Markus couldn't help but observe the photo once more as he returned home to his apartment in Chinatown. He had the tickets he needed but there was something about the kids in the photo that caught his attention that he had to observe them once again. Those babies had ruby red eyes and aquamarine blue eyes as he confirmed.

"Fascinating." Markus spoke aloud in his single person apartment as he sat at the dining table with the lights turned on for greater clarify as he looked closely at the photo inside the locket. "You two kids carry my own eye colors, albeit separately, not to mention my own hair color to an extent." Markus hummed in intrigue.

Would this be what any other members of his family would like if he ever saw them again? Carrying naught but either pure aquamarine blue eyes or ruby red eyes like these two kids? Or is it a case of family genetics at work, ensuring that Markus were born with different colors in his long-lost forgotten family?

But that also left a question that's been plaguing Markus's mind ever since he opened the locket, all of it relating to Ai.

Why would Ai carry a locket that has a photo of babies inside them?

What connection did she had to them?

Were they family or friends of some kind?

Were they memories of a better time for Ai?

What meaning does that locket carry for Ai to keep it in a heart shape locket for her?

Why was it when he looked into the eyes of those kids, he felt there was something unique about them?

But the most important question he had for himself was. "Should I return the locket to Ai at some point or not?" Markus questioned himself as he came to the most important question he had.

On one hand, he really doesn't want to deal with Ai anymore if he can help it, that girl was a little bit off and, not going to lie, kind of annoying to him. Especially since she was a singer of that clearly inferior genre of music. But on the other possible flipside to that argument.

If this locket is as important to Ai as Markus suspect it to be, then Ai would be desperate in trying to reclaim both the pouch and the locket as soon as possible. If the locket did hold important meaning to Ai, then she would be desperate to reclaim it at all costs. And depending on how the search goes, she might get upset or sad.

Markus was many things in his relatively short life that he can remember. Some words crueler to describe him, while other words kinder described him. But at the very least, he was never unnecessarily heartless to describe at the core of his being.

Holding onto this locket and pouch and denying it to Ai, would be an unnecessarily cruel thing to do to her. With that established and confirmed, Markus made his choice then and there. "It's settled, the next time I see Ai, I'm going to return the locket and pouch." Markus nodded to himself.

"…and maybe reimburse her for the tickets as well." He added in as an afterthought. "Actually, scratch that, I'm definitely reimbursing her for those tickets." He then decided, stealing from scumbags and monsters were one thing, stealing from a ditzy Idol was another thing.

…He also didn't like this guilty feeling he had of taking Ai's stuff and looking into her shit without permission.

Markus snorted at that. 'Cass was right, I really am too much of a softie for normal folks.' He thought fondly of one of his former traveling companions.

When Ai returned home, she was not exactly feeling too hot as her usual cheery smile was a bit more strained than normal. Despite her best efforts, she could not find her pouch or her locket no matter how hard she struggled to find them. Giving up, she decided to call it a day.

"Hahhh, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't find it." She said to herself in a more depressed tone. "This day sucked." She said as she walked in to her place as she saw that nothing looked out of place save for the laptop being left on.

"If the laptop was left on, then that must mean Ruby or Aqua were watching or doing something on the net again." Ai hummed thoughtfully to herself as she forgot about the day and focused on her babies.

"Maybe I should install a parental lock control or something to make sure they don't find anything too graphic for them." Ai said to herself.

Shrugging to herself, she closed the laptop and put it away and walked over to the kitchen where the fridge was and looked inside it as she hummed at what she saw.

"I'm going to have to go out to get some more groceries soon, Aqua and Ruby are growing kids after all." She said as she confirmed the lowered contents of her fridge before closing it.

"Well then time to go to sleep." She hummed as she walked over to her room, and smiled as she saw the dozing faces of her babies and she felt very refreshed now. 'My treasure.' She thought to herself as she washed up and changed herself.

Then like lighting, Markus's words came back to her about what love is and she lost her smile as she looked back to her kids. 'I never once said to them that I loved them.' She thought sadly.

'I'm sorry Aqua, Ruby, but your mother is not so honest with herself. The day that I can finally say I love you, there will be no hint of lies in them and my words will carry nothing but the truth.'

'But until then, please accept this much from your lying mama.' Ai thought as she pulled both of her kids into her embrace as she got into bed with them.

Her mood went up instantly as Ruby cuddled closer to her for warmth. "Mama." She drooled out as Ai giggled at how adorable her baby daughter was.

Of course, Aqua was right there with her, as he snuggled in deeper and held tightly onto Ai as she smiled at the sight.

Yes, she may be a liar and there is indeed a lot more to learn about love from what Markus told her, but for the time being, this will do just fine for her.

For Markus, it's been close to a week since his meeting with Idol known as Ai. Despite going out to visit more of Tokyo, so that way Ai can see and approach him and he can return her stuff, he had not seen the Idol anywhere.

On one hand, Markus was relieved to some extent that he didn't have to put up with Ai, but on the other hand, he rather not hold onto her stuff any longer than he has to. And holding it longer for more than a night was one night too many for him already.

'Well, at least Kai-Ming was more than ecstatic about getting those tickets.' Markus thought fondly with a wry smile to himself as he walked down the streets of Tokyo as one of many denizens.

The teenage girl was very happy when Wu-Fei presented her with tickets to see the next B-Komachi Performance. She had all but screamed in joy as Wu-Fei presented her the tickets and hugged her father so tightly, that Markus swore he heard Wu-Fei's back cracking a bit.

With that request being done, Markus had turned his attention back to his usual daily routine of helping out around Chinatown, but also taking some time to walk the streets of Tokyo as well.

Markus liked walking around places, Chinatown felt the most like home to him, mainly because it reminded him of Freeside. But he would be lying to himself if the Explorer in him didn't want to see what Tokyo had to offer in terms of sights to see.

Seeing how bright and large the buildings get in Tokyo made him wonder a lot of things about the old world. Was it possible that once upon a time the world before the Great War was this advanced?

If it was, then the Great War was truly a loss to Humanity as a whole. All that progress, knowledge, wisdom, and culture were now lost to the sands of time.

And now hundreds of years later, the entirety of all of America, as far as he was aware, is suffering for the sins of their forefathers. If the world had not ended when the bombs fell then stupid shit like Caesar's Legion wouldn't be a thing.

Thinking about Caesar's Legion always brought a dark mood to Markus's mind, they were anathema to progress and civilization. They were quite literally everything wrong about the era after the Great War started and ended.

So many people dead by their hands, so many lives destroyed and ruined beyond salvation, it was a perfect waste. Markus could not have saved any of the previous tribes conquered by Caesar's Legion, he could not turn back time, but he could do all that he can to stifle them and save the lives within his reach at the moment.

The Sorrows and Dead Horses were clear examples of who he managed to save from Caesar's Legion. The slaves at the fort that he was able to liberate from after he went on a rampage to decapitate the head of the Legion before the eve of Caesar's Legion's invasion of Hoover Dam. The entirety of the Mojave Wasteland was spared the greater evil of what Caesar was planning to unleash.

Markus shook his head again as he heard some cars honking ahead of him in the streets, thankfully it wasn't related to him losing track of anything, just some impatient drivers or something of the kind.

So, he continued to walk and found some place that kind of far away from most of the pedestrians, that he believed people called a park or whatever now that he was thinking far more clearly. Nature spots like these were a rarity in the Mojave Wasteland and places he felt very interested in learning about.

Now that his head was back in the game, Markus found a bench where nobody was sitting and elected to sit there to think about how to return the pouch and locket to Ai. Technically speaking he could return the stuff back to Ai's sponsor agency, Ichigo Productions if he remembered correctly, but Markus honestly didn't keep track of his location after suffering from that five-hour long search.

And if Markus wanted to be honest, he also honestly didn't want to see Ai's other Idol companions as well, meeting the entirety of B-Komachi one time was one too many times for him already.

Besides, he had a feeling that the old guy would be more than upset with him for holding onto Ai's stuff than Ai would be. Which also potentially means police involvement, and that would cause him trouble, especially if they manage to get him down to the station and learn he has no actual ID on him.

And that was not including his illegal weapons that he had brought with him to this world when he carried them on his person.

Strange as it sounds, Markus preferred to be armed and even though the Big Empty was pacified for the most part, considering the sheer number of abominations that science facility produced, he refused to go in unarmed into that facility.

But ever since he got here, he had to put it away, because go figure, firearms were strictly monitored in Japan and the likes. On one hand, that means very few people are armed to the teeth like back home. On the other hand, that means he can't carry his weapons out with him.

Which also has the negative effect of him not being able to practice his combat skills, meaning it's likely to decay into nothing given enough time. Markus felt that sucked a lot for him, but in a relatively more peaceful world like this, lone strangers like him aren't needed to save the day anymore.

…He was obsolete in a civilized world.

…Feeling his mind go on a downward spiral again, after arriving into this world, Markus smacked his cheeks to refocus on the matter at hand, which was returning Ai's stuff back to her before closing his eyes to blank out the world.

Markus sighed though, returning Ai's stuff back to her was easier said than done, especially since Idols, according to Kai-Ming, usually keep their residences secret to prevent themselves from being swarmed by crazy fans or stalkers.

And it's not like his luck was going to help him find Ai again, his Luck was extremely bipolar after all. One time it would be helping him avoid some stupid insanity, and the other hand it would get him into some extremely crazy situation.

Then he heard someone…a kid from the sounds of it. "Ah that's bad, why is Mama obsessed over some weirdo she only met several times.?" Said voice was female so a young girl.

"You know how it is, Ruby, some people can't take criticism as well as others and they need to be able to prove and adapt to their fanbase." Another kid's voice spoke up, it was a young boy's voice at that.

"Calm down you two." Another female voice spoke up…that one sounded familiar to him actually now that he thought about it. "You shouldn't let out any important information out like that, especially in public." Okay yeah, that voice definitely sounded familiar.

"But Miyako, someone was degrading mama's genre of music~!" Ruby, the girl said. "And Aqua isn't defending mama!" She retorted. Okay yeah, the girl was clearly a mama's girl, also Miyako's name definitely sounded familiar.

"Ruby please be quiet; you never know when someone might overhear you." Miyako said as Markus decided to open his eyes and heard the footsteps behind him, indicating where the group was.

"Too late for that." Markus spoke up as he heard some panic and noises as he got up and turned around to see the woman that was with B-Komachi…and the kids…the kids from Ai's locket.

Well now, wasn't that interesting? Markus quickly began putting together the clues in his head as he observed the shocked Miyako with the equally surprised looking kids staring at him in surprise.

Ai has a locket with a photo of babies inside.

Ruby is talking about her mother's music.

Miyako is trying to keep Ruby quiet about personal stuff.

Now that Markus actually got a proper look on the two kids…he can see Ai's features on them, including the star in their eyes that was only one, like Ai's eyes both had stars.

There was no doubt about it, Ai had kids and they must have been the result of a secret pregnancy or something like that.

How fascinating.

"I am Markus Redgrave." Markus nodded his head to the trio. "As hard as it may be to believe it, but I am the one that's not a big fan of Idol music as your caretaker can attest to." Markus said as he nodded to her before the shocked kids.

'Who the heck was this guy?!' Aqua thought to himself as he stared at the man named Markus Redgrave. 'And why was he right there?!'

When Aqua and Ruby woke up the next day about a week ago, they noticed that Ai was a little bit off, in that she wasn't all cheery and happy like she used to be.

Being the concerned kids/fans they were, they pestered Ai about it until she accidentally revealed that she had met someone who was not a fan of Idol music and didn't care for it at all. She also mentioned he had some sharp criticism about Idol music in general.

Naturally when Ai told them that, they were infuriated to hear that.

How dare someone mock Ai's music and declare that Idol music was lame right to her face?!

But right now, Aqua was staring at one of the most well-built foreigners he had ever seen in both of his lives. Seriously he was huge when compared to a Japanese person.

Standing around 6 ft, wearing black jeans, boots, a form fitting black shirt of some kind with a black jacket and wearing shades. 'Who wears shades at this time of the day?' Aqua thought to himself. Markus looked like he could have come off of the movie screen from that old American movie involving killer robots from the future.

Aqua can imagine that Ai would have a hard time arguing with this guy, especially if he's as scary as he looks to be.

"Ah it's you!" Miyako said in surprise as she pointed to Markus who nodded.

"Yep, it's me." Markus's heavily accented Japanese came out, that Aqua would have had a hard time understanding it had Markus not spoken so precisely and clearly as he did. "Didn't mean to overhear you lot, but when some of you started to sound familiar, my curiosity got piqued." He explained.

"Ah so you're the one that criticized Idol music!" Ruby suddenly shouted at Markus, to Aqua's horror as he had no idea how he would react. "You criticized B-Komachi without knowing a thing about them!" She said pointing to Markus.

Instead of being mad or annoyed as Aqua feared he would, Markus simply nodded. "Aye little girl, can't help the way I think." He said shrugging to himself from his position. "I stand by my assessment that Idol Music isn't that great, especially compared to older generation music that still stand strong to this day." He said firmly.

With his calm clear words, everything that Aqua built up about Markus being a threat of some kind to Ai instantly died down. Markus was just clearly a fan of a certain music genre, one that goes against his and Ruby's taste.

Well, that was something he can accept, music fans can be pretty vocal about their genres, as just shown with Ruby.

"Then it's clear then that you haven't heard about the amazingness that is B-Komachi!" Ruby shouted at Markus, who seems rather cool and okay with this for some reason unknown to Aqua.

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't." Markus shrugged at Ruby, as Miyako and Aqua both watched with some level of bafflement as Markus didn't seem to talk patronizingly to Ruby but took her seriously. "But it hardly matters since my taste in music doesn't involve Idol Music." He said to Ruby.

"You just have terrible taste in music!" Ruby declared to Markus. "If you had any taste then you would have accepted that autograph from Ai Hoshino herself when she offered it up to you for free!" She retorted as Markus raised an eyebrow at her, and to Aqua's personal relief; Markus seem more amused than annoyed.

Then Markus turned to Miyako and she looked startled to be at his attention now. "Cute kid you got." He complimented her, causing her to blink. "She's got an opinion and willing to speak it loud, not a lot of people have that kind stubbornness or determination to them."

"Oh um, thank you?" Miyako said befuddled as she blinked in confusion at Markus, who then turned to Aqua, causing him to stiffen a bit.

"…Yes?" Aqua said somewhat nervously as he twiddled his tiny hands.

"Sorry about that, I was just under the assumption that you would have argued about Idol Music like your sister did." Markus said soothingly, that Aqua couldn't help but feel himself relaxing to the point he could speak more clearly now.

"Just because Ruby's my sister doesn't mean we act the same way" Aqua pouted at Markus, causing him to chuckle a bit. "It's not funny!" He yelled at Markus.

"No, it's not funny, I apologize." Markus said placatingly to Aqua. "Just remembering some things from an old friend is all." He said as both kids and woman looked at him in confusion. "Inside joke." He clarified as they nodded at that.

"Well now!" Miyako suddenly spoke up. "As much fun as it was interacting with you, but me and the kids need to go now, got places to be, things to do, the works." She said as quickly as she could as she held both Aqua and Ruby's hands into her hands.

Markus nodded at that. "Understand that, but before you go though." He said to them. "Might I ask you folks for a favor?" He asked.

Miyako blinked at the question for a moment before she answered. "It depends on the favor." She replied warily and calmly.

Then her eyes blinked as her eyes widened as Markus pulled out a very familiar pouch to her, and then Aqua and Ruby's eyes widened as well as they saw Ai's missing pouch from roughly a week ago.

"Your Idol dropped her pouch, and I could not find her, nor did I remember where your place was, so I decided to try and find her or someone close to her to return her pouch." Markus explained as he threw the pouch into Miyako's hand, surprised hands.

"Oh um, thank you then, I will be sure to return to Ai as soon as possible." Miyako said as Ruby and Aqua suddenly became suspicious of Markus.

Mainly in the fact that they knew that Ai also lost her locket during that same time and thus if Markus had her pouch, then he would also naturally have had access to her locket as well. Meaning he could potentially know about their connection to Ai.

"Question." Aqua soon spoke up, attracting Markus's gaze to him, though his eyes were covered up by those shades of him, Aqua couldn't help but feel a shiver as he felt he was in the gaze of an apex predator.

The last time Aqua felt anything like that was back in his old life as a doctor when was he was treating that one American Soldier that came in with his wife, and he was apparently a Marine, who saw action in Iraq, and he had this look in his eyes was when he was checking on his pregnant wife. He never felt so scared like that in his entire life.

"I may or may not have an answer." Markus replied as Aqua's eyes blinked as the image of Markus as a predator died down and Markus motioned to him. "Fire your questions away little man." He added in.

Aqua nodded and took a moment to gather his courage and spoke his questions. "Did…did you find anything else aside from the Pouch that Ai dropped?" He asked somewhat nervously.

Markus looked thoughtful for moment and then he spoke. "Now that you mentioned it, I did find something else in the pouch." He said as Aqua's heart dropped and Miyako looked surprised and opened the pouch to see what he was talking about. "I found tickets to see the next B-Komachi Concert inside her pouch." Markus finished casually as Aqua lost his composure again.

He found B-Komachi Tickets? That was all he found in Ai's pouch?

"But I don't see any tickets though." Miyako said in confusion as she pulled out Japanese Yen. "Only money." She said to Markus.

"Yeah, I took those and replaced the tickets with the money." He said causally as Aqua's eyes twitched at what he heard Markus just said.

Did he just causally admitted to stealing tickets like it was nothing?!

"So, you stole those tickets?!" Ruby shouted, putting Aqua's thoughts into words as Markus nodded. "Why?!"

"Had some friends who wanted to see B-Komachi, this was the best opportunity for me to get those tickets for them." Markus said easily to Ruby. "Well, ciao now." Markus said waved to them as he rushed off in a different direction.

""Hey wait!"" Both Aqua and Ruby shouted as Markus didn't listen and was running away too fast for Miyako to catch up, much less him and Ruby.

Aqua couldn't help but feel his eyes twitching as Ruby was growling at the trail that Markus took.

Seriously, what the hell was with Markus?!

He was beyond weird, who walks around with shades in the night, carrying a pouch that could have gotten him into some misunderstandings, looks into people's stuff, takes stuff, and then rushes off like that?!

Miyako on the other hand simply sighed and simply pocketed away the cash and pouch. "Well come on kids, we should return back to Ichigo Productions." She said as she pulled them away. "Don't worry about Markus, as far as people go, he's just weird, at the very least he reimbursed Ai for the tickets." She said to them calmingly.

Aqua huffed, but he swore to keep an eye on Markus the next time they met, he was just too weird for Aqua to deal with.

"Eh? You found my pouch?" Ai blinked in surprise as Miyako popped in with her pouch and her kids as she nodded.

"Yep, it was in the hands of that new guy you met about a week ago, Markus Redgrave." Miyako said dryly as she tossed her, her pouch, which Ai was quick to grab and sighed in relief.

And then her brain caught up when Miyako explained who was had it and she swallowed a lump of nervousness in her throat.

"Oh, it's him that found it? I guess I should have expected him to have that since I had my pouch before I left after talking to him." Ai said nervously as she rubbed her head as Miyako sighed and Aqua just looked exasperated after hearing that.

Ah Aqua, why are you acting like that? Your actions are hurting your mother's heart you know?

"Why didn't you check with him if he was the last person to have seen you then?" Miyako sighed in exasperation at her.

Ai could say a lot of things, but she didn't want to reveal the reason why, she didn't want anyone to know that Markus made her question about her beliefs of what love really entailed or how he completely destroyed her perspective on what love is.

She especially didn't want to share the fact that Markus's words basically haunted her like an ever-present specter that followed her. She's been hearing a lot of his words whenever she was training with her fellow Idols for their next concert.

The smiles she would shower her fans with whenever she thought about them whenever she imagined herself performing on that stage, became harder to maintain with one sentence from Markus's mouth.

'That's not love, that's obsession.'

Love, what was love really at this point? Was love something she would truly never understand no matter how long she lived or tried to search for it?

Was it possible that she was simply incapable of feeling or giving out love and was simply born that way?

No, she didn't want that, she didn't want to accept that answer being a possibility, her very heart clenched at the thought. If that was true, then what was the point of being an Idol? What was the point of running away from home to become an Idol if that was the answer she was going to get?

What was the point of all her actions up until now for?

"…Ai…Ai…Ai!" Ai's mind returned to reality as she blinked as she saw Miyako, staring at her with some…concern in her eyes now? "Are you okay? You were just standing there dozing off into the distance when I asked you." She said with some concern. "Did Markus do something to you?" She asked with a tinge of anger.

"Ah no, it's nothing like that!" Ai quickly responded, raising her hands in a no motion. "Just dozing off when you asked that question is all, tee hee~" She lied cutely as she bumped her head and stuck out her tongue as Miyako just lost all concern and looked exasperated with her.

"Why am I not surprised?" She muttered under her breath, quietly but not quietly enough that Ai heard her as she huffed in offense.

How rude!

"Let me repeat my question then." Miyako said as she regained her composure. "Why didn't you check with this Markus guy if he was the last one you interacted before you lost your pouch?" She asked.

"Oh, that's easy, he was trying to lose me after I kept following after him, after I bumped into him~!" Ai said with a smile as everyone struggled to not gasp at her in shock. "What?"

"I'm sorry Ai." Ichigo's voice spoke up as he was at the computer doing something there, as he gave her a tight smile. "But can you repeat that again? Because I swore, I heard you said something about stalking someone." He said as calmly as he could.

Ai huffed at that accusation. "How rude! I didn't stalk him." She said as everyone started to calm down. "I just wouldn't stop following him after I saw him again and refused to leave him alone, or let him get away from me!" She said beamingly as everyone just looked shocked.

""THAT'S STALKING HIM AI!"" both Ichigo and Miyako roared in rage.

Wow! She didn't know people's eyebrows could twitch so much the way theirs do!

"No, it's not." Ai denied.

"Yes, it is." Ichigo retorted.

"No, it's not." Ai said firmly.

"Yes, it is." Miyako retorted.

"No. It's. Not!" Ai huffed.

"""Yes. It. Is.""" Ichigo, Miyako, and shockingly, Aqua, said at once.

"What were you thinking?!" Ichigo groaned as he paced around the room with a worried look on his face. "Do you have any idea of the scandal that could occur if it was revealed that an Idol was stalking someone?!" He questioned her.

Because Markus was unlike anyone that she had ever met until that point, he was blunt, defiant, and absolutely refused to care about her claim to fame and the reason why most people care about her.

Because she didn't want Markus to get away from her and be the only person to say no to her, to her face directly, and learn why he didn't care about her.

"Because he was amusing." Ai half lied, as another reason why she wanted to follow him because his reactions were funny.

Ichigo groaned as he walked back to the computer and Ai giggled at the way he slumped over the table and started working on whatever he was doing beforehand.

Ai, now that she had met Markus the last time had a different reason to meet him again, Markus knew about love, so clearly, he could teach her about love.

Maybe, just maybe.

He can be patient enough to give her what she wanted for a long time now.

And teach her the meaning of Love.