"You are my sunshine,

"My only sunshine,

"You make me happy, when skies are grey,

"You'll never know dear, how much I love you,

"Please don't take my sunshine away~"

"Ok, stop with the sappy stuff!" Cricket snapped at Ruri. Ruri snapped her head up at Cricket, her long, wavy, pink hair flowing around her like a stream.

"Put our prisoner back in the tie up chair." Cricket ordered again.

Ruri looked down at the black-haired-Ace's head in her lap and sniffled. "How could I? He's just the cutest little pie."

"Also our prisoner," Akane said whilst she bit into a apple, "he can be your prize husband if you want."

"Would you let me? No, I wouldn't let you, because I'd just do it myself!"

Cricket rolled her eyes and tapped the desk in front of her. She and her sisters in arms were in their lair, which was just Cricket's room but where was the fun in calling it "her room" when lair worked better? Anyway, Cricket brooded at her desk, papers of plans and more plans of mischief scattered across the rough texture of the wood the desk was made from. Next to her, Ruri sat gracefully on her bed with their prisoner on her lap as if he was already her boyfriend. The "tie up chair," which had arm and leg cuffs and was Cricket'e favorite toy, was in front of the large window that overlooked an abandoned town. Akane sat on Cricket's bean bag, arms folded and legs spread apart, just a few inches away from the bed.

"I'd close your legs," Ruri teased Akane, "you're still wearing a skirt, and we have a boy here!"

"If he can't handle the SHORTS I'm wearing underneath, then I'm strangling him."

Ruri cackled at Akane, her laughs never reaching Cricket, for Cricket was deep in thought.

"I wonder..." Cricket mumbled as she looked through all the papers and plans before her.

"Crick, are you ok?" Akane called, sitting up upon seeing Cricket looking through her plans. She never did that unless something was up. Ruri too stopped laughing to look over.

"You remember how that little girly was holding that music box?" Cricket asked, slowly picking up a folder. Her two friends nodded, confused. 

"Yeah," Akane said, "it was nasty looking and it made my head hurt when I tried to grab it."

"It looks like the drawings Tang Yun did," Cricket explained, pulling out a crude drawing of said music box, albeit no rocks or slime was on his drawings, "maybe he's not as crazy as he seems to be."

"He's always in the same place." Ruri said. "Never leaves, always mumbling about something. You can go ask him about it."

"Yeah, and come back to tell us what you find out!" Akane added.

"You're suggesting I go alone?" Cricket scoffed. "No way. One of you have to come with me."

"Not it!" Ruri yelled, putting her finger on her nose.

"No fair!" Akane yelled back. "You didn't tell me we were doing that!"

Ruri stuck her tongue out at her sister as Cricket grabbed Akane by the hands and pulled her out.

"Ruri will stay and watch our prisoner," Cricket said, "and she WILL put him in the tie up chair soon, before we get back, riiiight?"

"Maybe I will." Ruri said. "Hurry up before Sander gets after you for bugging him!"

***

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale...

Yun ran his fingers across his face, across his tired eyes and into his hair. Then, he brought them back to the bridge of his nose and let them rest on it.

Back to reality. Back to reality. He's alive. He's only human. Only human. Well, he's actually an Esper, which is different from a human since he has six ears and can create shadow clones of himself, and his magenta hair drags across the floor like Rapunzel, and...

"This isn't working." Yun snapped back to reality once he heard Sander's voice, a soft tapping coming from his fancy shoes.

"Sorry..." Yun mumbled. No matter what he did, he couldn't seem to find anything that helped him calm bis nerves.

"We'll keep trying," Sander said, leaning forward and patting Yun's shoulder, "but you were able to stay in control for longer than yesterday."

Yun only stared up at Sander. Sander in turn took that as a sign to take his leave.

"Don't forget to lock the door on your way out..." Yun called softly.

He stepped out and after locking the door, could only kick himself.

He thought that letting Yun get out all his anger on his twin brother would have made things better. For all those years, Sander could only watch as Yun tore himself apart, day in and day out, only mustering a few mumbled words a day.

Yun was getting better now...years after he ripped the eyeballs out of some kids...ahem....but he had a dark feeling in his chest that something was wrong.

'Tang Yun,' he thought, 'Just be ok, you...'

"Mr. Sander boss man!" He was brought back to reality when he saw two of the youngest Shadow Guards: Akane and Cricket.

Not only the youngest, but also the ones he didn't want anywhere near Yun. They were loud, obnoxious, and never up to any good.

"We need to see Tang Yun," Cricket said, "it's urgent."

"There is no reason for you to talk to him right now," Sander growled, "I'll carry your message."

"It's top secret!" Cricket said, putting her finger  to her lips in an overdramatized way.

"I'm your head, your leader, I am required to know of 'top secret information.'"

"But Mr. Boss Man Sander!" Akane said. "We're just...uhhh...giving Tang Yun his artwork back!"

"Y-yeah!" Cricket cheeped. "It's his artwork so it's top secret."

"We haven't even looked at it! Cricket only got a glimpse of-of it!"

"Come on, let us see him, Sander!"

Sander held his head in annoyance. He was getting too old for this.

"No is no," Sander growled down his nose at the two young women, "go away!"

Defeated, Akane and Cricket slipped away. Sander sighed silently and walked away himself.

***

The vents were very dirty from years of use. They smelt of mold and shit, as Akane described it.

"I need to know if this music box is the same," Cricket snapped, opening the vent while holding Yun's drawing, "you just have to keep watch, make sure Sander doesn't come."

As she said this, she slid into the wide vent and began crawling.

Ever since she was young, she would explore the vents as if they were her own. She knew where every room was just from the vents, and she could get through them relatively quickly. She had mastered the art of being silent in them, as if she was nothing but a bug.

She made handprints on the thin layer of dust that had newly set in as she crawled to the vent opening where she could see Yun sitting in a small room. His head was down, probably in meditation. Cricket held her breath and listened, trying to see and hear if anyone else was in there with him. Upon decided that there couldn't be anyone else but Yun, she carefully pushed the vent door open. They were easy to open, just a soft push for them to become unstuck.

She gently opened the vent and peered down. She thought she had a good grip on the side of the vent, but apparently she didn't, as she felt her hand give way and now, she was hanging halfway out of the vent.

'Aw, fucknuts!' Cricket cursed internally, trying her best to return to the vent. She felt the metal plates that made up the floor of the vent scraping her poor knees, even if they were protected by her pants. She bit her tongue to stop herself from making any noise. Unfortunately, as her luck would have it, she fully toppled down from the vent with a thud on the ground. Yun's head shot up and he looked at her.

"What the hell-" Yun's eyes grew angry and he went to attack her, but Cricket scrambled up and held up her hands, eyes big.

"Hang on, Tang Yun!" Cricket yelped. "I just need your help with something important!"

"Nope. Get out." Yun ordered, pointing his long fingernail at Cricket.

"But you're the only one who can help me!" Cricket shoved his drawing into his face. Yun's expression shifted from confusion to anger, then he took a deep breath and stepped back.

"Why do you have that?" He said softly, in a tone of voice that sent shivers down Cricket's back.

"What is it? Is it important?" She asked.

"That thing is destroyed, or at least, it should be."

"Well, then, I have a surprise for you. We found this little girl with it. It was a tad bit dirty and I didn't make an effort to get it from her, but then I remembered your drawings, so I thought..."

Cricket trailed off when she noticed how Yun became very enamored by this. He stared at the drawing, then looked deeply at her.

"Yamato's music box is here?" He murmured.

"Yes."

"Then why are you standing there like an idiot? Take me there."

Cricket nodded with a smile and ran to unlock the door. Yun's heart thumped in his chest like a rabbit's foot.

It was here? And it could be his? And he could use it?

Yes, yes! Sander couldn't know, he would be upset at Yun's "backtracking" but that would be something he had to deal with.

'Mine, mine, mine,' he thought with need as he slipped out into the corridor, sticking to Cricket like a fly to a glue trap.