Tobias stared at Eirose, then leaned her cheek against his hand. Her already sad expression did what seemed impossible and got worse. She opened her mouth to ask something, but leaned her head into his chest instead and sobbed it, "You will come back though, right?... Don't leave me forever... please..." She was begging, terrified to be alone after losing her elder son. And now her husband was telling her he needed to die.

He pushed her away from his chest, making her look him in the eyes. "Tobias... I'd never do that... Of course I'll come back to you! Tobias, I went through hell to get you back here in my arms, do you really think I'd let you go so easily!?" He held her close and kissed her forehead. "Tobias, I'd never do that to you. Never. I love you too much, I couldn't bring myself to hurt you like that... I just needed to tell you about this so you don't just wake up one morning and find me dead next to you. I didn't want to do that to you..."

He reached out and took the gem around her neck, lifting it so she could see it. "You'll always know when I'm alive again. When I die, the gem will turn black. When I have a pulse again, it'll turn back to red. You'll always know if I'm alive or not."

Tobias nodded softly, hugging to her husband and resting her head on his shoulder, "Yes... I know... I'm sorry I just... I'm not sure what I'll do..."

"How long will you be gone, Dad?" A voice came from beside a nearby bookshelf. Lexis had his hands in his pockets, and was watching his father closely. His expression was concerned, but it was hard to mistake his displeasure at his father having to leave his mother at this time.

"I don't know how long I'll be gone, Lexis..." he said quietly, holding his wife and gently rubbing her back in an attempt to calm her a bit. "I'm usually fast to be reborn, but anyone can break away from their pattern... I'll be back as soon as I can be, but I don't know when that'll be..."

Tobias held onto Eirose and cried silently. She trusted her younger son to ask the right questions.

Lexis sighed, walking over and sitting in the chair his mother had been occupying minutes before. He watches his father comforting the tiny woman, then sighed and leaned his elbows on his knees, "Do you know how it's going to happen?... Do we need to make... some arrangements?" He didn't know how his father handled these things, but if something needed to be done, he didn't think his mother should have to tend to it all herself. They were all hurting since Zaitsu passed, but no one took it quite as hard as she had.

"I was going to let your mother decide how I die... I'd rather go in my sleep next to her, but I understand that might be too hard on her. If it's too hard for her, I'll just crawl into a casket and die. Andrew's already agreed to take my body for me."

Lexis looked at his mother, clinging to his father and shaking. He nodded softly, "I see... "

"If that's what you want, sweetheart... that's ok..." Her voice was weak, and barely audible. She wanted her husband to be happy when he died.

Lexis swallowed hard, nodding. He wasn't about to argue with his mother, but he hated the way she'd hurt when his father was gone, no matter what way he died.

"Tobias... I don't want to hurt you anymore than I have to. I can't help this... If it'd be easier on you for me to die out of sight, I'll happily do so. If you'd rather me die next to you, then I'll do that... This is your choice, I don't want to hurt you..."

Tobias looked up at Eirose, her face soaked with tears. She took a deep breath, "Sweetheart... I don't want you to go at all... either way is the same result... I know you have to go... and I hate the idea of just sending you off to die in some dark lonely coffin... and the longer I can hold you before you're gone... the better..."

Lexis watched his parents quietly, a lump in his throat. He reached over and picked up his mother's cross-stitching and looked down at it, taking the needle and doing a little bit of it. If he didn't occupy himself for a moment, he might become emotional too, and his mother didn't need that right now.

"I might be able to last a few more days... A week at the most." He sighed and kissed the top of her head. "I'm so sorry..."

Tobias shook her head gently, holding onto Eirose as if it was the only thing keeping her own heart beating, "I know..."

Lexis sighed silently, finishing a color section of the cross stitching and setting it aside. He got up and walked over to the sofa where his parents sat, kneeling down and kissing his mother's cheek, "It's going to be ok Mom..." He looked up at his father, then moved to give him what of a hug he could without making his mother let go, "I'll miss you Dad..." He moved to whisper near-silently in his father's ear, "I'll look after her... I promise." He pulled back and nodded.

"Lexis, take care of your mother as best as you can. And if your sister comes back while I'm gone, take care of her too. Don't you ever forget that you're as much of a wolf as I am. You're going to have to take my place as king for a while... Whatever you do, don't give up. If you ever need help, go to Andrew. He's promised to look after you both in my absence."

Lexis' eyes widened a bit, regarding his father with surprise. He had forgotten about being king. He swallowed hard and nodded, "Don't worry Dad... I'll take care of everything..." Hetook a deep breath, then sighed. It was a big responsibility, but he knew his parents needed him to step up right now.

Three days after the conversation with his wife and son, Eirose lay in bed holding his wife in his arms. They'd been talking quietly, though their conversations kept trailing off into a soft, sad silence.

"Tobias... I love you..." he whispered, gently kissing the top of her forehead. He let out a soft sigh, sleep taking over him. A few breaths later, his body fell still, a peaceful look on his face.

Tobias folded back her ears gently, "I love you too Eirose..." She murmured. She spent a long moment looking at her husband, before leaning up to kiss his still warm forehead, "Come back to me soon love..." She smoothed his hair, her fingertips brushing his face.

After a few minutes, she quietly got up and went to find Lexis, to tell him Eirose was gone.

"Hmm.... Let's play a guessing game," a girl with wavy brown hair and bright blue highlights said, tapping her lips with a finger from a hand of bright orange fingernails.

"You mean let's guess who Skank went home with?" a man asked with a laugh, his hair dyed bright orange, his nails polished to match the girl's highlights.

"Mm. Exactly," she snickered, watching a young woman approach their outside table under the overhang of a cafe.

"Well, there's Lexi. So he didn't go home with her."

"Hey guys!" Lexi said, sitting down and immediately pulling her laptop out of her bag to setup on the table.

"Z didn't go home with you?"

"Nope. I didn't see who he went home with. Sorry Seline, Gavin."

"Well, that's boring," Gavin replied with a yawn, scanning over the sidewalks.

"I bet you he went home with Magnus. After all, Magnus usually insists when Z's drunk."

"Yeah. Our little skank has a habit of getting himself in trouble when drunk..."

"You know, we're all just as big of sluts as he is," a young man said, taking a seat at the table and pulling out a laptop as well.

"True. But we're exclusive with each other. Don't you ever get the feeling that Z breaks away from the pack?"

"As long as he doesn't breathe disease on the roses, I don't care what he does," Lexi said with a sigh.

A young woman came trotting down the street hurriedly, carrying a canvas tote bag over her shoulder. She stopped on the corner and glanced around, perking a pair of white and marmalade marbled ears, nestled amongst her curly lilac hair. Turquoise eyes surveyed the street one way, and then another, before she trotted over to the group standing nearby, "Excuse me..." She smiled brightly, tilting her head, marbled tail swishing behind her denim-covered legs. She wore a swordsman's shirt in green, adding to the odd multicolored look about her, as she addressed the chatting friends, "You aren't the flower arranging class are you?" She perked her ears at them, blinking her bright eyes.

Jix's white cat ears twitched in his bright green locks, his eyes looking up at her. "You look an awful lot like a flower yourself," he commented, resting his tail in his lap.

"Flirting with strange girls this early in the day? It's not even noon yet," said a woman's cool voice. She approached the table with a tall, dark-haired man who wore his hair pulled back but his long bangs out, her hair nearly matching his, only with a slight hint of brown that kept it from being black.

The man had medium-blue eyes and fair skin, as well as an authoritative air about him. Behind him he pulled a smaller man who wore a hoodie zipped up with the hood pulled over his head to block out the sunlight. Pulling a chair out and pushing the smaller man into it, he politely pulled a chair out for the woman that he was with.

"Thank you, Magnus," Athena said with a nod, sitting gracefully down in the chair that was offered to her.

"Sorry, this isn't a flower arranging class," Lexi said, quickly looking up locations of the nearest classes on her laptop. "These are the nearest ones, if you're lost." She flipped her computer around for the young cat woman to look at, her own ears and tail twitching.

Magnus took a seat next to Lexi, leaning his back against the chair and crossing his arms over his lower chest.

The girl giggled, blushing, but waved off the comment a bit playfully. When the others arrived, she perked an ear at the fellow who was bundled up, but decided he must not feel very well. She glanced at the girl with the laptop and smiled brightly, "I am a bit lost. I'm sort of new to the area." She pulled a pocket watch from her pants, looking at it for a moment before tucking it away again, the chain that kept it attached to her hip glittering against her dark jeans, "I'm already twenty minutes late, I just thought I'd give it one more try before I gave up on finding the place. Good thing they don't charge you until you show up." She smiled, pushing back a vivid strand of hair that had fallen into her face.

"Do you see the address you need to go to?" Jix asked, referencing the computer screen. "If you see which one it is, I'll escort you if you'd like."

"It's light outside... Why the hell did you drag me out of bed?" Zaitsu grumbled, folding his arms on the table and resting his eyes against them to further shield them from the sun.

"Because I'm not going to have you laying around my apartment all day. I learned better than that the last time that happened," Magnus replied without so much as looking at him.

"It wasn't my fault," Zaitsu said in a pouty voice.

"It never is, is it?" Athena asked, taking a sip of Seline's tea.

"You should care more about me than that."

"Should," Gavin said dryly, stirring his drink with his straw in boredom.

The girl shook her head, smiling still, "No it's alright, thanks. It was mostly that I needed something to do. Today was pretty empty, so it was more of a whim." Her ears tilted a bit, before she heard the other man speak.

She tilted her head at him, then tipped her ears forward, "It sounds like someone had a little too much to do last night, though." She smiled sweetly, seeming a little bit concerned at the man who seemed so very uncomfortable.

"Too much to drink, more like," Gavin said with a hint of bitterness.

"Oh leave him alone, you're just jealous of him because you can't drink like that anymore," Seline said with a roll of her eyes. Gavin didn't bother to reply.

Magnus reached out and pulled Zaitsu's hood off his head, causing the young man to cringe and groan with a twisted look on his face. "Go inside, splash some water on your face and wake up. I'm not going to put up with your whining all day."

"I should really start charging..." Zaitsu muttered, pulling himself up and shuffling into the cafe to go to the men's room.

The girl blinked after the hung over man, tilting her head, then glancing at the others "You all must be good friends, to be able to pick on each other." She chuckled, adjusting the bag on her shoulder.

"I guess you could call us friends," Jix said with a slight shrug.

"We tend to think of ourselves as more of a pack," Seline said, playing with the straw in her drink.

Magnus arose from his chair, walking over to the empty chair closest to the flowerful feline and politely pulling it out, motioning for her to sit. He reached to the center of the table where the menus were stacked and placed one on the table in front of the offered chair.

"Hm," Gavin said with a slight pout. "It seems he likes you."

About ten minutes later Zaitsu returned, his hair stylishly messy, wearing a pair of sunglasses he'd had stashed in his hoodie pocket. He held his hoodie in his hand now, the black sleeveless shirt he was wearing under it finally revealed. He seemed completely aware now, his hangover seemingly gone as he sat down in his chair and folded his left arm behind his neck. He almost had a grin on his face.

"How many?" Magnus asked curiously from his own seat, arms crossed over his lower chest again, his right ankle resting on his left knee as he leaned back in his chair.

Zaitsu reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a business card, setting it on the table between him and Magnus.

He reached out and picked up the card, looking at the list of names written on it, looking over the top of the card and arching a brow. "Maybe you should start charging..."

"How many?" Lexi asked, leaning against Magnus' upper right arm to look at the card. Her eyes widened and her face vanished behind her computer again. "Wow. That's gotta be a record."

Gavin shook his head a little. "Barely even been here and already having your way with the waitresses..."

She smiled sweetly and nodded appreciatively, taking the offered chair, "Thank you." She draped her fluffy tail over her lap, hanging her bag on the back of the chair.

When the other man returned, she perked her ears and blinked, a little confused at all the fuss. She did blush a little when he was accused of "having his way" with waitresses, "Er... excuse me?"