━━━━༻ ♠ ༺━━━━ code 01000111 ━━━━༻ ♠ ༺━━━━

Tristan watched her reaction carefully. Watched as she blinked rapidly, opening her mouth to say something but unable to form any words. Shock, confusion, and most of all fear blurred her (e/c) orbs. He always loved her eyes. He loved how clear and resolute they were. Even in the most hopeless situations they remained shining. Always fighting, always thinking. Whatever went on in that beautiful mind of hers, he'd give anything to find out.

It was the fear and disbelief in her eyes that made him smile. "I don't expect a response now," he said, stepping away from her and dropping his hands. She stared numbly back at him. "But keep in mind there's only one answer I'm expecting to receive. I'll leave you to it, my dear. Don't wander too much." There are secrets I prefer you never to find out.

He leaned forward as if for a kiss but she moved back. She probably didn't even register the action but the reject still made his chest burn and his smile fall. He rearranged his features with the efficiency of a person with years of practice doing so. "I'll see you later, (Y/n)."

Then he was gone, leaving (Y/n) to sort out her thoughts. Honestly, she was only thinking one thing right now.

Does this mean I get to sleep as much as I want?

The entire situation and the thought that Jaehyun and Tristan of all people were interested in her in a way that was remotely romantic was absurd. I mean, come on. Me? What did I ever do? Laugh obnoxiously when popsicle couldn't complete the simple task of fixing a computer and invite sunflower to lunch with me and my friends? How the heck does love come from that?

Humans were complicated.

Then his words, both of their parting words. It was plainly obvious something was wrong with them. She just saw it too late. Jaehyun threatened to gouge her eyes out. If that wasn't messed up, what was?

If she was a normal person, she might've been frightened out of her wits or broke down in tears. Or she'd start frantically trying to escape this place. But she wasn't a normal person. She was no stranger to pain and madness. She practically grew up in it. How she managed to be a somewhat decent person was amazing.

(Y/n) honestly wasn't cowed by the blond's threat to maim her and Tristan's suggestion that she'd never be able to escape them. Honestly, she wouldn't have cared less—she'd be content to spend her days sleeping all she wanted.

Though Reese made it different. She couldn't have comfort and her best friend at the same time. It was one of the other and Tristan made that clear.

It was obvious what her decision was. It was her friends. It would always be her friends.

Just as she began to put a new escape plan together in her head, the very person she decided to convince to let her meet Reese rounded the corner and appeared before her eyes. His face was a mixture of relief and worry. And he wasn't alone.

"Ah!" Conan pointed at the (h/c)-haired girl and skitted to a stop. "Half-alive big sister!"

(Y/n) pointed to herself, bewildered. "Who, me?" This kid looks familiar...where did I see him again?

Conan pulled excitedly on the leg of his brother's pants. "I found her, big brother! Does this mean I won?"

"Yeah," Leon chuckled, giving the boy a high-five. "Good job."

"Does this mean I can get the new Nintendo Switch—"

"Nice try, buddy."

"Aww..." Conan sulked for a few seconds before brightening. "That's right—half-alive big sister!"

(Y/n) raised an eyebrow. Oh, I remember this kid now. "First it was 'miss' and now it's 'half-alive?' You're better at giving nicknames than I am, kid."

"I'm not a kid! I'm a big boy now!"

"Are you eighteen yet? No. So you're a kid."

"T-then you're a kid too!"

"I'm closer to being an adult than you are, kid."

"No, you! But anyway, brother said you'd play with me." He shuffled his feet together almost shyly. Finally, someone normal in this house. "Will you, half-alive big sister?"

"I will if you stop calling me that."

"Okay, miss!"

"That too."

"'Datoo?' What kind of name is that?"

Leon watched the two banter quietly from where he stood to the side leaning against the window, not caring if he got it dirty. Sure, (Y/n) hadn't been smiling as much as he'd like lately but at least she lost the furrow in between her eyebrows when she was worried. And she wasn't frowning anymore. Not to mention the fact his little brother wasn't being shy and reserved around other people—Conan was even bold enough to pick innocent fun at the female.

The sight made him smile. It should always be like that. Always safe and happy, genuinely enjoying themselves. Leon didn't need much himself. He was willing to toil his hands and feet off if it meant the only people he cared about in the world were living peacefully. All he asked for was that he'd be allowed to watch over them. Nothing more.

He'd be content with that.

Which meant he had to deal with the problem at hand first. His smile faded away as his phone buzzed in his pocket. One look at the screen told him everything he needed: his father was almost here.

He had to get the two out of the open.

"(Y/n)," he said, startling the (h/c)-haired girl out of her banter with his brother. "Can you take Connie to your room? Don't come out for the next few hours. Please."

The way he said the word so firmly and the determined look in his eyes made her bite back a questioning retort. "Okay," she said finally. Nothing good has come out of her making their lives harder anyway. "Come on, Squidward."

"Nooo, I want to be Spongebob!" Conan cried. "Not Squidward!"

"Sure thing, shrimpy."

Leon watched as their figures disappeared down the hallway. Only when he was sure they were where they should be, he spun around and went to the lobby as fast as he could without straight up running through the hallways. Tristan was there already, as expected. The blue-haired male was seated and his watchful eyes were on the door but not quite looking at it. He was lost in thought, a look Leon never thought he'd see on the blue-haired male.

"Where's the sh*thead?" Leon interrupted. Tristan snapped back to reality at the sound of his voice and sat up straight.

He nodded towards the window. "His car is pulling in. Why, did you want to welcome him personally?"

"F*ck you."

"Point taken." Tristan still looked a little out of it and it puzzled the black-haired male. What could he be thinking about?

It's none of my business. He pushed his curiosity away. It was an unspoken rule in the Tempus Dorm each of the P4 would do their own thing without any of the others interfering. If he was to beat up half the student population, even Tristan as the student council president would look the other way. That didn't prevent him from issuing out his biting remarks, of course.

The unmistakable sound of a car pulling into the driveway made Leon bristle and his body tense. He still hated the idea of his father by name only stepping into his space but Tristan's word had convinced him. If his father stayed cooped up in his mansion, Leon had no way of reaching him with what little influence he had—street thugs and prison escapees.

But in the Tempus Dorm, that was another matter.

A butler opened the door and a man of fifty or sixty stepped into the dorm, taking off his hat as he did so. The man was without a doubt related to Leon and Conan—the same colorless black hair and sharp cheekbones. A firm jaw and the outline of muscle, not fat, under his clothing. But his eyes—unlike Leon and Conan's silver ones, his were green. Cold, pale, soulless green. Ironic, since green is the color of the soul.

Leon hated that color. Perhaps that was why he despised Tristan and that other boy's eyes so much.

The oldest Matthews' eyes flickered to the taller male who was barely able to restrain his anger. A smile broke out across his face. "Ah, son!" The man walked towards him with open arms. "It's been such a long time since I've seen you! You've grown so much—"

Leon smacked his hand away, a snarl visible on his face. "Save the pretense for another day, a**hole," he growled. "You're the one who left mother behind."

"What are you talking about?" The man laughed nervously. Then to Tristan, "This boy's talking nonsense. All the bouts he's been getting into must've really gotten to his head."

"All the lies you've been spewing got to yours," Leon retorted. He stormed up to the man who to his credit, didn't flinch. He jabbed a finger into the older male's chest. "You left mother when she was pregnant with Deryn. You lived a life of luxury when she had to take multiple part-time jobs at once to support us. You didn't even bother to come to the funeral and you f*cking sold my little sister! I'll f*cking crush that skull of yours!"

His father took a step back with an awkward smile. "Sell my daughter? Impossible. I love my children as I love you, Leo—"

"Don't f*cking call me that!" He hated the nickname Leo, and only two people ever called him that. He disliked both of them. "You f*cker—!"

Tristan stepped in before things got bloody. "He is your father, Matthews," the stoic male interrupted with a stern look. "And he is my guest. You will treat him with respect."

"Yes, yes, at least there's someone reasonable here," the man said with a sigh of relief. He clapped his hands together gleefully. "Now where's my little boy? Take me to him."

"You—"

The warning look Tristan shot him stole the words from his lips instantly. Not now, the male seemed to say. Too many of his men are watching. I'll take him into the dorm. You take care of the men.

The male pushed down a growl that threatened to rise up his throat and relented. Tristan nodded in satisfaction and turned to the man. "May I interest you in a tour first, sir?" He offered. "Kim Jaehyun has quite a few new pieces I'm sure he'd be delighted a man of your position will be viewing."

"Kim?" A calculating look entered the politician's eyes. No doubt another one of his sleazy methods to make connections using the children to increase his own personal gain. "That's very kind of you, Tristan. Please, lead the way."

"I'd be more than happy to."

The plan was simple; Tristan would use the pretense of a tour to lead the man far away from his guards. And then he'd knock him out before locking him into a soundproof room far away from where (Y/n) and Conan was. There would be no danger of the two ever finding the man.

Because what Leon was about to do to him was not a fitting sight for their eyes.

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"Why am I Owlette?" (Y/n) frowned as she picked up a pink action figure Conan handed to her from his bag. "Why can't I be Mojo Jojo?"

"That's the wrong show," the boy huffed, taking out his Catboy and Gekko figures. "I grew out of the Powerpuff Girls last year—I'm a big kid now!"

"Oi, you can insult me but you can't insult my idol, Mojo Jojo. Who wants a bunch of chemical X squeak toys flying around when you can have an evil anthropomorphic ape?"

"I don't like monkeys! Cats are better!" He waved the blue figurine in her face for emphasis.

"Technically he's an ape, and humans are related to apes. So are you saying you don't like us poor humanoids?" She grinned widely at his scowl. "It's okay. I'll welcome you to Pluto when I move there."

His eyes bugged out of his sockets. "You're from Pluto? No way, you're lying, miss!"

What happened to being polite? "Bet. My spaceship crashed landed on Earth and I've been here for the last few centuries." Then she leaned down, her eyes darting from side-to-side as if sharing a dangerous government secret. "I even met Napoleon."

This time she got his interest. The kid must really know his history. Conan sat down on his knees, eyes sparkling with interest. "Was he really as short as they say?" He whispered.

"I nearly stepped on him a few times. That's why I'm banned from France to this day."

"Woah. Do you have his autograph?!"

"Yeah, but I lost it when I was returning home. Jupiter's gravity is insane—it nearly crushed the whole spaceship!"

Maybe she should stop spinning wild tales to the boy but it was too amusing. He hung onto her every word like they were made of gold. It was fool's gold she was selling, but he didn't need to know that. She'd bet he still believed in Santa and the tooth fairy and knowing Leon, he probably did.

"Anyway, what about your brother?" She decided this was a good chance to get something about the P4 out of the boy. She did feel a little guilty about using an innocent boy this way but what choice did she have? Of course, there was no way she was going to drag the kid into all of this. Then again, he might already be sinking too far in ever since he took a single step into the dorm. "You don't live with your brother, do you?"

Conan shook his head sadly as he looked down at his little hands. "No, I live with Baba and Nana. I wanted to stay with brother but he says it's not safe. Because the BoogeyMan will get me if I don't stay with them."

Her eyebrows flew up, nearly hitting her hairline. He taught his brother to refer to their father as the BoogeyMan? Weak. Slendy all the way. "Where do you stay then? Not in Manchester, right?"

"Dunno," he shrugged. "But we live on a farm. It's super nice though—we have this sheep we named Billy! Nana lets me ride him but his wool isn't that soft. And, and, there's also a lot of deer we see sometimes. Once I even got to touch one. But Nana and brother got mad at me for that. They said it was dangerous and I had to promise not to touch it again. But that's okay—at least I got to meet Bambi's cousins!"

It was both worrying and comforting to see the boy so innocent. It was a breath of fresh air to meet someone remote normal in this dorm, and the sunshine and rainbows Conan brought with him in this nightmare made her relax. Just a little.

But the twisted side of her continued to worry. Rather than innocence, it felt more like brainwashing. Delusions. Conan blindly followed whatever his brother said, no matter what it was. And his brother was responsible for her being here in the first place—if Leon hadn't caught her, she might've just been able to run away from Jaehyun.

Their family situations were complicated. Far too complicated than what met the eye. And honestly, she didn't want to get involved in all of that, though she feared it had everything to do with why her current situation was the way it was.

Upbringing was everything. It determined what the child would grow up to be. (Y/n) could've been normal, but her childhood prevented that from happening.

Maybe she and the P4 were birds of the same feather after all.

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The rules are everything. That was what Lyall Matthews believed growing up. Never step out of line, always stay in control, reward the followers, and punish the rulebreakers. It was as simple as that. He grew up following his family's rules his whole life. Went through the Fortuna Institute escalator system, graduated at the top of his class with varying degrees, and followed through with an arranged marriage his family planned out for him.

Everything was laid out for him. Everything was controlled. As long as there were rules, there was order.

Lyall liked order.

His wife did not.

The woman was anything but the perfect lady her family played her out to be at the marriage meeting. She was wild, uncontrollable, reckless, and free-spirited. She was a silver-eyed thing with a heart of fire and mouth of honey. She was troublesome, but not dumb. Irresponsible, but not negligent.

She loved her family. And Lyall grew to love her. Grew to believe in the little world she was creating with him, herself, their eldest son Leon, the infant Conan, and the soon to be born Deryn.

"Our oldest boy, a lion," he remembered his wife crooning as she stroked the sleeping black-haired boy's hair. "He'll grow up to be a wonderful brother. And our second, Conan. A wolf, just like you. And my baby girl, Deryn, my little blackbird."

Lyall, the wolf. And Yara, the butterfly. Two people the complete opposite of each other, coming together for political reasons. And yet they somehow managed to create a happy family.

Until it all went wrong twelve years ago.

"What the hell, Yara?!" Lyall screamed at his wife. Ten years ago, he didn't have the tired lines on his face he had today or the dark circles under his eyes. Accomplished, promising, and proud, Lyall rushed home that day to his wife, boys, and unborn daughter to tell them the good news. He had been appointed the minister of his area.

But walking through his front door, what greeted him were not the smiling faces of his beautiful children nor of his loving wife. Instead, he found Yara in the bedroom. Their bedroom. With another man.

What made it worse, that man was his closest friend. Stephan Knight.

He broke it off with her right there but since her family had more influence than his at the time, she gained custody of their children. Even little Deryn, who went missing a mere month after her birth.

People say he did it out of spite for not gaining child custody. But he didn't. No one believed him. Not even his eldest, Leon, who used to call him Papa.

Leon, the bright-eyed innocent thing who was more interested in protecting baby Conan than playing with his toys, now a dark thing with eyes of steel and fists of iron. Lyall saw nothing but hatred as he met his son's eyes. Nothing but bottomless, unending fury.

The man didn't bother to struggle. The bindings tying him to the chair were the work of a professional, and he was still drowsy from whatever the blue-haired one had put in his tea earlier.

He offered his son a small smile. "Son—"

"Don't call me that."

The sheer poison in his tone made Lyall's heart drop and his skin crawl with fear. Where was his little boy who used to scold him for smoking? Where was the boy who practically took over Yara's role in the house by making sure baby Conan didn't swallow any blocks?

No matter how frantically Lyall searched his son's eyes for a trace of that boy, there was nothing of him left.

He was dead, just like Deryn. And it was his and Yara's fault.

"Please," he tried again. His chartreuse eyes fell to his son's clenched fists. "Your mother—"

"You have no f*cking right to speak about them," Leon snarled. "You f*cking abandoned us. You f*cking left Deryn to die. You didn't try to find us when mother's family disowned her and we could barely scrape by. Now you're asking for amends?"

He had every reason to be angry, Lyall reasoned. He had basically run away from it all when he discovered his wife was cheating on him with his closest friend, and without a single phone call or explanation to his children who meant the world to him.

"I sent letters, son. Letters and emails—"

Leon laughed, a cruel and bitter sound. "We didn't get sh*t, dad." He spat the word out venomously, making the man wince. "We had one f*cking computer that was older than I was and mother checked everything. Nothing, a**hole. Still going to lie?"

There was only one answer to that. Yara had kept his emails from the children. Betrayal and anger shot through him and as tempting as revealing it was, Lyall kept his mouth shut. It would only be pettiness and there was no guarantee his son would forgive him. He could get even angrier.

And their mother...Lyall wanted them to have a positive image of their mother despite her true nature. It was the least he could give them after running away.

Another look into his son's eyes told him everything he needed. He wasn't going to make it out of here alive. But for some reason, he didn't feel fear. He wasn't afraid. Instead, a sense of contentment gripped him. He was going to die at the hands of his own blood. Not some dirty rat lurking in the alleys of Mother England's slums or one of his political rivals. His son's.

He had already drafted a will—his entire fortune would be divided between Leon and Conan, while a good chunk of his money would go to the orphanages.

It was fine if he died this way.

"Any last words?" Leon felt confused—why wasn't his so-called father begging for mercy? Why wasn't he groveling like the pathetic excuse for a parent he was? Instead, the man was quiet. Thinking, contemplating. Calculating something before he finally looked up.

"I know you won't let me see Conan..." Lyall began slowly. "But please, at least let me know one thing. The two of you...are you doing well?"

Leon's lips curled in disgust. "No thanks to you."

But the man was smiling, relief setting over his face. "Good," he breathed. "That's good. And son..."

"I'm sorry for everything. I really am."

Leon didn't hesitate as he raised the steel bat in his hands and whipped into his father's skull, a gruesome crack echoing through the empty room.

The loud thud of a heavy object being dropped onto the ground. And then silence.

TEMPUS:DORM ━━━━━༻ ❀ ༺━━━━━ ηιgнt

(Y/n) was woken up by the sound of something hitting her window. To be fair, she hadn't been sleeping for long anyway. It was barely ten o'clock and if she opened her door, she could still hear the sound of conversation downstairs. Probably just another one of Leon and Kieran's bouts.

She could make out something moving outside on her balcony. It didn't seem to be moving towards her window, rather, past it. Either way, it was concerning. She didn't think it was Leon bringing her another dog again. Tristan 2.0 wouldn't be too happy about another canine taking her name and becoming Tristan 3.0.

A normal person might try to see who it was, but (Y/n) was no normal person. She couldn't care less. Why pay attention to something that could kill her like how it does in all those horror movies when she could do something better like...sleep?

To sleep it is, folks. The (Y/n) council has voted.

Seconds later, she sat straight up in bed. She was no bloodhound but she knew that scent of coconut anywhere. Only one person she knew used that brand of air purifier.

She flung open the balcony doors, hoping she was right. If she was, great! Another ally! If not...

Straight to H-E-double hockey sticks it was, people.

But it was. "Jas!"

The said male startled and nearly fell off the ledge he was standing on. His eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of the (h/c)-haired girl peering back at him. Or maybe it was the unruly state of her hair—it did get worse each time he saw her.

"(Y/n)?" He gaped incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, the classic question." She nodded sagely while stroking her nonexistent beard. "What am I doing here indeed? I am sleeping. Or attempting to sleep until you appeared."

"Ah—no. I meant, why are you here?"

"Very good question as well, sir. I am here because I was looking for Reese and now I'm unable to get out of here. I guess the correct word is 'hostage' but popsicle—I mean, Tristan refused to call it that. Let's substitute that and kidnap with ketchup."

He blinked rapidly in confusion, at her unbelievable words spoken with an even more unbelievable nonchalant tone. Wasn't this the part where she cried and begged him to take her with him? "You and Grayson were...kidn—"

"Ketchuped," she corrected him in a sing-song. "Or he will wash your mouth out with soap~"

"Ketchuped." He repeated incredulously. Her uncaring nature was so familiar it almost made him forget his anger. Almost. "(Y/n). Do you know where Fujikawa's room is?"

"Fooji—who?" She feigned confusion. "Using Reese's words, what kind of food is that—okay, I'll shut up now." She closed her mouth after seeing the harsh look on the navy blue-haired male's face. "You think I, a commoner who gets lost in her own neighborhood, can tell my way around this huge place?"

He continued staring at her unblinkingly. She sighed. "The answer is no."

"I see..." His eyes slipped away from hers. They suddenly narrowed. She turned her head in the direction he was looking at. She only saw trees. When she looked back, his face was back to what it once was as if it had never happened. What?

"I gotta go," Jasper said abruptly. He tightened the harness around his waist. In his pocket, she could see the familiar glint of a silver barrel. "Stay here. I'll come back for you and Reese when I'm done."

He was completely serious. "Wait, this is a really bad idea!" (Y/n) gripped his wrist before he could pull away to stop him. "You're one person and there's four of them plus their ninja butlers—speaking of those butlers, I haven't seen them in a while—but the point is, whatever you're trying to do is going to get you killed. Or ketchuped like me and Reese. So Jas—"

"What other choice do I have?" He laughed bitterly, shaking his hand free from her grip with strength she didn't know he had. "Tell my father my boyfriend got killed by the sons of his business partners? Tell him I still can't follow through with the marriage meeting? No one can help me, (Y/n). Not even you."

And then he was gone, slinking deeper into the night until she couldn't see him anymore. She had to act fast. Naturally, she wasn't going to go all ninja like Jasper and start scaling the dormitory walls but she could still do something from the inside. Her various failed escape attempts weren't all for nothing.

She got out the laptop Tristan unwisely gifted to her and got to work. Hours flew by and soon it was two in the morning, the latest she's ever been up awake. Thankfully Jasper still had his phone on him so she was able to trace his movements and determine which security systems to deactivate for him. Tempus Dorm had a sh*t ton of security systems, that's for sure. Who needed a facial recognition sensor for a dormitory of high school kids?

As she worked hunched over the laptop on her bed, she almost didn't notice the door creak open. Slowly, like in a horror movie, as the darkness outside crept in to meet the shadows within. A figure, a lone silhouette standing out starkly against the shadowy doorway.

She looked up with a start, her breath hitching in her throat. But it soon died down and was replaced with bewilderment.

"Snowman?"

The white-haired male barely registered her words. Only let a lazy grin spread over his lips as he staggered into the room.

Kieran Fujikawa talked with Kieran Jr. more so than he did with his mouth. But still, he was all grace and composure. He simply did not sway side-to-side and walk like he had two left feet. It only meant one thing.

Oh boy, she realized with a sigh. He's drunk.

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A/N: What do you think of this chapter? Is Conan simply innocent by nature or being deluded by his brother?

And here's some fanart from zzCistheNamezz! This is too cute I can't—