To say Wren wasn’t a morning person was a bit of an understatement, even after enduring 190,165 mornings so far in this world he was still rather sluggish to get started. As a result he lazed around for quite awhile, the warmth of his blankets and Kai Ji snuggled up next to him made him reluctant to move and worse today was an earlier day than usual.  Although he had once been quite timely and active in the mornings that was hundreds of years ago when he got up at five am to start training for the day. 

When exactly had he started slacking? Surely sometime before he left the forbidden city he had lost interest in the people there long before he left, even coming dislike some of his beloved emperors descendants. For a long time he had been lost, unwilling to leave his home but at the same time feeling trapped. He hadn’t known what to do with his extended life and had fallen into a rut, repeating the same boring patterns day in and day out, watching people come and go while he stayed the same. It wasn’t until the emperor's descendants betrayed him that he had finally come to realize that the home he had been so desperately clinging to was long gone.

Even now, centuries after he realized this and left he still didn’t know what to do with his life thus he had decided to live simply. Enjoy the moment, live day by day and do not fret about the past or future. Thus, he was currently enjoying the moment, the pure bliss of snuggling in a warm bed with a purring cat. Suibien let him enjoy this for awhile  before gently reminding him that there was a reason why he set the alarm on his phone and it wasn’t to cuddle his cat.

“Right, right” Wren groaned as he struggled free from the sheets, carefully climbing around his sleeping feline friend as to not  disturb the cat. Even though Kai Ji could be quite the grumpy little jerk he was still Wrens beloved little jerk and he was the only one besides Suibien to accompany Wren for all these years. As soon as he got up and the rooms cold air touched his skin Wre glanced longingly back at the bed and muttered. “Do I really have to go to work and find this guy? He is a detective, seems like it might be hard work….and the bed is calling my name. ” 

“A little hard never killed anyone.”

“True, but why take the risk?”

Wren could tell that the dragon rolled his eyes at that one and chuckled as he finally started getting ready for the day. He wanted to appear professional while looking for this guy but he didn’t want to go overboard so he chose a nice, form fitting  grey shirt with matching black pants. After that he showered and dressed, taking the time to carefully brush out his long wild black hair before tying it back out of his face with a gold ribbon. 

“Not overboard right? I look handsome and professional but not like someone who is trying to hard either?”

“Looks good to me, are you intending to try and charm people into giving out information on this guy?”

“You bet, it’s worked before after all and why fix something that's not broken?”

“Well your narcissistic personality could use a bit of fixing and not everyone falls for your charms.”

“Oh, come on there is nothing wrong with taking pride in one’s appearance besides most of the time I wear one of those convenient shirts with the Kai Ji sized pockets on the front and those aren’t pretty, just toasty and useful.” Wren pouted in response to the dragons jeer, though he knew well that Suibien was just teasing.     

Joking aside, Wren finished getting ready and set down a plate that contained tinned sardines for Kai Ji who was currently glaring at him for disturbing his slumber and headed out.  His first goal was starbucks, once again he planned to ask whomever was working there about the detective, if they didn’t know he would buy something for breakfast and wait for a while to see if the man himself showed up. 

The starbucks cafe wasn’t too far from his hotel so he arrived after a short walk and stood back for a moment to study the menu. He wasn’t much of a coffee guy, having grown up with hot teas the stuff had never really appealed to him however he was pleasantly surprised to see a variety of tea’s on the menu. The first time he had stopped by, he hadn’t actually bothered to take a look at the menu.  What caught his attention was something called Emperors Cloud and Mist green tea. The name alone was rather appealing to him, even though he had no idea what it tasted like he got in line to order a cup of it and a croissant. The line was rather long and it was headed by a women with short blond hair who was currently holding everyone up as she shouted at someone behind the counter. Several other people muttered in annoyance and it was easy to tell that this woman was probably just stirring up trouble to try and get a free coffee. Rolling his eyes he thought about interrupting the woman when he caught sight of one of the people behind the counter. A dragon? 

“Hey is that?”

“Yes, it appears that we have run into another dragon. You should behave yourself.” 

“Ugh, fine.” 

Although the situation was probably not the best way to encounter another of his kind it was still kind of nice to run into another dragon. Soon after the staff managed to regain control of the situation and sent the angry women on her way. As soon as the women stepped through the door Wren let out a loud cheer, loud enough for the women to hear as he triumphantly shoved his fist into the air. “Woohoo, way to handle that angry land shark!” 

He earned himself a few chuckles from his fellow line goers and an angry glare from the woman as she stomped out the door. Once he got to the counter he grinned at the person behind the counter. His original plan was to try and charm information out of the people here however he chose a slightly different approach on the account of the presence of another dragon. “A person like that could really ruin ones day huh? You guys handled that well though. Anyway, I am quite new to this whole starbucks thing and I am not quite sure I follow the cup sizes? I must say the names are rather unique…”

After the person at the register clarified the cup sizes for him he want on to order a grande emperors cloud and mist green tea and croissant while hoping he understood the menu properly. Thankfully he was the last person in line so after he placed the order he pulled out a picture of the detective and showed it to the staff. “Oh, have any of you seen this man? I am currently looking for him.” 

The barista didn’t even have to answer his question verbally, as soon as they saw the person in the picture they couldn’t help but cast a quick, subtle glance of into the store. It was probably just a subconscious reaction, perhaps they didn’t even notice what they did but to Wren’s trained eyes that reaction was as clear as spoken directions. Following their gaze he quickly found his target sitting at a table with another man. 

“Thank you” He stated cheerfully to the probably confused barista whom hadn’t even spoken and stepped out of the way to wait for his drink. He hadn’t seen them earlier due to the crowd but now that that a bunch of people dispersed off into the world with their ventes, grandes or whatever the heck they where he could get a better view of the place.

“What luck, they are already here.”

“Yeah, but he’s with another guy. Do you think trying to use your charming personality will still work?” 

“Who knows, but those two look kind of close so I will try plan b”

“Whats plan b? And who cares if there's another guy there just flirt with both of them.”

“Come on Suibien, I’m not that shameless.”

“Yes you are.”

“True, I won’t keep trying to deny that.” Wren acknowledged he was ruthlessly shameless when he wanted to be but he didn’t like messing around with other people's love lives and while he could not be certain of anything both he and Suibien agreed that these two appeared to be together. “ Besides, I like plan B anyway.” 

While waiting for his drink to be made he pulled out his phone and began texting a brief overview of his plans to Luca and Bran and asked if they were willing to lend a hand and play along. As per usual Luca acted in a begrudging manner as if Wren had asked him to do something incredibly difficult however he did not refuse and as for Bran, he was more than happy to help. 

“Heh, typical Luca all angsty but I bet he will have a blast with this.” 

Suibien commented offhandedly as Wren’s name was called and he was handed his drink and croissant. Given that Wren had never actually gone to a starbucks before he was a bit confused as to why some random name that was not his own was written on the cup but after briefly inquiring to make sure he got the right item he went to sit down. 

Thankfully the tables were located in rather tight quarters so he intentionally chose the spot directly behind the detective, with his back facing Conner's back.   After blowing on his tea for a few minutes his phone suddenly rang, the ring tone was the theme song to one of his current favorite animes, the caller was Luca and he was right on time. A small grin appeared on Wren’s face. Let the game begin, he turned up the volume on his phone speaker, leaving it just loud enough for the man behind to hopefully hear at least some of what the speaker on the other end was saying.

“Hello”

“Its me,  have you got any leads?”

Luca’s voice had a deep and unmistakable english accent anyone who would overhear would know he was not a local. As for Wren his voice had its own unique accent as well however unlike Luca it was difficult to make out where he was from. Wren might have originally spoken the old chinese language but after hundreds of years of travel and staying in different countries around the world he had picked up bits and pieces of other accents as well. This had left his accent uniquely his own.

“Yes, not many but I am fairly certain the Mayors death has nothing to do with them.”

“Are you sure? That fire happened within a very similar time frame.”

“I’m certain of it, I broke into the mayors shortly after I arrived to observe the crime scene and the work was nowhere as neat and clean as theirs.”

“Do you think they could have changed up their tactics to make it look like someone else did it?” This question was entirely on Luca’s part, it was clear that he was now into the game, it made it difficult for Wren to not grin and maintain a serious look on his face.

“Possibly, but again it was quite messy and not like them. It also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, think about it. This organization has been committing crimes across the world for who knows how long, they don’t want to be found and are very good at hiding themselves.  The fire was a classic example of their work, it seemed ordinary, clean and more like an every day accident. I have no doubt that sooner or later officials will declare it to be just that an accident or perhaps the random act of an unknown arsonist and move on, the media will forget about it and no further investigation will occur. The fire plays out just like every other incident they have been believed to be behind but there is one thing they cannot truly hide and that is that everytime they strike there is always one person who is unaccounted for.”

“If there are twenty seven people involved in the incident only twenty six will be found, the other will be MIA. Every single time, without fail this has been how they operate. We may not yet know why they do this but they are ruthless, they have hurt countless innocent people around the world and are involved in hundreds of disappearances. Their target may almost always be just one person but they don’t seem to care if other people get caught up in their hunt. They make sure those people are kept quiet and every time the story ends up getting covered up.”

“They likely have connections in high places to make this happen and they intentionally keep things quiet so they can continue whatever holy work it is that they believe they are doing without being found. So why would they then suddenly go against everything they work for? A simple city mayor no less? That doesn’t make sense now does it?”

“True, it doesn’t follow with their usual ways however are you absolutely certain they are not involved?”

“No, in fact it may still be related to them.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well this did happen right around the same time, although I do not personally believe our group was behind this murder, we still cannot be certain if this murder was some sort of act of retaliation. I am going to need you to do a detailed background search on this mayor, maybe, just maybe we can find some hidden connection. In the meantime I am going to need to find a way to get a good look at the mayor's body. Unfortunately I am not yet legal here and don’t yet have any authorization so I can’t do things by the book.”

“Why don’t you just break into the morgue and have a look?” The peppy voice that spoke up suddenly was not Luca’s  and it had a strong irish accent. It took Wren a moment to realize the speaker was Bran. Unlike Luca Bran, who was a native born canadian but his parents had come from Ireland and he often visited family in the country, thus he was able to fake an Irish accent quite sufficiently. 

“Breaking into the morgue? Sounds fun but I will need to find out exactly which morgue the Mayors body is at, where it’s located in the morgue  and figure out what level of security it has.”

“Easy, just leave it to me. I will get into contact with you shortly with all the information you need.” 

“Good, I’ll be waiting.”

With that Wren hung up the phone, finding it difficult not to laugh. Those two really got into this and he could just imagine how much of a blast the two were having. In fact right about now he could just imagine the two where cracking up laughing and joking around about it. Only a few days had passed but he already missed those two kids, partings were always hard for a social creature like himself but he had no desire to involve innocent people in the dangerous lives of dragons. He made that mistake once, he didn’t want to make it again if he didn’t have too.