeing for himself, one way or the other. There was a bit of yelling and talking coming from the other end, but Ivan couldn't make out the words. It only served to make him even more suspicious and high-strung. Finally, Katyusha spoke once more.

"Ok, brother. As long as you promise not to harm my friends when you come over! You must promise me!" Katyusha said in a surprisingly firm voice that Ivan rarely heard her use, "I don't want you hurting or intimidating them in any way!" Ivan sighed, and figured that what sweet, innocent Katyusha didn't know, wouldn't hurt her.

"I promise Katyusha. I promise that I won't do anything to your friends," he told her. 'Unless I find reason to, that is,' he thought to himself. And Ivan could find a reason to hurt people very easily.

"Ok, Vanya. I trust you," she said. Ivan was by now, though, immune to the pet name and the guilt trip that Katyusha was trying to pull over on him. He only made her believe that it still worked so that he wouldn't have to try hard to get her approval or to get information out of her. Then, if he deemed it necessary, he would still go against her wishes without her knowledge that he had done so. Really, it was for her own good. That last thing that she had tried to pass off as a boyfriend disserved what he got, in Ivan's opinion. Katyusha couldn't have really wanted a man like that. Ivan had saved her from wasting any more time on him before realizing what scum he was and dumping him. He had just helped the process along. Katyusha told Ivan the address, and the two exchanged goodbyes before Ivan ended the phone conversation. It was just then that he drove by the scene of the crime, where there were still members of CSI unit busily working and running around.

He gripped the steering wheel harder as he neared the address, and made a bit of a mess of his parallel parking job. But has he stomped up all seven flights of stairs, he really couldn't bring himself to care about anything other than confronting Katyusha and her 'friends'. Ivan made it to the very last apartment, and griped the doorknob so fiercely in his gloved had that it was a wonder that it didn't just bend and break from the intensity of it. He wretched the door open quickly and with such force that it banged against the wall.

"Holy shit dude!" One of the men on the couch exclaimed in surprise and fell off of the couch, barely missing hitting himself on their coffee table, which was currently littered with bottles of soda and an open, half eaten box of pizza. The man miraculously managed to keep the hand that was holding his pizza high in the air as to not drop it. Katyusha was sitting in the middle of the couch, nibbling on her pizza nervously and looking up at Ivan sheepishly through her eyelashes. The man sitting on her other side cast a scowl at the man on the floor as he sipped his tea, looking thoroughly irritated.

"Get off the bloody floor!" He snapped at him. The other man huffed.

"I'm getting to it! Jeez!" He stood from the floor and devoured the rest of the pizza slice in his hand before sitting back down. 'Blond hair, blue eyes,' Ivan mentally assessed, 'and even the odd cowlick that the thug had described. That must be one who mauled them. And... the one that protected my sister.' Though Ivan was loath to admit it to himself, he owed this blond man. Katyusha stood up then, making her way to Ivan and standing in front of him.

"Hello, brother. It's good to see you," she said bashfully. Ivan watched suspiciously as the blond man reached for another slice of pizza.

"Don't you dare get another piece. You've already eaten the hole other pizza that we got just for you! This pizza is supposed to be for Kat and I," the other man with the ridiculously huge eyebrows scolded.

"But I'm still hungry! And you guys aren't going to be able to finish it anyways!" the blond whined. Ivan finally cleared his throat loudly.

"I believe I deserve an explanation," He said. He looked at Katyusha once more, and his frown deepened as he studied the bruise on her face.

"Really, it's ok. Me and Alfred-" She was interrupted.

"Alfred and I, darling," the man with the large eyebrows interjected.

"Whatever, Artie. No one cares!" the blond, whom Ivan figured must be Alfred, spoke. The other man, 'Artie', growled and glared furiously at him.

"Um, Alfred and I," Katyusha continued, "were just attacked by these group of thugs. But he protected me and brought me back here! So there is really nothing to worry about!" But Ivan was not satisfied. Katyusha was acting suspiciously, and Ivan knew that she was hiding something. He had known her his entire life, after all. She was his sister. She couldn't keep anything from him, no matter how she tried.

"I spoke with these thugs in question, as I had told you over the phone," Ivan spoke slowly, "and they mentioned some very peculiar things about Alfred." His violet eyes landed on Alfred, who had managed to sneakily steal the slice of pizza he had been forced to put down before, while Arthur had been distracted by watching Ivan and Kat interact. When the Brit turned, he immediately smacked Alfred's hand, making him yelp and drop the pizza back down into the box instantly.

"You didn't have to hit me!" Alfred yelled.

"Can't you be serious for once in your bloody life, Alfred?" Arthur snapped at him. Alfred simply stuck his tongue out at Arthur, which only served to infuriate him even more. Katyusha gulped.

"I heard," Ivan continued, "that he turned into some sort of winged demon. I don't believe it myself, but you're trying very hard to play off this incident. It makes me suspicious. You know that I don't like secrets, sister." Katyusha nodded.

"Yes, I know..."

"So why don't you save us all the trouble, and just tell me the truth? You know that I only go to these lengths because I care so deeply for you," Ivan said, softening his tone and making her feel the guilt by playing the brother card. Alfred groaned from his seat on the couch.

"We're screwed," he stated simply. He could already tell that Katyusha's defense had shattered.

"But it really wasn't Alfred's fault!" Katyusha explained frantically, "Those thugs were trying to hurt me, and he just couldn't help himself! He just wanted to protect me! It really wasn't much different from that one time that you protected me, brother." Katyusha's voice softened at the last sentence, and Ivan grew a bit pale. He didn't want to think about that again, not now. There was plenty different from that incident so long ago and this one. For one thing, the thugs were still all alive...

"But what about the wings? I wish to know if they were lying about that point. They seemed very insistent upon it," Ivan urged his sister. Katyusha whimpered and she turned to look at Alfred fearfully. Alfred stood up from the couch carefully, sighing.

"It's ok, Kat. It looks like it's unavoidable now," he reassured her. The pet name annoyed Ivan greatly. She allowed him to call her that? He had noticed that the other man had called her Kat as well. Just what was going on with these men and Katyusha? Then, Alfred started to take off his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Ivan asked in alarm, his mind jumping to conclusions.

"Chill out man, it's ok. How else am I gonna show you?" 'Show me what?' Ivan thought frantically, but he couldn't deny how his eyes took in the excellently toned chest and arms of the tanned blond. He was attractive. Ivan was only broken out of his revere by the great 'whooshing' sound and the slow spreading of large, magnificent brown wings from Alfred's back. Ivan couldn't keep the surprised look from his face if he tried.

"Watch it, wanker!" Arthur interjected as one of Alfred's wings had almost hit him in the face as it extended to its full wingspan. Ivan simply stared at the wings, entranced by them.

"Yes, yes. Stare in amazement. I do have wings and they are real, thank you," Alfred said. He flicked the end of his left wing and it hit Arthur right in the nose, which only caused him to yell at Alfred more.

"So, all of that was true? The wings and the inhuman force you used to injure them?" Ivan whispered.

"Yup. And I don't have any wounds because they totally healed on me, but they started it first, ok!" Alfred insisted.

"Do not worry, I and my partner have already gotten the thugs' confession," Ivan told him, "It can easily be seen as a simple self-defense. Well, it could, if their wounds were not so severe..." Alfred's look turned sheepish.

"I guess I don't know my own strength?" He said, rubbing the back of his head and chuckling nervously. Ivan straightened himself and narrowed his eyes.

"You are very lucky that I do not like being in debt, Alfred. I will do this one favor for you and keep your little problems a secret. However," he paused then, and Katyusha fixed a worried stare on her brother's form, "I will have to many things in order to clean up this little predicament that you're in with these thugs. I can easily get them with assault charges for Katyusha, but for you, it is a completely different matter. I expect you to do a favor for me in return."

"But brother! He saved my life!" Katyusha cried out. Alfred only shook his head.

"Don't worry, Kat. It's ok. Your bro is right. He's doing a lot of things for me to keep this all a secret. I can't just take advantage of that. I have to do something in return, too," he spoke. Kat backed off at this, but her worried look never strayed from her face.

"I am glad you see it my way, Alfred. As an investigator, I have very... limited power. Sometimes, it is very difficult to catch suspects without proper evidence, even if it is obvious that they are the culprit. It would be greatly beneficial to have someone on the outside that would be capable of, how do you say?, 'bringing them to justice'? If you could publically bring their acts to light, or convince them in some way to confess, then it would take a great burden off of my job."

"So you're telling us," Arthur butted in, figuring that if Alfred wasn't going to ask questions then he sure as hell would in an attempt to discourage Alfred from taking this deal. It just felt like a deal with the devil to him, "that you want Alfred to be your thug or something, to beat up people when you tell him to?" Arthur felt pinned down by those intense violet orbs, felt like he was being dissected by them.

"Your little friend Alfred is free to take or decline any job that I offer him," Ivan replied, "I was saying that it would be helpful of him to make it a bit easier to catch criminals."

"Don't worry, Artie! I'll be fine. This is a great opportunity to start off my career! And if what I do helps catch criminals and saves people, then that's good enough for me. I can handle whatever comes along!" Alfred flashed a toothy grin in Arthur's direction. Arthur couldn't help but find Alfred's statements endearing, even if he was being a naive simpleton.

"All I'm saying is that you should at least try to think these things through."

"I am, I am! If I find out anything, I can give you anonymous tips to slip to the newspaper. It's all genius my friend," Alfred spoke, pointing to his cranium, "genius." Arthur grumbled, his hand coming up to rub his face as he sighed:

"Do whatever you want." Alfred beamed brightly and turned back to Ivan with purpose, his wings shuddering and fluffing up with excitement. He quickly moved up to stand beside Katyusha, who was standing beside Ivan. Ivan couldn't tear his eyes away from those wings. The way they moved was so peculiar, every little twitch or ruffle of feather so intricately connected with Alfred's own feelings and psyche. But even still, they were the same as limbs, and it looked as if Alfred controlled them as easily as his arms or legs. They were both being controlled and instinctually moving on their own at the same time. It greatly intrigued Ivan. He wondered how those wings would react through different feelings, through the harshest pain and the most intense pleasure... Ivan pulled himself from his thoughts as Alfred spoke to him.

"Ok, I think I understand. You just call on me and I'll get the bad guys and be the hero! How are you going to call me? OH! I should have a super cool signal and we can meat on the rooftops like Batman!" Arthur groaned from his seat on the couch and took a large gulp of his tea, wishing that it was alcohol instead. Ivan raised an eyebrow at the enthusiastic blond, his eyes moving from the expressive wings to expressive blue orbs. They seemed to change shades of blue like a shifting sea. For now, they were calm and clear like the tropical water of the Caribbean, and emotions were seen easily. He wondered just how many shades those depths could go. This Alfred boy was getting only more and more intriguing by the moment.

And that was the chapter, folks! Finally, Ivan and Alfred meet, eh? Not really the best of circumstances, but all is well! The plot will definitely pick up in the next chapter, if I ever figure out what I really want to do with this. XD