estirose

I... started this in 2010 for a Yuletide treat. Technically speaking, of the two fics I wrote for my recipient, this was the treat and the Monster High fic was the fill. If people remember me muttering about something called "Shroud's War", this is that fic. It's also over 13,000 words. Yow.

It takes place in an AU where Sokichi survived, though that proved to have a little less impact than I thought. I mentioned that I loved post-"Begins Night" fics, and this is kind of mine.

Sokichi looked at the young man shivering under the blanket, the one successfully rescued from the island. Shoutarou was trying to nudge him into drinking some hot chocolate, and at least the young man – Philip, he'd named the boy for lack of anything else – was willing to accept things from Shoutarou's hands, even if he wasn't willing to accept them from anybody else's.

This is an early sign that Philip's chosen Shoutarou. At this moment, Shoutarou is the only one he trusts.

He himself wondered how he was supposed to explain this to his client, the woman in bandages, Shroud. On the other hand, maybe he wouldn't have to explain such things as the fact that Shoutarou and Philip had transformed successfully into the armored form that he'd seen the previous night, a doubled version of his Driver. After all, Philip and Shroud should be of no concern to him after Shroud paid him, and he was sure that Philip would find a partner again like he'd found Shoutarou.

Despite Shoutarou's desire for glory, everything had turned out all right. The boy was okay, and they'd all come out of it with only a few wounds between all of them. He remembered how Philip had walked out of there with Shoutarou's unconscious form, and how his assistant had come out of his trance upon Philip's dehenshin. Shoutarou had babbled about mechanical mini dinosaurs and GaiaMemories and explosions for a few minutes after that, but Sokichi was sure he'd be all right.

"Shoutarou," he said, calling his assistant to his side.

Shoutarou came unquestioning to him. "Boss?" he asked, peeking back at his temporary charge, as if to make sure he was all right and hadn't fainted in the few seconds since Shoutarou had left his side. Sokichi wondered if that wasn't a side-effect of the device and the GaiaMemories, and hoped his assistant wasn't going to have a nasty withdrawal from his brief time using it. If so, he'd patiently remind Shoutarou that it was a stupid move in the first place, but he'd be privately relieved that Shoutarou was okay.

"The client will be coming soon." Unspoken was the fact that Shoutarou had to be careful; while Shroud had insisted that they bring the device if needed, Sokichi had a sinking feeling that she'd meant him to transform with the young man, not Shoutarou. Who knew what the consequences would be when she learned what had happened.

Still, it was a boss' job to protect his assistants, no matter how foolish or impulsive they could be, especially in their trade. Shoutarou would eventually learn to be patient and thoughtful, but he wasn't at that point yet, and Sokichi would have to protect Shoutarou from his actions. Probably pointing out that it had saved Philip's life.

Of course, he wouldn't publicly call Philip that name. It was a temporary one, one for both of them to latch onto for the space of a few hours. He was sure that the young man would understand, from the moments they shared in the Library. Or at least the place that seemed to be a library, all freestanding shelves sitting – or floating – in the middle of nothingness.

"Okay." Shoutarou looked rattled, which was fine, because he really needed to reflect on what he'd done. If he was lucky, they'd get out of this assignment with no problems; if not, his assistant would become far more involved in the whole dopant thing than Sokichi wanted. "I'll, um. Disappear."

"Go home," Sokichi instructed him. Shoutarou knew about the space back of the wall of hats, but that was also the way that Shroud would come, and Sokichi didn't want Shoutarou getting involved any more than he had to.

Shoutarou, showing sense, did just that. Philip, he noted, stared right after Shoutarou, to the point where Sokichi was getting a bit worried. Perhaps the agency wouldn't get out of this one free and clear.

That's an understatement!

A few minutes after his assistant left, he heard a soft knocking at the secret door. Shroud. Sokichi opened the door with the disguised knob, letting his client in. Philip didn't react, other than a quick look as if to affirm that yes, there was a secret door in the office. One that he'd even come through.

"You've succeeded," Shroud said, looking at Philip briefly.

"Yes," Sokichi said simply. He hoped that Shroud would pick up the boy she'd come for – though he also hoped that Philip would keep what he said in mind – and leave. Not because he didn't worry for the boy, but anything Shroud was involved in was dangerous to get involved in.

She drew an envelope out of her trench coat. "Here is what we agreed on."

He accepted the envelope, placing it in one of his own pockets, and then reached over to pick up the... device that she'd given him. Shoutarou had lost its container in the conflict, but at least he hadn't lost the contents – the driver that Shoutarou had used, and six GaiaMemories.

I engaged a beta reader for continuity purproses, because the damned DoubleDriver kept wandering about throughout this story.

She didn't reach out and take them. "I have another proposal for you, Sokichi."

"I'm listening." He owed her that courtesy, after all, since she'd given him Skull.

"I want you to be Raito's partner." She indicated the boy he and Shoutarou had rescued.

"I'm not a mercenary." He'd guessed correctly, not that it gave him much comfort. At least Shoutarou was gone and couldn't foolishly volunteer.

"You are compatible," Shroud said. "You have what he needs as a partner. Plus, you use Skull."

"Only when dealing with Dopants," Sokichi said evenly.

"That doesn't make you any less compatible."

"I'm afraid you'll have to go somewhere else for that," Sokichi said, keeping his tone even. "I'm sure you'll find someone else." He'd had to turn down clients before. Never Shroud, but he wasn't going to do what he wanted.

"Hidari Shoutarou can be my partner," Philip – Raito – said, from where he was sitting. Sokichi, while he was glad that the boy was making a choice, sincerely hoped that Shroud would be a bad example and say no. Because he wasn't going to allow Shoutarou to be drawn into Shroud's war.

Sokichi is a good man, and while he'd like Philip to make his own choices, he's serious about keeping Shoutarou as safe as possible.

"That would be your assistant?" Shroud asked. He had a feeling that she knew all about Shoutarou, but he answered the question anyway.

"Yes, and this isn't his field, either." Someone had to protect Shoutarou from all this, after all.

Shroud just nodded, and held out her hand for the Driver. Or at least that's what he presumed she wanted. He took the Driver and the six Memories and handed them to her, which she accepted. "If you change your mind," she said, "You know how to reach me."

Oh, yes, he did know; but he didn't intend to change his mind. "I'll keep that in mind."

With another nod, she reached out and hauled Philip up, taking her charge out the door with her.

In that time since he and Shroud had come to a halt in an enclosed area, Philip had gathered enough information, he felt, on the other person whose body he had shared - one Hidari Shoutarou. He was a curious person, hotheaded, impulsive. He'd read Shoutarou's book and it had confirmed his guesses.

It had also intrigued him. Shoutarou was the first person he understood that closely, a complement to his own logic and reason. Both Shroud and the detective - Boss, Shoutarou had told him, but his book had said Narumi Sokichi - had dismissed Shoutarou out of hand, and Philip didn't understand why. He and Shoutarou had sins, so why wouldn't they let the two of them fix things?

"Hidari Shoutarou isn't an ideal candidate?" he asked, with the same tone that he'd use to inquire about why he was being asked to develop one Memory over another. He had the sense that sins weren't what the woman was interested in; it was something else.

"He lacks what I'm looking for," Shroud said. "I need someone with passion. Anger. Someone who would be your match."

"Narumi Sokichi would seem to lack those qualities as well," Philip pointed out. "However, I observed what you're looking for in Hidari Shoutarou."

"He has lost nothing," Shroud said. "He doesn't know that pain."

Philip thought about that. Theoretically, one didn't need any quality to work a Memory, just a willingness to accept a connector. Hidari Shoutarou hadn't lost anybody, that was true, but he did have the other qualities that Shroud desired in a partner for him. "Loss is not required to use a GaiaMemory," he pointed out. "He fits the criteria otherwise."

There's a small continuity error here, though not a critical one. Philip later mentions that Shoutarou's mother died. So, technically speaking, Shoutarou has lost someone. Oops.

Shroud sighed. "There are things you don't understand, Raito."

"Raito?" he asked, not recognizing the word, and curious, now that she'd said it several times. He cocked his head, hoping that she'd elaborate.

"That is your name," she said simply.

Philip nodded. Names were interesting things, but he'd never felt the need to have one until Narumi Sokichi gave him his. It made sense to him, since this was a different part of his life than the factory, and a name would probably be of use in this world. That being said, the name that Narumi Sokichi had given him seemed to have more purpose than the name that Shroud had.

Of course, if she wasn't going to tell him what her requirements were, or why that last part was so important, Philip was going to have to find some way to prove to her that Hidari Shoutarou certainly did fit her parameters. And Philip couldn't activate the device alone, not that he wanted to.

The next day, once Shroud had left him alone – with instructions to stay there, of course – Philip pondered her words and then decided that she needed a demonstration of why Hidari Shoutarou was the correct choice.

It was a simple matter of retracing their path before he was opening the door to the office of Narumi Sokichi. The detective looked up, startled, as he came in, but he ignored him. It was Hidari Shoutarou that he focused on, who was standing nearby with a piece of paper in his hands.

That was no matter. He'd borrowed people before. He walked up to Hidari Shoutarou and took him by the arm, dragging him towards the door, ignoring his shout of "Hey!"

But Narumi Sokichi hurried to the door, blocking him. Philip looked at him, wondering why he was doing that. Nobody had ever objected to him borrowing personnel before, or at least had the courtesy to tell him that someone was critical beforehand.

"I believe you have my assistant," he said. "I'd like you to unhand him."

"Why?" Philip asked. "Is he needed for a critical project?" He was sure if Hidari Shoutarou was critical, Philip would have been told... and the man had given no indication that he was. Besides, he was critical to Philip's project, a known quality.

"Normally," Narumi Sokichi said, "You don't just... borrow people."

"But I need him for my demonstration," Philip protested. "He fits the parameters almost completely...."

"Um," Hidari Shoutarou said.

"He's passionate and angry," Philip added. Maybe if he stated the facts, the man would release Hidari Shoutarou for his experiment.

"Hey!" That came from Hidari Shoutarou, but he wasn't sure why.

"Philip," Narumi Sokichi said, "Have you ever heard the term 'kidnapping'?"

Philip considered that for a moment. "To steal, carry off, or abduct by force or fraud, especially for use as a hostage or to extract ransom." He considered it more, sifting through the information in his head. "But I'm not abducting him." How could he? Hidari Shoutarou had been his willing partner, and all the data that he had indicated that the word in question involved force.

I had a fun time looking up the definition and having Philip echo it. I believe this one came from dictionary.com, but I'm not sure.

"Normally," Narumi Sokichi said, "You ask permission first."

Philip considered this. Maybe things were a little different outside the lab.

"I wish to borrow him for an experiment," he said. There, that was polite. "May I?"

Hidari Shoutarou's face was twisting in various interesting expressions that Philip couldn't decipher. Maybe he'd ask about them later.

As one can probably guess, Shoutarou is kind of "what in the hell are you doing" right now and has the facial expressions to match.

"No, I need him," Narumi Sokichi told him.

Ah, so Hidari Shoutarou was critical for something! "When will he become available?" he asked. He could always requisition.

"Philip...." Narumi Sokichi seemed to think for a moment. "Here, let's go sit down."

The man walked towards a couch, Philip following, still holding onto Hidari Shoutarou. He settled down onto the couch opposite where the man had sat down.

"Philip," he said, "In this world, it's not a matter of if someone is critical or not."

"It isn't?" Philip asked, thinking about that. What, then, were the requirements, if not those?

"Neither Shoutarou nor I work for your... former employer," Narumi Sokichi said. "Nor do we work for your mother."

Philip thought about that. "She indicated last night that she still considered you to be her employee."

Narumi Sokichi gave him a smile, but it was a bitter one. "I work independently. I contract out to people who need things found or watched. I don't have an employer, as such. And even if I did work for her – and I refused – that's no reason to be trying to take my assistant away."

Scratching his head, Philip asked, "But may I still borrow him?"

"Hey, how about asking me?" Hidari Shoutarou asked, but Philip ignored him.

"I don't want him involved in what Shroud's planning," Narumi Sokichi said. "Besides, I would think you'd want to ask his permission, not mine."

Philip thought about that. Things definitely worked differently outside. Besides, he'd been the one to ask Hidari Shoutarou to partner with him, hoping against hope that the other's impulsiveness would save his life.

"Would you like to ride with me again?" he asked Hidari Shoutarou. No, just Shoutarou, given that they'd shared a body twice. "Or are you afraid to ride with a devil?" That's what Shoutarou had called him, after all.

"Hey, I'm not afraid of anything, I just... I don't want you taking over half my body or knocking me unconscious again," Shoutarou said.

Both of which Shoutarou gets to experience as double. *wry grin*

He'd been able to deal with Shoutarou before because he was outside the place's chain of command; he was not accountable to or accountable for the other man, so he'd been able to make use of him without worrying about the consequences – a choice that had saved their lives. But after the rescue, Shoutarou had become one of Shroud's employees, and he'd become accountable. However, he'd happily treat Shoutarou as an outside agent again, as Narumi Sokichi seemed to be.

Once Shoutarou agreed, Philip would partner with him and they'd be able to prove to both Shroud and Narumi Sokichi that they belonged together.

Besides, he really wanted to try that again, being one with another person.

Philip, I think, is getting into this 'partnership'/'being concerned about another person' thing.

"And besides, we're not in danger any more. And I want to learn to be a detective," Shoutarou said.

Philip thought about that. "Then I'll learn to be a detective with you," he told Shoutarou. Given time, Shoutarou would come around, and join with him again. He turned to Narumi Sokichi. "Certainly, you could use a researcher for your cases?" The man looked ready to object, but Philip spoke up again. "And, surely it would keep me out of this 'danger' that Shroud is involved in?"

Narumi Sokichi was silent for a minute. Or three. Philip could not see a clock.

"I think Shroud has other plans for you... and I can't afford to hire another assistant."

He had a point. But without the Driver to unite him with someone else... well, Shroud probably wouldn't need him, would she? She certainly hadn't acted like he was anything special to her. And even if he was, he surely would be even more special if he proved his hypothesis about Shoutarou.

"I would prefer to work with you," Philip said. "After all, I just need a place to write and food... otherwise my needs are simple."

He hoped the appeal would work with Narumi Sokichi. What he'd read from Shoutarou's book was that Narumi Sokichi was tough but fair; perhaps he'd be willing to take Philip on.

"As long as Shroud agrees," the man said finally. He looked at something Philip couldn't see, then looked back at him. "We'll see. I'm sure she'll figure out where you've gone, soon."

Philip merely nodded. If she didn't agree, it was just one more obstacle. He'd figure out something... research in the Gaia Library, do whatever he needed to, in order to experience that being part of someone, being one with someone, again. All he had to do was wait.

"Is this a good idea, Boss?" Shoutarou asked, deciding that his Boss had lost his mind sometime in the last day or so. Yes, he was concerned about the boy they'd rescued, especially coming out of that whole thing. Maybe that whole getting stuck with the boy in his head made him that way. But he was irked by Philip's tendency to talk as if he wasn't there. And besides, the adventure was over and he didn't want to get into any more trouble with his boss.

His boss held up his hand. "That's only if Shroud agrees. And besides, I don't think she can teach him to be a man."

Shoutarou thought of how Philip had acted, both in the factory and when he'd come in, a few minutes before. "That's because he's a devil."

Narumi Sokichi snorted. "No, he just doesn't know how to act. And we can teach him."

Shoutarou was unsure about that; it was more exciting than their usual work. On the other hand, he wasn't sure about getting in danger, not after the lunch they'd had earlier and his Boss explaining a little bit about the war that Shroud was involved in. And he was also not sure he wanted anything to do with the boy his Boss was calling Philip.

It had been bad enough, as he mentioned, with his body first half taken over and then finding that he was in another person's body. And then they were carrying his body, a sight that he thought he'd never see.

At least he had gotten back to himself and been able to disengage the thing before he found himself part-borrowed or in somebody else's body again.

"I'm going to go talk to Shroud," his Boss said. "You, keep him here until I... we come back."

Another bit of an error. Sokichi should have said "the client".

That was probably going to be easy, given how Philip had been clinging to him ever since they came out of the transformation the night before.

"I'll take care of him," Shoutarou promised.

"Good," his Boss said, putting on his hat and going out.

Sokichi was serious about what he'd said to Shoutarou and to Philip. Philip needed teaching; he seemed ignorant of a lot of things, like how to act around other people. And it would keep him out of Shroud's war. Philip was an innocent, and innocence, especially with people Philip's apparent age, was to be treasured.

He found Shroud in the meadow she frequented. "Shroud," he said.

"Sokichi," she replied, switching to a familiarity she didn't deserve. "Has Raito been kidnapped again?"

I did, however, catch an error of Shroud calling Philip "Philip", instead of "Raito".

"No, but he tried to kidnap my assistant today," Sokichi said. She did deserve some respect, but someone had to stand up for Philip, even against his own family. Especially against his family.

"I'm sorry for that," Shroud said, turning away from him, sounding genuinely regretful. Sokichi had no doubt that those words were not lies."I told him that your assistant wouldn't make a good partner to him."

"In a way," Sokichi said, "He is. Just not with a GaiaMemory and a driver." He knew that if he was to convince Shroud that her son needed to learn more of the world, he had to do it then.

"How can he be partner to Raito? He has no hate, no anger...."

He suddenly understood why she'd tried to pair him with her son; he had the experience, and he'd known hate. Tamed it down, brought it to a reasonable level, but he was a man, he'd known passion and anger in several forms. "He does, but I won't let you use it."

She swung around. "Are you saying that he is a worthy partner? He could never keep up....."

"No, but he can teach... " He paused to remember what she'd called Philip. "… Raito about the world. Unless you plan to use him as cannon fodder, he needs to know how to function. He has the knowledge. He doesn't have any practical use to put to it."

"None of us might survive this," Shroud said, dipping her head. "And Raito…." She paused, as if unable to speak. "Raito…."

He could have sworn she was sobbing, a little.

And he knew he couldn't comfort her; all he could do was stand there and let her work it out of her system. He felt a pang as he watched her, thinking of Akiko, his own daughter, back in Osaka. Back where it was safe, or at least out of this particular conflict. And where he couldn't harm her, after what Matsu had done.

This was part of the stuff I wrote in 2010, but since we now know why Sokichi never spent time with Akiko, I added it in.

And if he had a say in this at all, he would keep Shroud's son safe, too, or at least as safe as possible. With as normal a life as possible.

After a time, she looked over at him. "I'll leave him with you. At least until I can find him a partner…."

Sokichi nodded. "I'll take good care of him," he promised, the promise of a daughter's father to a son's mother.

Shroud said nothing, moving off. Sokichi could only imagine her grief, but left her to it.

Shoutarou watched Philip as the boy – well, not that much younger than him, but he seemed that young – explored the office. He wasn't sure what to make of him. He'd been able to get along okay with Philip when they were getting out of there, but survival always trumped everything else. Even if survival required plugging unknown GaiaMemories into an unknown device and sharing bodies with someone else for a short while.

At least he knew that maybe, he'd gotten lucky, and avoided the addiction that GaiaMemories were supposed to cause. His Boss had seemed comfortable with his own GaiaMemory, but he'd had something called a "Driver" – and apparently, Shoutarou's device had been the same kind of thing. Maybe they filtered out what caused the addiction.

He didn't intend to use one, ever again. Partly because he wanted to prove to his Boss that he was capable of being cool and collected, responsible and worthy of wearing a hat.

"Interesting," Philip said briefly. "You don't use technology past the early twentieth century?"

"Not really," Shoutarou said, after a moment. He'd had a cellphone, once upon a time. Really. But then he'd come to work for Narumi Sokichi and he'd gotten used to doing most of the footwork manually. In fact, probably the only things they had in the office that were made past the 1940s were the coffee maker and the refrigerator. "It doesn't bother me."

"You've always had a fascination with detectives," Philip said, examining the refrigerator. "It comes from your background as a juvenile delinquent."

"Yes I ha – hey!" How could Philip have known about either of those? It wasn't like Shoutarou had hidden them from his employer, but most of the world didn't know. "How do you-"

"Know all this? I researched you last night. We are partners, after all." Philip turned to face him. "I needed to know your strengths and your weaknesses so that we could combine more effectively."

That... brought up a mental image that Shoutarou hastily squashed. "No, we're not," he said. "We combined... did that once."

"Twice," Philip corrected.

I realized I'd made a mistake here, but it gave Philip a nice line anyway, so I kept it in. Also, Shoutarou tends to think sexually where Philip thinks platonically.

Oh, yes. That was when he'd discovered he was in Philip's body and Philip was hoisting Shoutarou's own unconscious body out of there. "Twice," he corrected himself, hoping this was all a dream.

Maybe he'd get lucky and Philip would get shipped back to wherever he'd gone off from.

"Wait a minute," he said, after parsing the rest of what Philip had said. "You researched me?"

"Of course," Philip told him, toying with a coffee cup. "Ideas and concepts aren't the only things in the Gaia Library. People are there, too."

Gaia Library? Shoutarou decided he shouldn't ask.

"Of course, you can't make a memory out of a person, but sometimes I read them anyway," Philip said. "It was a simple task to find your book, Shoutarou."

Shoutarou scratched his head. "You're not making any sense," he said finally.

"Everything is in the Gaia Library," Philip told him. "People, places... if there's anything I want to know, I look it up."

"Including me," Shoutarou said, unsure as to whether he should be humoring Philip or bringing him down to earth. But then he'd remembered what his Boss had said; Philip had all the knowledge in the world stuffed into him; why shouldn't he think of accessing the knowledge as books? Shoutarou had heard worse metaphors.

"Of course," Philip said. "Since we combined, I didn't have to search long for your book."

In other words, somewhere stuffed in that head was information about Hidari Shoutarou, though Shoutarou had no clue as to how it had gotten in there. Especially about his past.

"...Okay." Maybe if he supposedly acknowledged what Philip was saying, Philip would shut up.

"You were born on February 2nd, 1990, and you are nineteen years old," Philip said, oblivious to Shoutarou's annoyance. He knew how old he was! "You grew up here in Fuuto, with your parents, Hidari Shingo and Midori. However, your mother passed away when you were twelve. Your father was a salaryman, adding to your sense of abandonment."

A tiny bit of the Shoutarou backstory request here.

"I know my own history!" Shoutarou yelled. How long was the Boss going to take to get Philip out of there, anyway?

"Of course," Philip said, as if Shoutarou hadn't yelled. "You're a fascinating person, Hidari Shoutarou."

"Thanks. I think." He didn't want to really know Philip's definition of "fascinating", but at least it was keeping him busy. Maybe. He sighed, sitting down on the couch in the consultation room. "What else do you know about me?" Maybe that would make Philip concentrate on one thing... and hopefully nobody but the Boss would walk in.

Philip came over to sit beside him. "You did decently in school, earning good grades, but soon classes bored you...."

Shoutarou leaned back into the couch. He hoped his Boss would come home and get Philip out of their hair, soon.

Sokichi walked back to the agency, making plans. Philip would have to stay somewhere; in the agency was probably safe, or rather, the area behind it. That area would keep Philip out of the sight of clients, while allowing him to duck in and out, or for that matter, for Shoutarou to duck in and out. This wasn't the first time he'd had to hide someone in the area back there, and it wouldn't be the last.

"Boss!" Shoutarou got up as he walked in the door. Philip followed after him like a duckling, talking about yeti and UFOs.

The yeti and UFOs being part of Shoutarou's background in canon, of course.

"Shoutarou. Take Philip in the back and get him settled." Sokichi motioned towards the secret door, hoping that Shoutarou would get the idea.

"He's staying?" Shoutarou asked, sounding less than thrilled about the idea. Sokichi had to wonder what had gone on, but he didn't ask.

"Yes. Get him set up." At least Shroud had the Driver and so Philip couldn't do anything rash. Nor could Shoutarou, though Sokichi doubted he'd be so willing to transform again. He'd tell Philip he'd hidden it away and hope the truth wouldn't come out, that Shroud had the device. It wasn't like she liked Shoutarou as Philip's partner anyway.

And Shoutarou seemed about as eager as Shroud to play partner to Philip, so there were few worries there. Hopefully, the experience would make Shoutarou calmer, or at least more thoughtful, and more prone to obeying orders.

That might be a longshot, but Shoutarou seemed to have thought a bit about his recent experience and maybe put things into perspective.

There was a knock on the door, and Sokichi went to answer it.

Shoutarou led Philip to the empty space that hid behind the agency. It was pretty much empty, except for a few things stored here and there. There should be a bed someplace about, one that Philip could sleep in; a futon at worst. "Did you sleep on a bed or a futon?" he asked their guest – well, new employee – as he rummaged around, looking for either.

"A bed," Philip answered, though he seemed more interested in the contents of the room than Shoutarou's answer, and Shoutarou figured he was only getting an answer because Philip was interested in him at the moment, and maybe that fascination would go away. Soon. He wasn't really interested in merging again.

"Well, for the moment, we've got a futon," Shoutarou said, recognizing the spare from their last guest. "But there's a bed around here somewhere...."

It would just take a little detective work, that was all. He was good at that.

He was aware that they'd probably have Philip for a while, and his Boss intended him to teach the other boy how to act in public. Shoutarou had no idea how; he might have been a delinquent, but at least he was a polite one.

But the Boss was the Boss, and he wanted to be a detective, so here he was, trying to find Philip a bed.

Philip, in the meantime, had found a couple of whiteboards that they'd needed for one job, and was now testing the ink in the markers. Well, at least if it kept him busy, Shoutarou could set things up for him. He kept the futon nearby just in case their guest would have to sleep on it that night, and looked for the bedframe and a lamp.

He'd probably need a chest of drawers, too, if he was staying there a while. Clothes, too. He'd need something more than the modified pajamas he was wearing. Hopefully the client might have some of Philip's clothes. Either that, or Shoutarou was going to have to take him clothes shopping, and hope that some of his own clothes fit, temporarily. Philip looked too skinny and a bit too tall to fit into Shoutarou's spares for long.

At least he was still engrossed in the whiteboard. A blue pen apparently was working, and Philip was scribbling something in English on it. Shoutarou's English left a lot to be desired - his Boss read it fluently, because he'd wanted to read his favorite novels in their original language - so he had little clue about what Philip was writing.

For some reason Shoutarou is surprised later when Philip speaks English - but then again, some people read much better than they speak a language, so it's not really a continuity error.

He reminded himself that Philip was his coworker now, and probably his responsibility. At least the Boss had made it seem that way. So, he should try to be a good sempai.

Finally finding the mattress - and grimacing at the smell - Shoutarou turned in Philip's direction. "Hey there," he called. "It looks like you have a choice between a decent futon and a smelly mattress. Which one would you like?" He paused for a moment. "And you're not sharing mine!"

Philip gave him a smile that didn't bring him any comfort, and he wondered if he was going to have an uninvited guest that evening. After all, apparently Philip knew where he lived. And who knew what abilities the other had, besides having knowledge stuffed in his head? After all, he seemed unwilling to leave the island, at first. Shoutarou wasn't sure what had changed his mind – though people shooting at both of them could have had something to do with it – but his mind had obviously changed. After all, it seemed like Philip could have easily gone back to his employers/kidnappers and asked them to take Shoutarou.

"Why were you willing to come with us, anyway?" Shoutarou asked, to distract Philip. "You could have escaped, you seemed to like it there...."

Philip paused at that. "Your Narumi Sokichi posed something to me that I hadn't thought about before," he said. "You also were part of it."

"I was?" Shoutarou asked. Other than getting annoyed at Philip, he hadn't done much before they ended up combining to save their lives.

"I hadn't met with such opposition before," Philip admitted. "I knew of the objections to the GaiaMemories and their uses, but I don't remember encountering such anger. If you hadn't forced me into the machine, I wouldn't have had time to think. And after that, in the Gaia Library, Narumi Sokichi told me that a man was the sum of his decisions."

Though, upon reviewing the source, Philip seemed very able to counter Shoutarou's protests. I'm figuring that Shoutarou's reaction wouldn't have kicked in if it hadn't been for Sokichi.

Shoutarou wondered when they'd had the time – after all, once they'd figured out where Philip was, it hadn't taken the Boss long to bust him out of the diamond-shaped thing where he'd ended up. Of course, then they'd all been shot at - which might have influenced things more.

And of course Philip had been the one to propose joining – though Shoutarou had to wonder how much of that was self-preservation, how much of it was what the Boss had told him, and how much was him wanting to try out the belt.

"Although I am puzzled why he now opposes us joining so much," Philip said, not paying attention to Shoutarou at all.

"I think he'd say that just because you can make choices, that doesn't mean they're wise," Shoutarou said, rubbing his cheek in remembrance of the slap that his Boss had given him when he'd wandered off to grab Philip. It hadn't been his first; he suspected it would be far from his last.

"But being able to combine is a sound tactical decision," Philip said, standing up. "Especially since I doubt that the people you took me from will take their defeat or my departure graciously."

Yeah, Philip had a point. But if anything, the Boss was sure not to approve, and Shoutarou liked the idea of being a detective far too much to change his mind. Besides, before Philip had come to try to take him, they'd had a discussion about how dangerous GaiaMemories were, even when filtered through a driver, and how lucky Shoutarou had been that he'd come out of it with a few bruises and some temporary attachment to Philip.

"Knowing the Boss, he probably gave it back to your mother," Shoutarou said, trying to dissuade Philip. After all, it would probably put Philip in more danger, and the Boss would frown on that. Philip was half employee, half charge, at least until the Boss was sure he'd be safe.

I have to check to see if Sokichi ever mentioned Shroud was Philip's mother, because I don't think he ever did....

"That would be one outcome," Philip admitted. "We'll just have to search for it until we find it."

"The Boss told me what happens with Drivers and Gaia Memories," Shoutarou told him.

Philip cocked his head, as if waiting for Shoutarou to continue.

"And... I'm not doing that again."

"They're going to be looking for me," Philip stated calmly. "It doesn't make sense to avoid using a device available to defend ourselves."

"Boss can transform, and besides, that sounded like a really good way to get involved." If Philip was going to try to convince him to do something the Boss said was really stupid, Shoutarou was going to discourage him by any means he could.

"You're involved, by joining with me," Philip said. "That won't be forgotten...."

Terror certainly would be interested! Though Philip is stretching things a bit.

Shoutarou wondered if his new co-worker was stretching things a little bit. After all, it had been chaos and destruction when they'd transformed, and the building was a wreck; how could they tell that he, Hidari Shoutarou, had been the one to transform with Philip? It could have been the Boss, after all. And they didn't know what Shoutarou looked like.

Unless they looked at any remaining video footage, of course, but Shoutarou hoped they wouldn't, no matter how much sense it made. He didn't fancy getting kidnapped by the people who had taken Philip, either.

Best to stay far away, definitely. Go back to a life that was pretty boring and exciting, all at the same time. Hope that he was forgotten. He wanted excitement, but the Boss getting shot at multiple times – enough that he and Philip had gotten separated – was more than enough for a while.

"Or maybe it will. People get lost all the time. What kind of video did they have there, anyway?"

It would keep Philip occupied for a minute or two at least, and then maybe he'd get an answer on the futon.

Philip looked thoughtful. "There was video surveillance on the labs, as well as the room where you and Narumi Sokichi found me, that would have been activated when I arrived there. While I have no direct knowledge of the video surveillance on the storehouse areas where we landed, I suspect from the speed of their arrival that security was monitoring the area – and it was intact when we left. Backups were streamed offsite."

That... was bad, but there was no reason for the people after Shoutarou to know who he or his Boss were yet. Hopefully. The Boss had gotten shot, and Shoutarou hadn't known at the time that he'd been wearing a bulletproof vest. The Boss didn't always share things like that with him, though he'd insisted on Shoutarou wearing one.

"They don't know who we are," he said.

Philip paused for a second. "No, but you shouldn't be that hard to locate."

"You mean us," Shoutarou reminded him. "You're an employee now."

"And you're my partner," Philip said, steadily looking at him.

Damn. He wasn't going to give up, was he? Shoutarou mentally thought about what he was going to do, and then he realized that arguing with Philip wasn't the answer.

"So, I'm going to go out. If you know how to set up a futon, you should be okay." He turned away, taking the steps up back to the office, quietly opening the door.

His Boss was putting a wrapped package away. Shoutarou wondered what it was, and then decided he didn't want to know. "I left him to decide," Shoutarou said. "He's going to need clothes, Boss, and I don't think mine are going to fit."

"I once knew a tailor," his Boss said. "Once he's settled in, I'll teach you to take measurements. It's something any man should know how to do."

Shoutarou nodded. "And Boss," he said, "He says the surveillance video was regularly streamed offsite. If they could identify us...." Philip would be in danger. They'd all be in danger.

The Boss went still and quiet for a moment, before holding up a hand. "I'll figure out what to do with that. Anything else?"

"I...." He didn't know how to say it without sounding stupid, or a tattletale. "I don't think Philip is beyond putting us in danger to use that again." He didn't specify what he meant, exactly, but he bet the Boss understood. "I told him some decisions weren't wise, but...."

Narumi Sokichi smiled. "He's taking his first steps, but he has a lot to learn. More than you did, Shoutarou. Just keep an eye on him. Protect him if you need to." He looked down at the drawer. "One of our biggest rules is to keep the client safe."

"Right, Boss," Shoutarou said, and desperately hoped that the package that his Boss had just put away wasn't the Driver.

And yet, in his heart of hearts, he knew it was.

"Shoutarou," Philip said, drawing his attention as he strode down the street towards the Windscale store, "I know that this is your favorite clothing line, but...."

"But what?" Shoutarou asked, scowling. Philip was dressed in a combination of Shoutarou's spares and some clothes they'd scrounged up. The whole idea of taking Philip shopping was that he'd find something that didn't look too small or big on him. And get him to socialize properly, though probably they weren't going to find that in a store.

"Are you certain that you want to dress me in it?"

Well, of course!

Shoutarou shrugged. "Look, Boss said to take you clothes shopping and gave us money, we're going to get you into something that fits."

Philip looked doubtful, but at least he didn't refuse.

They walked into the store, welcomed by an employee that Shoutarou recognized. "He needs something," Shoutarou said, pointing at Philip. "Here's his measurements." Handing over the paper with Philip's measurements from his Boss' session, he kept an eye on Philip, who had started wandering around.

"He doesn't look like he's the vest, shirt, and slacks type," the employee said thoughtfully. "He actually looks like some sort of eccentric. Hmmm…."

"Whatever you can fit him into that's not my clothes," Shoutarou told him. But the employee was off, deep in thought.

Ten minutes later, the man had come back with clothes. Pastels, mostly. Solids and stripes, it looked like. "Here, I'll have him try these on…."

"Yo, Philip!" Shoutarou called. Philip emerged from wherever he'd wandered off to after a moment. "Try on these clothes."

Philip looked at the clothes, but didn't resist. Shoutarou expected that he'd be trying out the "making a choice" thing full-force, just like he'd chosen the stinky, smelly bed the first night he was there, and Shoutarou had ended up taking it out of there because he couldn’t stand being around the boy.

The day after the day after that, he'd found Philip sleeping in his bed. He wasn't sure if he could find a new place to hide his spare key without Philip just looking it up, which was really irritating. He had a life, damnit.

Philip does this for a non-sexual reason: Shoutarou and he are part of a whole, so why shouldn't he sleep with Shoutarou?

At least after they'd replaced the mattress, Philip had started sleeping in his own bed instead of Shoutarou's. While he didn't mind the extra warmth, he felt awkward sharing with Philip – which made no sense, as Philip had pointed out, because they'd shared each other's bodies – what difference did sharing a bed make?

And, he'd also pointed out that it would only benefit them to share a bed, which Shoutarou reminded him again that they were not partners and he was not having his body or his mind kidnapped again.

Needless to say, it wasn't a conversation he was looking forward to having on a regular basis. At least with the speed that Philip went through topics, his interest in partnering with Shoutarou should eventually fade.

Or at least Shoutarou hoped so.

Half an hour later, they came out with a set of clothes. Pants, about the length of Shoutarou's own, with long-sleeved, lengthy shirts that were cut so that one side was longer than the other, and long vest-like clothes that reminded him of what artists wore, but with a hood. In other words, an eccentric set of clothing, but not much weirder than what some other people wore, and at least Shoutarou could get his clothes back.

And if they did mark Philip as strange, at least it would make Shoutarou's job easier when people realized Philip's manners were as strange as his clothes.

He let Philip hold one of the bags as he fished out the keys to his motorcycle. As he was getting the helmets out of the storage compartment, he heard screaming, and he swung around. It was still fairly early, but the stores had opened, and apparently more than a few people were shopping early. Or at least they had been, before whatever had happened did happen.

The reason for the screaming was obvious a minute or two later. A dopant came around the corner, bags, packages, and merchandise floating behind it. It was blue and had puffy arms, as if they were covered by graceful sleeves; the bottom half was covered by some kind of dark 'skirt'. On the top of its head was a yellow section, slightly subdued, that suggested in Shoutarou's mind a crown.

Queen Dopant, I think. Or Crown.

Unfortunately, this didn't help tell Shoutarou what he was supposed to do. The only thing he could think of was Boss' general instructions to protect his client. He thrust the remaining bag towards Philip. "Run!" he yelled, trusting Philip would run someplace safe. Of course, Philip might not, but his legs were longer than Shoutarou's and hopefully he had enough sense of survival to run.

He'd certainly had enough survival instincts to get Shoutarou into using the Driver.

After a moment, he felt air and quickly checked to see that Philip was following his orders. Which Philip was. Thankfully.

Not that Shoutarou could do much himself, but keeping Philip safe was a priority at the moment.

The dopant turned and hurried in Philip's direction, and Shoutarou moved to stop it, tackling it at the waist. Maybe the Boss could have done better, but if Philip was still running, then everything would be all right.

But the dopant kept moving, pushing Shoutarou in Philip's direction. Shoutarou wondered if the dopant was after Philip or the clothes, whether it was trying to recover the lost boy.

As the Boss had told him once, material items were replaceable. People were not. Clients were most definitely not.

"Your opponent is me!" he yelled.

"I'm not interested in you," the dopant said, speaking for the first time. "The clothes. I want the clothes."

Well, that solved that problem. Sort of. The dopant wasn't after Philip, but the new clothes, but Shoutarou wasn't willing to give up either, if he could help it.

"You can't have them!" Shoutarou yelled. He wondered how many people had lost their things to this dopant, and swore that he and Philip wouldn't join them.

And hopefully, Philip was still running.

Suddenly, the dopant swung away and Shoutarou noticed a shopper had unfortunately decided to come out. Perhaps finding their merchandise easier to get than his own, the dopant had started towards them, Shoutarou perhaps forgotten. Philip, apparently completely so.

He held onto the dopant stubbornly, keeping it distracted, only to be hit from behind. As he was tossed off, he realized that he'd basically been tossed off the dopant by two bags of clothes and a box from a well-known toy company.

Shoutarou would have found it funny how much force there was in those three packages if he hadn't been tossed into a step. He lay there for a few minutes, watching the dopant chase after the hapless shopper, before struggling up to find where Philip had run to.

It took him a few minutes to find the other boy, and he guessed it could have been longer, had he not gotten lucky. Or at least spent enough time around Philip to guess where he'd gone off to. A quick check of the Philip revealed that he and the clothes were in one piece, so Shoutarou slowly headed back towards the motorcycle, looking for a pay phone in order to call the Boss and tell him that they'd be slightly delayed.

Because of course, Shoutarou doesn't have a cell phone like sensible people do.

In the end, he couldn't find a phone, so instead, he got Philip and the bags on the bike and they headed back to the agency.

Philip watched as Shoutarou folded the rest of his new clothes and packed them into the salvaged dresser. The other man moved a bit stiffly, perhaps from his encounter with the dopant. When he'd been in the lab, the dopants had been theoretically interesting, but he'd never really seen them in action other than the ones associated with the lab. Out in the real world, they were... different.

Narumi Sokichi had given him the responsibility to make decisions. Shoutarou had said that not all decisions were wise. Given what he'd seen, he was sure the decision to combine with Shoutarou was wise, and maybe Shoutarou would see that too. He had been the one outraged at the use of Gaia Memories; he would be the easiest to convince.

And once Philip convinced Shoutarou and retrieved the Driver, it wouldn't take long to convince both Narumi Sokichi and Shroud that they belonged together.

"Shoutarou, about that dopant attack." He'd noticed that if you told a person something and then told them not to think about it, naturally, they did. They obsessed about it. He'd seen several scientists and technicians be that way.

"Yes?" Shoutarou asked.

“Certainly it wasn't interested in fighting... but I'm sure there are others.” Others, of course, being interested in getting at him. Sometimes, at the island, people only needed a little nudge, and some reacted to nudges better than overt asking, no matter how much relative power – or lack thereof – would have worked better.

Human behavior was fascinating, after all. He'd always felt like he was apart from other people; it hadn't occurred to him that it would be interesting to working with someone. And joining with someone... that had seemed like an ultimate experience. It seemed like a part of himself had always yearned to share himself with someone that intimately, and sharing a body and in some ways a mind had been what he'd always yearned for and not known it.

“Boss'll handle them,” Shoutarou grunted, though Philip knew he was thinking about it. He just had to find the Driver and have it handy, and Shoutarou – who obviously valued survival – would change.

They couldn't spend all their time that way, but enough to make him feel joined. He had researched sexual intercourse in humans and other animals, but it hadn't appealed as more than something to just try. He had produced a Sex GaiaMemory before, and he'd always wondered what had happened to it, for intellectual reasons.

Now, he wanted to fix things up for what he'd done.

“Okay, everything is in drawers, don't mess it up, okay?” Shoutarou said finally, and quickly left the room.

Sokichi looked up as his assistant returned. He'd left Shoutarou with the task of getting Philip clothing, and knew that in that task, at least, Shoutarou should be fine. He, in the meantime, had been sorting through their latest case. It was a missing cat, but after Shroud's request, he could do with a fairly simple case. Probably nobody would be shooting at him over this one.

Shoutarou was prone to disobey orders, but their last adventure seemed to have kicked some sense into him. Either that, or sharing a body and mind with someone had made him look at things differently.

He understood Shoutarou's desire to be a hero. He'd been that way once, himself, and it had taken pain and heartbreak to kick the habit. That, and nearly starving.

For Shoutarou, it had apparently taken a transformation. Or at least that should save him from ever wanting to touch a Driver ever again, from the little talk they'd had. Maybe it would save him from impulsiveness as well, but Sokichi wasn't too sure about that.

And in this war, this battle between Shroud and Terror, the last thing Shoutarou needed was to become involved. Sokichi knew that he'd protected Shoutarou before, sheltered him, and he'd do it again if he had to.

Bosses looked after their staff like that.

“I set up his clothes for him,” Shoutarou said, and Sokichi knew that he was talking about the shopping trip and filling up the small dresser for Philip.

But Shoutarou looked uncertain, and Shoutarou tended to wear his emotions on his face. He tried not to – that was the tradition – but Shoutarou wore his heart on his sleeve, like Sokichi once did. Sokichi wasn't as hard-boiled as he pretended to be, but he hid it, just like Shoutarou would learn to.

Unlike him, Shoutarou might not need a hat someday, except to look good.

“And?” He would have been a poor detective had he not realized something was bothering Shoutarou. It might be trivial, or it might be important. It was important to Shoutarou, however, and Sokichi knew that if he didn't handle it, it might prove disastrous to the future of the agency, not to mention Shoutarou's health.

But Shoutarou just turned away. Of course, he didn't have to say anything; he'd always wanted to do good, and the Driver gave him just that. Apparently, Philip hadn't given up, either.

Fuuto could use its heroes, but Sokichi was no hero. He was a good man, yes, and a good detective, but he couldn't be the hero that Fuuto needed. Or at least not out in the spotlight. His Driver and the Skull GaiaMemory might be useful, but they were tools. Tools that he didn't want to use.

GaiaMemories were addicting, and they brought out the dark side of people. Even filtered through a Driver, they were still dangerous. People bought memories because they wanted power to do things. He had been given his with the expectation that he'd do something too.

He, at least, had the sense not to use them. Shoutarou had used his once, and didn't seem to want to touch it again.

“Shoutarou,” Sokichi said, “Which Memory did you use?”

Shoutarou blinked. “Um. I think it was Joker. That's what it said, anyway!”

Sokichi held up a hand. In this, Shoutarou was not to blame; it had been an emergency, and a lesson, and Shoutarou seemed to be free of the Memory's influence. He barely seemed to recognize which Memory he'd used, which was good. It meant that Shoutarou didn't think of it as his; it meant that he was still free.

Even Sokichi felt an attachment to the Memory he carried. Skull was his, his, and nobody else's, or at least some part of him said so, a part he tried to ignore. Shoutarou had not formed that same attachment to Joker. Though he had thought how appropriate Joker was for Shoutarou, the wild card.

But he still couldn't have it. Not that Shoutarou had asked. He wanted to reassure and confirm to his student that it was okay not to want a GaiaMemory.

“I just wanted to make sure,” Sokichi said. He saw Shoutarou's nostrils flare, just the smallest bit.

“First Philip implies that you won't always be here, and now you!”

That had come out of left field, for sure, to borrow a metaphor. He had to wonder what Philip had said, and how innocent Philip truly was. Maybe not so innocent, despite everything.

And yet, it was the truth; he could die in this job, as could Shoutarou. It wasn't an easy life to be a private detective, and the fact that he held a GaiaMemory made it even less certain.

"I'm not indestructible," he reminded his student. "None of us are." He put a hand on Shoutarou's shoulder, a fragile reassurance that everything was going to be all right. "If anything, Skull will make sure I die young."

He saw Shoutarou's brow furrow. Of course, he'd been speaking metaphorically, but it was easy to think of the memories as living things. Shoutarou had made a Memory part of himself for a few minutes, and had been made part of a Memory for a few minutes, it sounded like.

Not that he was an expert on such things.

"As I told you before, Shoutarou," Sokichi said, "GaiaMemories are dangerous. It's easy to be consumed by the power without any filters - and the Drivers only make it slightly less dangerous. Even power meant for good can be abused."

And it wasn't like Shroud cared for good or evil, just her own schemes, when she'd given Sokichi the Driver and Skull. He had to confess, there were times when he'd needed it, and then cursed the need.

Better to save Shoutarou from that. Though Shoutarou was doing a damn fine job of saving himself. Maybe he was growing up, after all.

Maybe someday Shoutarou wouldn't need the hat. Maybe he would be a better man, a better detective, a hard-boiled one. In the meantime, Sokichi hoped he could keep Shoutarou from getting himself killed.

"How am I supposed to work with Philip – or whatever his name is – if he's going to talk about joining?"

Shoutarou had tensed his shoulders. He wanted to do right, Sokichi knew. He wanted to trust Philip – they might be good partners, someday, though Sokichi knew all too well what happened when one trusted the wrong person. At least Shroud had gotten him out of that one- and it was since a thousand times repaid, enough to not feel obligated to her about Philip.

Or Raito. Though he didn't know how safe it was to use that name, Philip's true one. "We should call him Philip. And I'll have a talk with him." Realistically, it should be Shoutarou who should get Philip to understand. They were at the same level. But Sokichi was Philip's boss, and this was Shroud's son. He'd take good care of Philip – Raito – until Philip could become Raito again.

In the end, funnily enough, it was Philip that persuaded Shoutarou.

Keeping him out of danger was the important thing; teaching him to be ethical would save Philip from doing things he shouldn't. Helping him make good choices.

Sokichi stubbornly banished the image of Matsu out of his mind. Philip wasn't Matsu. If he and Shoutarou did their jobs, he would never be Matsu. Philip would not betray Shoutarou like Matsu had Sokichi. Shoutarou would be able to touch any children, any spouse, that he ended up with. If he ended up with anybody at all.

At least that's what Sokichi hoped. "In the meantime, we have a case." He handed Shoutarou the folder, pretending he didn't hear the young man's groan. Missing animal cases were the staples of a detective's income, and there was little that could be done about that. Cases like Shroud's, potentially deadly, were much rarer. Missing cats weren't usually a cause of danger, unless they ended up trying to rescue a cat from a tree.

And that wouldn't be anything worse than a broken arm. If the Agency got involved in Shroud's war, they'd be in much greater danger. Of course, accepting Philip meant that he'd accepted that, but he'd had to; he'd taken in Shoutarou, and he could take in Philip. Both needed guidance, and no matter how flawed he was, he could at least try to make sure that the two of them turned out right.

"You want me to show Philip the ropes, boss?" Shoutarou asked.

"Tell him about what we do, and we'll start him working with us as soon as possible." If nothing else, Philip could be taught to answer the phone, to get the information, to serve coffee if needed. Things that would keep him out of danger. It wasn't like Philip could go out on the streets. "He's going to start learning how to greet and deal with clients."

Shoutarou gave him a brief nod, though it took him a moment before he seemed to remember where Philip was staying. But he was soon through the door.

To be honest, Shoutarou didn't want to go back to Philip, but the Boss was right – Philip needed to be a productive member of the Agency, he needed to know how to handle things. He needed to know how to take messages and make clients comfortable and use the filing drawers. And besides, maybe the whole thing would distract him.

Philip looked up at Shoutarou from his makeshift bed. There was a faint chill in the air, but Shoutarou couldn't tell if it was the air or just him.

"Boss wants you to learn how to handle things in the office." It occurred to him that he should be showing more compassion – Philip had been rescued, after all – but for his safety, he had to keep away.

Or had they rescued him at all? No matter how disgusting his work, he seemed to be enjoying it. He seemed to like what he was doing. As depraved as it had been, he'd seemed to be happy. Now, they'd taken that away from him.

It occurred to Shoutarou that in the absence of that, Philip had latched onto something else. Someone else. The Driver, and him. Now that they'd taken his focus away, he'd had to find a new focus, and Shoutarou and the Driver were now it.

He wondered how the people at that factory-place had dealt with Philip's obsessions, and decided they just knew how to use his focus. Which meant that Shoutarou had to figure it out, too, so he could work with Philip. He'd have to ask; he was sure Philip would be willing to tell. If there were others that Philip had obsessed about, it sounded like it had been dealt with quickly.

Shoutarou was a detective. He should be able to figure this out. He sighed, taking a seat next to Philip. "You worked with other people before?"

"Of course I have, Shoutarou." It occurred to Shoutarou that he was addressing him in a very familiar manner. He was sure it was affectionate and Philip didn't mean to be rude, but it still made him shudder.

In the original draft, I had Shoutarou protesting about the lack of honorifics. And then I realized that nobody in the story was using them, so I changed the line.

"It's rude to not address people with respect." He had, too, but his mistake had been because he had never been able to think of Philip as real- even as he'd shared a body with the other.

"We've shared a body." The words were simple, accompanied by a tilt of Philip's head. "They're unnecessary."

"The outside world won't know that." He wanted to argue with Philip, but maybe he'd better start with things like facts, instead. It occurred to him that Philip responded better to those anyway.

Philip tilted his head again. "Perhaps, but they will perceive my lack of formality as something other than that fact that we are partners."

"They'll think you're weird. And rude." How he and his Boss were supposed to get Philip to integrate with polite society, he wasn't sure.

His new co-worker just looked at him.

"Do you know anything about filing? Or answering the phone?" He guessed not.

Philip closed his eyes. "Filing systems... ah. Do you have paper?"

"Of course we file on paper, boss uses a typewriter." Did Philip somehow think... well, to be honest, Shoutarou hadn't remembered seeing a piece of paper in that place.

"No, to write on. Your whiteboard needs a new pen." Philip indicated the whiteboard in question, which was full of faded scribbles.

After a moment, Shoutarou realized Philip needed to take notes for some reason. He took his own small notebook and pen out of his vest pocket and handed it to Philip. "We're going to have to get you something."

I think that's when Shoutarou persuaded his boss to buy whiteboards. *laughs*

Philip started scribbling away madly after a moment, and Shoutarou tried to peer at it, but either Philip had the worst handwriting in the world or he was writing in nonsense.

"What are you writing about?"

"I'm exploring the concept of physical filing systems." Philip said. "The type of filing cabinet used in your office was created in the nineteenth century. Older versions were made of wood and were liable to burn. The predecessors of filing cabinets were desks, boxes, and in the simplest form, papers bundled together on shelves. I believe that another filing system was to place scrolls in baskets in a numerical order that would assist readers in finding what they sought."

Yes, I actually did research on this in order to give Philip to say.

"Do you know how to use a filing cabinet? Say, if you were going to actually file a case?" He doubted Philip would, but maybe the other would surprise him.

"The principle should be easy enough." Philip was still scribbling away in Shoutarou's notebook, though, and Shoutarou hoped he wouldn't have to get a new notebook. It probably would be cheaper to get a new pen for the whiteboard, just so that Philip wouldn't waste paper.

"Oh, good." If Philip could learn how to file and answer the phone, then maybe they'd get him used to living among normal people again. Which was a good goal. And not obsessing over certain people and things, which, as far as Shoutarou was concerned, was an even better goal. "Did you work with... um, a lot of people when you were working in... that place?" Maybe he'd answered a phone before. Shoutarou could only hope.

"Of course I did. I received orders and a requisitioned people as needed for my work." Philip was still busy writing and paying more attention to that than Shoutarou's words. Not that Shoutarou needed the attention right at the moment as he realized why Philip had tried to haul him off that first day. To Philip, all people were either to be worked for, to have work for him, or outsiders like Shoutarou. When he was first free, his instinct was to 'requisition' Shoutarou to join together.

Shoutarou hated using people, except as needed. Boss was honest and strong... but he wasn't beyond a little manipulation to find out who the culprit was in some of their cases.

"But you don't do that here."

"No. Narumi Sokichi told me that it was incorrect here." Philip finished his scribbling and looked up at Shoutarou, but Shoutarou noticed that he hadn't handed him his notebook back. "However, I believe that the two of us are meant to be together. Therefore, I ask you again to ride with me."

Shoutarou shuddered. But knew that maybe giving in to Philip might be the best way to help him integrate, to get him engaged with the outside world. It was a crazy idea... but Shoutarou had some crazy ideas and they sometimes even worked. "We don't have the Driver." There was no way in hell he'd try to operate a Gaia Memory without one. It sounded dangerous enough with one. He suspected it was in the Boss' desk, but he wasn't about to root about in there.

"I can find it." Philip sounded confident enough. "It will certainly be with one of two people."

Their client, and their boss. Shoutarou wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, especially since he wasn't completely sure about transforming again, though he had to admit that he didn't know how to keep Philip from doing it. After all, Philip had practically recited Shoutarou's life history shortly after they met.

"I don't think it's the Boss." Shoutarou wished he didn't have to lie to Philip, but it saved Philip from rummaging through the Boss' drawers.

"You should not eliminate that possibility, Shoutarou," Philip chided.

"In any case," Shoutarou said, wanting to change the subject, "Boss wants you to learn how to file and how to answer the phone."

Philip looked at him as if knowing exactly why he'd changed the subject. "I would be of more use with the Driver."

"Maybe, but the Boss' word is final." He hoped Philip would listen. "Besides, you're here to research. Maybe you can tell me something about this."

He thrust the file at Philip. Philip paged through it, reading it quickly. Handing the file back to a surprised Shoutarou, he closed his eyes, stretching his arms out.

Shoutarou could only blink. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm researching your missing pet for you." Philip's voice was serene. "I see that the cat's owner, Satonaka Hiromi, has recently moved into the area and is unfamiliar with the locations that her pet could have gone. She located it once on her own, but her attempts to find the feline this time have met with failure. She attributes her unfamiliarity with the area to her loss of her pet."

Shoutarou blinked again. "But that doesn't help with finding her cat!"

"The record also indicates that she fed her cat a special food on Thursdays. We shall acquire that type of food and be in the neighborhood tomorrow, and I believe we will find it."

Shaking his head, Shoutarou said, "You're sure about this?"

"I am quite certain. I will take you with me and we will find it."

"You're supposed to be keeping a low profile, remember?" he was pretty sure that the people they'd rescued Philip from knew exactly what Philip looked like. "There are people looking for you."

"There are people looking for you as well, Shoutarou," Philip said, just as calmly as he'd talked about the cat's location. "Therefore, we should work together to attempt to solve the case as soon as possible. Minimizing the risk would be acceptable, wouldn't it."

I forgot the question mark, but then again, it wasn't really a question.

Philip brought up a good point; how was Shoutarou supposed to protect him if they were likely to follow him home? "They'd find you through me."

"They would also seek to capture you. Your combining with me has made you of interest to them."

"What?" He'd known he'd put himself in danger, but he assumed they'd be out to find Philip. He hadn't been part of the whole thing, last he checked, other than being a rescuer.

"They've seen you combine with me. They'll want to experiment, understand why the merge happened, in order to make the GaiaMemories more useful. Vivisect you, if needed."

Philip is stretching things here, though the Museum would probably do this.

Shoutarou found himself shivering. "I'll talk to the Boss." He had to know if it was going to impact things. "You wait here."

Sokichi was still pondering things when Shoutarou came back into the room. It seemed like every time that Shoutarou dealt with Philip, he came back anxious and a little bit tired. He had to wonder what had happened this time, what Philip had said.

"Philip... um. He did some research on the assignment. He wants to go out with me to find this cat." Shoutarou could be excused for looking a bit stunned. "Tomorrow. With cat food."

Sokichi considered that. It wasn't the safest idea, but at least it was routine and it would help Philip adjust, even a little bit. He gave Shoutarou a nod. "If you're careful, I think it would be good for him." He studied Shoutarou. Clearly, whatever Shoutarou wanted to talk to him about, it wasn't Philip and cat food. Or at least not just Philip and cat food. "What else?"

He could see Shoutarou taking a deep breath. "He says that the people we got him from might want to capture me because I... used that Driver. And... take me apart while I'm still alive."

My beta pointed out to me that Shoutarou didn't mention this to Sokichi in the original draft, though Sokichi mentions it to Shroud later.

Frowning, Sokichi thought about it, and had to concede that it wasn't impossible. Unlikely, but not impossible. It could be Philip manipulating Shoutarou, or it might be a genuine concern, or both. "I'll find out. I want to visit someone over that missing persons case anyway, I'll find out for you. In the meantime, you will stay here and you will not leave. You hear?"

Shoutarou nodded, and Sokichi got up. He should ask Shroud; she'd know what risks there were better than anybody. The other case was a lie, but he doubted that Shoutarou would question it.

"Good. Teach Philip how to file." Grabbing his coat, he headed out.

He headed back towards Shroud. Finding her in her favorite spot, he let her recognize his presence. She didn't deal with intruders lightly, not with what she'd been through.

"Have you changed your mind, Sokichi?" she asked hopefully. His mind flashed back to the Double Driver, still safely in the drawer.

At least until Philip takes it the following night.

"No. But I need to ask you a question. It might impact whether I accept it or not, or even if I can accept it." He looked at her steadily.

She cocked her head at him. It was the same way that Philip did it, and Sokichi had to wonder if he'd learned it from his mother.

"Raito told my assistant that he would be used in experiments because he'd transformed with Raito." He let that sink into her.

She looked at the wall. "It is certainly likely, and Raito would know better than I, in some ways. Your assistant has endangered himself – you should step in his place to save him. If they know that you are Raito's partner, surely they would leave your assistant alone."

Sokichi knew from her stance that she wasn't telling the whole truth. That she wasn't willing to tell the truth. Shoutarou was still in danger, even if he took up the Double Driver with Philip. They still knew about Shoutarou, and Shoutarou would be easier to steal. Easier to spirit away.

"It's not that easy, is it, Shroud?" he challenged, though his tone was gentle. "They know about him now. It's one of the risks of the job."

"Yes," she said, and he heard the regret in her voice. "But you are the better partner, and I'm sure they would see it if you tried."

Throw himself to the wolves... or let Shoutarou do it. Even if Shoutarou never transformed again, they would still know that he could. That he was 'compatible' with Philip.

There were no easy answers, no easy escapes in their line of work. Despite Sokichi's best efforts, Shoutarou was in danger and even Sokichi couldn't save him now.

But at least he could warn Shoutarou. Tell him to be careful.

Sometimes, that's all a parent could do, all a boss could do.

"I'll think about it," he said.

The next morning, after stopping at a pet store, Shoutarou arrived at the office. His mind was on what the Boss had said after he'd gotten back from his visits.

"Shoutarou," the Boss had said. "Remember when I told you to stay in that spot?"

He'd nodded. He hadn't needed to be reminded that he'd made a stupid move, that he nearly caused everything to fail and that he might be vivisected by Philip's captors.

"This is why." And he'd told Shoutarou about what the client had said, how Philip was telling the truth, what danger Shoutarou had put himself in. Not from addiction, but from people wanting to take him apart while he was still alive.

But he'd still forbidden Shoutarou from using the Driver, reminding him that it was why he'd gotten in trouble in the first place.

At least Shoutarou hadn't been banished like several clients to the room where Philip lived for his own safety. The Boss wanted him to learn, not to hide. Not that it felt any better.

Sokichi was seriously debating doing this to Shoutarou, because of the danger.

"I'm going out with Philip," he said. "He says that we should be able to catch the cat if we leave by ten." It was a fair distance, and he wanted to give it plenty of time. At least he had a bike and it could take a passenger.

His boss nodded. Shoutarou didn't need to look to see the warning in his eyes.

He headed into Philip's room. "Come on. We're going." He'd written down the address, and he knew he could find it.

"Very well, Shoutarou." Philip seemed pleased to be going out. Maybe it was just because he was going out with Shoutarou.

The trip out was uneventful. Shoutarou showed Philip how to set out the cat food, hoping that he wouldn't attract every cat in the neighborhood. Then they sat down, though Shoutarou was briefly confused by a tourist asking for directions to the train station in heavily-accented Japanese.

I couldn't resist inserting myself into the fic for one paragraph.

Philip cocked his head as he left. "She could have chosen a more efficient route to Hiroshima," he said.

"Ah, I think she was struggling to understand me as it was," Shoutarou said. Waiting for the animals to show up was one of the most boring parts of the job. "And I don't really speak English that well."

"I do. I could have spoken with her, if you'd needed me to." Philip's statement was simple.

"You speak English?" Shoutarou asked. Hidden in that factory-place, and Phillip spoke English?

"I speak and read all languages, Shoutarou." Leaning back on the bench, Philip seemed more interested in the area around him than keeping watch on the bait. Shoutarou nudged him to look that way, which he did momentarily.

But Shoutarou's attention – well, Philip's too – was drawn upwards when a man yelled. "There they are!"

Shoutarou stood up, eyes wide, as the man pointed at him. Shielding Philip, he was ready to protect the other from harm.

Three other men emerged, pulling out all-too-familiar objects. GaiaMemories. The air around them shimmered, and suddenly they were in the masks that the men at the factory-place had worn. Shoutarou uttered a curse.

"Shoutarou. Use this." There was something hard nudging his back, and Shoutarou didn't have to look to know what it was. The Double Driver. He reached behind him, and felt two objects being put into his hand.

He looked down at the object. He knew the Boss had forbidden him to use it, but did he have any choice? The bad guys knew about him, and he wasn't about to make it easy for them to get him, or Philip. "Right." He slapped it around his waist, feeling the belt form around him. There was a feeling of other as Philip's own Memory shimmered into his belt a moment later, and then he pushed it down half on instinct before inserting his own.

The confusing sense of the armor shimmering around him and Philip's mind shimmering into his own subsided after a second, and Shoutarou found Philip's mind coordinating with his as they rushed forward.

I suck at writing fight scenes.

Soon, the men were out of it, Memories crushed under the form's foot. Shoutarou and Philip watched them, making sure they weren't a danger.

"We should give this a name, Shoutarou," Philip said as they waited. Shoutarou had moved Philip's prone body safely into some bushes. "Perhaps you should name it, as Narumi Sokichi named me."

Because I was writing from Shoutarou's perspective, I didn't note that Philip was going kerthud on the sidewalk. I should have.

It made sense. And it would pass the time, Shoutarou had to admit. He looked down at the device, and realized the best name for this form, this joining of minds. "Double." The Double Driver produced Double. He could live with that.

He wondered what the Boss would say when he came back. Wondered how well the client would take things. Wondered how much more danger he'd put himself in.

But that was for later. For the moment, Shoutarou felt at peace, like he'd found something to be a part of. He had to admit, that he liked the idea, on second reflection. Maybe he and Philip could protect more than themselves. It appealed to him, hurting those who made Fuuto cry.

"Ah, Shoutarou," Philip said, "Look!"

Shoutarou felt his body turning, and he looked down. Half a dozen cats were now having lunch on their cat food. One of them was the missing cat.

"I forgot about our client!" he exclaimed, laughing, and tried not to run.

This was a little abrupt, but I felt that going back to the detective agency/Shroud would just drag the plot along. I'd covered the main bit I wanted in the story - Shoutarou accepting Double - and so I ended it here. I might end up writing a sequel. I don't know.