"Okay." I stared at the large printed sheet of Octagon's inner layout. Before I'd handed them over to Jasper, I had made copies of the blueprints, just in case. "Right now, everything rides on who gets to the will first. William, where did you say you got the info on the clearance activity from? The website?"

"Uh, not really. I sorta managed to get inside one of their employee's emailing network and pulled it from his latest correspondence. It seems to be some sort of internal memo that was passed down among selected circles."

Kaylan let out a low whistle. "Nerd boy just did some illegal hacking! I sense an upgrade to bad boy status coming along."

"Well Black and Tan are an illegal criminal organization - so by the law of 'two negatives make a positive' one could hypothetically argue that what I did wasn't illegal. And what do you mean an upgrade?" William retorted. "Hacking isn't as easy as standing around all broody and sulky and pulling the my parents are on the school board card, you know."

"He's got a point there," Emrys commented.

Damian arched an eyebrow. "Someone's feisty today." 

"Sorry," William muttered. "I'm just - nervous."

"Also - Kaylan's parents are on the school board?" Damian went on.

Kaylan shrugged. "My father tries to have a hand in everything that gives him power. Why else do you think the students and teachers leave me alone?"

"Guys." My voice sounded pained to my ears. "Can we please get back on topic?"

I looked back at the Octagon blueprint. "If it's an internal memo, that means the clearance is something that Black and Tan want to get done discreetly and quietly. So they'll be fast. We'll have to move faster than them. Damian, did Jasper give you an exact go-time?"

Damian shook his head. "Not really. But if he does what Blackcroft usually does, we'll probably spend the morning prepping, and hit the ground rolling half hour before the clearance starts. Jasper will want to strike after Black and Tan has laid out all their dirty little documents, but just before they start shredding."

"So he'll hit at 2.30. Which means we must be there about that time as well. Maybe even earlier." I chewed the inside of my lip. "Kaylan, are you confident you can get your father's access badge by then?"

"He does overtime on Saturday - and doesn't check his work for the entire of Sunday. Holy day of rest and all that. I could get it to you by morning, if you want to. It's pretty easy to sneak into his study room - we did it together before, remember?"

William looked at Kaylan. "She's been to your house?"

Kaylan shrugged. "A couple of times, in fact. Once, she was even in my room. Though she didn't stayed long - dropped out the window, if I recalled correctly."

Damian snorted. "Oh yeah. That's Hayley's style, alright. Back at Blackcroft, she was always sneaking into places she wasn't meant to be and dropping out of windows to escape."

William looked at Damian. "She's been to your place too?"

"No, but I've been to hers," Damian replied cheerfully.

Emrys rolled his eyes. "We get it - Hayley's been to everybody's room. Now can we get back to the plan?"

I knew I shouldn't say it, but I did anyway. "I haven't been to your room."

Emrys shot me a look that said he would liked to murder me a second time. He walked over to the blueprint and asked,

"So we know the time to act, we have the means to get in - but where do we go from there? Octagon is huge, with many, many floors."

Before I could speak, Damian stepped to the front with a grandiloquent gesture. "That's where I come in. I'll be with Jasper that day, providing real-time data on what we'll be doing and where we'll be going. If possible, I'll try to weasel out from him where exactly the will is located before we actually reach the place. Although I must say that I doubt very much that he would tell, because Jasper is the sort of man who always keeps the last playing card to himself."

"What about Hayley's brother?" Kaylan asked. "Eric?"

"I like how he's always an afterthought," Emrys said dryly.

"We know where he is. Jasper's people hacked into the surveillance system of Octagon a week back and there's a camera installed in the basement, directed right at a door. A guard is always stationed outside of it and meals are pushed through a slot three times a day." I exhaled. "So at least we know where one of our objectives are."

"Only one guard? They're obviously keeping him alive just in case - while knowing he's not the definite priority."

I nodded. "Rescuing Eric will be the comparatively easier plan."

"What is the plan?" Emrys demanded. "We haven't actually talked about it yet."

I took a deep breath. "Yes. The plan." I'd spent the entire weekend thinking about it, trying to cover all angles, and I still wasn't entirely sure if it would work. It felt to me like the kind of thing you throw together at 3 am in the morning when you'd had too many bottles to drink, two best friends who were dead-set on hyping you up, and one ex you wanted to get revenge on.

"The plan is like this. Someone will have to get in first using the access badge, then open this back door on the north wing of the ground floor." I pointed it out on the blueprint. "That's the only way to get the rest of us inside."

"All of us but one," Damian corrected. "Someone has to be the eyes. That person will be outside, tapped into Octagon's cameras. Watching and telling us where our enemies are at all times."

I didn't fail to notice the way William's eyes lit up hopefully. "Is that - ?"

I couldn't help smiling. "Yes. That'll be you, William. You'll probably be in a parked van somewhere, watching over us. Away from the action."

William closed his eyes and let out a loud, long, heartfelt exhale. "Oh thank the gods." 

Emrys ran a light finger across the edge of the table. "So the rest of us get in. Then what?"

"We split up. Two of us get Eric, while the other two of us shadow Jasper's group according to the instructions Damian will feed us. Once we've determined exactly where the will is, William will blackout Octagon and jam all internal communications - except for ours. We steal the will, steal Eric, and hopefully get the hell out of there before anyone is the wiser."

"Leaving Black and Tan and Blackcroft alone to figure things out," Kaylan finished. "Hopefully they kill each other off."

"How will I jam the communications?" William asked.

"Thomas will provide all the equipment," Damian replied. "Speaking of which, who'll be in what team? William is outside. I'm assuming bad boy here will be our access man; if he gets caught, he can always say that he was there to pick up his daddy's homework. Emrys with his healing arm can't go up against Jasper, so he'll have to get Eric."

"I'm definitely going after the will," I said immediately. "I can't let Jasper have it."

"I'm with you then," Kaylan said just as quickly.

"No." I shot that down. "I don't trust Thomas with Emrys."

Emrys scoffed. "What? You're scared I'll hurt your ex boyfriend?"

I looked Emrys dead in the eyes. "No. I'm scared he'll hurt you."

"I agree with Hayley." Damian tapped his chin. "My brother's been missing for four years. Who knows what kind of person he's become."

"So I'll stick with Thomas." Saying that triggered a strange sensation in my stomach - a kind of queasy flutter that was both strangely anticipatory and full of dread at the same time. I was also very aware that Kaylan was watching me with those piercing eyes of his. "Kaylan will work with Emrys."

Emrys gave Kaylan a once-over. "Our fashion will clash, but oh well. Great success requires sacrifice."

William was biting his lip. "I - I don't really like this."

Damian shot him a derisive look. "What are you complaining about, nerd boy? You're the furthest from the fire here."

"No! I'm not worried for me. I - I'm worried for you guys. Don't you think we're working with too little information here? What if it's all a trap? You guys will be right in the crossfire."

Damian shrugged. "Too bad, but this is all we know."

"Actually, we still have one more information source." I looked at the watch on my wrist and smiled. "And I know how exactly to get it."

"How?"

I grinned. "By crashing a party."

|*|

Our destination was located right in the heart of Sandalwood Heights, about three streets away from Kaylan's house. It was also pretty much the most magnificent and lavish place I'd seen since I started this entire mission, and the size of it reminded me of Blackcroft Manor at once. Instead of being gloomy, dark and old however, this house was decked out in a bunch of lights, had loud music blaring out from the windows, a long table of refreshments and about fifty teenagers that were half-drunk.

"Only our local queen bee can throw a party on Monday night and have perfect attendance," Emrys remarked drily as we pushed open the front gate and stepped onto the lawn.

I nimbly dodged a couple that was engrossed in a scientific experiment to measure how deep tongues can go down in throats. "Where do you think she might be?"

Damian spoke up. "Well in typical Blackcroft parties, the women are always trying to shag a man, so she's probably in the bedroom."

I sighed. "This isn't Blackcroft, Damian." I paused and thought. "Though I supposed in this case there isn't a difference."

"So let's split up and check," Damian suggested. "I'll scout out this area and the backyard. Emrys and William can take the first floor. Hayley, Kaylan, take the second."

We separated. The music was loud, and everywhere people were bumping and grinding against each other. In the living room, a raucous crowd had gathered together to watch someone do a keg stand. Leaving Emrys and William to it, Kaylan and I trekked up the stairs.

I cleared my throat. "So. I guess you must have been here a couple of times, huh?"

"What?" Kaylan shouted over the noise.

"I said, you must have been here many times!"

He shook his head. "No. This is my first."

The noise receded and we stepped onto the upper floor. I turned to him. 

"But you were always after her. That was the whole point why you started giving me special attention, wasn't it? Because you wanted to make her jealous."

Kaylan's gaze didn't waver as he held mine's. "I did want to get close to her, yes."

There was a sinking, disappointing feeling in my stomach. I looked away. "Well then, I guess that made things clear - "

Within the next second, I found myself whipped around, and then his lips had found mine. It was nothing like what we had back at the Sakura Room - this was tender, fleeting. Soft. Like a butterfly's touch. Lingering. Kaylan smelled of musk and cinnamon and everything sweet and familiar. It was a heady scent, and it left me dizzy, reeling.

He broke away, but kept our foreheads touching. We didn't speak for a minute.

"I did want to get close to her," he repeated quietly. "But not for the reasons you think."

"Then what - "

I didn't get to finish the sentence, because at that moment we were interrupted by what was unmistakably the sound of someone moaning from a nearby bedroom. It was a loud, drawn-out, extremely earnest moan, and I felt my cheeks flush the deepest scarlet.

"Guess we found her," Kaylan deadpanned. 

|*|

When the door banged open, Brandy Simmons was stripped entirely down to the waist and sitting on an equally naked Donovan - whom I had now seen shirtless two times and which was two times more than necessary. Next to me William choked on his own spit and started coughing. Damian smirked. Emrys was picking at his fingernails, bored. Kaylan looked impassive.

"What the hell?" Brandy screeched, covering herself with the blanket. "You guys aren't supposed to be here!"

"You mean at the party, or in the middle of your passionate fornication?" Emrys asked.

Brandy looked like she would throw a six-inch Louboutin at Emrys if she could get her hands on one. Donovan, clearly recognizing Kaylan and remembering their last encounter, mumbled something about having left his cat on the stove and vanished.

Brandy lifted her chin haughtily. Even after all that, ahem, strenuous activity, she remained, as usual, flawless with her manicured fingernails and perfectly styled hair. The five of us stood in the doorway, blocking out the host from her own party.

"What do you guys want?" she demanded.

I dragged up a chair. Kaylan closed then locked the door.

"Only some information," I said, sitting down.

"What? What information?"

I jerked my chin at the tattoo on her ankle, now clearly bare and visible in her state of undress. A glass, top half colored in and bottom left blank, outlined in dark ink.

"Let's start with that, shall we?"

once upon a time, this story had gifs and funny memes

this one's for ttae04040 ! idk if you're an army, but if so -

if not, oh well, enjoy the hot guy gif anyway xP