Author's Note: Well, here we are. Another update. I hope that this is acceptable character development.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to who they belong to.

Chapter Four

I'm Already Running Out of Stupid Titles?

Milly could tell something was wrong the moment she lifted her head off the table.

Lancer's voice had been raised, indicating what was probably an argument with Adam. The moment Milly's eyes had fallen upon the two of them, he had gone deathly silent. Adam hadn't retorted, only ceased any speaking along with him. That wasn't right. Adam and Lancer were the type who stood on their points until they realized that the RV was topping two-hundred miles an hour and parts were beginning to fall off—again.

Great. She'd only just woken up, and they were already in trouble again.

"What is it now?" She grumbled, reaching down to her pocket and fishing for her compact. "Are we being invaded by that squid person again?"

"I'm fairly sure that there's only one of her," Lancer replied, a schooled calmness in his voice. With a sinking feeling, Milly realized that this wasn't their normal brand of trouble. Not aliens, and squid-people and maniacal scientists.

"What happened," she said slowly, trying to stand.

"Milly, it's—"

"Is it Misaka? Did something happen to her? Some kind of clone thing?" Milly was vaguely aware of her voice rising, becoming shriller. She didn't care.

"'Stop yelling,' says Misaka," Misaka complained, giving what slightly resembled a glower from the loft. Completely fine. Milly looked up at her with a pang of relief and flopped back down at the table.

Huh. Misaka climbing down from the loft, sun rising from Adam's side of the car, probably meant that she had slept the day and most of the night away there at the table. HHHHH Hadn't even used the bathroom (she sometimes suspected that Lancer's RV was secretly some kind of prototype tour bus). Feeling peckish, too—

"Your grandfather died," Adam said, tossing a newspaper to her.

—wait, what?

"Wait, what?" she asked, slowly turning to look up at the faunus.

"Section A, Page 12," he replied. "Died of old age at 75."

"… Oh," she said.

There weren't many ways to react to that.

"'Do you require a hug?' asks Misaka, as the Network indicates that physical contact in conjunction with –" Misaka attempted, but Milly cut her off.

"I need to use the bathroom," she said, standing and walking as fast as possible to the rear of the RV.

Milly wasn't sure how much later it was that the RV pulled to a stop. She had just been sitting on the floor of the bathroom, alternately remembering and softly weeping. But suddenly, the soft rumbling that indicated the motion of the vehicle had died down, and they were not moving.

Then someone knocked on the door.

"Hey, Ashford," said Lancer. "I think we two need to have a little chat."

"I'm fine," she sniffled, trying to pull herself to her feet. Oh hey, her leg had fallen asleep.

"I know," he said. "I'll be waiting outside."

Milly paused at that. She thought about it for what seemed like ten minutes but was probably only two. Then she waited another few seconds to let her leg wake up all the way. Then she stood, slid the door open, and walked down the length of the RV, not even acknowledging Adam sitting in the passenger seat with his now retrieved newspaper, or Misaka fiddling with the radio, and opened the door.

Lancer was indeed waiting. He had chosen a little roadside restaurant that was improbably sitting in the middle of nowhere. If Milly had been there on another day, she'd have found the view to die for. Today, she barely paid it any heed.

"You going to be alright?" he asked her. "You're a pretty lousy fighter as is, and I'd hate for you to get that pretty face messed up next town we drive through."

"That's low," she grumbled in return.

They paused for a second.

"Well?" Lancer asked.

"I'm fine, it's fine," she replied. "This isn't a movie, I'm not going to go into a funk for a week."

"That's good."

Another pause.

"Did you get along with your grandfather very well?" he asked finally. Milly regarded him incredulously.

"What, are you trying to psychoanalyze me?" she asked. Lancer raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"No, no, just asking," he replied.

Milly sighed. "He… wasn't bad. Didn't particularly dote. I didn't have to try too hard for Student President, but I wasn't allowed to slack off in class or anything. Never got in any great trouble if I didn't let a prank go too far. Kind of like a father, but older."

"I see," Lancer nodded.

"He was just there, for my whole life," she went on, words simply rushing out. "He'd give me candy, and these incredible Christmas presents—I actually had a pony when I was five, did you know?—but at the same time, he was just distant, kind of preoccupied, a little out of touch. I always thought it was just him running the school, but we never had quite that dynamic that grandparents are supposed to have. It's like—"

"Alright, alright, I get it," Lancer replied. "Wow, girl."

There was silence again. It stretched out, the two of them just standing there in the parking lot, thinking. It was the kind of all-encompassing silence that you get when seeing a natural wonder for the first time, or when a movie has just left you breathless, or some other comparison that just won't come to mind no matter how hard you try. Finally, Lancer broke it.

"So, we're going to try to be in Japan in a week's time," he said. Milly blinked. Hadn't been expecting that.

Japan?

"No! I can't do that!" she hissed. Not Japan! Never again!

"Why not?" Lancer asked.

"Why not? Don't you remember the other day, we were trading stories?" she asked frantically.

"You gave us some half-baked vagaries," Lancer deadpanned.

"I said that I got in trouble with the wrong people!" Milly replied. "Very bad people, Lancer! Very bad people! Tear your heart out and roast it on a spit kind of evil!" She began to wave her arms around for emphasis.

"Ashford!" Lancer snapped. "You've got to go. He's blood, you owe him that much." Milly looked at him, then hesitantly shook her head.

"I really can't go back, Lancer," she said. "I'm serious about these guys."

"So?" Lancer gave her a cocky grin. "We can definitely take them. Even you don't suck as bad as you did a year ago."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Milly said dryly.

"Look, Milly," Lancer said. "This is something you have to do. For your grandfather, for your family, for you. I know what it's like to go through life with regrets, and I guarantee you that if you don't go to this, you WILL regret it."

Milly drooped. To be honest, she did feel the need to go. But her problems weren't going to go away, they were going to jump on her the moment she set foot across the border and make sure she was very, very dead. Then they were going to set her on fire, just to make sure. And then, they would kill her again, to make sure that they were sure.

Lancer grinned at her again. "Hey, we've got problems too. Must be what keeps us together. A bunch of people with problems, running away from them as best we can."

"You realize that you're including yourself in that group, right?"

"Nah, I got a mission," Lancer replied, folding his arms behind his head. I just got to figure out how to get it started… what is that?"

Milly paused, and gave him an odd look. He was right, though… there was a sound, faint as it was, of music…

"I don't believe it!" Lancer suddenly growled, and charged back in the door of the RV. Milly stared after him a moment, then decided that it would at least be interesting to watch and followed him.

Lancer was kneeling in front of the radio. Adam had propped his feet up on the dashboard and buried his face in his newspaper. Misaka was sitting at the table, reading an old shoujo manga that she carried with her for some reason.

"What are you doing?" he shouted at Adam, hammering wildly at the buttons on the radio. "I told you once, I told you a thousand times! NO! messing with the radio!"

Adam rolled his eyes. "You listen to too much U2 anyways," he said, lowering his feet from the dashboard at Lancer's glare.

"That's no excuse! Never touch the radio! Especially not to listen to some opening from some anime!"

"Wasn't me," Lancer replied.

"NANA MIZUKI IS BOSS!" Misaka roared.

Silence.

Everyone slowly turned to stare at Misaka.

"… Says Misaka, stating her opinion in music," the clone finished solemnly.

Silence.

Everyone stared at Misaka.

"Okay," said Adam finally.

"Just… My ride, remember?" Lancer added lamely. "No changing the channel."

Misaka gave him her cocked-head look. "'Understood,' says Misaka, updating her knowledge pertaining to the situation."

"Thanks," Lancer replied. "Milly's alright,"

"Oh, good," Adam replied absently. "Suppose we'd better get going, then."

"We're not seriously going to Japan, are we?" asked Milly.

"Yes, we are," Lancer replied.

"Oh. Well, okay then. Can't be late for the funeral. Should probably call, find out when it is."

"'That would be an efficient course of action,' Misaka agrees."

The doors to the odd-looking RV shut. The engine started. The RV drove forward, turned out of the parking lot, turned down the road and set out for the latest adventure.

"North is the other way."

"I don't care, I don't want to visit that town twice. That usually ends with the townspeople trying to kill us."

"We still need to go north!"

"I'm heading farther south until I can find another way north!"

"THAT MAKES NO SENSE!"

"EYES ON THE ROAD!"

"'My eyes are flashing before my eyes,' observes Misaka—"

"HAVE YOU NO FAITH?"

"CAAAAAAR!"

This one was going to be rough.

Author's Note: So, here we go. Next time, we stop at another small town, one that has quite the Grimm problem.

Well, we should. That actually would have been this chapter, but the image of Lancer and Milly chatting about stuff grabbed on and wouldn't let go.

Also, if you read, please please please review. Things you liked, things you disliked, anything that I can use to hone my writing and improve the story.