Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 17

"You're not doing anything" Yao snapped as he practically threw open the door to their home. Two days after the meeting, Leon was still insisting he could fight. No way was he letting that happen.

"This again" Mei groaned, swung herself up onto the table. "Can't you just agree on something?"

"Yeah" Leon shouted. "I can do stuff myself you know. I'm not a kid."

"But you're still to young to be involved in this" Yao hissed, putting a hand up to his head.

"I have to agree with Yao" Kiku sighed and walked to stand next to him. "You weren't there last time Leon. Three of us survived, and if you looked at them properly, those three were the Superpowers. We've got no chance against them."

"But we don't know what ours are like" Yong Soo said, ransacking the fridge.

"That's not the point" Yao said. "They change. They're all capable of killing, except maybe a couple of them."

"Then maybe ours will be like those couple" Kyung Soo appeared near his twin.

"I can't believe you Kyung Soo" Kiku said. "You're meant to be sensible."

"I am being" he shrugged. "I'm being completely sensible, because if Leon doesn't get involved, I'm guessing you won't let Yong Soo or I get involved, or Mei at that, and that'll be another four that you 'experienced' guys have to sort out yourselves. If you nearly failed last time with all matching counterparts and nations, how are you going to succeed this time with at least four people down on our side?"

"As I said before, some of them are easy to sort out" Yao muttered.

"And as he said before" Yong Soo yelled, slamming the fridge door closed. "Maybe ours will be like them."

"But they were all assisted by someone powerful" Kiku said. "Lovino's counterpart Flavio was weak, but he had Antonio's counterpart Andres, who nearly finished off the both of them. I guess they weren't quite sure what to make of Arthur and Francis. They've both had their fair share of fights and have shown strength, but not enough to know if they're capable of taking out their counterparts, so they put them together too. Being who you are, I'd guess that if yours was weak, they'd be put together with Kuro or Xiao. Neither of them are to be reckoned with. Kuro nearly killed us all and Xiao nearly killed Yao. If you did get rid of yours easily, you'd have to fight them too, with wounds and maybe being tired."

"But you know them right?" Mei cried, jumping down off the table. "So you know their weaknesses, where they usually go to defend themselves, what to use against them. It should be easier this time right?"

"That works both ways" Yao sighed. "We may know some of what they might pull, but they will know the same back, maybe more, maybe less, but three years is a long time, and parts are forgotten. Those who came back though, have better memories of the time as they missed out on a year. That means that all of them will have better memories of the time, and will be able to remember what we did or didn't do last time. It works more in their favour."

Mei sighed.

"But, you're still not going to let me fight" Leon asked. "Are you?"

Yao shook his head. "No. If you did, and you died, I... I don't know what I'd do. Same goes for everyone else."

"You let Kiku fight last time" Yong Soo jabbed a finger at Kiku. "He's only a little older than us and the same age as Mei."

"Last time, we didn't know what was going to happen" Yao gritted his teeth. "We didn't know how bad it would get. Now can we just drop the subject?"

Yong Soo shrugged and headed upstairs with a plate of food, closely followed by Kyung Soo. Mei hesitated for a second before running up after them and Leon trudged up a second later, probably to go and hide in his room.

"This wasn't meant to happen again" Yao sat down and buried his face in his arms, leaning against the table. "Why has it all just repeated itself? We didn't need this again. I can't loose anyone again."

Kiku stood for a second then gave a small smile. "It's not going to happen too badly again, probably."

"There it is" Yao looked up at him. "Probably. Probably this, probably that. There's a probability we'll all die again. A probability we'll win. A probability we'll loose, they'll win and we'll all die."

"But you heard what Feliciano said... or rather... wrote" Kiku quickly corrected his mistake. "They're trying not to kill anyone this time. They're figured out that that effects the country itself, not just the nation."

"But they could have been saying that to throw us off" Yao sighed. "You know them. They would do that to get us to put our guard down, then they'd kill lots of us. And there has to be some gaps in their theory right? It can't just be perfect like that, and everything work exactly. There has to be some flaws in it, where they can find a loop hole to kill someone."

Kiku gave up at that point, nodded and left Yao to himself. When he got himself in a mood like this one, there was no getting him out of it. As he reached the landing, Leon ran out of Yong Soo and Kyung Soo's room and stared at him for a second.

"There's someone watching the house" he said. "Look."

They were all in there, peering carefully out of the window at the street below, hiding behind the curtains to some extent. Leaning against the lamppost were two people. It wasn't that dark outside, so their features were visible. Both looked the same: messy brown hair, a long curl out from one side of their head and dark eyes, shrouded slightly in smoke coming from the cigarettes they both held.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it" Kiku shrugged, about to leave.

"But they were there when we came back" Mei ran in front of him to stop him leaving.

"Then they clearly like smoking" Kiku shrugged.

"There's someone else coming."

Kiku turned around and went back to the window. Kyung Soo was hiding behind a plant on the window sill, the curtain billowed around his neck, Yong Soo similar except behind a plush. The new person had short, choppy hair, a dark military style cap and a dragon tattoo down one arm. Kiku staggered backwards, receiving odd looks from his siblings. Suddenly, the two other people seemed a lot darker and more recognisable.

"They're here" Kiku whispered.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!