The Sunset Men’s Host Club, an adult entertainment club where young men are employed to entertain their predominantly female guests through various means, usually by roleplaying as the ‘ideal man’ for their clients.

This is where Ryoji works, he runs up the stairs to the staff room of their host club. Little Kaori is strapped to his chest, bobbing up and down in a way to comfort herself.

Ryoji enters through the door and straps Kaori down in the seat he brought in here awhile ago. “Jason, watch her for a bit.” he orders, referring to his young shift supervisor with curly hair.

“Right. You’re needed at the bar for now, none of your regulars are here currently,” Jason said as he types away on the shoddy PC they have, he peers up and looks at Ryoji’s nose and outfit in mild disgust. “And put a plaster on your broken nose, that way we can sell it as some bashful or bad boy persona for clients.”

Ryoji rolls his eyes and nods as he tosses his clothes aside and runs into the toilet to change, he changes into a simple football top that was lying around and applies a plaster over his nose.

He then swiftly jogs downstairs to the main area of the club and swings himself over the bar counter and starts cleaning dirty glasses.

“So who broke your nose?” his co-worker asks.

“A dog, I think he was some bigshot commander,” Ryoji replies, tossing dry glasses to his co-worker who starts filling them with alcohol.

Ryoji looks around and sees how many girls were giggling and laughing with other hosts, he tries listening into their conversations but they were mostly about their college work, the family they hate or how lonely they feel.

He feels sad for them honestly and this place is merely taking advantage of their insecurities. Extortionate prices that no sane person would spend on but the whole pretend boyfriend thing makes customers attached and makes them keep coming back.

However, money is money and this is one of the best jobs he has right now for that, he feels bad but he also just couldn’t care about them.

“So how’s your friend Rex?” his co-worker asks.

“Nothin’ much, his team is playing in the regional circuits this year, Volt ain’t playing in his age division though cus’ he’s a dog now.” Ryoji replies, tossing some glasses into the dishwasher.

Ltn. Commander Saturn, also known as Ruaidhrí/Rory Saturn, was walking through the host club with his favorite cadet, Luna Knight. Her actual rank was that of Lieutenant Junior Grade but to him, she’s’ his cadet.

The two were in more casual clothing, he kept his identity secret through pitchblack sun shades, a charcoal sweater with a white dress shirt underneath. His sleeves were rolled up showcasing a few plasters on his arms.

Luna wasn’t wearing anything nearly as fancy, she was wearing a graphic tee, with a longer one underneath and shorts. Luna wasn’t exactly the beauty standard expected from women, her hair was coloured like chocolate and short, her eyes were quite large and she had a soft face. She was pretty masculine looking all things considered and was often confused for a man with how she binds to compress her breasts.

Ruaidhrí faces Luna, his eyes narrowing. “I’m warning you now, don’t have any ideas about these men. No phone numbers or anything with these guys.”

Luna nods, “Okie Dokie, sir!” she exclaims, her voice echoing through the club, some heads peering up to look at them.

Ruaidhrí quickly puts his finger against her lips, “Quiet!” he orders her. “We’re here on business, mostly quick business. Knock yourself out at a table but if things go too far with those hosts, tug my sleeve and we’ll leave.”

Luna nods once again as she takes a seat across the table with Ruaidhrí, it doesn’t take long for a staff member to order their drinks, but more importantly, order what host they wanted to be entertained with for the night.

Ruaidhrí didn’t need to look at the host menu to know his answer, “RyojiYuki, I want that man here.”

Luna orders some random host, he couldn’t care for the name of. As long as she’s entertained for a while.

The job was simple, he was going to conduct business with Ryoji, an infamous petty thief around these parts, insanely skilled but not extravagant as say his contemporaries were. He was gonna commission Ryoji to kidnap Marcas Nixon for him, he needed that boy whether he came willingly or not, and time was running out for the chance the boy would seek him out.

It didn’t take long for the man himself to come. Ryoji sits himself down beside Ruaidhrí. “Hey handsome, you lookin’ for a strong boy like me?” he winks.

“Yeah, looking for a PC 484 if you get me,” he smirks at him, making Ryoji look uneased, the young man biting his thumb as if not knowing what to say or if he was tired.

“Right… “ he mutters. “We’ll talk, just not here.”

Ruaidhrí nods, he can wait a little bit, a private location would be preferred. No prying eyes or opened ears that could disrupt anything. After a moment of silence, Ryoji snaps back to this charming persona trying to sway Ruaidhrí into ordering drinks for the both of them.

So the two had small talk, mostly about the football playing overhead on the TV mounted to the wall. It was a local game, nothing much to say about it, players were average in Ruaidhrí’s eyes.

However, the other host was being very touchy with Luna, rubbing his legs against her thigh or stroking her hair. That was not something he approves of and nor does Luna judging by her own discomfort.

Ruaidhrí clenches the small beer glass in his hands as he sees the host try to be more flirtatious with Luna. His teeth gritted against each other.

Feeling a soft kick in his legs, he looks under the table to see Luna pathetically kicking him, unable to reach out for Ruaidhrí’s hand. It was time to go it seems.

“We’ll be going now, how bout you come home with me ‘handsome’.” Ruaidhrí smirks, pulling out his wallet and credit card. He quickly scans it through the card reader the other host grabs from the bar counter.

“Okay…” he says, his eyes gazing to the ground. “Let me tell my manager I’m leaving.”

It doesn’t take long for the three of them to head out, however, Ruaidhrí gives that other host one last look of pure disdain before leaving the club.

He’ll deal with him later.

He could tell Ryoji was completely nauseated from riding the hyperspeed elevator and to the spaceport. He should know it’s even worse on the way back. The boy’s face was puke green and it looked like he was about to vomit everywhere.

“Saturn…” Luna moans, her own face puke green and Ruaidhrí couldn’t tell if it was the drinks or the space travel making her sick.

“Yes cadet?”

“I’m going to my room…”

“Alright, I was going to send you there anyway given your current state and I need my room tonight for other purposes.” Ruaidhrí replies sternly as he takes Ryoji’s wrist and drags him to the Alicorn Warship.

“Okie dokie…” she said, parting from Ryoji and Ruaidhrí.

The Alicorn Warship was a mighty beast with great beauty, its namesake comes from the fact it resembles that of an alicorn and was painted a metallic red and black. It had ‘L’ shaped wings on its side and on the head of the crew deck was a tilted communications tower that resembled a horn. The ship holds around several dozen single rooms but Ruaidhrí couldn’t bother remembering the exact number and holds at least twelve Advanced Units in its hangar.

Ruadhrí escorts Ryoji to something more classy than a lowly crew member’s bunk room. It was his own personal quarters that was fitted with a double bed, a walk-in closet and his own personal bathroom with shower. The closet was halfway open and one could see Luna’s uniforms spill on the floor.

“Your room is nice, may steal half of it.” Ryoji remarks as he sits on the bed. “So you want to do it? That’s the only reason why you’d bring me to your bed and not to the office.”

Ruadhrí removes his shades, setting them on the bedside table. “Well it’s been awhile since I’ve had someone new in bed, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” he chuckles, knowing exactly what Ryoji was implying.

Shedding his clothes off, Ryoji reveals his very slender and downright scrawny body, it was like the man never eats in his life. Just like Luna was when he first met her.

Soon the two find themselves tangling themselves up in the bed, it was messy, it was loud and he could tell Ryoji was inexperienced compared to him. Yet he enjoyed it so much, being able to dominate someone outside of lecturing cadets.

He wanted to keep this one.

With a yawn, Ryoji sits himself up in the bed and is quick to direct themselves back to business, “Right, what does a Galactic Dog want me to steal?”

Ruadhrí sits on the edge of the bed, “I need you to steal a boy, his name is Marcas Nixon. He was sold into slavery to George Humphrey by his father.”

“No!”

He takes a moment to blink, his eyes staring into Ryoji before asking, “What do you mean no?”

“I don’t do that crap, I steal things not people, nevermind children.” Ryoji replies, turning away from Ruaidhrí and standing up.

“I’ll give you 200,000 G-Credits!”

Ryoji pauses, staying silent as he slowly turns his head towards Ruaidhrí. “I’ll do it.”

A smirk slowly crawls up Ruaidhrí’s face, this one could be tamed if he plays his cards right. He could just imagine a little collar around his slender neck and him obeying his commands on a whim like Luna does.

“Why the sudden change of mind?”

“Cus’ I need the money for my family… we’re tight for even a fraction of that cash.”

Ruaidhrí makes an amused noise, “Your family, are you not in a good place?”

Ryoji shakes his head, “No, my dad is a stupid junkie abusing my brother’s disability allowance, my brother keeps getting trouble in school cus’ of his own disabilities and trouble making… which leaves me working a host club job and stealing with my best friend to make ends meet.”

A poor boy… oh this one definitely could become his!

“Why not stay with us? I can provide for all of you, food, shelter, education… I can pay for all of it. In return I merely want you to enlist into the army.”

Ryoji shakes his head, “I’d die before I became a dog.”

He merely shrugs, whatever, he tells himself. There’s plenty of other fish in the sea and even though he craved this one, he was lightyears away.

Ah yes, best continue this debriefing.

“You don’t have much time by the way, you have perhaps only twenty four or maybe thirty hours to hand me over the boy.”

“Wait… why?”

“Well you see…”

“Yeah thanks for taking her Mr. Jian… I’m sorry my brother has gone MIA,” Mateo says over the phone to Jian, his laptop bag snuggled under his arm.

It was annoying that Ryoji just abandoned Kaori in the host club, thank god Rex happened to stop by there tonight and found her with Jason.

With a sigh, Mateo steps inside the house. The TV was on and showing only static, casting an eerie glow to the living room. Cans were scattered everywhere, specifically beer cans and there was a putrid smell of fish nearby.

Mateo could conclude his father was definitely home now.

He leaves his laptop bag on the kitchen table, the plates are starting to pile up again and there was an unfinished plate of mac and cheese lying idle on the kitchen counter. There was also a note next to the mac and cheese.

Mateo reads the note.

‘If you need anything, call me!’ - Nyx

His phone number was just underneath it.

Mateo scoffs, it seems Kasumi was befriending the neighborhood dogs.

Speaking of dogs, Mateo hears the soft whine of the dog door opening. Jerking his head around, he sees Volt of all people crawling through the hatch with their pet platypus Lucifer following behind.

“Volt, what the hell are you doing here?” he asks.

Volt bashfully rubs the back of his head, “Sorry, I just needed a place to crash in.”

“You have your own house.”

“Yeah but Commander Reinhard will look there first, he wouldn’t even think of looking here.”

Mateo rolls his eyes.

Lucifer trods over to the TV where Mateo could see their father curled up on the floor, passed out drunk he presumes.

“Anyways, why are you really here?”

“Oh, Reinhard is doing midnight drills and like, I don’t wanna do that. I’m way too great for that. I should be in battle with my Advanced Unit, not licking his boots.” Volt huffs, his cheeks puffing up like a puffer fish.

“Right, how long until someone comes to our door looking for you?”

“At least two hours.”

Mateo loudly sighs as he opens the fridge, “Want milk?”

“Yeah sure.”

Lucifer purrs and Mateo looks up, seeing her roll a bottle back and forth with her paw. He could also see that she was flapping her tail rapidly.

“What you got there Luci?” he asks, picking up the glass bottle from her paw.

There was a letter inside, soaked with the tiniest bit of water inside it.

Making his way over to the sink, Mateo pours the water down the drain and slides the letter out, reading the smudged writing.

“Hey Volt? How do you feel about breaking into some rich guy’s place to save someone?” Mateo asks.

“Well as a First Cadet it’d be my duty to save someone in need… why you asking?”

Mateo holds the note to Volt’s face, “Cus I just found a rescue note.”

Volt scans his eyes over the note and smirks. “I like that idea!”

Scooping up Lucifer into his arms, Mateo runs out the door with Volt following. Kasumi will be fine with their dad…