Chapter 5 : Punishments and talks about the past.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

//Sign language//

--- Scene change

Turning away from the touching reunion below, Shinigami beckoned for his companions to follow him. Setting a brisk pace, they traveled across the rooftops for a few blocks before climbing effortlessly down a fire escape and joining Shadow on the ground.

"It's almost six. Do you guys want to go and pick up the others or head back home?" Shin asked, just now realizing the time. Shadow glanced at Skif before nodding.

"We'll go with you; neither of us have anything going on till about eight."

"Tank?"

"Might as well - I've gotta talk to Fred about something anyway."

"K, let's go then. We'll start at the grocery store and work our way back," Shin said, and the pre-arranged pick-up route was set.

Duo thought that creating the pre-arranged pick-up routes was one of his better ideas. It combined pack safety (i.e.: nobody travels alone) with grocery shopping and other chores. Every night around six, whoever thought about it (sometimes more than one outgroup) would pick a route that would wind around the various stores, shops, and businesses that employed Sythes members, collect said members and whatever was needed for the next day and then head back to the Den together.

Back when Shinigami first started the Sythes, he decided that they were going to be as little of a burden as they possibly could be on the community, hence the very odd working relationship between the storekeepers and the Sythes.

Shinigami, in essence, ran a protection racket without the racket. In exchange for the store hiring a known gang member, they were almost guaranteed that no shoplifting or robberies would occur. And if, by chance, a member of the Hawks or one of the smaller gangs tried anything, the Sythes had ways of calling for reinforcements to help. It was a good system that benefited everyone and some of the shopkeepers were more than happy to let the younger Sythes practice shoplifting at their stores as long as they wrote down what they took and either brought it back or worked it off. This system had been Shadow's brain child - one that Shin was especially proud of - and had a duel purpose. The shopkeepers liked it because it kept them on their toes - they never knew when one of the Sythe littles would strike until they found a note stuck to the inside of the front door. If at any time during the attempt the kid was caught the game was over and the kid had instant bathroom cleaning duty so they had enough of an incentive not to get caught. The first time Shadow was caught and had to clean the bathrooms, he stole the toilet paper, thus winning the round after all.

The last stop on their route was the free hospital, only about six blocks from the Den. The hospital had been around since before the Sythes ever formed and was one of the three neutral zones in their area of L2 - the others being the school and churches in general. The neutral zones were strictly enforced by everyone; good-guy or bad-guy, they all behaved to the best of their ability when in a neutral zone. If any gang broke The Rule and shed blood in a neutral zone the other gangs would group together and scrape the offending gang from the inside of L2 (colony version of "wipe so and so off the face of the Earth.").

The original group of four that had left the Den had increased to nine by the time they returned. It was nearly everyone's day off so pick-up had been completed quickly. They were hailed four times by different groups of Watchers before they reached the Den and Shin nodded in approval upon finding that everybody was still in their places, the call for reinforcements for the sentries still in effect. Duo knew his people would still be on their guard, but it was nice to have the fact proven to him again.

As soon as they passed the main entrance, a smallish opening in the left side of the building (the main doors to the warehouse had been welded shut years before), all of the nine scattered, each going to take care of whatever they had to before dinner.

Every night, circumstances permitting, the Sythes would all eat dinner together. Of course, the Watchers were expected to stay at their posts, but the shifts changed enough during the week that at least twice a week everyone got a chance to eat with the whole "family". It gave everyone a chance to catch up on news and gossip, helped reaffirm the family bonds, gave the kids a more solid foundation to grow on and gave them a chance to show off what they had learned to the adults. Duo had found out early on, when he had first taken in more kids than just Shadow, that if the little hellions had at least one time a day that they had his undivided attention, they weren't as likely to act up to get it.

---

Dinner was never a quiet affair. With over fifty people in the gang ranging from the babies to oldsters, quiet was a state rarely occurring in the Den. When Shinigami stood up at the end of dinner, however, silence fell thick and heavy over the group, and all eyes focused on their leader.

"Tip, Slip, Dart, come over here. We need to talk." The three got up from their seats around the room and headed for Shinigami's seat, feeling nervous as all hell and trying to control their blushes at being the center of attention for the second time that day. They stood there before Shin, their heads hanging, awaiting their punishment. "You know what you did was wrong, yes?" They nodded. "Do you know why it was wrong?" They nodded again. "Tell me." It was not a request.

Tip took a fortifying breath before answering. "We broke the rules. We put the family in danger from Mr. Winner's friends and we risked our working relationship with the cops." Shin nodded and turned his head to look at Slip. The older boy flinched slightly from being singled out but answered the unspoken command.

"We brought a stranger into the Den. Even if he was knocked out comin' here, he wasn't when he left. Even with Shadow takin' him back, he could still 'member how to get here." Shin nodded again before looking pointedly at Dart. While wishing he could be anywhere than where he was, Dart answered.

"Me an' Slip shoulda talked Tip out of it. We're older than him and it was our responsibility to keep him safe and in line. We failed in that duty and put everyone at risk." Shin nodded his agreement with their answers, his face carefully blank, giving nothing away as he looked at the three before him, ignoring the crowd of people watching from the background. This was a lesson for everyone, not just the three littles.

"I'm glad you guys used your time to think this through. You've hit on almost all of the reasons why I'm mad at you for doing what you did. All three of you missed the big one though. If you had tried that stunt with someone else, someone who wasn't as inclined to go easy on littles as Winner is, you could have been hurt or even killed trying to catch him and we never would have known what had happened." He locked eyes with the three before him and they saw how much the thought troubled him. "Do you have any idea how much it would hurt all of us to lose you? You have to be more careful out there. I was serious when I threatened to have you retrained. You three were damn lucky it was Winner you snitched but there will Never be a next time, got it?" The three nodded quickly and in his peripheral vision Duo could see others nodding along. "This is your one and only warning on this. I love you guys to bits but I'll still kick you out if you put the family in danger like that again. Do I make myself clear?"

With tears swimming in their eyes the three nodded and muttered a watery "Yes, sir."

"Good." Shin sat down signaling the end of the public lesson part of their trial. With the lesson over and new rule established, the rest of the gang turned their attention to their own business and let Shin deal out the punishments in relative privacy. Shin waved the boys closer and started meting out the terms of their punishment.

"Dart, you're on grunt duty in the kitchen for the next two weeks for every meal. Any chore they want done, you're gonna do it. Got it?" Dart nodded, knowing he was getting off easy. He didn't mind kitchen duty all that much and his "Ma" worked there too. "Slip, you're doing laundry for the two weeks. And Tip, you've got baby duty." Tip made a face at his assignment and Slip elbowed him in the ribs. "Ok." He said grudgingly, resigning himself to his fate of diapers and bawling babies for the next two weeks.

"Alright guys, my part of your punishment is taken care of. Now you've gotta go meet up with your moms and find out what the rest is going to be." Duo felt kinda bad for the three boys, but they had brought the whole thing on themselves and deserved whatever other punishment they got. In his peripheral vision, Duo saw Shadow and Skif wince slightly when the three boys turned and walked away. He turned his head to look at his second and his boyfriend.

"What? Why the wince? Do you think I was too hard on them?"

"No, you were fine. I just wouldn't want to be in their shoes when their moms get hold of them." Shadow had the tone of kids everywhere when talking about 'Mommy punishments.'

Utter Terror.

//I feel really bad for Slip.// Skif signed. //Mom hits hard when she's mad, he won't be able to sit down until tomorrow.//

"Well, maybe this way they'll learn."

//True.//

Shin noticed that the gang was breaking up and leaving the room in groups or pairs, signaling the end of dinner with the shift changes of the Watchers. They were the first to leave every night so the Watchers on duty would get a bit of the dinner before it got cold. During the war Duo had taken advantage of regular shift changes on OZ bases too many times to not learn his lesson. Seemingly random shift changes at different times every day had saved them more than once from attacks.

"Alright boys, time to get your chores done. I'm going to go check on Ma and the babies before hittin' the hay. Let me know if anything comes up." Shin got up and left, leaving the two boys to stare after him in contemplative silence. Shadow turned to Skif and raised an eyebrow to which Skif nodded quickly. And just like that, their plans for later were decided.

---

Duo had just finished getting undressed for bed and was in the process of pulling his lock picks and other items from his braid when there was a knock on his bedroom door. He knew Shadow probably had some questions about what had happened with Quatre earlier so he called out for the boy to enter, not turning around from putting his knives and other sharp, pointy things away on his dresser.

"Shin?" Shadows voice was soft, he was feeling a bit reluctant about bugging Shin about his past, but dangit, he wanted to know.

"Yeah? Come on in guys, and shut the door, this might take awhile." Shin was only wearing a pair of loose pants and still hadn't turned to face them so Shadow had a rare unobstructed view of Shin's tattoo. He knew there was a meaning behind the design but that wasn't what he'd come here to ask about. Putting the tattoo questions aside to ask at a later date, he decided to start on the ones he'd come to ask.

"Can we ask you about some stuff that's been bugging us?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Skif give him an encouraging smile. Shin shrugged, making the bat wings look like they were trying to fly and turned to face the boys.

"Course you can. You know that anytime either of you want to talk you can come to me." He walked over and sat down on his bed, patting the mattress beside him in invitation. Shadow walked over and sat down next to Duo, grabbed hold of his braid and started playing with the tuft, running his fingers through it like he had when he was younger. It was a comforting action that grounded them both. Skif, being not quite as 'touchy' of a person as his boyfriend, settled for sitting on the bed and leaning against the wall nearest to Shadow.

"So, what is it that you wanted to know?" Duo asked, bracing himself for the worst.

"Well, we were just wondering… how did you know so much about Winner?"

Duo went still and for a moment debated whether or not to just say that they knew each other years ago and leave it at that, but he knew that when Shadow actually did find out the truth he would be really hurt that Duo hadn't told him the truth from the beginning. So instead he slumped a bit, sighed and pulled Shadow into a one armed hug.

"Well boys, I guess it's about time I told you what I used to do before I started the gang. I was going to wait until you were older but I guess this is as good a time as any." He paused to sigh and scoot back onto the bed until he was leaning against the wall. "Might as well get comfortable, this is going to be a long story.

"You see, it all started in AC 197 with a little thing called Operation Meteor…"

-End Chapter-

A/N: I am sooooo sorry about the wait. RL has just been kinda hectic lately. I've been working six to seven days a week and I just bought a house (Painting is fun but spiders have crossed the line from my minions to just plain Pains In The Butt!) and it's a bit of a fixer-upper cough.

I would like to take the time to thank my wonderful and beautiful and talented betas for putting up with me and my blabbering. The Amazing Meiface and Fei rule!

It might be a while (hopefully not as long as this one though) before I can get chapter six out. It won't be as long probably but it'll be a while. I've already got chapter seven written down on the comp so as soon as six is done we should be seeing a bit more action.

Just so you know, I have no intention of abandoning this story. This and the Bedlam's Bard/DBZ fic are my babies and I'm planning on seeing them through to the end. Plus I've got my two favorite chapters of the story later on already done and I can't wait to post them.

Till next time, hugs and squishes,

Kat

P.S. Check my profile page for a link to a pic of Duo's tattoo. Pay no attention to the butt (I can NOT draw butts) but I like how the rest of it turned out. Let me know what you think!

PPS, Please review! I really want to know what you guys think of how this chapter was; like it, don't like it, want me to shut up and write smaller authors notes? I'm easy, I'll take any sort of criticism….the constructive kind anyway!