I'm starting to wonder if this is going to end up being as long a story as "Master, No," at the rate things are going. It doesn't bode well for an author to be impatient with their own story. If I'm impatient, I imagine the feeling is mutual. Sorry. *sighs*

My bgm for this chapter was DJ Assad's "Addicted".

Kaito: You're jumping the gun again, Master. That's not really appropriate to this chapter.

*whine* But I /want/ it to be... *pouts*

Guest, this chapter is for you *blows a kiss randomly* ;) lol

Kaito: Master, stop scaring your reviewers. :/

...

"Hurry up," Gakupo said, unintentionally and somewhat uncharacteristically being a little rude, as he opened the front door with anxious impatience. A teal-haired man and deep-violet-haired man were still in the progress of walking up to knock on the door. Gakupo had beaten them to it, opening the door before either one of them could even raise a hand to knock.

Mikuo frowned at his friend's unusual manner. He glanced at Taito, but the other Vocaloid just continued to look bored, unconsciously fiddling around with his ice pick in his hands, as Mikuo tried unsuccessfully to catch his fellow Vocaloid's distracted gaze.

"Honey, I'm home," Taito said quietly with a little smile as he stepped into Gakupo's Master's house and looked around, suddenly interested. His eyes fell on Kaito, who was staring with wide eyes back at him. Taito took in the bandages on Kaito's arms, and let loose a low whistle.

"So that's your kink, huh?" Taito rudely smirked at Gakupo. The 'noble samurai' had a thing for the unusual ones? Funny stuff. Gakupo's face clouded in the beginnings of a dark rage. Taito smiled widely as he noticed the change in Gakupo's facial expression. "Hit a nerve, huh?"

"It's not like that. He's the other one of Rin's Master's Vocaloids," Gakupo bit off, feeling more than a little insulted, furious on Kaito's behalf. What the hell kind of a reaction is that, for a person who sees somebody whose hands have been chopped off? But, for nearly the very same reasons that made Taito roughshod, Gakupo needed him right now. So he tried to bite back his anger, and explained in as short detail as he could.

"His name is Kaito. His, and Rin's Master, has gone insane. His hands were chopped off by their Master. Rin went back to the house, to grab some things, before their Master noticed they were missing. But she hasn't come back. And it's been nearly two hours, now." Gakupo's voice was bitter as he described the situation.

A stunned silence from Mikuo was shattered with a burst of yelling, "You let her go back alone?"

Mikuo grabbed Gakupo by the collar and slammed him against the wall. "Are you fucking stupid?" The sudden rage from the normally joking, somewhat docile teal-haired Vocaloid male should have shocked Gakupo, but all he felt was a twisting in his stomach as Mikuo's words struck home.

"She refused to let me come. She said... it doesn't matter what she said. You're right, I shouldn't have let her go. No matter the circumstances. If anything bad has happened to her, it's my fault," Gakupo's voice was hard, his face a mask of stony self-loathing. Mikuo's eyes were open wide, still enraged, but he snarled a little and pushed Gakupo away, releasing his grip in a way that screamed his disgust.

"You should have called right away. Why did you wait so long?" Mikuo said through clenched teeth. Gakupo's face stared back at him, unchanging. There was nothing he could say to defend himself. He had let Rin leave.

"Damn it," Mikuo snarled and ran a hand through his hair in disbelief. "Well, why the hell are we wasting our time talking about it? We need to go after her."

"I need you to stay here with Kaito. I want Taito to go with me. It's the reason I called. I was originally just going to go after her by myself. But I think I might need backup. And that's not you, in this case." Gakupo hated saying the words. Mikuo was a reliable guy. Gakupo knew that Mikuo had his back. But this was an unhinged Master he might be going to face.

Gakupo's eyes fell on Taito's ice pick, which he was still twirling around, like a miniature baton. Taito was still staring thoughtfully at Kaito, a kind of half-smirk that dropped a little bit from his face after a moment, when Kaito didn't meet his eyes back. Taito turned his head at Gakupo's glance.

"He may be pushy, but he's not stupid," Taito offered in high light voice, shrugging his shoulders at Mikuo's displeased expression.

"I'm not sure I agree with that," Mikuo growled under his breath. "How can you think I'm just going to leave Rin, and wait here like a babysitter?"

Gakupo noticed Kaito flinching slightly at Mikuo's words. A small spark of anger flared up in his heart amidst the flames of his guilt over letting Rin leave the house.

"It's because I trust you, Mikuo. I promised Rin I wouldn't leave him alone," Gakupo said quietly.

"... I kind of hate you right now," Mikuo offered, his face growing darker, as Gakupo's words got to him. With a sigh of frustration, he flopped himself down bodily on Gakupo's Master's couch. "When you get back, I'm going to punch the crap out of your stupid face. You better make sure you don't come back unless you have got Rin with you."

Gakupo glanced at Taito, a silent question. The darker-purple-haired man tossed his head to the side slightly, jingled the car keys in his hand, and turned to walk out the door.

"I guess that means 'yes,'" Gakupo muttered to himself. He paused in front of Kaito. "I'm not going to ask if it's alright with Mikuo being here. You can trust him, he's solid. If you need anything, just ask. I'll be back, as soon as I can be." Pausing a moment longer, Gakupo placed his hand on Kaito's flinching shoulder, representing his solidarity with the silent bluenette.

Kaito refused to look up or meet Gakupo's eyes. Gakupo knew that he couldn't waste any more time trying to convince Kaito it would be okay. His hand lifted from Kaito's shoulder, and he moved it impulsively to muss the bluenette's hair slightly. Gakupo turned, walked away towards the door. As Gakupo's hand lifted from Kaito's head, the bluenette raised his head and watched Gakupo leaving, closing the door behind him.

"So..." Mikuo's voice asked from the couch. "You wanna watch some TV, or something, while we wait here like the good little housewives we are?" The words had some bitterness to them, but Kaito felt comforted by their sound in the air. Despite Mikuo's obviously being pissed off, there was an atmosphere of easy friendliness from Mikuo, like he felt that Kaito was just another one of his buddies... not a freak, whose hands had been cut off by his own Master.

His steps were unsteady, and Kaito was still limping pretty badly, but he sat down awkwardly on the couch cushion farthest away from Mikuo. The teal-haired male glanced at the bluenette, and raised the remote control, clicking the TV on.

"Hope you like infomercials," Mikuo grumbled. "Hell if I'm going to watch a show that I like under circumstances like these."