Chromedragozoid: Okay, somehow I have the feeling a lot of people might be asking. Like, for example, why I didn't introduce Survivor Mode or Over Soul in the very beginning of the series? Well, I was making up the story as I went along and pretty soon, the ideas popped up. Okay, so maybe if the Knights had used Survivor Mode or Over Soul, they might have stood a chance. However, it was to move the story along. If the Knights had defeated ARMS, there wouldn't have been the whole "Shadowcobra obsessing over ARMS" issue. ARMS will make a return appearance, but not just yet. I wanna check my notes first to see when it is a good time for him to show.

Part 51: Dressing Up for Draco's Mom

Leo was nervous. He had the ring in his pant's pocket and all that was left was the presentation. He looked at himself in the mirror and smiled.

"Looking good, Aibou," complimented Yaminekoryu as he appeared in spectral from right next to the civilian mode Dragon Knight.

"Thanks, Yaminekoryu," Leo smiled at the apparition. The spirit could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he was actually nice…some of the time. Leo was dressed in a red tuxedo with a matching red bowtie. His hair had been pulled back and braided. He wanted to look good at his dinner with his mother. The girls were all waiting at the hotel for them to pick them up. Leo sighed, "Knowing Okaasan, she'd probably had the girls dress up mighty fine for this."

"I have to agree with you Aibou. Your mother can convince anyone to wear anything. It's completely impossible to say no to her. Your father was the same way," suddenly the spirit paused, "Damn. Never mind, kid, forget I said that."

Unfortunately, Leo had heard and wasn't going to forget it anytime soon. He may have only been three at the time, but he still remembered his father's gentle face and his mother's tears when he had passed away. The pain may have eased over the years, but it was still there. Leo then let out a breath and put on his best smile. He then got out of his room to meet the rest of the male Titans in the common room.

"Lookin's sharp, Gar," Takada said to the disguised changeling.

"Don't I know it," Gar grinned, "And you look mighty sharp too with those stylin' threads."

"Thank you, BB," Takada grinned.

They were both dressed in matching black tuxedos, except that the shirt under Takada's was deep blue. They were also wearing leather shoes.

Tim was fixing the tie of his tuxedo. He had on the exact same tuxedo that he had worn back at the Prom in "Date with Destiny." Vic was dressed in a baby blue tuxedo that he had worn when he danced with Jinx back at the HIVE. It was the only one he had and he really hoped that Leo hadn't seen the picture.

"Boy is still pissed at me. Hope she didn't show him that picture," Vic wiped his brow.

"What picture?" Ichijyo smirked. He was dressed in a black tuxedo and a red dress shirt. He was also wearing a pair of stylish red tinted glasses and wore a crucifix around his neck.

Vic jumped and turned around sharply at Ichijyo, "Don't scare me like that!"

Ichijyo tilted his glasses down and grinned, "Just making conversation, Victor." He then asked, "Who are you taking along? Mrs. Hasuma did ask us to bring dates. Of course, I know my date is waiting for me," The Snake Knight mused.

Vic sighed, "Sarah…" and gave Ichijyo a goofy grin.

"Sarah? Sarah Simms? The same Sarah you've been dating for months but we've never met before?" Takada questioned.

"Booyah," Vic said softly, giving Takada a pointing gesture.

"How about you?" Ichijyo asked, "Bringing along someone?"

"Yeah, Chelsea," Takada answered.

" Chelsea?" Ichijyo questioned.

"That girl at the video store we saved from Control Freak. I came over the next morning and convinced her to go out with me," Takada wiggled his eyebrows.

"You flirted with her, didn't you?" Ichijyo and Vic said dryly.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," the two said in unison again.

Leo then walked into the living room to meet up with his friends. He smiled at them, "Ready to go?" they all answered yes. Leo then noticed Vic's tuxedo and frowned. Vic sweatdropped.

"Jen showed you the picture, huh?" Vic asked nervously.

"She did," Leo said, sounding calm. "The dress she had on was beautiful and so was her smile. You made her happy then." He then averted his eyes from Vic.

Gar walked up to Vic and gave him a pat on the back. Vic smiled at his small friend.

"Still mad at you?" Takada asked the African American.

"Kinda," Vic rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"You can't blame him for feeling that way, Victor," said Ichijyo. "Jen had been hurt too much. You were the greatest happiness she ever had, before you broke her heart," Ichijyo explained.

"Who side are you on?" Takada asked, slightly irritated.

Ichijyo shrugged, "Just stating the facts. Victor did break Jen's heart. Leo was able to mend it and simply refuses to let her be hurt." He added, "Or he's just jealous."

"Jealous?" Vic raised an eyebrow and questioned, "Why?"

"Technically, you are Jinx's ex," Ichijyo continued to explain. As he did, he took off his red shades and began wiping them before putting them back on. He continued, "Leo feels slightly threatened with you being in the same room with Jinx. He's scared, afraid that you'll take Jinx away from him."

"That's…that's WHACKED!" Vic exclaimed with disbelief. "Is that what he really feels?"

"That is a little bit more crazy than your usual theories, Ichijyo," added Takada skeptically

"Hell, I'm the empath here," Ichijyo shrugged, "You tell me. Leo doesn't hate you Victor he just feels that with your history with Jen and all, he might lose her. Either that or that he's protecting Jen from further heart break."

Vic then slumped down on the couch, "So what do I do, Jyo?" Vic asked.

Ichijyo raised an eyebrow, "Talk to him, in a calm situation, at least."

"But, how do you talk to a guy who has the tendency to barbeque the first guy he sees when he's mad?"

"That's your problem. Figure it out." Ichijyo stood up, "And Victor?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't call me Jyo." The snake Knight narrowed his eyes before leaving for the elevator.

Takada whispered, "He means it. Don't call him Jyo, ever."

Meanwhile…

"He is so cute!" Kori squealed.

"I'll say!" agreed Jen.

"I can't believe it!" Tara hollered.

"I think I can," nodded Rachel.

The girls were watching one of the Home Movies that Mrs. Hasuma had brought along with her. On the big screen TV was a little boy dressed up as a teapot and singing 'I'm a Little Teapot' in Japanese. Luckily, there were subtitles underneath. The child was in fact a 5 year old Leo Hasuma.

"I made the costume," Mrs. Hasuma explained.

"It looks cute on him," Tara laughed.

"Not just cute, adorable!" Jen cooed.

"Are there anymore videos of Leo when he was a young boy?" Kori asked.

Mrs. Hasuma took out several more DVDs. "I've got tons of them! I converted them to DVD for posterity!"

Rachel looked at the titles. "Leo's first Christmas?"

"I wanna see!" Jen tackled Rachel and took the DVD before placing it into the player. On the screen, a baby Leo was sitting on Santa's lap and crying continuously with balled fists waving around. A young man with spiky black hair, green eyes and three scars over his right eye had to disentangle the little baby boy from Santa's beard.

"Is that?" Jen began to ask.

"Yes," Mrs. Hasuma answered, "My late husband. We took Ryuki to the mall to visit Santa. Unfortunately, he was afraid of the jolly red man. My husband had to console him since I was videotaping the whole thing.

"Aww," Tara crooned, "Look at his little outfit."

"My design," Mrs. Hasuma said proudly.

"You made all of Leo's clothes?" Jen questioned.

"Just about most of them," Mrs. Hasuma mused.

"He sure looks cute in them," Jen grinned.

Leo suddenly sneezed.

"How about Ryuki's first High School play?" Mrs. Hasuma suggested. "Ichijyo-kun and Takada-kun are in it as well. They all helped put the play together."

"What was the play?" Jen asked, intrigued.

"The Three Musketeers," Mrs. Hasuma smirked

Half an hour later…

"Woah, Takada and Ichijyo are fighting each other now," Tara watched with some mild amusement.

"Saw that one coming," muttered Rachel. "Some things never change."

"Leo's trying to break them up," Jen flinched, "Ouch!"

"Now's Leo's going postal," Tara added.

"Is the stage on fire?" Kori watched.

"Just the props," Rachel added, "Now the stage is on fire."

"People are screaming and cheering," Tara mused, "And those three are still going at it. They must think it's part of the show."

Mrs. Hasuma sighed, "Boys will be boys."

Jen flinched, "That's gotta hurt."

Tara winched, "Not as much as that."

"Takada really has a strong grip," Kori added, "With his teeth."

"Now Ichijyo's strangling him," Jen said.

"I'll make a guess and say that those three were never allowed to go on stage anymore, right?" Rachel asked.

"Actually, 2 weeks later they all put on a play together called 'Roommates'. It was inspired from their home life and the 3 Musketeers incident," Mrs. Hasuma answered.

"Are you kidding?"

"They sold to a full house for 2 whole weeks. All the money went to repairing the auditorium," Mrs. Hasuma added.

"Um…Leo?" Vic said nervously. Leo looked over his shoulder from where he was standing and stared with narrowed eyes. Vic only gulped. Leo did have the tendency to go all pyromaniac on the first thing he saw when he was mad. Therefore, Vic needed to word out everything he was going to say carefully.

"Yes, Vic?" Leo answered in monotone.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"For what?"

"You know what."

"Was it when you lied to Jen? Or do you want to talk about when you led her on and broke her heart?" Leo turned and his eyes glowed red with anger. Vic was about to retort with an angry response, but sighed instead.

"That was a long time ago," Vic explained.

"Tell me the truth, Vic, did you have feelings for Jen? Did you love her when you went undercover at the HIVE? Did you truly care about her?" Leo asked, demanded, eyes narrowed.

"Yes, I did," Vic answered, eyes closed.

Leo was silent and Vic slowly prayed that he would say something, anything.

"Then why did you break her heart?" Leo questioned again.

"I didn't have a choice! I had to make em' trust me so that we could stop Blood!"

"Blood…" Leo growled the name with disgust.

"We did stop the guy, but Jen decided herself that she wanted to still be in the HIVE. We had chosen different paths. I chose mine and she chose hers," Vic explained.

"So…it was mutual?" Leo asked, a weight beginning to lift from his shoulders.

"Yeah, we called each other and broke up. It wasn't meant to be. She was a villainess and I was the good guy. It would've never worked out with Blood in charge. After we beat Blood, I tried looking for her. The first time I saw her after a long time was after you showed up. I guess you two were destined to meet."

Leo smiled for the first time during the conversation, "Thank you, Vic. You do understand that I was only angry at you because you hurt Jen. I never really hated you."

"Thanks man."

"But tell me one thing."

"Yeah?"

"Who's Sarah? Were you going out with her at the time?"

Vic rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Not really. We were on a break for awhile. I thought she felt sorry for me. But, I realized I missed the girl. So, I gave her a call. Now, we're dating again."

Leo walked towards Vic and gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder, "I'd like to meet her, Vic."

"You will," Vic grinned.

Leo warned playfully, "Just don't break this girl's heart this time."

"HEY!"

"Kidding!" Leo laughed and Vic joined in. "Let's go get the girls."

"You really make Jen, happy, you know that?" Vic told his fire wielding friend.

"And she makes me happy too," Leo winked.

"Lookin's good Tara!" Jen complimented her blond friend.

"Thanks Jen! Your dress is nice too!" Tara complimented her pink haired friend. Tara's hair had been pulled up into a ponytail. A butterfly shaped hairclip was on the left side of her head. She was in a red dress that reached down to her knees. Jen was wearing the dress she was trying out earlier and her hair had been braided.

Rachel walked into the room, grumbling. She hated dresses. Well, not exactly. She liked the dresses she wore when she danced with Ichijyo when they were mind melding. She looked at her two female teammates. "Don't say a word," she warned.

Mrs. Hasuma walked into the room. She was dresses in a stylish business and coughed to get the girls' attention. "Presenting, the star, Kori Anders." She moved to the side to reveal Kori. All the girls' jaws dropped. Was this Kori?

"Boy, Tim is gonna have a hoot when he sees that dress," Tara said, staring.

"You could say that again," Jen agreed.

"I don't think any man would look away from her looking like that," Rachel commented.

Kori only blushed and smiled at her friends. "Thank you!"

"Now girls, do not let the boys wait!" Mrs. Hasuma clapped. Soon the bodyguards began escorting them out of their hotel room.

"I'll never get used to all these bodyguard," Jen looked at the bodyguards nervously.

"Like I said, they are a necessity," Mrs. Hasuma told her.

"We're here!" Vic announced as he pulled over. The T-Car had been disguised to look like a normal car and so was Takada's Blue Hound. Gar and Robin had been riding in the T-Car while Ichijyo and Leo were in the Blue Hound.

Ichijyo opened the door of the blue convertible and stepped out, followed by Leo who had been riding shotgun. Takada placed the safety on his car on and the security measures. Their other three friends exited their vehicles as well.

Riding next to Vic was a girl wearing a strapless blue dress and blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail. She was slightly tanned.

"Oh, Vic!" she squealed, hugging her large boyfriend, "How sweet of you to invite me along!" she said. Sarah was one of the very few people who knew of the Titans secret identities. Thankfully, she had never wavered in her silence. She really knew how to keep a secret.

"It was nothing, babe," Vic said modestly.

"Other people have all the luck," Takada grumbled. His date had called and cancelled and it was too late to call anyone else, so he was left dateless. "Oh well," he mused, "I could always hit on those bodyguards."

"And lose an arm and leg in the process?" Ichijyo retorted.

"You really shouldn't do that. Okaasan's bodyguards are trained in so many ways on how to hurt a person," Leo explained.

"Damn," Takada muttered.

"And it is good to meet, you, Miss Simms," Ichijyo turned to greet Vic's date (and current girlfriend)

"Call me Sarah, please!" Sarah told him.

"If you insist, Sarah."

Ichijyo smiled. He already liked Sarah. Sarah was a volunteer who helped out disabled kids after school with after school activities. She even organized sporting events for the kids that even Vic helped out in. She had a good heart, a really good heart. Ichijyo could see that since he was an empath.

"She seems nice, eh?" Leo asked his fellow Zodiac Knight.

Ichijyo shrugged, "I guess."

"Where are the girls?" Tim looked at his watch. And as the saying goes, 'Ask, and you shall receive.'

"Speak of the devil boys!" Mrs. Hasuma burst out the doors, followed by half a dozen bodyguards standing opposite each other, 3 on each side.

Sarah looked surprise, "That's your mom?" she asked Leo.

"Yep!" Leo answered proudly.

"Now boys, feast your eyes!" Mrs. Hasuma announced and turned the boy attention to the hotel lobby doors. Two of the hotel workers opened up the door. First to walk out and down the steps was Rachel.

Ichijyo's glasses tilted down and his jaw dropped. Rachel was absolutely gorgeous!

"Close your mouth, Ichijyo, you'll catch flies in your mouth," Rachel chided playfully.

"Let them come, luv," he told her, hooking her arm with his.

Tara was next and stepped down the steps. This time Gar whistled and clapped, causing her to blush.

"Gar!" she giggled, "Stop!" she told her boyfriend.

"No way, dude," he said and took her hand, leading her down.

Jen followed after and Leo looked her up and down. "Okaasan really does good work," he commented.

"Nice tux," Jen said, looking him up and down before slapping his butt. He yelped and jumped. She giggled and kissed him. At this, Mrs. Hasuma whipped out a video camera out of her handbag and began recording. Leo and Jen blushed.

"That will be good!" Mrs. Hasuma said, still recording. "Now for the star, the belle of the ball."

Finally, Kori walked down the steps. All the boys' eyes widened and their jaws dropped. Tim also had the decency to look extremely shocked.

Kori was dress in a pearl white dress that hugged her body and reached down to her knees. Thin straps held the dress to her shoulders. Her hair had been permed, leaving it wavy and big and she was wearing a necklace with a green gem in the centre, matching her eyes. She smiled at him. "Good evening, Tim."

"Kori…you…wow…" he stuttered, admiring his gorgeous girlfriend.

"I think he likes the way you look," Ichijyo translated for his adopted sister.

"Thank you…brother," she answered, shyly. She then walked up to Tim's side and gave him a small peck on the cheek. Tim's face turned from pink, to red, to maroon in under 5 seconds.

"Let us go to the restaurant," Mrs. Hasuma said as she stepped into her limo and added, "Ryuki, Jen, join me!"

Leo looked at Jen and smiled softly, which she returned with her own soft smile. They clasped their hands together and intertwined their fingers as they walked towards the limo and entered through the door. The driver was one of the bodyguards and another one sat shotgun next to her.

To Be Continued…