Today was a very snowy day. It got so snowy, that instead of doing actual Union things, the ops chiefs had to go out and help clear the roads.

"Please, everyone head this way!" Lucas yelled, pointing pedestrians and vehicles to a snowless road. David helped him by holding lights to show the way.

Xuan was pretty sure foul things were yelled at them a couple of times, but he just ignored them.

"Tang Xuan." He looked up and saw Suhua walking towards him.

"Yeah?" He stopped and looked at her.

"Come on inside, I need to give you a check up."

"Aight."

They walked into the medical wing. He saw Mona sitting in a chair, along with the other patient, Ethan.

"Come on into the back, you three." Suhua said. They followed her into the room that the medical wing made just for their condition.

"Where's Dr. Heng?" Ethan asked.

"She had important businesses to attend to," Suhua explained, "So me, Sally, and Ahmed will be the only ones here."

"Ah." Ethan nodded.

"Let me see your burns now."

As the others revealed their burns, Xuan said, "Lemmie go change real fast."

"Of course! Just be quick." Suhua said.

He quickly went into a private room, pulling out the shorts he brought. He was glad to change, the medical wing was very warm that day.

He heard a sound. Shooting his head up, he slowly looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary. He shrugged, thinking it probably came from outside, finished changing, and left.

As the door shut, Yun peeked out from his hiding place. The last thing he expected was to see Xuan changing into shorts on a day like this.

He had been sent to investigate "Divine Weakening" after Hyde had gotten wind of it. He felt prideful at the time, being seen as the most sneaky to spy, but now he felt more annoyed. Trying to find anything out was tedious. Most doors were locked, and the ones he managed to sneak into had minimal findings that were locked inside cabinets that were a pain in the ass to get open.

One thing he did know was that the burns didn't change. Seeing Xuan just now made him realize that.

Noting the finding, he quickly got up and opened the window. There would be lots of people in today, he was sure of it, so leaving now would be his best bet. He got what he came for, after all; a computer file with the Esper Union's research.

***

"Any new symptoms?" Sally asked, tapping a pen to a clipboard. Ahmed knelt by the three espers, examining their burns.

"Don't think so," Mona replied, "just feeling kinda tired."

"Same," Ethan said, "I can walk around, but I still feel so freaking tired."

Sally looked at Xuan. He only shrugged. "I've felt fine, for the most part."

Sally wrote all their answers down. She smiles and said, "That's all for today. Oh, one more thing!"

She quickly took pictures of their burns. Documenting what the strange lighting-like burns looked like after every week was very important, according to Suhua.

"You're free to go now."

They thanked the doctors and they all went on their way.

Xuan felt a little hungry. All morning was dedicated to clearing the roads, and all he had to eat was a protein bar.

"Hmm..." he said to himself as he walked.

"Hey, Xuan!" Ling sprinted towards him.

"Li Ling! Hey, are you guys done with the roads?"

"Yeah, took forever," He rubbed his stomach, "Who needs this many roads, anyways?"

Xuan chuckled, "Made me feel super hungry."

"If you're hungry, imagine how I feel! I'm famished, starving!" Ling groaned.

"Well, then let's go make something!" Xuan said, "How about...cookies."

"What? No way. We're making something actually good."

"If it has spice, count me out."

"Eh?! Why! You love spice."

"I do love spice, just not your spice."

"What does that even mean?!"

"It means you go make your 'actually good' dish and I'll make my cookies."

"Tsk!" Ling folded his arms, then after a minute of thinking, smirked, "how about this. We have a competition."

"I'm listening."

"I'll make my dish, you'll make yours. We'll get Lewis or someone to try 'em and whichever dish they likes better wins."

"Alright, I accept your challenge." Xuan said.

The two of them raced to the kitchen, and got everything ready.

"Ready to be squashed?" Ling said.

"Like your spicy dishes could beat my amazing cooking."

"Cocky, are we?"

"I've been practicing."

"Yeah, good thing a pretty lady told you she liked your cooking one time."

"Hey!"

"Ok, ready go!"

Xuan carefully read the cookbook, mixing the dough like the tutorials had taught him.

From the get go, he knew he wanted to double the recipe. He planned on saving some for Yuuhime, to make ice cream sandwiches with.

He was going to add chocolate frosting, which he had to buy first.

"Hey, Li Ling, can you watch my cookies?" He yell-asked. 

"Uhm, why?" Ling yelled back.

"Gotta buy frosting!"

"Ah, I see, gotta add some premade stuff to make em edible? Sure, I'll watch em."

"Oh, shut up!" Xuan smirked as he left.

***

"What the hell is this?" Chuan looked at the letter Yue showed him. He was just finishing up clearing off the last of the snow from the roads when she came.

"I don't know," Yue said, "You're close to Li Ling, who's also close to Tang Xuan, correct?"

"Correct. Do you want to go to this address?" He asked.

"Yes. Raven and Gaius know about this too."

"When are we going?" He cracked his knuckles, "I don't take kindly to people who mess with Li Ling or his friends."

"In an hour," Yue said, quickly hiding the pictures, "Write down this address, **********."

"Got it." Chuan nodded and they left.

In a not-so-far away van, Yamato listened in. That was his address. A letter in "blue glittery gel pen" too.

"Looks like Tang Xuan let the beans spill," Yamato sighed, stroking the music box, "you know what that means."

Clearly, Xuan hadn't taken their deal to heart. What a shame! He really did like having someone at the union bases for his every whim, but life sometimes doesn't go in your favor.

He smiled and slid out of the car. Finding the red haired individual wouldn't be hard, but getting him alone was another story.

He would figure it out. He was Yamato, after all; kind, sexy, genius, mean, cunning...everything in the book, he could be.

***

Xuan quickly walked out of the store, two tins of frosting under his belt. He would surly beat Ling! Chocolate frosting covered cookies were the best.

He turned a corner, saw Yamato, and quickly went back around the corner. Why was he here? He was NOT in the mood to deal with him.

He could always go the long way. He trusted Ling to watch his cookies a little longer.

He went to go the opposite direction when he heard Yamato's defined footsteps.

'Don't come this way, don't come this way, don't come this way...'

"Ah, Tang Xuan!" Yamato yelled, running to him. He held the music box close to his chest.

"What are you doing here?" Xuan asked cautiously.

"Yuuhime made some treats for you, but it seems I've found you first."

"Yes, it seems that way."

Yamato was stepping closer to Xuan throughout this entire exchange, forcing him into an alleyway.

"Well, it was...something to see you out and about," Xuan peeked over at the alleyway exit, "but I've really got to go."

"I'm sure you do," Yamato said, "but I'm afraid they will have to wait just a bit longer."

"Yamato, I-"

"Shhh." Yamato raised his hand to Xuan's mouth. Xuan's heartbeat pumped overtime and his hands became clammy. Yamato was mad.

He did his best to appear not as afraid as he felt. The heat in Yamato's eyes told him to just wait it out.

"Did you tell anyone my address?" He suddenly hissed.

"No, I've never told anyone." Xuan said quietly.

"Then tell me why not one but FOUR high ranking ops chiefs know my address now!"

"What? Who knows?"

Yamato looked even more irritated, "I'm so disappointed. I thought we had something."

"I didn't tell a soul, I swear."

"You wrote it down, didn't you? Then someone saw it."

"I-"

"Don't worry, I'm still mad, but we can always move."

"...yeah." Xuan said.

"Anyways, there's one more thing I need to ask of you." Yamato said, pointing his finger at him.

"...ok, what is it?"

He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arms and legs. He howled and fell over. He felt his arms shaking. Looking down, he saw his burns were bright red now, and not only that, they had expanded from his forearms all the way to his shoulders.

"What the h..." he started, but his blood ran cold when a familiar song played.

"I must apologize, Mr. Tang Xuan. This is simply a safety measure to make sure something like this never happens again."

His heart beat against his chest swiftly and loudly in his ears.

It hurt. It hurt bad.

Not just his burns, but as soon as the eerie music played, his whole body ached badly as well. He wanted to cry, but nothing came. He wanted to move, but none of his muscles would budge. It was as if they were relaxed and tense at the same time.

Yamato's voice sounded loathsome.

"Go to sleep."

***

"Where the hell is he?!" Ling yelled.

He stared at the cookies Xuan had made. They came out of the oven hours ago. Lewis came over to try them along with Ling's special spicy noodles he made. He said Xuan's cookies were better, which caused Ling to get annoyed because "Xuan isn't even here!"

It was almost 10 pm, and Xuan wouldn't answer his phone, nor was he at his apartment. No one outside of Kaylee saw him after 11 am, when he left to get frosting, and she was no help whatsoever.

So, to say he was stressing was an understatement.

'Not again, not again...' Ling thought to himself. Xuan had been going missing far too often nowadays for his liking.

"Li Ling?" He heard Chuan knock on his door, peeking in.

"Master? What are you doing here?"

"You've been awake stressing far too long. Go to bed, it will help you clear your mind."

"But Xuan-"

"I know you're worried. But also remember Tang Xuan is a powerful individual. He can take care of himself."

Ling went quiet for a while, staring out his window at the dark night sky. Finally, he slowly spoke, "I know that. It's just...he won't talk to me about anything anymore. We're supposed to be best friends, best friends who can talk to each other about anything. But he's becoming so distant, and I...I don't know why!"

He growled. Chuan sighed and sat down beside Ling.

"I understand your feelings. Just give it time and patience. We will find Xuan, and he'll be perfectly fine."

"...do you promise?"

Chuan couldn't help but chuckle. Ling at this moment reminded him of the young boy who followed him around, begging to be taught.

"I promise."

Ling's eyes became wet, but he refused to cry. There was no time for tears. He would rest up tonight, and in the morning, would go out and find his best friend.

No matter what!