" You want to know what a Conscript is?" Soldier asked. The four men nodded, but then realized that Soldier couldn't see them.

"No. I won't tell you." was his response. The four were shocked for two reasons. One, how could Soldier see them? They hadn't answered verbally, and yet he knew they nodded. And the second reason was because Soldier just said no.

"Wait. You can't accuse us of being bad Conscripts, if we don't even know what that means!" Kida shouted. He could really hate Soldier, a sentiment that the other three shared wholeheartedly.

"Yes" Aoba added, still a little wary of the voice. "How do you expect us to do a good job if you will not inform us of what we have to do?" Even as he was speaking, Aoba wished that he could me instead of us. Mikado only… sorry, Mikado-sama only needed him! Orihara was unstable, Heiwajima was dangerous and the blonde was incompetent. He was the only one that was qualified to take care of Mikado-sama!

"Well," Soldier's voice interrupted Aoba's thoughts. "I expect that the bond will take care of any important details once Mikado-sama regains consciousness and that the lack of details will drive you guys crazy. So it's a fitting punishment." They could almost hear the shrug that accompanied that statement.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Soldier wished he had a camera. The expressions on the four guys faces were priceless!

"Damn. I'm an idiot." He told himself as he quickly took a screen shot off of the laptop he was using to watch the four. He quickly sent the picture to his phone, his three different email accounts and then to all of the four's phones. Just to see what happened. But then he paused.

"Listen. I know you guys are confused and feeling horrible. But Mikado-sama will ok hopefully and if you promise to never ever forget about him again, I'll tell you where he will be in two days."

Silence met his ears as he waited with baited breath. This was the test. Would the four of them still be willing to meet Mikado-sama, knowing that they messed up? That they failed? That they hurt him? He would have said more, but they answered. Darn. No one let him be poetic and deep anymore.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Izaya gave a short laugh.

"Of course I will never forget him. I can't speak for the rest of the… people," and here he gave a derisive sneer in their general direction before speaking again, "But I will never, ever let Mikado-sama go again." He will be mine alone, Izaya added mentally. He had a feeling the other four wouldn't respond well to that part of his statement. Speaking of his alone, he had a rather nice apartment that was 'off the grid' so to speak. He could use that to keep his interesting new friend in, so they wouldn't be disturbed.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Like I'll let the damn flea anywhere near the kid. I won't leave him." Shizuo's response was short and to the point, just like he was. He wanted to protect that kid, and so he would. Especially from that flea, who had a really, and I mean really, suspicious look on his face. So once he noticed that , he switched to glaring at the idiot flea who thought he could just waltz in to Ikebukuro and mess with one of the few people Shizuo cared about. Mental note to self: Beat up flea for being annoying and presumptuous.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Masaomi spared only a single glance at the two fuming men before replying.

"I will always be by Mikado-sama's side. Nothing you can do will make me leave him behind. Got it!" He swore to himself that he would never let Mikado-sama get taken from him ever again. It was the worst feeling in the world; knowing that you failed to help somebody in need just because of a stupid argument with a even stupider kid. He felt a connection with the kid, and nothing, not even the two most dangerous men in Ikebukoro would stop him! After all, he was the former Yellow Scarves shogun.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Nothing will come between Mikado-sama and myself." Aoba declared. He was the only one who would take care of Mikado-sama the way that he deserved. He had a whole gang, nearly 1/5 of the population, under his control and with that, he could take care of Mikado-sama. The other men would just have to be content with mere moments of Mikado-sama's time, if even those. Even though he had just seen the teen for a couple of moments, he knew that the teen was too good for the other imbeciles that he was currently standing with. Aoba could only hope his IQ didn't drop from the encounter and subsequent prolonged exposure.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Soldier grinned. He could tell that each of the four, with the possible exception of Masaomi who seemed to just want Mikado-sama to be happy and safe, had either an ulterior motive or a secondary statement in their promises. But he did say he would tell them and they were rather dangerous, so…

"Mikado-sama, assuming all goes well and he is recovered enough, will be at Raira Academy in two days. He's a new student and starts on Wednesday. Of course, this is all depenedent on him being healthy, but I'm sure that…. the doctor will take care of him."

Exhaling sharply, Soldier wiped his forehead. He almost gave away Mikado-sama's position! How could he! Clearly, he wasn't thinking straight and so, would have to cut the entertaining conversation short. He might give away crucial information!

"Well then, goodbye!"

And with that, he hung up. But before he shut his laptop down and left to get some well-needed rest, he made sure to take pictures of the faces the four were making. They were so amusing! He ended up laughing all the way to his room, scaring several of the people who had the misfortune to walk by him. Ah well, they should have known better by now.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was around the time when Soldier hung up that Celty and Mikado ended up at the apartment that Celty shared with Shinra. Mikado was still unconscious but his head wound had stopped bleeding. Celty parked her motorcycle and patted the handles reassuringly as it neighed.

'Don't worry. He'll be alright now.' she thought at her trusty horse. 'And speaking, well, thinking of the boy, here we go!'

She picked the child up and, making sure to cradle his head to her shoulder, carried him up to Shinra. She rapped on the door and waited impatiently for him to open up. The child was hurt and Shinra was taking forever. She vowed that she would hit him for taking his time, then paused. Why was she so invested in this child? She hadn't even met him while he was awake and she was already concerned about him. Enougth to pick up a random stranger and take him back to Shinra and her home.

'H-home! I just thought of this place as Shinra and mine's!' Meanwhile, during her internal freak out, Shinra had gotten to the door and was staring at her worridly.

"Celty? Are you ok my darling? Why are you holding a child?" Then he paused and his face lit up. "Could it be that you want to start a family with me and already have chosen out children? I assume that you want to adopt Anri too, but you knew I wanted a son, didn't you! I have such a caring wife!" By the time his mini-rant was finished, Celty had come back from her lala land trip and was staring in disbelief. What was Shinra talking about? So she did the only logical thing to do. She shifted the child to one arm and socked Shinra in the gut with the other. He collapsed with a huff as his breath escaped him.

"But Celty darling! Why would you do that?" he asked as he sat up, holding his stomach in an attempt to get the pain to fade. He knew it wouldn't help, from both a medical stand point and experience, but it was something to do and it might get him a consolatory hug later. His Celty was such a tsundere! But a movement observed from the corner of his eye distracted him.

"Ah. Celty? Why have you brought an unconscious boy into our house? If you don't want to adopt him or anything like that." He said, looking at her with questioning look in his eyes.

She held out her phone and he read the message with a raised eyebrow. 'Shizuo and Izaya were fighting and the boy got caught in the crossfire. They just left him there unconscious and I picked him up. So will you take a look at him?'

"Of course I will! If Celty wants me to check him out, then check him out I will!" And with that, he picked the boy up and started to examine him.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Izaya left the three others behind as he moved towards his apartment. He was feeling strange and knew he had to think about what he was going to do next. After all, you didn't think he became the most feared informant by just fooling around did you? Well, he did have a natural talent for screwing people over and manipulating them, but he still had to work. Not to mention, he had caught Soldier's small slip up. It was his only clue to the boy that had just become his newest obsession.

(He refused to even consider that fact that he might care about the boy. This Conscript thing surly couldn't force feelings to magically appear. That was just stupid. It was just a passing fancy in a very interesting boy and his circumstances. Plus, he was going to make that kid his representative for all of humanity. As in, since he loved humans, he should be at least nice to one, right?) *This failed to take into account the fact that Izaya's idea of being nice was keeping Mikado locked up in some untraceable apartment, away from the world. Forgive him, he really has no clue about how to treat a precious person that's not related to him.*

Soldier had mentioned a doctor. Now he knew that being a doctor was a rather common profession, what with how many accidents his beloved humans got into, his hand in them ignored, but he had a feeling he knew exactly which doctor Soldier was talking about. There was only one underground proficient doctor in all of Ikebukoro. But now he had to figure out Soldier was watching him, disable it in some way, shape or form, and get to the kid. Just to check in, he knew the kid was hurt, but he wanted to know more. And to see him again, but he managed to hide that thought in with his plans. He never lied to himself after all, but that was a form of passive ignoring.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Celty! Celty darling, I have good news, slightly bad news and iffy news. Which would you like first?"

Celty gave her version of an incredulous look, which consisted of a tilted shoulder and a PDA that held a question mark on it. But once she processed his words, she wrote, 'bad, iffy, good' and held it out at Shinra.

"Got it!" The man in question sighed as he mentally prepared his diagnosis for presenting. "So the kid, whose name I have not been told, has a slight concussion. He should be fine in a day or so. The iffy news is that I don't know how much longer he will sleep and the good news is that he will make a full recovery!"

'In how long?'

"Well, he will have headaches due to his concussion for about a week, but he should be fine after that. He could wake up at any time, since he is now asleep and not unconscious." He gave her all of the possible answers to her rather ambiguous question. But while he was running through all the possible meanings of that demand/questions, Celty moved passed him to the room where the kid was sleeping in.

But when she got to the door, she was met with the sight of an awake, but not fully cognizant and not fully aware, teen who was sitting up in bed, staring out the window.

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I am so sorry for the late update. I had a really busy summer in that I have not been allowed Computer access for a large portion of it. Add in stress from school, and its not a very good writing environment. But I had time and found this open on one of my Spaces and got inspired.

Oh yeah, one last thing. I have a poll up about an important plot line. It would be nice to have some feed back.

Reviews are awesome, but I really love story alerts/favorites. Its an easy way to show you care. Thanks for reading!

- Wolferunner123