JACE

I follow Juniper up the stairs, the others trailing behind us. Once we reach the top of the stairs, Juniper leads me down a hallway to the right, which is lined with glowing wall lamps that shine dimly like a soft fire. The walls themselves are a dark grey and made of cement, but somehow they seem inviting. The floor is also made of cement in certain areas, but this hallway is made of black and white checkered tiles.

"This is the area that's considered the dormitory hall," Juniper explains as she walks beside me and gives me a soft smile, twiddling her fingers together in a somewhat nervous manner, "We each have our own rooms, and they're kind of grouped together in a sense."

"Did you guys build this entire thing yourselves?" I ask, arching my eyebrows slightly.

"Well, we found the building and when we found it it was abandoned, so we decided to make it our base, considering the location is discreet enough. We added on to it, of course, but only to add on things we needed or to make it a little more like home, ya know?" Juniper explains, "I mean, we do spend most of our time here, after all."

"I see," I say and we reach the first set of dark brown, wooden, oak doors.

"Yeah," Juniper nods and smiles once again before gesturing to the door on the left side of the hall, "This is Indigo's room, and on the opposite side of the hall is Ink's room. My room is beside Indigo's room and across from my room is Katsuro's."

"And the four of you seem close from what I've observed," I say as Juniper continues to lead me down the hallway.

"Yeah," Juniper says and blushes slightly before we come to more doors, "And beside my room is Reece's room, and Clattonia's room is across from Reece's room. And beside Reece's room is Labyrinth's room. Then Caliber's room is across from Labyrinth's room."

"Reece and Labyrinth?" I raise my eyebrows in surprise, "I guess I see the similarities...but still..."

"They're cousins," Juniper laughs softly, "That's why her room is next to his. She doesn't really get along with anyone well besides Reece and Clattonia -- sometimes Caliber since Caliber is always so calm and never bothers her."

"Oh," The realization shouldn't have came as such of a surprise to me, but somehow I find myself being a little surprised.

"Yeah," Juniper nods, "Even still, we're all really close here, despite how it may look sometimes, considering how Aeryn and Labyrinth act."

"I can tell," I say as we continue to walk, "You seem especially close to Reece."

"Well," Juniper starts and almost stops walking as she gets lost in her thoughts, "I suppose, yeah. Reece is like my big brother. You see, all of us here went through something, many things, that most people wouldn't be able to cope with. I felt alone for most of my life, despite being gifted with lots of attention for my talents with nature and healing. I was placed on a pedestal and people constantly thought they weren't good enough for me, but all I ever really wanted was for someone to truly love me, to allow themselves to love me. I was glad people recognized my talents and abilities, but I didn't want people to think they weren't equal to me. And so, I thought, if all I want is someone to love me and think they're equal to me and that's all I ever desired, then how would I ever get that if they kept pushing themselves down and placing me on that lonely, cold pedestal? I was so lonely. I felt like it was cruel, in a way. All they wanted was to make me feel special, they thought they were making me feel adoration and love, but they weren't. They were doing the opposite. I felt isolated and lonely for a long time, but then I met Reece, Clattonia, and Kaden. I met them before I met Katsuro, and then I met the others. After meeting them, I was so happy. I was happy because somebody saw what I actually wanted and not what they thought I wanted or what they thought was best when it actually wasn't. I'm sorry, I'm sure that's a lot to take in. I didn't mean to drop my life story on you."

"It's fine, really, don't worry about it. I'm glad you told me," I smile and she smiles back at me, but my smile falters when I recall Kaden's name, "But who's Kaden?"

Juniper's eyes widen slightly and she turns her head to the side, a small frown forming on her face before she turns back to me with evident confliction in her eyes.

"You don't have to tell me, I just --"

"No, I'm sorry," She says and shakes her head, forcing a smile, "I'm the one who brought it up, I should be the one explaining to you. Besides, you're new here, it's not like you're going to know everything right away. Kaden was someone we dearly loved in our group. But...Um, anyways, I should probably finish giving you the tour of this side of the building before Clattonia wants to show you something else."

"Yeah...Yeah," I shake my head, "You're probably right."

Was?

The word seems to hang in the air, suspended there by tension, anxiety, sorrow, loss, pain, and questions -- questions that I feel may not be answered for a while, not unless I'm persistent about it.

"Anyways, um," Juniper starts, "Beside Labyrinth's room is Lucian's room, and across from Lucian's room is Aeryn's room. And then this is where the guest rooms start. We have designated guest rooms for some friends that we have outside of the group who come to stay occasionally, and then we have guest rooms for anyone. The first guest room is beside Lucian's room, which is designated to Simon Berndtsson, and across from him is his older twin sister, Valentina Berndtsson. You know a little bit about them from what Clattonia told you earlier."

"The twins from Sweden, right?"

"Yeah," Juniper nods, "And then after Simon's room is a guest room for Ryouichi Takumi and across from Ryouichi's room is a room for Mitsuko Rin-Takumi, his little sister."

"Rin-Takumi?" I ask.

"Well," Juniper fiddles with her fingers anxiously again, "I'm sure you've heard of Kazuki Rin. He's from a family of mercenaries and he's a rogue who turned assassin and who's hunted by White Rabbit, after all. Kazuki is Ryouichi's step-brother and Mitsuko's half brother, Ryouichi being her other half brother. I'd tell you more, but it isn't really my place...You could ask Caliber, but I'm not sure if she'd tell you. We have a room for Kazuki beside Ryouichi's room if he ever decides to, well, come back..."

"They're that Rin family?"

I'm indeed aware of Kazuki Rin, but I wasn't fully aware of his family situation. Kazuki is an assassin who never gets caught, is only found when he wants to be found, shows no mercy, does what he wants to when he wants to and how he wants to and only then will he do it. Despite this, Kazuki never kills or harms innocent women or children, for mysterious reasons not known to investigators, but we're sure it probably isn't because of the good nature of his heart. Kazuki works with Misery, one of the main Supernatural threats, but he doesn't seem to be a definite partner with her, they just put up with each other, help each other when needed, and otherwise stay out of each other's way.

Juniper goes to reply, but gets cut off when Aeryn bounds down the hallway, Lucian close behind her, scowling and crossing his arms.

"Aeryn!" Lucian pinches the bridge of his nose, "I can't believe you just left me to deal with Valentina and Simon. Actually, no, wait, I can."

"So what, Know-It-All-Blondie?" Aeryn scoffs and places her hand on her hip as she opens her bedroom door with her other hand, "You're always saying how you can handle things on your own, aren't you? Well there you go. You did handle it, didn't you? Or did you just sit there like a poor excuse of a Supernatural while Valentina and Simon took care of the mobs?"

"Mobs?" Juniper raises her eyebrows, "What mobs?"

"I handled it -- we handled it, Aeryn," Lucian sighs in frustration, "I'm saying that you can't just leave a battle because you want to because you're bored."

"What mobs?" Juniper frowns and asks again.

"Valentina's call to Aeryn earlier was to ask her for help dealing with the mobs of rogue Supernatural in the main sector of Osaka, since Aeryn's teleporting ability would get her there quickly, considering we're in Shibuya. Valentina and Simon were with Ryouichi and Mitsuko in Osaka. Valentina and Simon were dragged there by Kai and Ryouichi and Mitsuko were there looking for Kazuki. Ryouichi and Mitsuko had to chase after Kazuki and right after they left the mobs broke out. The three of them should've been able to handle it, but the mobs kept increasing in numbers and strength, so she called Aeryn for backup. When I noticed Aeryn was talking to Valentina, I was going to check on how things were with her and Simon, but Aeryn ended up grabbing me by the wrist and teleporting me with her to Osaka, much to my surprise," Lucian explains, "Long story short, Valentina and Simon are going to be stay--"

"Staying here!" A girl with long, blonde hair who's wearing a hot pink skirt with black, lace, rose pattern leggings, light tan furry boots that go up to her calves and that have the white strings and fur balls attached to them and a white tank-top with a light tan jacket that has a hood with white fur and white strings with fur balls and a black choker with a red rose on it, bounds around the corner and throws an arm around Lucian's neck, smiling while holding her brown, leather luggage bag in her other hand, her eyes, a mixture of amber, honey tones, and brown, watch me curiously as if they're studying my soul.

"Geez," A boy with spiky, blond hair and light, icy blue eyes turns around the corner with his hands shoved in the pockets of his black pants that have medium, red, horizontal stripes and thin, white vertical stripes on them, as well as a chain belt, black converse, and a dark grey colored v-neck with a dark red braided bracelet around his right wrist, holding his black luggage bag in his left hand, "No need to make them regret allowing us to stay here."

"He's right, you know," Another male voice comes from around the corner and soon he rounds the corner, his hazel eyes intense and his dark auburn hair spiked up slightly, his right hand holding a cigarette to his lips, which form into a smirk when he throws an arm around the boy who must be Simon's shoulders, who blushes slightly and stammers incoherent words, throwing the mysterious guy's arm off of his shoulders and crossing his arms against his chest, his black v-neck clinging to his toned body and accentricating the silver dog tags hanging around his neck, as well as his stone washed jeans and black vans.

I raise a brow at the sight and the mysterious figure in front of me seems to study me as hard as Valentina does and as hard as Simon stares at the wall, trying to ignore the presence beside him.

"I'm Kai O'Shea, and who're you?" The man finally speaks and raises a brow at me, smoke swirling into the air from his cigarette, filling the brief silence that follows his question.

"I'm Jace, Jace Athens."