"What do you mean, he's not here?" Hiyori asked in disbelief. She looked around the room like Yukine might be mistaken and Yato was about to jump out of some dark corner in a sneak attack. "I said that I was coming today…"

Yukine shrugged and leaned against the handle of the broom, chores forgotten. "Yeah, well. Apparently he decided he'd rather run off on his own and leave me to do chores and entertain you."

Hiyori's lips curved down into a frown. "In other words, he's still avoiding me?"

"Pretty much."

She sighed and rubbed at the crease on her forehead. She wasn't normally prone to headaches, but she was starting to think this whole situation was going to give her one.

The attack on her family's hospital had shattered her and left her nerves shot, but things were getting a little better. The hospital's reputation was still in shambles and her parents were dealing with a media circus and Hiyori herself was still shaken from how close she had come to crossing the line, but she was tough and resilient and could handle whatever the world threw at her.

Handling Yato was proving to be a little tougher. On the one hand, he mostly acted like his usual obnoxiously cheerful self. On the other, he had been avoiding Hiyori as much as possible since then. She had some idea of why that might be, but that didn't make it any less frustrating.

"I wish he would stop with that," she said with a groan. "It's not his fault that his father is such a jerk."

Yukine's mouth tightened into a frown and he turned his back on Hiyori to sweep the broom across the floor along the fridge. "He gets kind of weird around his dad. I mean, he even let himself get hit so that I wouldn't, even though I'm a weapon and it's my job. He really wants to keep us away from him.

"But also… I don't know, his dad was saying some pretty cruel things about how he only knew how to kill and bring misfortune and could never change. Yato said he didn't believe it, but you never know with him. I think it's wearing on him that his dad is targeting us because we're too close to him. And everything with the hospital… It probably does make him feel like he's just bringing misfortune to us."

Hiyori knew exactly what he was talking about. When she had run into Yato's father at school and first realized it was Fujisaki, he had been exactly like that. And everything she had witnessed when accidentally slipping into Yato's memories… Of course he didn't want his father anywhere near her or Yukine after what had happened to Sakura. And even aside from that, she had gotten a taste of the bondage Yato had endured over the centuries, the stranglehold his father had over him. It was an unbearably cruel chain strangling the god.

"I know," she said quietly. "His father is really… It makes me sad to think about what he's done to Yato…and still intends to do. I just…wish Yato didn't buy into everything his father tells him about himself."

"Mm." Yukine thrust the broom aggressively at an innocent corner, the bristles scratching angrily at the floor. "And it's also… You almost crossing over really freaked us both out. We didn't know what to do, and his dad was really messing with his head and trying to prod him into cutting your ties or killing you and making you a shinki. Yato didn't know if he was doing the right thing, and I don't know if he's figured it out yet."

"Of course he did the right thing! He saved me!"

"I know, but it wasn't that easy at the time. I think he just still feels bad about what happened to you and your family. He's pretty normal a lot of the time, but sometimes he's still being a little weird. Maybe you should talk to him. Kofuku and Daikoku are starting to get worried."

Despite herself, Hiyori smiled at Yukine's back. "Oh? Just Kofuku and Daikoku?"

He spun about sharply and scowled at her. "Yes." But pink dusted his cheeks, and Hiyori had to laugh. His scowl only deepened. "Just talk to him."

"Do you know where he is?"

"No, but I'm sure you can find him," Yukine said offhandedly. "Just sniff him out."

"Sure, I guess I could–" Hiyori broke off, eyes widening as heat flooded her cheeks. "I mean, what do you mean?" Yukine smirked, his eyes glittering triumphantly with more than a hint of mischief, and she gave up. "How did you know?"

"Well, I wasn't sure, but you just gave it away." Yukine looked much too pleased with himself as he went back to sweeping around his pile of crumbs. "You've always had some mysterious way to track him down, but it didn't really occur to me until you started crossing the line and chewing on Yato. While you were slobbering all over him, you had the whole attraction to his scent thing that ayakashi have. Seems like you have pretty good ayakashi scent since you're halfway there."

Hiyori wanted to sink through the floor and die of embarrassment. It was embarrassing enough without realizing that it had to come from being half-ayakashi. Especially now that she had almost fallen over that line altogether.

"You're horrible!" she wailed, covering her burning cheeks with her hands. "I always felt bad for you for having to deal with Yato, but now I see what he means when he complains about your bratty teenage attitude!"

Yukine only laughed. "Talk to him and snap him out of his weird mopey phase, and I won't tell him about the whole sniffing thing. Deal?"

"Deal," Hiyori grumbled, because she had no choice. She would absolutely die of humiliation if Yato found out, and Yukine's sudden mischievous streak was making her nervous.

Yukine sighed and turned away to sweep a patch of the floor he had already swept at least once. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

Hiyori dropped her body before slipping back out of the shrine and finding a taller building to hop up onto. She looked out over the city below and took a deep breath. It was a little disconcerting to know that this particular talent was an ayakashi gift, but it was still useful. She sifted through the typical city scents and quickly zeroed in on the enticing aromas of the gods that her ayakashi senses always latched on to. A faint whiff of Bishamon's vanilla-and-spice perfume wafted with the breeze from the south, and Hiyori caught the slightest tinge of ash and old paper from the direction of Tenjin's shrine.

Then she found traces of a warm, sunny scent with an edge of ice, like summer meeting winter. Just like Yato. Hiyori had never been able to describe his smell or place what it reminded her of. It was comforting and airy and warm, with just a touch of frost lurking beneath. None of which were smells, which made it even more impossible for her to figure out what to describe it as.

Whatever it was, it was her favorite scent and she was already chasing after it almost before she realized it. She danced along the powerlines and then hopped to the ground to weave through the last couple streets.

She found Yato crouched by the edge of a koi pond wedged beneath a small wooden bridge in an ornamental garden. He was tossing breadcrumbs to the fish and wriggling his fingers in the water.

"There you are," Hiyori said as she walked over and peered down at him.

He started in surprise and jumped to his feet, nearly toppling over into the water before righting himself as he whipped around. "Hiyori?" he asked, staring at her like she'd just materialized out of thin air.

Hiyori braced her hands on her hips and fixed him with a hard look. "I told you I was coming over today. It's starting to get annoying how you keep avoiding me."

"I'm not avoiding you," he said stubbornly, apparently immune to her obvious skepticism.

She sighed. "Yato, you saved me and gave me the chance to go back home instead of crossing over. Why are you still beating yourself up over it?"

Yato's lips tightened and he turned away to frown down at the koi splashing about in the pond. "It's getting dangerous, Hiyori."

"I know, but it's not your fault that your father is stirring up trouble."

"He's only going after you because–"

"Oh, enough of that," Hiyori said with a huff. "I provoked him too, and you can't blame yourself for everything he does. I know he's dangerous, but didn't I say that I wanted to stay with you longer? That's still true, even with the danger. So stop avoiding me."

She squared her shoulders and fought down her blush. This was important for Yato to hear, even if he could usually pretend like he didn't need to.

Yato hummed noncommittally in a way that could be mistaken for agreement, and Hiyori bit her lip. How could she say it in a way that would make him listen?

She slipped her hand into her pocket to pull out one of the five yen coins she always kept on her these days. If she wanted him to listen, then maybe there was a different way she could frame it.

"Anyway, I need something from you," she said.

Yato turned, eyebrows arching delicately in question, but he grinned as he spotted the coin. "Ohhh? Do you have a wish? Delivery god Yato at your service!" He swept his arm out in a silly bow, and Hiyori wondered if his mood had really shifted that drastically or he was just putting on masks again. "What do you need me to do for you? Should I clean your room? Do your homework? Take care of your chores?"

Hiyori dropped her gaze to the gold coin glinting in her palm and wondered how best to go about this. She thought about the bottle full of these coins that Yato guarded jealously, and the hundreds more that had passed through his hands and were now long gone. Each one was a wish granted, a miserly reward for his services.

Suddenly, that seemed a little sad. It seemed like a nice thing to grant wishes—and it was—but… A god like Yato was born of wishes and bound to grant any of the scores of other wishes humans handed to them. However revered, it was still a form of servitude, especially for someone like Yato who needed to go along with it to ensure his survival. If there were no more wishes, the gods would disappear, unneeded. From beginning to end, they were tied to these wishes and the humans who made them.

And as horrible as it seemed for Yato and other gods to kill and hurt and destroy, they were only granting the wishes humans made to them. Humans were the ones who chose what to do with the tools they had created, even if gods asserted some measure of independence in making their own choices when they could. And for gods who had very little independence and were desperate to grant whatever wishes they could to prevent themselves from simply disappearing, the chains were even tighter. Whichever way you looked at it, humans and their wishes held a great deal of power.

Hiyori wondered if Yato ever felt like that, used and discarded when he was no longer needed.

She took a deep breath and handed him the coin. "I want you to be happy," she said quietly as she withdrew her hand. "I want you to stop blaming yourself for what happened at the hospital and for everything your father is doing. I want you to stop accepting the negative things he says about you and finally escape him so that you can be whoever you want to be. I just…want you to be happy."

Yato blinked down at the coin in his palm for a long moment and then stared blankly at Hiyori. "Uh… That's not really how wishes work."

Hiyori crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling defensive. "Why not?"

"Well…" Yato's face scrunched up into a bewildered expression as he tried to work through his line of thought. "Humans make wishes when they want something or need help."

"And? I'm a human and I told you something I want, right? Why doesn't my wish count?"

"Uh…" The normal bright blue of Yato's eyes was clouded over with confusion, and his discomfort and consternation only seemed to grow as he tried to sort through whatever troubled him so much about the gesture. "But it's not…really supposed to be…"

"You've lived for centuries and granted thousands of wishes." Hiyori's eyes softened with melancholy as she watched his turmoil. "Did you really never grant one for yourself?"

"Why would I?" he asked helplessly. "That's not really my job. Wouldn't you rather ask for something for you?"

"It is something for me," she said. "It would make me happy to see you happy. But it's something for you too. You do so much for everyone else—you should do something for yourself sometimes. It's okay to have your own wishes every once in a while. I think they're just as important as any of the million wishes you grant for everyone else."

Yato opened his mouth, closed it again. His fingers closed around the coin tightly, and his hair fell over his eyes as he tilted his face downward.

"Okay," he said after a long pause, his voice thick. "I'll try."

"Good. I'll be dropping by tomorrow morning, and I expect you to be there. No more avoiding me." Hiyori turned to march off, but only made it a few steps before coming to an abrupt halt. "Oh, uh…"

Yato cleared his throat. "Yes?"

She felt the blood rushing to her face again. "I'm sorry I bit you."

And she beat a hasty retreat, leaving Yato to gape after her.

When Hiyori visited Kofuku's shrine the next morning, she was relieved to find Yato upstairs with Yukine. He was surrounded by piles of colored paper and some of the most complex and intricate origami she had seen in her entire life, and seemed to be regaling Yukine with his skills.

"Hey, Hiyori!" he said when she came in.

"Whoa," she said, her eyes widening. "That's…really impressive."

Yato grinned. "I've got centuries of experience."

"You've really got the wisdom of an old man!" Yukine said, eyes wide with awe and mouth hanging open.

"Hey! I'm not an old man!"

"Says the one with centuries of experience!"

Hiyori laughed as she sat down at the table with them and looked over the collection of origami. "Aw, you even made a crane!"

"Those are easy, but I'm teaching Yukine." Yato grinned and snatched up the crane to wave it in his shinki's face. "If you make a thousand of them, you'll get a free wish!"

Yukine did not seem impressed. "That's a lot of work when I could just hand you five yen."

"It builds character," Yato said with a huff.

Hiyori laughed, but found herself distracted from the banter when she caught sight of the little shrine perched on the windowsill. A faint blush crept across her cheeks, but the corners of her lips turned upwards.

There, strung on a red string looped around the post of the little wooden torii gate, was a five yen coin.

Note: Idk, I was thinking about a sort of different take on the whole wish-granting thing. Considering that Yato spent most of his life just granting his father's wishes unwillingly like a slave and was always called back when he tried to pick different wishes to grant (and is only distancing himself so much now and trying to cut ties for good because of Yukine and Hiyori and co. giving him support and a new reason to fight), it feels like he might have a more negative view of them. Plus even the non-killing wishes are almost always menial and sometimes sort of degrading lol

Also, I have no idea what gods smell like, nor do I really want to know ._. I was not really impressed by Hiyori's magical nose, but I can give it a bit of a pass since there's actually a reason with the whole half-ayakashi thing. And I totally cracked up when she apologized for biting Yato when she was turning into an ayakashi.

Also, Yukine is like the unsung hero lol Silly kid.