Hello again. Here's the next chapter for you guys, fashionably late as they used to be. Sorry about that. For the month of July, I'm house-sitting with a friend. So, despite no parents, laptop and computer, junk food and no bedtime, I still have to take care of the animals and plants and house and all that. So if I can't update for awhile after this, don't hate me for it please.

Also, this is dedicated to Demolition_Girl_33236. (Did I get the numbers right?) Because she updated her story, Enough, and I feel I need to pay her back.

So, without further stalling, here's the next chapter.

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Chapter 2 – Card Sharks

For as long as anyone could remember, Rei had hated being late. He was on time for school, work, appointments, and even relaxed events like hanging out with friends.

Today, Rei was very, very late. So late, in fact, that as he pumped his legs harder still, he could almost hear his wrist watch cursing at him. The warm rocks of the gravel road shifted beneath his feet as he moved, but he forced himself to keep traction. Of all the times he could be late…

It was all Gary's fault, really. The elder had insisted on building that shed, and Rei couldn't let him do it on his own; Gary's shoulder had never really healed right, and it was obviously painful for him to do much work with it. Rei had stuck around to help him, and before he knew it he was twenty minutes late. And it took a grand total of twenty minutes just to walk to his destination from there.

So, perhaps Gary wasn't to blame. Perhaps no one was. But it didn't help that he had gotten so involved with it all. Twisting a sharp corner, Rei began his climb up the last stretch of his run. The gravel vanished beneath his feet to be replaced with a dirt road, and as he pounded along, small clouds of dust rose up beneath him. They swirled and twisted before floating away and vanishing into the warm summer air, along with more time lost. Two more steps, a sharp turn, jump over the garden, up the front steps…

Rei had to throw his hands up before him to stop himself from running smack into the door of Kevin's home. Gasping madly in an attempt to fill his lungs with much needed oxygen, he failed to notice when the door opened until he looked down and saw Kevin standing directly before him. Jumping, Rei slapped on a stupid grin and stood up straight, pushing out his chest.

"Hey! Hey there… you. What's up?"

"My cat ate part of my sweater." Kevin replied, blinking up at Rei blankly. The younger was wearing a gray and white stripped sweater, the stripes themselves larger then the width of Rei's hand. The sleeves were long and fell down over Kevin's hands, and one of them had been chewed up. Rei frowned.

"But that's your favorite sweater."

"Yeah, well, she was my favorite cat." He grumbled, obviously very upset about the situation. Rei smiled and stepped it, closing the door and following Kevin into the house. It was dark inside, and eerily quite, just like it had always been.

Before him, Kevin swept across the oak floor of his home awkwardly, in the sense that with every other step, he seemed to falter just barely; the limping. He had had it since The Incident, and as time wore on and it refused to go away, the less likely it was that it would ever stop. They had all learned, in their own time, to ignore it. Asking him about it only seemed to sadden him.

Frowning somewhat, Rei kept close to the smaller form as they moved down a hallway and through a swinging door. As Rei stepped through the doorframe, he found the kitchen, with Lee and Mariah sitting around the island counter with cards in their hands, the rest of the deck between them. Both looked at Rei curiously.

"What happened to you?" Mariah asked, glancing at Kevin who pulled himself up onto a barstool across from her and picked his hand back up. Rei sat down on the forth and final chair and allowed Lee to deal to him.

"I was helping Gary build that shed. I don't know why he wants it done so quickly, do you?"

Lee shrugged. "Beats the hell outta me. Maybe he wants it to store food or something."

At the comment, Mariah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because 'Gary eats a lot jokes' so didn't get old when we were ten."

Kevin chuckled at the heavy sarcasm, but otherwise remained silent; he never spoke during these games. Why, Rei wasn't sure.

"Twenty each; no stealing extra just to snack on." Lee announced, dropping a bag of Sour Patch Kids onto the table and allowing the others to count them out. When a small pile of multi-colored sour candies sat before each player, the bag vanished from the countertop and the game began.

"Lee; got any queens?"

"Only across from me." Came the joking reply, Rei's jaw dropping in mock hurt as jeers and laughs filled the room. As the game continued on, the hands of the clock began to resume their silent motion, swirling in almost a complete circle before the bag of candy was gone. Dropping his cards, Lee glared at Kevin questioningly.

"B.S." He said, looking for some sign of reluctance. Kevin smiled and reached forward, over turning the top three cards on the pile to reveal that he had – in fact – played three kings down. Mariah and Rei both laughed as Lee grudgingly picked up the entire pile.

"I don't understand why you always win at this game." Lee growled dejectedly. Kevin just smiled and shrugged, before a small white creature leapt up onto the counter before him. Flinching horribly, Kevin nearly fell backwards off of the stool before he caught himself of the edges of the counter. Before him, his cat turned and mewed loudly.

"Moron…" Kevin whispered to himself, picking up his cat and dropping her back to the floor. When he turned his attention back to the table, Lee and Rei were trying not to laugh at him. Mariah sighed.

"It's not the cat's fault."

"She chewed my sweater." Kevin mumbled.

"That doesn't matter, she was just-"

"Do you smell that?" Rei asked, sitting up right quite suddenly and causing Mariah to stop mid-sentence. They all fell silent, spare the cat behind Kevin, who mewed loudly in panic and raced out of the room. Lee's eyes widened.

"Smoke?"

"Fire!" Mariah gasped, point down an adjacent hallway. They all turned to face it and spotted the red and orange glow on the mahogany wood paneling at the end of the hall. Kevin's eyes widened at the mere thought of his home on fire, but before he could blink, Rei and Lee were off the barstools. Rei lunged for some sort of bowl or basin or bucket, and when he would the small tub he was looking for in a lower cabinet, he filled it with water and instructed Mariah and Kevin to do the same. Lee had headed down the hallway and returned, skidding to a halt on the floor. "The whole side of the house is up!"

Kevin stumbled at the news and fell numb while Mariah and Rei rushed the water down the hall. Back and forth they went, in a blur of frantic motion, joined by Lee and Kevin once the team captain had managed to convince the youngest that he had to help too. After twenty agonizingly tense minutes, they all stood gasping for breath in what was once the living room. The black char all around the room remained damp and smoldering. The window panes had shattered under the pressure of the fire and the intensity of the heat, and while the air was baking around them, they all just stood and looked at what was in the middle of the room.

There, on the floor, a small package wrapped in charred paper sat, the once white string still tied in a bow. Lee slowly crouched down next to it and reached forward despite Mariah's hushed protests. His blackened fingers found some sort of plastic tag, and as he turned it around, their eyes widened.

Kevin

"It's… for you?" Rei murmured, looked over at Kevin who stood completely still beside Mariah, eyes narrowed in fear and confusion. Lee picked up the package and tossed it carefully between the palms of his hands, trying to cool it down. The paper wrapping fell off in ashy chunks and drifted to the floor as he did this, to reveal a relatively unharmed wooden box. The four members of the White Tiger team stood and stared at it for some time before Lee slowly handed the cooled box to Kevin. After a silent moment, he took it into his much smaller hands and looked down at his name, written in fine handwriting on the tag.

Using one hand to hold up the box and another to open it, he lifted the lid cautiously and peered inside, eyes widening a bit before narrowing in complete confusing. The others leaned in to see what it was.

Inside of the box lay a white plastic syringe with a long metal tip, and a stark white envelope. Kevin lifted the paper out of the box and let Rei take it from him, eyes staring hard at the medical tool as if it would help him understand why it was there. Kevin, using his index finger to peel open the envelope, withdrew the single sheet of folded paper as his teammates returned their attention to him.

On the paper, in the same print as his name had been on the tag, a short note lay thoughtfully written out. Kevin read aloud.

"You got off easy the last time. This time around, you won't… get a-… away…" He said, eyes staring at the paper in disbelief. Lee, Mariah and Rei let the words sink in slowly before they all grabbed at the paper at once, Mariah coming out the victory. She read it again out loud, and then in her head four times, and then looked up at Rei frantically.

"What is this?! What does it… what does it mean?"

As they tried to find reason in the letter, Kevin stared at the ground silently. Finally, Rei turned to ask Kevin something, and as Lee and Mariah followed suit, they all fell silent.

"Matherson." Kevin whispered, not looking up at them.

"He's back."

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Oh, boo. Not that guy again. D:

Perhaps it's odd that Kevin remembered him… but then, how could he forget? Hm.