Bad news

Jane sat down slowly, subconsciously choosing a chair, which was usually used by Leo. She stared at the small boy standing on the other side of the table in shocked disbelief. The whole situation went from bad to worse so fast that she was not able to react calmly anymore.

"When did they take them away?" she asked in a quiet voice, trying not to reveal her uneasiness in front of the child.

"Yesterday morning," the eight-year-old son of the former telegrapher replied a little fearfully, probably nervous from the impressive presence of the huge man, whose figure covered the door behind him – Benny. "I was there to ask about Papa; they don´t wanna let him go yet. My Mum said to come here and tell you."

"You did well," Jane assured him. "Very well. Did they mention where they headed to?"

The boy shook his head: "I don´t know, but... I heard them talking about the mines," he replied uncertainly.

"I so knew it!" Todd, pacing across the room behind Jane´s back, snapped at nobody in particular.

The little messenger flinched upon hearing the gunman´s sharp tone, before he focused on the brunette woman again.

"My Mum is sad, but she said you´ll help," the boy urged on pleadingly. "You will help us, madam, right? Please, help my Papa," he begged, hardly suppressed tears gathering in his big eyes.

"I´m sure your father will be released soon," Jane tried to sound convincing at least for the boy´s ears, ignoring Todd´s doubtful snort.

"Really?" the little one requested further assurance.

Jane stood up again and approached the boy, somehow managing to smile at him.

"They accused him of some nonsense; the Sheriff cannot keep him in jail for long, you´ll see," she stated firmly and ruffled the small one´s hair. "Go now, and say hello to your mother."

"I will! Thank you, madam!"

Benny opened the door for the boy with his usual stony expression, but under a closer look, great pity could be found in the way he watched his departure. The adults were alone again.

Todd hit the windowsill with his fist, gritting some vulgarism through his teeth. Jane turned to the other two gunmen sitting at the table, finding the worried and guilty faces of Patrick and Carl. Nick didn´t move from his spot, as he kept leaning on the wall and lit up a cigarette as soon as the door was closed. Also Benny remained standing at his place at the door, big and silent as ever. None of the Riders seemed to be willing to talk, and Jane was quite sure it would be the same with Ian and Sherman, who hadn´t come back from shopping yet.

It was strange, but Jane felt as if she should be the one taking lead in this situation; to assure the others they would figure something out. But no matter how determined and stubborn she was able to be, at that moment she really missed the strong will and resolution of Cullen, or natural leadership of Leo. After all, she was just a woman; would the others listen to her even if she tried to find a way out from that mess?

She clenched the closest chair with both hands, forcefully suppressing the shaking, which threatened to take control over her body.

"We need to find out to which mine they took them," she said in a much firmer voice than she had expected from herself.

"To the Cursed One, that´s for sure," Todd reacted upset.

"We don´t know that certainly," Jane objected, still surprisingly calm. "We need to check it out."

"And what then?" Patrick asked harshly, burying his eyes into hers. "If they´re there, what are we going to do?"

One part of her got angry with him, as well as with the others, for their reluctance to take the responsibility to decide and just throwing it at her instead. But her other part felt endlessly helpless. Jane didn´t know what they should do… Well, there was something on her mind, but the question was whether they were able to do it without Leo, and without Cullen.

She took a deep breath: "I think that at least we should…" and then she stopped in the middle of sentence, noticing the escalating noise from behind the door. Many heavy footsteps sounded from the taproom and excited loud voices. All of those were getting closer and closer, until they could be almost recognized…

Benny took a firm stance beside the door, waiting, prepared for any intruder. All tense and in maybe naive expectation, Jane turned to face them too, just when it burst open inside the room.

The dark-brown eyes immediately found hers and glittered with joy. At that very moment, Jane forgot the difficult circumstances and her lips spread in a relieved smile. The young man with dark stubble all over his face, clothed in dusty dirty clothes and with his face red from the whipping wind crossed the distance between them within a second, chasing away all her fears and doubts with an eager kiss.

Jane didn´t even notice the amused cheering calls or laughing, which suddenly filled the room. She completely gave herself in to those hot lips and firm hug, which she had missed so much. Her Leo was back.

*

Ryo and Koki leant on each other´s shoulder and kept chuckling over the loving welcome. Jin observed his brother´s excitement over the reunion with his girlfriend very understandingly. He glanced at the last person entering the back room – Kame – and gave him a meaningful smile. The younger one returned his look with a similar expression playing on his lips.

Quite soon, four newcomers picked up on the heavy atmosphere, unlike Leo, who wasn´t finished greeting his lover yet. Their amusement disappeared right away, when they looked around the others, and saw their dark faces. Even though the rest of the Riders was obviously glad about their arrival as well.

Unfortunately, also Leo´s mood darkened in the end, once he stepped away from Jane, brushing the long hair off her face. He quickly noticed the strange silence then. The pretty brunette´s expression was rather sad, when she hugged him firmly; looking for the support which she needed so much.

"What happened?" Leo asked tensely, already suspecting that while they were gone, something went very wrong.

*

"Officially, Tabor owns one silver mine in the area – the biggest one, of course. But the truth is that he collects profits from the other two currently active mines as well. There´s more than a good reason for him to be the richest man in Colorado."

Most of the people present in the back room of the tavern were already aware of the circumstances related to Horace Tabor´s property, but Patrick made a short summary of it anyway. Not only for Jin and Kame, but also for Koki, who had been apart from the gang for a long time and needed to catch up with the updates as well.

"Several mines are closed, as either the silver vein ran out, or the conditions didn´t allow for the works to continue. Among them, there´s one, which had always been kind of problematic – it´s rich, the second biggest one in this area according to the official findings, but the area around is very unstable and no matter how careful the workers were, each progress deeper in the mine cost many of their lives."

"Many disasters gave it a name – The Cursed One," his buddy – Carl completed the information in a dark tone. "It remained opened for something over a year, before the silver-diggers organized a strike and not even a doubling of their pay made them go back there."

"It was really no wonder," Patrick continued again. "There´s even a cemetery close by, as it was too difficult to drag all those bodies back here or to Denver. The workers asked the Sheriff to go there, and he ordered the mine to be closed. Tabor had his share in that mine, and he could force his way no matter the Sheriff´s decision, but I guess he wasn´t eager to attract the attention of those Human Rights defenders. He must represent the government properly, as he´s the Lieutenant Governor of Colorado after all."

"Not that it would have prevented him from pursuing his own selfish goals," Carl noted disgusted, before Patrick explained the rest.

"So, officially, Tabor gave up on the mine. However, as we´d found out while you were gone, the opposite was the truth. He kept it open in secret, and solved the issue with the missing workers in his own way. He gathered the people sitting in jail, waiting either for their punishment to go through or for the sentence. They were taken to that mine instead. And they´re forced to work there, which is basically the same as being sentenced to death."

"Not to mention that the slavery is long forbidden, even if it comes to the criminals," his companion joined in with another remark.

"How did you find out about this?" Leo asked strictly, raising the first question since the moment those two started talking.

"One of the workers ran off – Peter from Denver. He was our connection with the arms dealer, if you remember," Nick, still smoking next to the window, replied. "He appeared here a week ago, spilled everything he knew to us and then he scrammed to Wyoming. There was a too hot ground for him here, he said."

"But how comes that Sheriffs or Marshals let those prisoners be taken away?" Jin asked frowning. "Isn´t there some kind of official procedure for that?"

"Well, since the orders for prisoner´s relocation are signed by Lieutenant Governor himself, there are no inconvenient questions about that," Patrick reacted caustically. "According to the papers, the prisoners are taken away to the court. They never reach the destination though."

"That´s quite devious…" Ryo murmured.

"Yes, and Tabor covered it up pretty nicely; we had no idea something like this is going on under our noses, until Peter appeared. And now… Now, they also took Cullen and Jack away," Carl stated gloomily.

"And those two ended up in jail how exactly?" their leader asked in a cold voice.

Nobody was very eager to reply to that question.

"They wanted to surprise you," Jane said quietly in the end.

"I want no excuses, but explanations, please," Leo reacted surprisingly harshly.

Patrick leant forward, looking straight at his leader: "It´s about that secret casino in Tabor Opera House, you know what place I´m talking about?"

"Of course, Jack works there," Leo nodded. "What does it have to do with their arrest?"

"Jack had a tip – it was an exceptionally good week for the business and there was a huge amount of cash at hand, much less protected than in the bank," Carl explained carefully. "Well, and since we spent all our savings so far, we thought we should use that opportunity to cover the hole, you know?"

"We?" Leo repeated stiffly.

"It was Jack´s idea, but we all agreed!" the young gunman reacted defensively. "Jane, say something. We agreed upon that, right?"

The brunette sighed a little, nodding: "We did… Except Cullen."

"You didn´t tell him about it?" the Riders´ leader asked in a dangerous tone.

"Hmm, well…" Carl seemed to have a problem with talking, as he shifted in his chair nervously. "You know, we wanted to surprise him as well…"

"More like you knew he wouldn´t have agreed," Leo reacted coldly and both Carl and Patrick cowered under his stare.

"We thought it would be nice to surprise you when you come back," Nick dared to cut in the conversation. "Nobody liked being without our hardly earned money… And moreover, we helped out Peter too."

Leo kept frowning darkly, saying nothing, which felt even more dangerous than if he was shouting.

"So… Me, Patrick and Jack got inside, while Todd was on the watch…" Carl continued the narration hesitantly.

The lastly mentioned Rider took up the word: "Cullen appeared just shortly after we started the whole thing and forced me to lead him inside to the others."

"How did he find out about the robbery?" Jin wondered.

"I told him in the end," Jane admitted, with a somewhat sad expression. "I was worried, and I thought the boys could use some additional help. Cullen wanted to stop them though. He said it would have caused too many useless troubles…"

"Everything would have gone just fine, only if… We didn´t know… Damn…" Patrick fell silent, so Carl spoke instead.

"Jack didn´t know there was a completely new security system, which triggered a trap. Once we opened the safe, iron bars had covered the exit. Cullen was already inside with us at that time. He managed to push it up, so that me and Patrick and Todd slipped away. But before he and Jack could get out, there was already the Sheriff with his men, summoned by some awfully noisy alarm. We wanted to fight back, but… Cullen ordered us to run, so…"

"So, you listened to him this time," Leo finished, with the dark expression on his face.

"Yes," Carl lowered his head.

"Better late than never, right," Koki made a caustic remark.

The room sank in keen silence. The ashamed Riders waited for their leader to speak, but Leo kept his mouth shut.

A short knock cut the air and Benny opened the door for the old bartender, who brought them some water and beers. He left the room without a word. Nobody reached for the drink; everybody was waiting motionlessly.

"Is it known they belong to the Riders?" Ryo asked in the end, interrupting the silence.

"No," Patrick shook his head. "As far as we know, they didn´t say a thing. Cullen didn´t even have the black scarf with him, though Jack did."

"Still, I think they figured it out," Carl growled. "Why else would they have been taken away so quickly?"

"Just great – no money, two men captured," Koki snorted. "What a welcome."

"Shut up," Patrick, who was obviously the most shaken one by the event, snapped.

Neither Jin nor Kame commented the situation, but the faces of both showed quite a concern.

"What are we going to do, Leo?" Ryo asked from his chair opposite to the leader.

The younger Akanishi kept staring at the table for a while.

"A few days… I leave you for just a few days and come back into such a mess," his voice froze all the Riders in their seats. "What from the ´keep the low profile´ didn´t get to you?" he asked, even though he obviously didn´t expect the response.

Ryo was the only one, who dared react on that: "We can give them the benefit of good intentions," he said, trying to soothe the sharp edge of Leo´s statement.

Leo stared at the black-haired one, before he leant an elbow over the table, letting his head rest in the palm. In just another silent pause, Jane stood up and dragged one tankard of beer in front of him first, before serving the drinks for the others, too. When she sat down next to Leo again, he blindly reached to her, squeezing her hand shortly.

"Thanks," he said.

Jane just smiled a little and shifted closer to him. As if it was a sign, the Riders reached for their beers, gulping down their bitter guilt and worries.

"Scold us whatever you like, Leo. We deserve it," Patrick stated then, gaining some courage.

"We´re sorry, really," Todd joined in. "It´d have been too nice if it had worked out, right?"

"But we cannot let Cullen and Jack there, can we?" Patrick continued, while Carl just kept looking at the leader tensely.

Leo stopped drinking and put the tankard back at the table more roughly than was necessary.

"Of course that we won´t let them there, what do you think?!" he raised his voice so suddenly, that half of people in the room flinched.

Jin was waiting for a statement like that from the very beginning, so he just kept enjoying the cool liquid. Only Kame frowned even more than before.

"I do not leave my fellows behind! No matter the stupidity they did!" Leo seemed to be justly upset.

"Rescue mission then!" Koki exclaimed, bumping the table excited.

Ryo slapped him over his blonde head with the newspapers, which were lying on the table so far.

"What are you so cheerful about, idiot?"

Koki stabbed his companion with not a very nice stare, but didn´t say anything.

"I need every bit of information you managed to gather about that mine," Leo stated, ignoring the childish behavior.

"And some maps would be useful as well," Jin joined his brother, not even thinking about it.

"We´ll figure out a plan and get them out of there," Leo stated decisively. "And if anyone just hints anything different, we can discuss it out on the street..."

*

It was quite late at night, but all the Riders were still gathered in the brightly lit room of the Slabtown´s Tavern, standing or sitting in the close circle around the table, which was covered with newspapers and maps.

"As we don´t know how many guards can be there, we should all go," Patrick just proposed fiercely.

"No," Leo denied firmly. "It´d have been totally useless to expose all of us, if something went wrong. If possible, we´ll do it inconspicuously, so no more than six of us will go, eight at the most."

"Then me and Patrick are going," Carl stated right away. "We want to make it up for this mess."

Leo repaid his firm look for a while, before he nodded: "All right, I agree. I want also Ryo with me," he moved his eyes toward the black-haired one, who grinned at him.

"Your wish is my command!"

"As for the rest…" Leo made a short pause. "What about you two?"

The attention of all followed the leader´s look at the left side of the table, where Jin was leaning over sitting Kame, so that he could see the map of Leadville under the dim light of the kerosene lamps.

"No need to ask about that, little Bro," the older Akanishi reacted without hesitation, but his brother was not focused on him.

"Kame?" Leo waited until the younger one raised his eyes. "Will you help us also this time?" he asked in a carefully neutral tone.

The gap between the question and answer was short, but still it was there. Jin lowered his head to look at Kame too now, but he was not being taken in consideration at all.

"Sure," Kame nodded slowly then.

There was something more going on during the exchange of their stares except those few words, the strange atmosphere was felt in the air, but nobody dared to mention it or ask some additional questions.

"Great!" Leo closed up the selection of the rescue mission members, breaking the tension suddenly. "Benny, Todd, Ian, Sherman, Koki – I need you to stay here with Jane, as a backup. Keep your eyes open, we cannot afford any more mistakes. Nick – you´ll act as a messenger if anything goes wrong. Everything clear?"

Nodding or murmuring in agreement were a satisfying response to Leo.

"Fine, any questions?"

"What about our telegrapher Flow?" surprisingly, Jane´s voice was heard. "It´s because of us he ended up in jail, for helping us. We should help him to get out now."

"What do you mean?" Leo asked confused. "Why is he in jail? What for?"

"They accused him of abusing his power and locked him up. It was clearly a frame-up. It seems that Tabor figured it would be better to get rid of the man, who used to deliver us certain telegrams," Carl explained the situation.

Everybody fell silent; a little ashamed they forgot there was one more person to care about.

"Did he talk?" Ryo asked, frowning thoughtfully.

"Do you think we would be here, if he did?" Jane snapped at him a little. "He keeps his mouth shut and that´s why they keep him in jail. There´s no proof against him, but they won´t let him go unless he cooperates."

Leo was looking at his girlfriend rather surprised, probably curious about what caused her fierce reaction to the matter.

"His boy was here," Benny spoke suddenly, for the first time during the whole evening. "He came to plead for help. And he brought us the news about Cullen and Jack being taken to the mines."

"Ah, I see…" Leo breathed out, somehow more understanding now.

"We could get him out by force…" Ian suggested.

"What would be the point in that?" Kame cut in suddenly, dragging a few quite hostile stares to himself.

"Something on your mind?" Leo asked slowly.

"If you got him out like this, he would be chased as a fugitive. He´d have to run and never come back to his family. Is that what you call help?"

Jin totally agreed, but still he was not sure if it was a good idea to stir in the matter with the Riders´ friend like that. The upset expressions disappeared from the gunmen´s faces around though, and turned into quite sheepish.

"I bet you have a better idea," Ryo reckoned, smirking a little.

"Well, I have," Kame admitted. "But it will cost you something…"

"What do you mean exactly?" Leo leant forward.

"If they want information from him, let him give them some. For example – are you willing to give up on this tavern?"

The Riders´ leader thought for a while, before he nodded: "I see what you mean."

"And can you please explain that to us – the slower ones, too?" Koki requested.

"We let Flow talk about the place to where he delivered those telegrams – here," Ryo took a word haughtily. "He doesn´t need to be specific, he can say he just let the messages in front of the door or something. So that even our dear old bartender could talk out of it. And we will be long gone by that time, of course. Is that what you had on mind?" he glanced at Kame.

"More or less, yes. They might let him go for cooperation and at the same time, it wouldn´t hurt you much."

"He just needs to be very convincing about not knowing anything else," Ryo noted.

"I can explain it to him personally," Jane said suddenly. "Do not even try…" she continued before Leo could object anything. "I have my own ways; the Sheriff will let me go in."

"All right, then, I´ll talk to the old man… But it must wait; I want to do it after we get Cullen and Jack out. Good idea, Kame," Leo appreciated in the end. "Now, everybody, get some sleep. We´re going to leave early. As we already have supplies, no need to stick around."

*

After Leo sent everybody to rest, the tavern gradually grew quieter.

Jane helped the old bartender to clean up after the gang first, which was not so difficult, as they didn´t eat much and nobody was in the mood for drinking either. After she parted with the man, she headed upstairs, to the top floor of the building, where she and Leo were assigned with a small room.

The still worried brunette walked into the bedroom with the quiet steps, finding her lover standing at the open window, smoking. Her eyebrows wrinkled in disapproval, but she knew better than to start complaining. Jane closed the door and approached the Riders´ leader. Placing hands over both of his shoulders gently, she felt how tense Leo was. She leant even closer and embraced him from behind, waiting until his firm body relaxed a little finally.

Leo put the cigarette down over the windowsill and started soothing her hands slowly, still not saying anything.

"I´m sorry I didn´t talk them out of that stupid idea," Jane couldn´t bear it anymore and broke the silence.

"It´s not your fault," he assured her. "I know them, Jane. Once they want to do something, it´s almost impossible to discourage them from it. And they´re too hasty," Leo sighed a little defeated.

"But still, I should have..." his girlfriend tried to apologize again.

"Stop," Leo squeezed her arm firmly. "There´s no need to blame anyone now. We´ll get them both out of that mine."

Jane breathed in the scent of his hair, glad that Leo was not upset with her.

"I know you will," she whispered.

Leo turned and took her into his arms, his dark eyes scanning her face in the dim light of the small kerosene lamp.

"I´m relieved at least you and the others are all right," he stated seriously.

Jane raised one of her hands and let her fingers run across the stubble on his face.

"Definitely not more relieved than I´m about you all being back," she reacted. "Everything went fine?"

"It depends…" Leo evaluated not very positively. "We haven´t heard from Oswald yet."

"I´m sure the voyage to Europe with his sister will go just fine," Jane sensed there was some problem hidden in Leo´s answer, but she didn´t want to push him to talk about it, not at that moment. There was something else she intended to ask about. "And what about your brother and Kame? How did they fit in?"

"Quite well, I´d say..." her lover reacted shrugging.

"Do you already trust them that much?" Jane kept asking, not satisfied with the brief reply. "Since you want them to go along to the mine?"

The expression on Leo´s face turned more serious: "No, I don´t," he replied to her surprise. "I feel there´s a lot of what they´re not saying."

"Then why do you take them with you now?" she wondered.

"They wouldn´t give us in, that much I´m sure of, but... I need to know how far they´re willing to go."

So that was the case, now Jane understood Leo´s intentions. She didn´t need to worry, her stubborn boyfriend knew exactly what he was doing, and his loyalty to the Riders wouldn´t waver, no matter what the intentions of his brother were.

"Anyway, let´s not talk about them now..." Leo squeezed her around the waist with the flickering fires in his eyes. "I´ve missed you," he stated in a tone, which brought warm shivers into her stomach.

Jane smiled, locking her arms around his neck: "Prove it then," she challenged him.

Leo didn´t need any further encouragement. His hands slipped down, taking Jane under her knees and pulling her up. She circled her thighs around his form, as Leo carried her to their bed. And when he put her down, and his hands started wandering all over her body, which yearned after his touches so much, it made Jane forget all her worries completely.

*

Kame could not help but notice the careful glances Jin kept sending his way as they gathered their stuff and headed to the spacious bedroom downstairs, which was comfortable enough for six people. They took it together with Ryo, Koki, Patrick and Carl, while the rest of the Riders occupied the room next to theirs.

He could clearly imagine what went through Jin´s head – he also remembered their heated discussion about trying not to involve in the Riders´ matters much. Helping out the arrested gunmen to escape was not exactly fitting for that resolution. However, the whole situation appeared in front of them so suddenly, they had absolutely no time to discuss it and figure out how to deal with it. Once again, they were dragged forward by the flow of events.

Neither of us asked for this… Kame thought gloomily, as he watched Jin going out, probably to the bathroom.

As he didn´t want Jin to eat himself up with some stupid ideas for the whole night, he also slipped out of the bedroom, which was humming with excited chatting of the others, and waited for older one´s return in the corridor. It didn´t take long before he spotted his figure approaching and stepped out from the dark corner, just as Jin passed by, grabbing his sleeve and dragging him to the shadow.

"Being ambushed by you, that I like," surprised Jin grinned at him, leaning over the wall next to Kame´s head with one hand.

"Do you think about anything not-perverted recently?" the younger one teased him quietly and looked out from behind the other´s form, to check if they were really alone.

"Not much," Jin admitted carelessly. "You´re too distractive."

"Do not put all the blame for your lack of self-control on me," Kame objected.

"Why not?" the older one asked whispering and leant closer, targeted on Kazuya´s lips. "I´m not lying…"

Kame avoided his attempt to kiss him, though it took him a lot of self-discipline: "Jin, this is not a right place," he urged. "I just wanted to talk to you."

Jin sighed a little and retreated to a safer distance: "I bet that I won´t like the topic."

"About that mission to the mines…" Kame started, while soothing Jin´s arm slowly, to ease the effect of his rejection.

"You think we shouldn´t go with them, right?" Jin asked very quietly, before Kame could finish, his dark eyes glistering in the light of the far lantern on the other side of the corridor.

"Well, I don´t like the idea, that´s true, but I wanted to tell you I´m all right with that. I won´t scold you for volunteering us," he stated teasingly.

"Really?" Jin asked, still a little uncertain. "You said we shouldn´t…"

"There´s no way back now," Kame interrupted. "And Tabor is the one breaking the law in this case, anyway. I will be glad if we´re able to help them."

Finally, a smile brightened in the dark: "I´m pleased you take it this way."

"Yeah, me too," the younger one reacted softly. "There´s just one thing… I think that Leo is testing us."

"Well…" Jin hesitated a little. "Even if he does, it´s not so surprising, right? But he trusts us; otherwise he wouldn´t involve us at all."

"But…" Kame wanted to mention that Leo´s trust was not a problem in this case, as the important thing was how much they were able to involve in all that mess.

"Didn´t you want me not to worry too much?" Jin cut in quickly. "So, just keep it this way for now, all right? Once we get Esler and Jack out, there will be time for discussions."

Kame thought it was not such a good idea to let it go and wait for how the things would work out, but still… He had no heart to stir in the matter further, so he just nodded.

"Let´s go back before they notice we´re missing," he proposed, but Jin´s hands prevented him from moving and pressed him against the wall instead.

This time, Kame didn´t manage to avoid the lips, which captured his hungrily. Any resistance from his side was immediately forgotten under the sweet pressure. When the older one retreated, Kame felt his knees weak.

"Did you really think I would let you go without a good night kiss?" Jin asked in a tone, which hid so much more than a mere kissing, that Kame had to suppress the desire to drag Jin somewhere out, instead of going into the room among the others.

"Not really," he chuckled foolishly happy.

They needed to be more careful; somebody might have noticed them anytime, but Kame couldn´t be troubled by that all the time. He kissed Jin back, pressing against his warm body eagerly. He felt as if he could never get enough of Jin holding him in his arms. Just getting so close to him, attaching to his limbs, chest, and legs, made him feel so good and hot. And he was obviously not alone in that, as Jin sighed deeply into their kiss, trying to get even closer to the younger one.

The creak of the door´s hinges made them almost jump off their skins. They totally forgot that the others were still awake too. Holding their breaths, they remained motionless in the corner, until the steps of whoever came out of the bedroom faded somewhere outside.

"We can´t do this," Kame whispered, desperately escaping from so comfortable embrace. "Not here."

Naturally, Jin wasn´t content with that but he didn´t try to stop the younger one this time, and he just followed him inside.