#bidders

"___ it was just a misunderstanding."

I believe that every female has either come into contact with or has dated the kind of man that has said this. Now, as her ex stands before her- interrupting her duties as a maid- she can't help but want to spray him with the window cleaner and tell him where to stick his version of an apology.

"I have made it clear to you that I don't want to be in contact with you. Wasn't the restraining order enough?" you were exhausted from this, every year he came back and every year he managed to hurt you a little more.

"But I am in love with you ___, I will always be in love with you," he begs, his eyes full of sorrow that you had seen all too many times, was it honestly that rude to say you were bored?

Instead, the voice behind you said all it needed to,

"Let's round down all the things that you're doing that's illegal, kid. 1) Violating a protective order. 2) Trespassing on private property. 3) Disturbing the peace. 4) Upsetting my boss's girl." The smell of cigarettes was distinguishable.

"I would say that's definitely jail time, what, 1 year for the protection order and if it's your second time offending that might be 2 or even 3 if she gives evidence, Mamoru?" Baba says, his mouth in a wry smile.

"Definitely, and that's not including the charges I'm going to drop on him if he doesn't leave... like now."

"Ouch," Ota says, his blonde hair flicking back, "Now that would be terrible." The sinister smile makes an appearance over the Angel-Mask, "I would run now."

My ex swallows nervously taking steps back from me until he begins to run down the corridor and down the long, glamorous stairs. Suddenly, he flies into the air and Soryu pops out from underneath a pillar.

His devilish stare towards me, makes me believe that he had divulged the plan to trip him. I begin to widen my eyes as I see my fiance, Eisuke Ichinomiya, walking towards my abusive, intolerable ex-boyfriend. After a while of dating, I had told Eisuke everything that happened and that it was why I generally declined going out and dating.

I was relieved that the Bidders were dealing with this, Eisuke especially- he kept calm and collected at all times, never failing to present a forward face to the publ-

CRACK.

Holy shit! He just punched him in the face.

My knees buckled as I watched as my ex fell to the ground, having being left unconscious to the attack. My hand covers my mouth as I hold onto the railing. An exhale left my body that was a cocktail of unbelief, shock, happiness, worry and most of all satisfaction.

"Oh my god." The cameras of paparazzi begin to go off, and I watch as Eisuke smiles at the cameras, whilst taking his handkerchief out of his blazer to wipe his hand.  

He makes his way up the stairs, passing Mamoru as he goes to reach me. Protectiveness and love radiated out of him at that moment, and I ran to bury myself in that warmth, the smell and just... Eisuke. From his arm, I watch as Mamoru drags my ex from the ground and handcuffing him.

"Eisuke-"

"It's ok, it was self-defence on private property. I'll have to pay a fine, and that'll be worth it. He's getting jail time now ___, and that's what he deserves." Eisuke says, taking my face into his hands.

"You-You protected me." a little sob escapes my mouth as I look around at the bidders. Ready to help me, ready to give me everything they had, "-You all-” I let out another gasped sob, “-protected me."

"You're our family, ___. We'd do anything for you." the softest voice whispers in my ear, eloping me in a warm and tender feeling.

I could protect myself, but I didn't need to because I had a family. An unconventional one, that fights, is part of mafias, is lazy, steals things, is demanding or has odd fetishes.

But I had...

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Part 1 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Description: Ayano Ichinomiya was beginning to fear for her parents’ marriage. Eisuke and Melody have been married for at least sixteen years but Ayano swore she saw their relationship crumbling. Not that her brothers Eito and Sosuke were being much help to the situation either.

 Children: Eito Ichinomiya - 15, Ayano Ichinomiya - 12, Sosuke Ichinomiya - 6, Evie-Rose Woods – 8, Lihwa Oh - 15

 Words: 1593

  A week later, it was Eito arguing with his parents. While getting ready for school that morning, Eito was refusing to get out of bed. It was his sixteenth birthday in a couple of days and he just seemed to snap about not being in Japan with his friends for it.

 Once the kids left for school, Melody sunk down onto the couch, resting her head in her hands, "Maybe we should send him back."

 Eisuke, who stood off to the side, watched his wife, "You said you wanted to be a family again. That's why we moved here. Sending him back to Japan will just split us up again. We're parents, we can't always be the good guys." Eisuke explained as he took a deep breath.

 Nodding, Melody stood up, "I just hate seeing any of them so upset."

 "So do I." Stepping closer, Eisuke pulled Melody against him, holding her tight, "And I hate seeing you upset too." Smiling against his chest, Melody returned his embrace.

"We'd better get to work." Melody eventually said, pulling away. Before she got too far, Eisuke's arm around her waist pulled her back against him. She made a slight surprised noise at his actions, but was silenced when his lips pressed against hers.

 "Thank you for coming here." Eisuke said before abruptly leaving. Having been with Eisuke for so long, Melody recovered quickly and followed him down.

 "… No, I saw him leave." Soryu was on the phone when they came into the penthouse lounge. The frown on his face was more prominent than usual.

 "Never have I seen such an upset look on Soryu's face when he's talking to Li-Li." Ota commented.

 "What's going on?" Melody asked when she noticed they were all watching Soryu talk on the phone.

 "I think Lihwa has fallen from her pedestal." Mamoru mused.

 "That's nonsense." Surprisingly enough it was Eisuke defending Soryu, "He loves that girl more than his own gun."

 "And omelettes." Mei Ling said from behind Soryu's chair as she took the phone from him taking over the conversation, yelling various things in Chinese.

 "She didn't see Eito arrive at school." Soryu explained.

 "WHAT?" Both Melody and Eisuke shouted in unison, "I knew I should have gone in the car." Eisuke continued.

 "How did he not get there? Ayano was with him." Melody folded her arms as Eisuke pulled out his phone and began dialling.

 "Am I the only one that finds that hot?" Baba asked as he entered, pointing over at Mei Ling as her yelling subsided.

 "No, but I should be." Soryu said glaring at Baba who held his hands up in defence.

 "Merely a compliment Sor."

 "He's not picking up." Eisuke said dialling another number.

 "Why would he? We're clearly the last people he wants to talk to right now." Melody said sighing looking up at a clock, "I'm going to be late." She said a little unsure. She couldn't go to work now; her son was missing.

When Eisuke hung up again he looked at his wife, "Your shift is covered." Melody sighed again, this time in some relief, "Come on, we're going to look for him." Eisuke put his hand over her lower back and began to usher her out.

 "Where do you two think you're going?" Baba called out.

 "To find our son." Eisuke said sounding annoyed.

 "Without your main support crew?"

 "Don't go dragging me into this." Mamoru grumbled. He might have complained but he knew he was going to help.

 "Thank you guys." A grateful smile crossed Melody's face.

 Just then Mei Ling hung up the phone, handing it back to Soryu. "I was talking to Ayano. She said he was in the car, but he didn't get out at school. He said he was going to get the driver to drop him off at some excursion his class was taking. Lihwa said none of his classes had excursions today."

 "I'll see where the driver took him." Melody said pulling out her own phone. She was worried Eisuke would fire the man for this.

 "He couldn't have gotten too far. He doesn't have enough money to get very far thanks to the ridiculous allowance Melody insisted on." Eisuke thought aloud as he tried to think of where Eito would have gone.

 "I think £100 a week in any normal kids eyes is a lot." Ota pointed out.

 "Still. Say he's been planning this since the move. He could only have about £500. Depending on how he travels if he's smart he could still have left London." Mamoru reasons causing the other guys to look at him in surprise, "What? I'm still a detective."

 From the call Melody made, they discovered Eito was taken to Windsor Castle. After spending most of the morning searching the area the group stopped for lunch at a nearby restaurant. The entire time, Melody was growing more and more nervous with each passing minute. Her son was missing and she had no clues as to where he was.

 "He's smart." Soryu observed as he sat back, folding his arms, "Doesn't get that from you Eisuke." Currently, all the Ice Dragon's that Soryu could gather were out looking for Eito. After all, he wasn't just close friends with Melody and Eisuke, he was Eito's godfather.

 Eisuke didn't respond. It didn't show on his face like Melody, but they could tell he was worried.

 "We can't track his phone and he doesn't have anything else we can track." Eisuke tapped his fingers on the table. The bill was placed in front of them and Eisuke pulled out his wallet to pay. When he did, he noticed something missing, "My credit card is missing."

 "Oh, I'll take care of our half then." Melody said going for her purse. "My credit card should be here…" Eisuke trailed off, "Eito must have it."

 "We can track that." Soryu said as Eisuke went for his phone.

 "Heathrow?" Melody questioned when they tracked Eisuke's credit card.

 "That's only twenty minutes from Windsor Castle." Ota observed when they met up again.

 "He at least got something from Eisuke." Soryu grinned a bit when he saw what Eito used the card for.

 "£90 000 for a flight!" Melody was shocked at how much Eito had spent.

 Eisuke grinned, "He chartered a private jet."

 "He's got to be going back to Japan."

 After confirming it at the airport, Melody and Eisuke hopped on the next plane to Japan. Much to Eisuke's dismay, they were forced to fly on a commercial flight due to some maintenance issues with his own private jet. Even in first class Eisuke was sour about it.

 "Just close your eyes and sleep. The flight will fly by." Melody said reaching over into Eisuke's seat to grab his arm.

 "How do you expect me to sleep in these conditions?"

 Melody frowned, "Eisuke. You're acting like a spoilt child. Millions of people would kill for the chance to fly first class."

 "And yet I buy a private jet and cannot use it when I want to." Sighing, he takes Melody's hand and kisses it lightly, "I'm just angry at Eito."

 "I am too. But I'm also worried. To do something like this he must have been really unhappy."

 The plane didn't land until 11 in the morning the next day. When they landed Eisuke got a message from the Tres Spade Japan saying that Eito had arrived at the hotel at 9 that morning.

 Arriving in the penthouse, Melody ran upstairs and found Eito in his room, a miserable look across his face. Without saying a word, Melody sat down next to him and looked at the photo frame in his hands. It was of him and Hinata.

 "She sent me a message yesterday morning saying she was done. That we were done." Eito said lowly.

 "Oh sweetheart." She felt for him as she pulled him against her. Despite having already grown taller than her, to Melody he was still her little boy. "You do know how much trouble you are in for this right?" She said after a while. Eito nodded against her chest. Melody looked up and saw Eisuke standing in the doorway, a slight smile on his face.

 When they returned to England, Eisuke took care of grounding Eito.

 "So Lihwa will make sure he gets to school and home on the days we can't?" Melody asked when Eisuke came out of Eito's room, carrying various chords, "What on earth have you got there?"

 "That kid has too many electronics. I just took all of the power chords. I think I'll have to find somewhere to hide them." Eisuke explained simply as he put the cables down on a table, "And yes. He'll listen to Lihwa."

 "You do understand she has always been smitten with him? If he catches wind of that he might take advantage of it and sneak away again."

 "I doubt he will."

 "Why not? He is your son after all." The comment came out as more of a dig at Eisuke than Melody meant it to be.  

 Eisuke's face turned dark at her words, "What is that meant to mean?" He asked in a flat, dangerous voice that Melody had heard many times before, but it wasn't often that it was directed at her.

 That accidental dig had opened a can of worms which resulted in an argument that went from topic to topic. Ayano, who had been in the kitchen getting a late-night snack, hid next to the doorway listening to her parents argue.