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Twenty-two

Paul glanced over as Touko chatted with Ash and Gary while judging if May..or Mei would outdo the other in a soda drinking competition they both seemed to be giving in. Cheren's was the email he got to check in though he called as well. He eyed Paul until Brock nudged him.

"What is it?"

"Her new bodyguard it's weird isn't it?"

"Maybe she found one of those nervous mountain men or something, they warn you about those, hey Paul."

He turned his attention to them and swallowed thickly seeing how they watched him.

"Yeah?"

"What's the deal with this...Mr. Harmonia? Why are you here? Does he not trust us?"

"Smooth Brock."

"What you'd waste time analyzing I just want to know our girl is safe."

"Our girl Brock?" he jumped as Dawn pinched his cheek, considering they were dating and she knew how he used to be for how young he was..she tended to give him a hard time when she couldn't be sure who he was talking about.

"Tou...go..."he said as she stretched his cheek, she let it go and smiled.

"Oh of course, yeah is Touko okay? We're not gonna hurt her."

He shook his head thinking of the story he decided would be acceptable, sometimes better than just erasing memories constantly the Triad did have other duties.

"Touko is fine, Mr. Harmonia can be a little paranoid, he was adopted with a few of his competitors their jealousy resulted in a few too many accidents for close friends..even himself. I'm here to just keep an extra eye though mostly things have died down."

Dawn made a noise of disbelief.

"How'd she get him to warm up to her with people like that on her back..." though it wasn't really a question she needed answered she smiled at her friend she always admired the slightly older girl.

"She's amazing like that she always pulls people out of their shells, whether they want to leave them or not." she said with a giggle.

He smiled then and glanced at her.

"I got that feeling from her."

Touko looked up seeing them looking her way she stood up.

"Hey I know when I'm being talked about."

"Really? You should coin that as a special skill." Dawn teased.

She huffed as she stretched and walked over, Aurea sighed as she came back from the bathroom toying with her phone.

"Bad news guys the snow picked up they're closing roads down guess that means you'll have to entertain me." she said with a little bounce.

Touko smile though she felt this was going to be a real issue when she got back, she moved to text Ghetsis though she assumed he already knew. She hadn't seen any misplaced shadows yet but then she hadn't seen if they could hide completely or not. Max was in bed and the walls were as sound proof as they needed to be though. Paul made sure to check in with Ghetsis too he wasn't sure how it was going to be when they got back but it was out of his hands and he could only imagine he'd be in much more trouble if he put her life at risk.

He jumped as Aurea put an arm around him.

"Hey do you need any medicine that cast looks pretty new."

Paul shook his head.

"No I'm okay...actually it's been changed."

"Do you still need it? I can cut it off and test your arm strength we're all stocked up on supplies in the basement."

While they chatted he mentioned that Colress had offered another experimental medicine, the break had been fairly bad with the strength behind Ghetsis's attack. His arm felt strong enough but at the same time that depended on how much movement he had.

"I'm not sure..." he didn't get to say more as she grabbed his good arm.

"Come on it will give me something to do I hate to see people injured around me, why can't anyone take good care of themselves?"

Touko laughed she hadn't been expecting Aurea but she had a feeling she was going to kidnap Paul eventually. She should have warned him, she looked up as Bianca pulled her toward the icecream kept in a freezer their glaceon Maroo was happy to refreeze. They were pretty sure she just liked to show off Ro seemed fascinated by her, probably because Anthea had a rather large stuffed animal that looked like her. She scooped him up to grab one.

"So Cheren told me the man was Mr. Harmonia, just how old he is?"

"Oh well...he does have a son and two daughters that are our age but he adopted them when they were just a bit younger than Max." She remembered he had talked about them when they were being tested.

She rubbed her temples as they ached a bit she smiled slightly thinking of him as he grinned talking about how they met. He'd been agitated enough that there was a mistake from one he worked with, there was nothing to be done about any that passed but he wanted to make it right. He never thought he'd have kids he would laugh and say he was surprised he had a soft spot for kids at all.

"Oh so he's responsible from experience huh, never thought you'd be into older men Touko." she said with a smile.

She shrugged.

"He's been good to me...actually I met him before...he knew my uncle before he left." she said making sure to avoid any information that would be too much.

Bianca made an o face.

"Oh well, I was thinking you know what you're doing but that's better if you know he's trustworthy and such you should have just brought him." she said excitedly.

Touko shook her head as she nibbled at her ice cream.

"You don't need to worry..he's a good guy, but he's always busy with work I don't even see him that much when we get married maybe I can con him into spending more time with me." she said.

She paused seeing the look Bianca gave her as she put her free hand on her hip.

"He's not boyfriend-boyfriend he's boyfriend-fiancee and you didn't bring him with you? I'm gonna tell!"

She laughed as Bianca tugged on her ear with her oversized jacket and hat...she was only so threatening.

"You'll meet him...eventually." she wondered how that could even work.

Most didn't know the faces behind the groups...in fact Ghetsis told her while she was with Paul it wouldn't matter if anyone had seen him recently. As he had the Triad clean out some memories to check and see if the thief was an average joe on Colress's request. It was a tech job and they didn't have the face of who did it obviously, so far it hadn't proved to be useful. All they did was erase information related to the bosses's group, if nothing was removed they were marked as innocent.

"When's event..." she paused as Aurea returned dragging Paul behind her with his once weak arm, he could only imagine that his arm went numb in the cast he was going to have to thank Colress.

"Look he's one normal piece!"

"Oh great..."Bianca stopped Touko.

"Aurea, Touko's getting married and didn't tell us...get her."

She huffed.

"Get the water gun."

"I will not!" Touko said knowing she'd fill it with garlic water or something.

She ran as they went after her Paul grinned, he wondered if he would keep memories monitored so that he could meet them. Seeing her jacket on the floor having slipped off the couch he picked it up and saw a plain black bracelet fall out, he smirked then as he put it back and set her jacket on the couch.

That bracelet was special, for Plasma members anyways.

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