Author's Note: Hello everyone, IrisRaylene here. Finally got the second chapter of this story posted, so I'm really excited! Hopefully the others won't take quite as long, but I won't make any promises. Real quick before we begin, this is the chapter where things actually start to happen. This chapter will be narrated by Ryuu, because I feel like I cheated him a little last chapter.
Also, a special thanks to Lala, who was the first (and only) to review. I was so excited when I saw your review that I accidentally knocked my laptop off of my bed… -_- Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know what you thought!
And now, please enjoy chapter two! ^.^

I don't own anything. Except the OCs and plot. But that is all.

-x-Chapter Two: Busted-x-

Ryuu:

It was actually kind of alarming how easy it was for Aki and me to sneak onto the Library Base. We didn't even really have to sneak. We just walked right in through the main gate. No one asked us for ID. No one gave us suspicious looks. No one wondered why they had never seen us before. We were simple allowed to march right in with nothing more than our uniforms as identification. These uniforms turned out to be the best idea Aki ever had. Not that using them for this purpose was all that great.

Actually…now that I was thinking about it…these were real Defense Force uniforms. You couldn't just buy these in a store. So….

"Hey Aki," I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. "Where did you get these uniforms?"

"Oh?" She grinned. "You really want to know?" Something about her expression told me that it was probably better if I just dropped the subject.

"Anyway, what do you want to do while we're here?"

"I have no idea." Aki stopped walking and thought about that. "Hm….what should we do?"

"You mean to tell me that you have no plan?" Was she being serious right now? "Did you think this through at all? Why did you even want to come here in the first place?"

"Because I've never been here before." She answered with a very serious face, hand held out in a thumbs up. "Besides, you're usually the one who makes all the plans, so I thought I would leave that up to you."

She did have a point there. I had known Aki for years and, as a result, had been dragged on a great many of her whims…uh…adventures. And the one thing that was consistent in all of them was that Aki was terrible at planning. So in the end, I would always have to fix the plan or make up a new one entirely. Although in this situation, I still had to make a plan on the spot, as per usual, it was a bit of relief to hear that Aki was at least aware of the trouble she caused for others. Now if only she could just fix that.

"How about we go and take a look at the training grounds?" I offered. "We can walk around there, then explore the area from the ground to the actual library."

"Sounds like a plan!" Aki gave me a quick salute, then skipped off in the direction of the training grounds.

As we headed out in that direction, I was careful to stay out of everyone's way and to not attract any unnecessary attention to myself. I stayed to the side of the paths and never offered more than a nod to the people I passed. Aki, on the other hand…well, caution had never been her strong point.

She skipped along the path, not bothering to even keep to a straight line. And, to every single person she passed, she would greet them cheerfully, saying things like, "Hi, how are you? Lovely weather we have today! Have any big plans for this weekend? Enjoy your day!" It was like she was completely unaware that we weren't actually supposed to be here.

And the worst part was, no one on the Base seemed even sort of confused. No one questioned who this girl was, why they had never seen her before, or why she didn't act anything like a Defense Force member. No, that didn't seem to concern any of them. In fact, they would actually greet her back. Some gave a "Hi" or "Doing well, thanks" or "Sun is fine and all, but the weather today is a little too warm for my liking." A few of them even stopped walking to have an actual conversation with her.

"Oh, so your wife just had a baby? How nice!" Aki had stopped to speak with a middle-aged man who was definitely of a high enough rank that he should know who does and does not work here. "You must be excited to have some time off to spend with them, then!"

"Haha, yeah. I was lucky that Commander Tedzuka was able to approve my request for leave. We've been really shorthanded at the Base lately, I was worried I would hardly be able to go home at all." The man scratched the back of his head, giving an embarrassed laugh.

"Well, I won't keep you any longer then. Have a lovely day and enjoy your time off!" Aki waved as the man left, continuing on his way.

"Aki…." I said, trying my best to keep my voice calm. It wasn't working very well. I could already feel my eye twitching. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" I gave her a whispered shout, still trying not to draw attention to us.

"Eh? What do you mean?" She tilted her head to the side, looking honestly confused.

"We aren't supposed to be here. You do remember that, right?" She nodded. "Then please, please, I am begging you, calm down. We're going to get in a lot of trouble if we're caught, so you have to stop running around like a wild animal. And if you stop to have a conversation with everyone on the Base, then eventually, you're going to find a person who knows that we aren't supposed to be here. And then your father will find out and you'll be in trouble for doing something stupid. And I'll be in trouble for letting you. To be perfectly honest, Aki, I would really rather your father not kill me. So please, try to stay out of the way. Okay?"

"I'm sorry, Ryuu…." Her gaze drifted down to the ground. Oh no. Not this again. I was really bad at dealing with Aki when she was upset.

"I'm not mad." I told her quickly. "I'm just trying to be careful here."

"You two there!" A deep voice interrupted our conversation. "Would you mind coming over here for a minute?" Oh shit. An instructing officer. He stood by one of the training courses, a group of recruits in a neat line behind him. And he was staring at us. Asking us to come over. This was bad. Really, really bad.

"What can we do for you sir?" Aki didn't move forward, but instead offered the man a salute and a question.

"Since you two seem to have a bit of free time, you can run this course quick and show these recruits how it's done." The man waved us over yet again. Aki gave him another salute and started over. I grabbed her sleeve.

"Aki, what do you think you're doing?" I hissed.

"You said not to draw attention to ourselves." She whispered back. "So, won't it look suspicious to them if we refuse?" That….made a lot of sense, actually. I nodded and the two of us headed to the start line of the course.

"Alright you two. Just follow the path, keep your gun up, and don't mess up. We're trying to give these guys a good impression." This particular officer seemed a little too indifferent. He didn't even bother to ask our names, even for reference. He just shoved a gun into our hands and told us to get ready.

"I'll do my best sir!" Aki clenched her gun, corners of her mouth twitching with excitement. She was happy about this. She actually wanted to be running a course made for real Defense Force members. This idiot….

"And….GO!" The timers started and the two of us took off running.

Despite all her flaws, like the inability to be patient, think things over, or to ever do study for anything, Aki was one hell of a runner. Athletics were the one thing where she could even beat me, if she put her mind to it. Not that I thought I was better than everyone else or anything like that. I mean, I do well in gym class and stuff, but it's not like I'm the best or…..*cough* ugh, just forget all that.

Aki was a good athlete. And that probably saved us here. With some luck, we somehow both managed to cross the finish line within a time that the instructing officer found reasonable. As he was talking to the new recruits about what they should do or not do when running, using us as examples, Aki wandered over to the timekeeper.

"Hi! It was a really close race, right?" She smiled. "But I won that, didn't I?"

"Excuse you?" I interrupted. "I was definitely ahead. No way you beat me!"

"Nuh uh!" Aki stuck out her tongue. "I was a mile ahead of you!"

"You little…"

"Um…excuse me?" The timekeeper cut in. "If you don't mind, I have the official times, so I can just tell you." We both stopped. The timekeeper swallowed and held out the sheet with our times.

"Exactly the same?" We said in unison.

"Damn, and I was so sure I had you…" Aki sighed. "Thanks anyway Mister. We should get going now."

"Oh, yes, thank you."

Aki and I started off again, with me making a mental note to be more careful from here on out. So far we'd been lucky, but that couldn't keep up forever. If we kept getting stopped like this, then we were going to end up caught before lunch.

"Hey, you two over there!" Crap, not again. "I don't believe I've seen you around here before. Are you sure you're Defense Force members?" Oh god. It happened. We finally found someone who knew we didn't belong.

In a state of semi-panic, I slowly turned around to face the woman who called us out. I froze up. A tall, middle-aged woman with short brown hair stood a little ways away, hands on her hips. Her head was tilted slightly to the side as she waited for an answer from us. I wasn't sure I could answer.

Her nametag, it said Doujou I.

"Iku-san..." I swallowed. Of course she had been the one to catch us.

"Oh, Ryuu?" Iku-san stepped forward. "It was you?"

"Uh…" There really wasn't any good way that I could play this off. I mean, I was wearing a Defense Force uniform. Iku-san knew very well that I was not a member. This was going to end badly.

"So, if this one here is Ryuu," she said, "then that would make the young lady back there…"

Aki flinched. Very, very slowly, she turned around. She raised her head and put on her best fake smile, though it did little to hide the fact that she was freaking out just as much as I was. Maybe more.

"Hi Mom." She said, waving nervously.

Busted. I knew this was a terrible idea.

-x-

Another Note: Hey guys, how did you like the chapter? Was anyone surprised? I don't expect many were, but then again, I'm the author, so twists like these really don't affect me... Look forward to the next chapter. Iku will be sticking around for the next chapter as well. We'll also meet some more characters, which should be fun!
If you could take the time to write me a review, I would really appreciate hearing from you. Having feedback really helps with writing, so if you want the story to be better, please let me know! Also, let me know if you liked it, so I know what to keep doing.
Thanks for reading and I hope you come back for chapter three! It should be up soon.

Love, IrisRaylene