It was late when Yuusuke went out.

            A full moon had a weird fixation on the young hunter that even his eldest sister thought unique. The silvery light that is Yuusuke’s hair matched the moon’s light on its brightest phrase; however, in the night, his eyes blazed a fathomless, challenging blue aside from its daily gray-violet. It is only at night when the full moon roamed among the stars that Yuusuke looked more supreme and exotic than Seishi, the immeasurable, unpredictable daughter of Tomoe and Haruto.

            Following close behind yet nowhere near Yuusuke’s speed are two silent wolves. One wolf, smaller and sleek, had blue flames for fur that did not hurt and burn the hand of whoever touches it—unless it did not like a particular person. The second wolf had sandy fur, dulled by night, and looked like heavy gold dashed with specks of gray. They relied heavily on their sense of smell sniffing for the teen’s winterfresh scent.

            In third place and far, far behind, an agitated boy not a day over sixteen sputtered indecent curses between heavy pants. When only twelve minutes passed, and about ten minutes spent running into trees, he let a raged cry. “Forget it! I’m leaving!”

            If his other shouts did not catch their attention before, this one made them turn around so fast their feet burned the ground and hastily reached him in breakneck time.

            “Do you want,” Yuusuke gave the younger boy his most ferocious, commanding grin yet, “to spend two more years in the North Pole?”

            The boy, Tooya, inwardly winced. Those two years spent training with Seishi did more than imprint bad memories into his mind. “Oh, come on Niisan…I need to sleep!” he pleaded. “Curse those who like these late hours and flaunt their energy for all sleepy, moody people to see.”

            There was a sound akin to breaking bones and another boy, quirky and the most forgiving of the three, walked out of the shadows and into a slanted beam of moonlight. His hair, dull gold dashed with strips of dark lead, is the same color of the second wolf’s fur. “Goodnight, one and all!”

            “You miserable, revolting brat…” Tooya said in his worst impression of Sachiko’s mother at her fiercest. “You spawn of Satan, you sickening, twisted…”

            “If that’s how you view energetic people, it terrifies me how you view depressed, moody ones.” Kai said in his innocent yet so dreadfully blunt nature. “Senpai, I’m hungry.”

            Yuusuke looked at him and his challenging azure eyes gleamed predatorily, almost eerily. “No, you’re not.”

            “C’mon, let’s go.” Kai whined childlike. “Tow truck sleepy, me hungry, you obsessive. Not good combination.”

            The blue fire in the silver-haired boy’s could have melt diamonds. “Then why did you come after me?” he said after Tooya’s enraged remark, “My name was never ‘tow truck,’ and never will be ‘tow truck!’”

            “Think about it. Your elder sister vanished after leaving two letters saying that she is gone, right? Then why go after her? You didn’t know where she went, she does not want you to follow her…” Looking at Yuusuke’s suddenly surprised and aghast expression, Kai narrowed his eyes at him, “You did read the letter, did you?”

            “Never even touched it.”

            “You bad,” the wolf shape-shifter sung off-key, but kept his restless, cheery attitude. “Anyway, you could had went off to the ends of the earth, did not find her, but still went after her. People worry. Well, I worry…don’t know about Mr. Grinch over there…and Neo,” he gestured at the somewhat subdued blue wolf, “he would follow you no matter where you go. Then I would be lonely. And you know I hate that. Let’s go home now…” he tugged at Yuusuke’s sleeve, which Neo began to tug too with his mouth.

            Slowly, hesitantly, Yuusuke began to soften, icy edge melting into soothing water. “Ok, ok…but she went off without her katana.” He unwrapped the silk bundle in his arms. “It’s the one thing, she said, that belonged only to her that was not tarnished by blood. Figured she might forgotten about it.”

            “Food…” Kai started, and beamed when Yuusuke finally gave in with a defeated sigh. “Blueberry pancakes. Rene stopped making them, but they’re so good. Senpai, I want blueberry pancakes.”

            “Sure, sure. Let’s stop by Neon’s for some flour, I need something filled with caramel, and…and…where’s Tooya?”

            “Oh, he passed out over there. Little brat did not see that fallen trunk on his way out, and fell splat on his face.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

            Rene woke up and screamed.

            In the next room, hidden under a small hill of winter blankets, Tooya opened one eye, checked the time on his wristwatch, and went back to sleep. Kai wrestled with a new toothpaste tube in the bathroom when the noise startled him. He gripped the tube in front of him almost in defense if an intruder burst into the room and squeezed about a one and a half feet long of white toothpaste. Downstairs, Yuusuke was making the last batch of pancakes when she heard the scream and glanced questioningly up at the ceiling.

            Because screams, weird sounds, rude interruptions, and unexpected nighttime duels with nameless baddies were so common in the Nagisa household, all three youths shrugged this one off without as much as a thought.

            But it did not mean Rene would do the same thing too. Being the receiver instead of the sender has made him so.

            “You!” Rene raced down the stairs with uneven, thundering steps and thrust a seemingly, realistic tarantula (which actually was artificially made with some black fur, black beads, glue—just about anything you can find in the preschool playpen) in Yuusuke’s face. “How dare you, and after all—“ he blinked at the silver haze, dug for his glasses in his shirt pocket and put them on, “Oops, wrong person.”

            Kai and Tooya arrived on cue. Kai looked almost harassed with pasty white spots in his hair and arms; Tooya was rest deprived and just about ready to let hell loose.

            In the next two minutes, Rene unleashed his full, mighty guardian attitude and raved about rules, pranks, dozens of other bad and naughty things that only the two can pull off…

            “Food!”

            “I’m hungry! Gimme gimme!”

            Yuusuke reflexively stepped out of the way dragging Rene away too with one hand. Kai and Tooya took everything they could take with two hands and dumped them on their plates. Milk and hash browns were ignored; freshly squeezed orange juice, however, caught their attention almost immediately.

            Because Rene spent many nights in Omni-Hunters, underground organization for mixed species, he did not bother to spend any mornings with the Nagisa family. Seeing Tooya and Kai wasting energy, which they never wasted before in a battle no matter how rough, was something disturbing, comical, and awe-inspiring at the same time. 

            “Pancakes?” Yuusuke waved the frying pan in his other hand. Rene tried not to look at it…Yuusuke and anything that could be used as a weapon is a deadly combination.

            His answer was cut off when the front door was slammed open with deafening force; the hinges were almost torn off. Instinctively, Yuusuke shoved Rene behind him, frying pan in front. Kai was halfway through his wolf transformation; Tooya grabbed all precious food on his plate and dove behind the counter.

            Kawaru strode in through the mild wreckage, dawn-colored hair heavily tousled and azure eyes bright and shining. He had on a small smile, which brought out the sly and devil-may-care side of his. Slumped over his shoulder is the outcold, dethroned-of-any-natural-elegance-and-maturity form of Zephyr.

            “Give me food. I’m in a bad mood today.”