It was unusually quiet in the Hunters’ Quarters. Weary and with a headache dully pounding at the base of his neck, Kyuhyun took a breath with his eyes closed, wishing he could sink into the chair. His fingers splayed against his face did nothing to offer any sort of reprieve other than to keep him from falling on the desk. Rather embarrassingly, he flinched when he heard a knock at the door. “Come in,” he called just a touch too gruffly. When was the last time he’d had something to drink?

                “Oh dear,” a familiar soothing voice chuckled when his guest stepped through the door. “I figured you might have been neglecting yourself but you do sound terrible,” Youngmin laughed as glass clattered softly in a welcoming manner.

                “Shut up,” he groaned, though a smile made its way to his lips when he glanced up. The agrabuamelu had a small tray in both hands, on which he could see a delicate white ceramic cup sitting on an equally white saucer. He smelled what it was before he could see over the lip and it very nearly pulled him from his stupor. “You are a Magic-send though,” he amended, dark eyes sparkling with the thought of the black brew.

                “Yes, yes,” Youngmin laughed, an easy smile lighting up his face as he set the tray down and stationed himself at Kyuhyun’s elbow, obviously waiting for him to take a sip first. “So you’ve said before.”

                “And I meant it,” the Captain huffed once, reaching out a slender hand to carefully lift the cup and bring it close. The glass was warm as he rested the edge against his bottom lip and inhaled deeply, letting the notes of slightly bitter richness tickle his senses. His first sip was tiny, savoring the subtle flavors of the imported coffee as the beverage started to work its inexplicable magic. “I didn’t realize it was morning already,” he admitted without looking up.

                Youngmin shrugged and elegantly crossed his arms before perching on the corner of the desk. “I told Kwangmin he could leave early, what with him pulling double duty and all.”

                Kyuhyun grimaced at the reminder but didn’t let it ruin the mood. He took another sip of coffee and set it down before turning to focus on the creature in front of him. “You’ve been pulling double duty too,” he reminded, steepling his fingers in front of him with his elbows perched on his chair.

                “Eh,” the agrabuamelu shrugged, laughing it off easily. “Desk duty and research is not the same as active patrolling,” he explained, shaking his head.

                Mutely, the Hunter agreed with a tilt of his. “How is Taekwoon anyway?” he wondered, feeling slightly guilty he hadn’t gone more often to check up on him. It had only been two weeks since the attack and yet it felt like so much longer…

                Youngmin made a face, his nose wrinkled and the corners of his mouth turned down. “Better than he should be and worse at the same time.” He brushed at white-blond hair once before taking a breath and meeting Kyuhyun’s questioning look. “Lisa and Xiumin have been taking turns keeping an eye on him, but it’s clear he won’t be ready for active duty for another couple weeks at least.”

                Kyuhyun scowled and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I was afraid of that.” The fact that he was physically ‘fine’ had no relation to the mental damage he suffered. Taekwoon knew he should have died and that had left a far deeper wound than the physical ones he’d experienced. Not to mention the one person he generally needed to see was actively avoiding him out of guilt, completely immersed in his current mission, or both…

                “What did you expect?” Youngmin snorted, reaching out to brush the messy strands of Kyuhyun’s brown hair into a semblance of order.

                “I expected Hakyeon to protect him from the worst of things,” he admitted with a weary sigh, shifting his hand to scrub at his face instead. He should have, but given the mimic situation…

                That made the other man reach out and place a comforting hand on Kyuhyun’s shoulder. “No one feels that more than Hakyeon himself.”

                “I know,” Kyuhyun nodded, letting the hand remain as he reached for the coffee and took another sip. “I can’t get in touch with him but he does send updates. Which would be fine if we didn’t also have to contend with the newest cases that keep popping up.”

                “Right,” Youngmin nodded in agreement, an unpleasant expression pulling at his features. “Made worse by the fact that the mimic is… mimicking Hakyeon.”

                “Exactly,” Kyuhyun groaned, setting the cup down and leaning back in his chair with his head hanging over the top. “The mayors have been calling to ask about it. For the sake of the peace of mind of the public, they want me to ‘kick him out’ of the Hunters’ Quarters.”

                “Stupid,” the other man snorted with an obvious roll of his eyes.

                “I expected it from Soonkyu. Humans never have a good grasp on the short-term effects versus the long terms ones,” Kyuhyun scoffed, sitting upright once again. “I didn’t think Donghyun would fall into that trap too, though.”

                Youngmin shrugged and then patted Kyuhyun’s shoulder again. “He’s walking a fine line in his position. A lot of our residents in Tradeborough are of the newer generation. Young bloods with short histories. There are only a few who remember when Hakyeon was ‘driven out’ before.”

                “And fewer still who remember the uptick in occurrences that happened after he left,” the Captain added, turning to look at the board of ongoing cases. He frowned with a raised brow when Youngmin changed positions to actively use his head as a rest.

                “At least you don’t have to worry about Hakyeon leaving this time.”

                Kyuhyun was silent for a moment as he allowed the agrabuamelu to maintain his perch. It was normally bothersome but right now, he found it oddly comforting. “Has he seen Taekwoon since the incident?”

                “No,” Youngmin admitted hesitantly. “My guess would be that he’s ashamed.”

                “And fixated on finding the mimic in the meantime,” Kyuhyun added as he scratched at his pocked cheek, lightly upsetting the agrabuamelu’s perch. “He’s already caught quite a few small fries in his endeavors.”

                “But none that are particularly useful to us. Especially not with our current problems,” the other man reminded him in a quiet murmur.

                “Ugh. Don’t remind me,” the Captain scowled, rubbing at his forehead with one hand again. “Ryeowook was far more of a dead end than he should have been.”

                Youngmin shifted to move into Kyuhyun’s view, resting on the desk like before. “Not necessarily,” he spoke, wagging his finger in front of the hunter’s face. “It’s true that he gave no names,” he conceded with a slow nod, “but we can also confirm that he is likely responsible for the mimic’s presence and is partner to at least one secondary group.”

                “But we already know about the Revolutionaries…” he groaned, not seeing how this was helpful. In truth, he has been expecting more to be gained from taking the Mage into custody, but he had been remarkably close-lipped about the whole thing. Worse, they hadn’t been able to call a Mage in to help with breaking him down. Ailee was too close to the whole situation, Seokjin wasn’t trustworthy enough, and no others outside of the city had been inclined to volunteer… Nor were the mayors super eager to ‘hire’ another Mage to help – they were notoriously expensive after all.

                “We know about the Revolutionaries as a group,” Youngmin clarified, using both hands to emphasize his point. “We don’t know about the ringleaders and it’s safe to say that we have at least one of them here in Tradeborough. Maybe more.”

                Kyuhyun frowned at that and looked up to meet the other man’s eyes. “Explain,” he commanded, one finger pointing at the agrabuamelu. As the Captain here, he wasn’t clueless, but neither was he privy to every detail as it happened. And Youngmin had been making some pretty deep dives in the records recently.

                Youngmin grinned and wriggled in place, settling in for his explanation. “It’s worth noting what Ryeowook didn’t say during his time in our custody. Most of his correspondences were likely with magic, as we were able to confirm with traces that Ailee could verify with a cursory look. But!” he exclaimed, holding one hand up excitedly, “sometimes you just have to go the old-fashioned way. Of course we couldn’t get much of a reaction out of him when it came to Eric, Heechul or some of our more well-known names – including Irene and Jaeseop. Most everyone knows about them, one way or the other.”

                “Yes, and…” Kyuhyun urged, mildly annoyed the other man was spinning this out as long as he was.

                “What he wasn’t expecting was us to ask about the small fries like Chanyeol,” Youngmin continued, completely at ease despite Kyuhyun’s frustration. “What was more interesting was that we got a definite surprised response when it came to asking about Hoshi and BamBam. Aliases of course,” he laughed when the Captain gave him a deadpan look.

                “I know I’ve heard the names, but remind me of who they are,” Kyuhyun commented after taking a breath.

                “It’s anecdotal at the moment, but in this business, that’s not a half bad connection,” Youngmin started, gesturing with both hands to keep Kyuhyun from interrupting first. “We know that Chanyeol often frequents Madam’s Resort and we’ve long suspected that Heechul is a primary player in their leadership ring. He’s got the means and the motive for it. Well, the latter not so much – humans do make a significant contribution to his business, but the money could be recouped elsewhere if they weren’t there.”

                “True enough,” the Captain nodded, listening attentively. It wasn’t new information, but hearing it put together was always interesting.

                “BamBam is relatively new and we’ve seen him talking with Chen from time to time. As you know, the Kelpie plays both sides when it’s convenient,” Youngmin reminded, one finger raised between them. “This is significant because we have no direct ties to BamBam ourselves. Furthermore, he’s a merman and as Handong pointed out not that long ago, there was some kind of disturbance in the waters she ‘noticed’,” he explained, shrugging as there was no further information there.

                “I take it that was a recent discovery,” Kyuhyun commented, feeling marginally out of the loop.

                Youngmin shrugged and nodded in agreement. “I’ve been as busy as you have,” he promised with a sidelong look. “Maybe I haven’t done the physical legwork you Hunters do but you can’t mess with these,” he winked as he waggled his fingers suggestively.

                “Alright, Romeo,” Kyuhyun scoffed, tossing a pen at him with a snort. “What about Hoshi?”

                The other man caught the pen with an unabashed grin and set it down firmly before leaning closer. “The human has been another fairly recent development, and one that we may have been overlooking for far too long. I only got word of him when Kevin relayed Jaeseop’s snippet of a “spunky little star” having made a visit at Indecent Pleasures a few times now.”

                Kyuhyun snorted at the description even as his eyes narrowed in thought. When the connection came to him, he laughed again and rolled his eyes, but stilled after a moment. “Human?” he frowned, running that through his head before he waved his hand and grimaced. “Money, I know,” he answered his own question. It was early and he wasn’t going to ask for understanding for his lapse.

                “Right. Which again points back to Heechul as a backer. The djinn has money to burn and he doesn’t seem worried about how things might end up so long as he can turn a profit. That being said, humans like Hoshi are in a unique position to… sow discord and gain access to places typically friendly to both crowds without attracting suspicion, as it were,” he grimaced, shrugging with both hands.

                Kyuhyun literally groaned and buried his face in his hands as he leaned forward. “That would explain the relatively new instances on the human side…”

                “Exactly. And it’s likely that he’s not working alone but we haven’t been able to catch any news about secondary parties yet,” Youngmin admitted hesitantly.

                “Do we have any human resources?” the Captain asked dejectedly, already pretty sure he knew the answer.

                Youngmin cringed preemptively and shook his head. “Not since the last batch… died in the line of action.”

                Kyuhyun let out the sigh he’d been holding and hung his head with his hands splayed out on the desk. “We need more Hunters. More allies…” he explained softly, though his tone indicated he didn’t think it was likely.

                “About that…” the agrabuamelu announced hesitantly, trailing off and waiting for the other man to respond first.

                “Youngminnie?” he asked, using the pet-name that indicated he should tread carefully.

                Undeterred, the other man grinned and stuck his tongue through his teeth playfully. “Given our situation and the general reluctance of the population at large to become Hunters or even associated with them,” he explained, earning a mute glare from Kyuhyun, “I’ve been making some quiet inquiries.”

                Kyuhyun threaded his fingers together on top of his desk and then rested his chin on them before he spoke, “I’ll hear you out before I decide to be annoyed.”

                “And you should!” Youngmin beamed, standing up and practically dancing to the other side of the desk where Kyuhyun would be able to see him better. “The Hunters’ Quarters are tapped out. Taekwoon’s down for the count for the time being, Lisa and Xiumin are distracted, Kevin is entangled with that troublesome incubus, Jaehwan’s sight is limited to only what he can see, and our ace, Hakyeon, is playing the rogue at the moment,” he explained with all the theatrics he could manage.

                “Youngmin,” the Captain sighed with his head listing to the side.

                “But wait! There is light on the horizon!” Youngmin grinned, waving his hand towards some distant point like he was in a play. And to some extent he was. The man was a er for theatrics and putting on a show – maybe not as much as his brother but close enough. “None of our Neutral players are really eager to get into things, but there are a fair few Co-existors that are willing to work with us overall.”

                “It would be better if they were Hunters…” Kyuhyun grumbled, not against the idea but still slightly resistant.

                “Yes, yes, yes,” the agrabuamelu scoffed with fluttering hands. “No one’s arguing that. The fact is we don’t have Hunters. What we do have are creatures – and people-ish, surprisingly,” he added with a raised brow and a tilted head, “that want to help and try to make things work.”

                Kyuhyun took a deep breath and then gestured with his hands. “Go on.”

                “The wolves for one,” he started, raising his finger pointedly when Kyuhyun would have said something otherwise. “They’ve been patrolling with the vampires to help pick up the slack since we’ve been shorthanded.”

                “Great. Just what we need. To be indebted to the Pack or the Coven,” Kyuhyun scowled, though he didn’t argue the point further.

                “To be fair, the Coven is keenly interested in the mimic as well,” Youngmin reminded him.

                “Right. That did come up before,” the Captain murmured thoughtfully. “Why?”

                Youngmin rubbed at his jaw and shook his head. “I don’t know actually. And they’re not saying, but Namjoon has taken a personal interest in it.”

                “That is interesting,” Kyuhyun commented as he sat up, brows furrowed thoughtfully.

                “Exactly,” the agrabuamelu murmured, looking around conspiratorially before he plopped down in the chair in front of Kyuhyun’s desk and scooched closer. “I was digging through our records and trying to find anything to do with the mimic or whatnot and I noticed that the topic has come up a couple times in the past.” At Kyuhyun’s frown, he waved his hands to ward off a false idea. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like we’ve ever had a direct connection of anything related to a mimic exactly,” he clarified, leaving more than enough for Kyuhyun to read between the lines.

                “Continue,” Kyuhyun encouraged, fully engaged now.

                Youngmin took a breath and nodded once before beginning, “There was a time period about two hundred years ago or so where we saw a similar occurrence of events. Not like this exactly but there were cases where the Hunters weren’t sure of what they were tracking or couldn’t pinpoint what had caused someone to be hurt or die.”

                “Why am I just hearing about this now?” Kyuhyun asked, obviously annoyed.

                The agrabuamelu glared at him and asked, “Have any of us been here for more than two hundred years?”

                Kyuhyun didn’t say anything. Hunters often died relatively young or retired early and the staff tended to rotate every century or so – for the agrabuamelu, it was very much a family business. Twins ran in the family and one of the pairs would usually take over the post after so much time had passed. Neither Youngmin nor Kwangmin had paired with anyone for the long term yet so they had no one to take over in their wake, but they had only been here for about seventy or eighty years if he remembered correctly. True, they were waiting a bit to find someone but if they ended up staying longer than a hundred years, Kyuhyun would not complain. Well, if he was still around then himself…

                “I could ask my grandmother if she knows anything about that time period though,” he admitted with a thoughtful gleam in his eyes.

                “That would be a good idea,” Kyuhyun agreed, still waiting for the rest of the conversation.

                “Right. I’ll make sure to ask her within the week then,” he promised, nodding once to confirm his train of thought. “Beyond that, though, there was a mention of a case pretty similar to what we’re seeing today. Missing persons and specific targeting. They weren’t able to identify what was going on at the time but it did seem as if everything stopped after a seemingly random attack on a Rank 2 and Rank 4 vampire. It’s strange though…” he trailed off, confused by the situation. “I can’t find any record of their names or who they were.”

                Kyuhyun was silent after that tidbit of information. It was standard practice to meticulously record every incident in the Hunter database. If the names of a case were missing, it was intentional. The question was… did his predecessors leave them out or was it because of outside interference? “Good job,” he murmured instead, trying to keep his misgivings to himself. “That is something to follow up on for sure. But you also mentioned that we had… additional allies to consider?” he added, swinging the topic to less treacherous ground.

                Youngmin eyed him for a moment, looking the Hunter up and down, before nodding in agreement. “Aye. You already know the wolves are willing to help and have been maintaining their own patrols since we’ve been stretched so thin,” he explained. “Taeyang and Jackson have been running evening jaunts and Moonbyul and Kihyun have started taking Joy on their day shifts. They’re actively training a few of the pups to see if they can step up and handle some of the heavy lifting in the meantime too.”

                “Is Namjoon the only vampire that’s investigating?” he wondered, knowing that wasn’t the case exactly since Jungsu had been coming by to pester him far more often than usual.

                “No. You already know that Jungsu’s been by a few times to question us. And Wonho’s been taking an active role in the dusk runs as well. I think they’re considering bringing Sanghyuk into the roster but he’s their newest, other than Jungkook,” Youngmin explained with a flippant wave of his hand.

                “Right. The one that had trouble with the chimera before he turned, correct?” Kyuhyun commented, dredging his memory for the source of that name.

                “Exactly,” his companion nodded in impressed agreement.

                “Any word on the chimera?”

                “No. But Ailee’s keeping an ear out for it. Chances are good it jumped ship to another continent.”

                “And the poachers?”

                “Quiet since the mimic incident.”

                “Any shift among the others?” Kyuhyun asked, turning his dark eyes on the other man.

                Youngmin shook his head slowly, but his mouth opened slightly as a thought came to him. “No…” he trailed off, frowning slightly. “But Yongsun and Changmin have expressed… tentative interest in being kept in the loop, should we agree.”

                “Hmm,” Kyuhyun hummed, gripping his chin in his hands. The Kitsune and the Reaper would be considerable allies, but the bigger question was why they were interested in helping in the first place. “See if you can dig a little deeper with them before we try to make a decision,” he urged, shifting his hand to scratch at his face before he set it on the desk.

                “Of course,” he murmured, pursing his lips and rubbing his hands together slowly. “There’s one more thing I think I should mention too…” he added, trailing off quietly as if unsure how to broach the topic.

                That did not sound good to Kyuhyun and he braced himself preemptively. “What is it?” he asked, leaning back as if distance would somehow make it less worrisome.

                 “We might want to keep a closer eye on Chen,” he admitted unhappily. At Kyuhyun’s confused frown, Youngmin waved his hands and shook his head. “It’s not like that. But… from what I’ve been hearing, he may be in a bit over his head with how he plays the middleman right now.”

                “Should we be worried?” Kyuhyun asked, eyeing the other man intently.

                “Maybe,” Youngmin nodded, clearly not happy about the statement.

                Without another word, Kyuhyun took a sip of his cooling coffee and then stood up to stretch, arms raised above his head with a quiet groan. “Anything else I should know about?” he wondered, turning a speculative gaze towards Youngmin before he finished the dregs of his cup.

                “Eh,” the agrabuamelu laughed, shrugging once. “Yoongi will likely be returning to the front lines soon, the Coven is in talks to induct another member into their ranks, and rumors of a dragon in Tradeborough have started again.”

                Kyuhyun rolled his eyes. “So another day in the life of a Hunter then?”

                “Exactly,” Youngmin grinned without an ounce of irony.

                “Delightful,” the Captain sighed, glancing at the empty cup with a slight sense of longing. He shook himself quickly though and turned to draw up the current list of ongoing cases on the holoscreen. “Let me know if anything else comes up,” he murmured, his back to Youngmin.

                “Of course, sir,” the agrabuamelu murmured, likely bowing or nodding before he stepped out.

                Kyuhyun glared at the map. It wasn’t necessarily his fault that they had so many cases lately, but there was no denying he had more than his fair share on his plate. If there was an event in the past that mirrored this one, even a little bit, it was worth looking into. Would he be able to get information was the problem…

(a/n: Okay. So I have desperately been trying to figure out a way to add some SugaKookie into the end of this update and it has been failing at every turn. As such, I have kept you waiting far longer than I intended. Apologies for the delay. I think I've got a starting point for the next chapter that should give me something to work with for our mains, so wish me luck. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it out much sooner than this one... Either way though, thank you for being patient and I hope that you enjoyed it! I also hope that you look forward to the next one. ^_^)