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
“And you were the only one who could take him?” Ray asked in disbelief staring at the toddler waddling around the playpen that had been set up in their living room. Bright kept one on hand for whenever clients had bring their children. Ray had thought it disappeared whenever it wasn’t in use, but apparently he had been wrong about that.“No one had time to look after him at the base,” Ash replied from the kitchen where he was putting together a snack for their visitor. Ray really hoped he was a visitor anyway.“I thought you told Papa you weren’t going to be bringing home work anymore.”Ash handed the still unnamed child a sippy cup of juice and placed a bowl of cheerios within his reach, seemingly unconcerned about the cereal being spilled. The child immediately plopped his hand in and began shoveling dry cereal into his mouth, and yeah okay that was cute. Still, why did he have to be there. Ash glanced up at Ray.
Ray was mentally sorting through just how he had been talked into yet another night at the club. Oh yeah, it had started with a bet about how long he could last at the club and if he lost he had to let Bright pick his outfits out for a week. He could only imagine the sequined and neon monstrosities that would await him if that happened.Ash and Bright were seated on the center couch as if they were kings on their throne overseeing their court. They were surrounded by a group of their more casual friends, who all seemed coupled off for the night. Not interested in sitting in the middle of what was quickly becoming a rather intense make-out session. Earlier they had at least both been networking with their surrounding crowd. Ray, who was holding his own court a little ways off on a matching couch, had been doing a bit of networking of his own, trying to get familiar with more people in order to better perform his future leader role. He at least already knew some of their names.
“What’s this?” Ash asked holding up a book that had seemingly found its own way to their coffee table.Bright glanced over. “That is an old legend actually about the Great One, an ancient man who sacrificed so much to save this world that he fell under a sleeping curse.”“And what happened to him?”“Well, when the book was written he was still under the curse. According to the story, he will wake one day. In the meantime, his body has been hidden away, and a fierce warrior stands guard to kill any who dare to threaten him, and both of them suck in their age when cruse only then they will get older.”“Is the legend true?”Bright shrugged. “As far as I know, to most people, it’s just a bedtime story to inspire all the little boys in the world. There are very few technology with the power to do what the legend says this one did, but it’s always a possibility. Did you g