Disclaimers: All characters belong to rightful owners.
Story concieved by Lee.


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"My name?" Muneca repeated this rather stupidly as he, for a moment, found himself fairly lost in the dove's wing grey of the boy's eyes. It was a simple question, one anyone would ask, but, he never responded truthfully to it, anyway. After all, telling someone your parents saw fit to call you 'doll' wasn't exactly something he was eager to do. So, as always, he only gave the name his twin had given him years ago--he still wasn't clear on the why.

"Dante." He responded finally as he shook his head clear of its former thoughts. Smiling faintly, he tilted his head on side. "And yours?"

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"Dante..." Tesu repeated, his soft tenor almost caressing the name. "It suits you..." he added, a soft smile gracing his lips as continued to gaze into the sparkling hazel depths of the taller boy's eyes.

"Oh... I'm Tesu..." he replied, shaking himself out of his brief reverie. Glancing over at the watchdogs - who were, in turn, observing he and Dante expressionlessly, no doubt filing the incident away to report to their master upon their return. Paling slightly, Tesu lowered his gaze, mumbling, "C'mon... let's go talk to Fido and Rover about taking you home..." Without waiting for a response, he crossed over two where his 'escorts' waited.

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"Tesu..." Muneca repeated this name softy and, finding that he rather liked the sound of it, he smiled faintly. Still, at the other's slight paling and lowered gaze, this smile vanished entirely and, nodding to Tesu's latter statement, he followed over to the two escorts.

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Upon reaching the two watchdogs, Tesu quietly made his request. Of course, they had to argue with him. First Fric would tentatively agree, but Rover would stubbornly refuse. Then Fido would nod his acceptance, only to have Frac voice some assinine concern. Finally Tesu got fed up with them both.

"Look," he snapped, causing the two to raise their eyebrows in identical expressions of amused surprise, "He's hurt, and he needs a ride home," he said, gesturing toward Muneca. "*I'm* not going anywhere til the end of this stupid party, so *I* won't need the damn car til then... Therefore, one of *you* can take him home and be back in plenty of time to pick me up. Is that so fucking hard to understand?"

"Ausar didn't authorize us to make any trips other than taking you to and from this building," Fric...Fido... whoever...replied firmly, as if that were the end of the discussion.

"If Ausar has a problem with it, he can take it out of my hide...like he usually does..." Tesu answered savagely.

Thing One and Thing Two exchanged glances, upon which Thing One shrugged, "Alright, it's your skin, kid." Glancing over at Muneca,he nodded, "Whenever you're ready..." and moved over to wait by the door.

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"Hmmm..." Kisoku pondered the many, many possibilities of how to spend his morning with Sam. They could go the pizza parlor and antagonize the poor bus boy. They could walk and walk and walk until they got bored. They could...stay right where they were for all he cared. He was with his best bud. That was all that really mattered.

"I don't care...anything you'd like to do is fine by me, Sammy. Anything at all."

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At first, Muneca followed the conversation between Tesu and the two behemoths with a note of interest, but all amusement died as it became fairly apparent that this offered ride home would only mean more trouble for the other. Not willing to risk this, he turned to Tesu and, quirking a brow, he shook his head.

"Listen, if this is going to mean trouble for you or anything, then forget it." He shook his head further as he glanced to the man waiting for him by the door. "I can just walk."

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"Anything at all..." Sam sighed mock-heavily as he leaned against his friend's side. A grin shaping his lips, he rested his head stop Kisoku's own as he chuckled. "D'you really think it's wise to give me so much liberty, sempai? You know my mind as well as any..."

"Still...." Straightening himself, he shrugged and, reaching for Kisoku's hand, he started, as if to walk off, down the street. "Well, let's just walk for a bit and see if anything interesting presents itself, ne? Or, if we get to it, we can grab some pizza--I'm starved."

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"It won't," Tesu replied with a confidence he didn't quite feel. "They're just being...difficult..." A soft laugh bubbled up over his lips, "You know how watchdogs are... they won't even take a shit without permission. Trust me.. it'll be okay.."

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"If you're sure..." Mune quirked a brow at this, but, of course, he couldn't help but smile at the soft laugh. Crossing his arms, he shrugged a bit. "I just don't want to cause any more shit between you and your boss, after all that I've caused so far."

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"Quite sure.." Tesu nodded firmly, "And you haven't caused any shit, so I'll be fine..." Offering Mune another lopsided smile, he then said, "Well... I'd better get back to Robertson before he blows a gasket... um... Take care, okay?" Pausing a moment, he seemed about to say something further, but apparently decided against it and with no further comment, turned to head back over to his client.

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"Yea. You take care, too." Mune murmured, but, unfortunately, Tesu'd already gone. Not really wanting to see whatever plans the boy had for his client--or which the client had for the boy--he turned to his thug-in-waiting with raised eyebrows. Of course, he wasn't used to having a watchdog at his beck and call--no matter how briefly--so he fall back on his usual assholic behavior.

"Come along, now, Jeeves..." He snotted in his best, rather stereotypical 'high-class' voice as he walked out the door. "I think we had best go. The company here, for the most part, is far too... gauche..."

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"Oh, I know your mind, believe me..." Kisoku's lips stretched into a gigantic smile as he gave Sam's hand a squeeze. "But, we can always save that sort of thing for after milk and cookies."

"Besides, pizza does sound good...as long as we get to harass Willy! He's so cute when he's flustered." The blonde let out a long giggled at the mental image of the blushing, stuttering bus boy at their favorite pizza parlour. "...damn, and me without a lollipop. It's always much more fun when I bring lollipops."

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"Or _during_ the milk and cookies..." Sam purred jokingly as he returned the hand squeeze. Still, at the mention of Willy the poor, long-suffering pizza boy, he chuckled happily.

"He does sound so adorable and I swear to _god_ that, one day, I'm going to get him on his back." He giggled at his own stupid vow as he shook his head. Poor Willy. Really, he hadn't done anything to get their attention other than to be cute, shy, and work at their favorite pizza parlour; still, it was as good a pasttime as any!

"As for lollipops, isn't that one candy store nearby?" Sam grinned as he tilted his head. "We can stop and restock before we head over there. After all, what fun is it if we don't have something to... suck on?"

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"'Course," Darran agreed easily, bouncing Cordy a little to keep him giggling, "I'd never steal a girl from my buddy here-- or, for that matter, abandon you before you meet your friend at the puppet show." He directed this last part to Wolfgang, grinning in apology for the recent exchange, and the fact that it really hadn't included him at all.

Heh. And if he couldn't have his arm around Para's waist, this was the next best thing.

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"Ah, speaking of which, we should probably head over toward the show, now." Para agreed as she, too, cast Wolfgang an apologetic look. Really, she hadn't _meant_ to ignore the poor boy; it's just that when the flirting gene took over, especially with someone so receptive, she usually just couldn't help herself. "I think Cordy might get mad at me if I make him miss any of it, anyway..."

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To be honest, the names meant nothing to her-- it was this one Dana kept nattering about, even going so far as to print out pictures of him and stick them over her locker, notebooks... just about anything that would sit still for her. Besides which, Dana wasn't a friend, but there was no real need to bring that up.

"Oh no, you especially." Sophia did smile, a tiny bit, and continued, "I guess not everyone has eyes for only the lead singer, or such." She hesitated for a moment, and if she had been anyone else, would probably have grinned. "Surely you don't _mind_, do you?"

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"That is an excellent idea! We're definately stopping. God knows, I young vivacious creature like myself needs something to suck on!" Kisoku chuckled, as they became ever closer to the candy store and to his precious Willy.

The particular candy store was run by Mrs. Ohanaishi, a woman who could only be described as the a-typical cat lady. Her fat black cat, Mr. Kibbie, could always be spotted lazily a top the front counter. Kisoku couldn't resist giving the blob of a fur an affectionate scatch behind the ears as he walked into the store. The elderly woman save the boys an affectionate smile as she exchanged small talk in her native Japanese.

/Oh my! I haven't seen you boys in months!/

/Yeah it has been awhile hasn't it? How is the bird-watching going?/

/Oh my, it is a joy! No toucans, yet though. OHOHOHO!/

/Well, good luck with that!/ Kisoku grinned at the woman, as he plopped his bag of lollipops on the counter along with a twenty dollar bill. /Keep the change, Ohanaishi-san./

/Oh bless you! You are such a sweet boy!/

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Naturally, Sam followed Kisoku into the store and, after giving his usual affectionate greetings to the pudgy black basktball, he went off in search of his usual supply of sweets.

/Hey, Mrs. Ohanaishi! It seems like Lord Kibbie is getting fatter still!/ He chuckled as he grinned toward the kindly woman. Fishing a few cheesecake flavoured candies from his stash, he offered these to the cat who, quite willingly nibbled them. /He's going to turn into a fur-covered basketball before much longer!/

/Well, if you won't stop keep feeding him candies, he will,/ The woman chuckled as she ran up Sam's purchases.

/Tch! Not true!/ He protested before, a moment later, tipping his head. /That reminds me! Gleda has a gift for Lord Kibbie to replace that old toucan hat you had to get rid of. I'll bring it over next time I come around./

After paying for his purchases, he gave Kibbie-sama a handful of milk candies he'd bought just for that purpose before popping a lollipop into his mouth. Turning to Kisoku, he raised both eyebrows questioningly.

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/It was nice seeing you again, Ohanaishi-san!/ Kisoku grinned, dragging his friend out of the store. He rummaged through his bag, taking out a strawberry flavored lollipop and gently sliding it between his lips, running his tongue over its surface and examing its flavor.

"Damn, she has the best supply of candy ever!" Kisoku smiled, entwining his fingers with Sam's. "Candy, Pizza, Willy, and my best friend...what more could a guy ask for?"

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Finn - also occasionally known as Fric, Fido, Thing One... and now Jeeves - snorted what may have been a laugh in response to Mune's witticism. With a quick jerk of his head, he indicated for Mune to proceed him out the door before following, silently shepherding Mune to the elevator.

Meanwhile... back at the party, Tesu proceeded to make one James Robertson a very happy CEO indeed.

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