It had been weeks since his return. He was finally up to full strength, and the night terrors barely made an appearance anymore. Ash had returned to his role as leader of the White dragon Gang, and Bright was taking on as many jobs as he ever was before. Ray was finally being left on his own without any hovering parental figures for hours at a time. It should have been great, but he had no idea what to do with all the sudden free time.
He found himself returning to the senior center and helping out there. Though Rami had passed away peacefully many years before and he had accepted it, for the most part, there were still others there who never had visitors. It helped to ease some of the aches he got from thinking about her by spending time with the people who had been her friends, so he still went to bingo and cooked meals and went for regular visits with the others. The residents had been surprised to find him there during the daylight hours, but he made up an excuse about ho
Bright was mixing up cocktails when Ray got home. Ray took one look at the strangely purple liquid with what looked like glitter swirling in it and opened his mouth to ask what it was before deciding against that.“Hello, my sweet boy,” Bright greeted while pressing a glass into his hand. “Ash called and said he had to stay late at the base, so it will just be us for dinner tonight.”“Is it anything serious?” Ash rarely stayed late at the base any longer unless it was a dire situation. Ray mind filled with possibilities from a new greater gangs attacking to something as citizen as a fight between the couple. He was shocked by how much the latter possibility terrified him.“They have some visiting students from another base, and apparently it’s expected that he be there to take charge of getting them settled in.”Ray frowned. “And no one else could do it?”“You know how they are
Ray knew something was wrong before he opened the door. The smell of blood was thick in the air, and Ray knew whose it was. He shakily worked on unlatching the door while forcing out prayers to a deity he was only half certain listened to him any longer. Of all the times for Bright to actually lock the place beyond the gurds, but he had been meeting with a client and hadn’t wanted Ash or Ray to forget and accidentally barge in during the middle of any work.Finally, he burst into the mansion. Bright was on the floor unconscious, blood pouring from his wounds. Above him, a Balck hair man hovered: a female with knife in her hand which meant a leader of her gang and far more of a threat than any of the males would have been. He had half shaking and half crying. Her eyes are wide oeon and mouth is wide open , and she was about to takeout her gun to shoot him. Ray jumped into action. He took advantage of her having not noticed him to lunge at her from behind her and bash her
Ash day had gone from boring to frustrating ever since he had had to kiss his husband goodbye and actually go to work. There had been no activity lately that needed following up on. Everything had been remarkably peaceful in their area thanks to Ash working with the different heads of factions around town. The downside was that that meant Ash actually had time to do all the paperwork that found its way onto his desk. Most of which seemed to have arrived from main headquarter itself. He had been staring at the same paragraph in utter disbelief for nearly half an hour. The demands were so unreasonable that the only reply he could think of was to rip the entire thing up and send the shreds straight back. Unfortunately, that was not an acceptable way to act, so he went back to staring. He was actually relieved when the bang of a door followed by shouting occurred not too far from his office.“You can’t just barge in there! You don’t have an appoint
A knock sounded on the mansion door, and Ray muttered complaints under his breath as he went to answer it. They had had what felt like nonstop visitors for the past week. The holidays were always the time for people to need some kind of guns or work. Preparing for yet another one of Bright clients, Ray opened the door and leaned out.“Head of Black Dragon Gang is currently unavailable at the mo-Oh-Jia,” Ray said, stopping in the middle of the line he had already had to give five times that morning. He stepped back and opened the door a bit wider. “What’s happened? Is everyone alright?” he asked while stepping aside to let her into the mansion. He mentally ran through the list of how many people would have to be dead, missing, or unconscious for her to be chosen as the one to deliver the bad news to him, and he prayed that he hadn’t somehow managed to lose all his family and friends in one day. Thankfully, before he could work himself into a
Despite their better judgment, Bright and Ash had reluctantly agreed to let Ray and Man go out together again without any supervision. It was a Saturday morning because apparently there were fewer dangers in the morning, and while Ray was enjoying the sunlight, it was way too early for him to be awake yet. It seemed the same was true for Man. Both men stood in the middle of the park, blinking tiredly and staring around at the few early morning joggers.“Can we just caught this thing and go back to sleep?” Man whine like a small child.“We’re not doing anything like that. We are helping to locate and escort to safety a lost ten year old child,” Ray replied, adjusting the sunglasses he had borrowed from his father. He had been out in the sun more often but his eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the bright morning sun reflecting off the statues in the park.Man heaved another sigh. “I’m going to get coffee then.&rdqu
The punch had him swallowing his own blood, his lip was sliced open by his teeth during the impact. He swore and scrubbed at the rest of the blood dripping down his chin. He didn't want to look like some fledging who spilled more blood than they ate. "I'm not going to fight you," he growled and turned to leave. A hand on his elbow had him spinning around and coming face to face with Alder once more."I wasn't finished.""I was, so release me now.""I let you live the last time. I don't think I'll make that mistake again."Ray jerked out of his hold and took a step back. "You can't kill me. You're not that strong, and this time you don't have your little torture chair on you." No need to point out that the this would no longer work on him. The less Alder knew, the better."You're right. I might not have the chair with me, but I did bring along some good friends of mine."Ray found himself face to face with a dozen more White dragon Gang membe
It had been a slow day, and by nightfall, Ray was so bored that he decided to drop in the base to see if he could help on patrol or research or even helping to train some newbies. That all changed when he stepped inside the door. He ignored the people cheerfully greeting him and instead concentrated on his senses. Ash was bleeding. Ray could smell the scent of his blood as soon as he entered the base. He growled lowly and headed straight for the source. Everyone that caught a glimpse of him seemed to know to keep out of his way. Some though were not quite quick enough to dodge the blur that raced through the halls and found themselves being tossed aside in his haste. He traced the scent to the infirmary and found Ash, looking paler than ever, stretched across one of the beds while Type and Man were doing their best to patch him up with bandages and healing runes.“Have you even called Papa yet?” he asked.Both siblings looked up at him in shoc
The moment Ray walked into the door, Ash knew what was wrong. Still he waited for the other to admit it before he tried to do anything.“Dad, I don’t feel well.” Each word came out as if forced from his lips, and Ash sighed.“Oh, sweetheart, it looks like you caught it too.”Ray nodded slowly but didn’t move away from the door-frame. He didn’t trust himself to move right then with how his stomach was rolling. His face turned a disturbing shade of green, and Ash leapt into action, quickly grabbing a trash bin. Thankfully, it didn’t yet seem to be needed.“I’m going to take you to our room. I’m sure Bright would love the company.”Bright, who had been taking the opportunity to catch up on his reality tv shows since his own encounter with the epidemic, was not entirely surprised to see Ash returning to their bedroom with their son and a trash bin rather than the tea he had gone to