Blood Runs Thicker...
By TK Date

This fic has partial spoilers for the fifth volume of the manga. (Yeah, I know you're probably wondering how the heck I could spoil that volume of the manga and not have the Earl in the story. ^_~ Watch me.) Also, I'm taking liberties on Tsuzuki's past given that we are told pretty much nothing as to what happened between the time he was very young and when he was accepted into Muraki's grandfather's hopsital at age 18. Well, without further ado, the fic

~*~

Tsuzuki…was quiet.

That in and of itself was enough to set Hisoka on edge. Normally Tsuzuki had such an ungodly amount of energy surrounding him that Hisoka wondered if his partner might have accidentally gotten himself addicted to speed. There had only been few pervious instances in which the amethyst eyed Shinigami had not acted in that way, and those were during his confrontations with one Muraki Kazutaka. However, their last confrontations with that man had been quite some time ago, and the two of them had long since recovered from their hardships at Kyoto. Thus, the flashbacks and reminiscing pertaining to those events had been reduced to a minimum. Therefore, it stood to reason that Tsuzuki should not be quiet. So, it was also a good rule of thumb that Hisoka would respond in his instinctual way, with empathy. His shields were lowered slightly, allowing in the teeming volume of the crowd's insignificant emotions.

All he cared about was Tsuzuki, and what he found was certainly not reassuring. Natural barriers were raised about his partner's feelings. They were as strong as they had been the day the two had met. Needless to say, Hisoka was worried.

"Tsuzuki," he called out softly, knowing that it would be foolish to try and invade the older man's mind, besides it would cost him much less energy and peril to simply try and talk to his partner.

However, the thought of penetrating the veritable brick wall surrounding Tsuzuki's mind seemed slightly more appealing as violet eyes continued to scrutinize something within the distance. The same eyes narrowed slightly, forming a small wrinkle in the middle of Tsuzuki's forehead. Before Hisoka had a chance to attempt to distract him again Tsuzuki rose, his black gloved hands pushing down upon the table where his only half eaten key lime pie sat, fork stuck midway through the slice, abandoned midstride.

"Tsuzuki…" Hisoka's voice trailed off as he noticed the expression upon his partner's face.

"Do you see her?"

For a moment Hisoka was certain that the words were only a figment of his imagination, that they hadn't really been spoken by Tsuzuki's lips. Yet nonetheless, his eyes followed the amethyst gaze.

"Which one is she?" He had trouble discerning which person was the one that Tsuzuki was entranced by. They all seemed the same to his eyes.

For a spilt second Tsuzuki glanced back at the boy where he sat, more than a slight amount of worry flashing behind his eyes. His mouth was drawn into a tight line, but Hisoka could not observe much more than this before Tsuzuki quickly resumed his watch.

"She's…" he stopped. "She's gone…"

Hisoka could only stare as he slumped back into his seat, running a hand through unruly brown hair. Within moments his usual smile returned as he resumed his destruction of a perfectly good piece of key lime pie. Naturally, Hisoka had the tact to wait for a moment before he asked the obvious question.

"Who was she?"

"Hm?" Tsuzuki looked up, purple eyes wide with a bit of meringue on his nose.

With a small smile on his face Hisoka wiped the bit of baked sugar and egg whites off the other man's nose. "The girl you were looking at."

"Oh…" the smile faded from his face for a moment before he smiled and shook his head, "It's nothing Hisoka. Here," He offered a bit of the pie, "You should try some, it's really good."

Deciding it was best to drop the matter the empath cautiously tasted the small bit of pie. Almost instantly his found himself grimacing.

"It's sour…"

Tsuzuki merely shrugged and continued to eat, speaking between bites. "The meringue balances it out a little bit."

"I never knew you had a liking for sour foods," Hisoka pointed out as he took a sip of his tea, "Usually it's just apple, chocolate and anything else with sufficient amounts of sugar in it."

A pout was forming on key lime covered lips. "The meringue has sugar in it!"

"But that's only half the pie," Hisoka pointed out, "Usually you go for something that's all sugar plus whipped cream on top."

There was a moment of silence between the two as Tsuzuki contemplated both his partner and the pie before him. Slowly he leaned forward, his eyes intently focused on Hisoka's face and grinned.

"You know, if you wanted the rest of it, you could have just asked."

However, even the reaction time of a Shinigami wasn't fast enough to avoid Hisoka's flying fist. In an instant Tsuzuki found out that key lime pie really was sour, and that it was not a good idea to get things that are sour into one's eyes.

"Baka…" he heard Hisoka mutter as he pulled his head off the table and tried to make use of the pie that was now smeared across his face. However once all of the key lime had vanished a pout formed in its place.

"Well what else was I supposed to think? You kept on sounding like you were trying to convince me to not finish it or something…"

"I was not!" Hisoka retorted. A pensive look found its way onto his face as he stared off into the crowd. He spoke softly words that were only meant to be heard by himself. "It's just that you've been acting a bit different lately…"

But Hisoka was quite the lucky one, seeing as Tsuzuki either did not hear him or didn't bother giving the subject at hand any further discussion. Instead, he simply stood once again, but this time with a grin on his face, and held his hand out to his partner.

"Come on Hisoka, Kanoe said that he had something he wanted to talk to us about after the lunch break, and it ended a half an hour ago."

With a sigh the blonde rolled his eyes and stood on his own. "It wouldn't have been that way if you hadn't insisted upon trying every desert on the menu."

Tsuzuki merely smiled as he grabbed the younger boy's hand and headed off. "If we try to sneak in the back I'm pretty sure no one will notice that we got back from Chijou late, we can just say that we were trying to get some work done and came back early!"

In response, Hisoka shook his head in disgust at his partner's obvious lack of logic. "Who's going to believe that you would come in early from your lunch break?"

"Tatsumi might!"

"Tatsumi-san would probably be the last person to listen to that kind of skewed reasoning," the blonde stated flatly.

This remark struck Tsuzuki as his eyes grew to the size of saucers, saucers near overflowing with tears, mind you. "Tatsumi's not that mean!"

Hisoka favored him with an incredulous look. "This is the same Tatsumi who's cut your spending money numerous times, you know."

Tsuzuki contemplated this for a moment before he glared up at the sky and shook his fist. "You demon! Tatsumi!!"

The lightning fast change of Tsuzuki's mood was evidence enough for Hisoka that he was, in fact, his normal self. So, the eternal teen shook his head and chuckled, walking along with his black clad partner. Never knowing or feeling the amethyst eyes upon his back.

~~~~~

Apparently, somewhere in Chijou, Tsuzuki had managed to pick up a pair of glasses which, instead of lenses, held an image of two perfectly normal open eyes. They made it seem as if the wearer was actually intently listening and paying attention to anyone who might have happened to be lecturing in a tedious monotone. Unfortunately for Tsuzuki, they didn't carry any in violet, and Tatsumi was not colorblind.

Halfway through the staff meeting he chose to walk right u to the slumbering Shinigami and snatch the new glasses right off his face. When he received no response he simply took a step back, crossed his arms over his chest, and declared in a voice loud enough to wake the dead, "And I also inform you now that there will be a reduction in spending allowances for those employees who are found neglecting to pay attention during their mission briefings."

Needless to say, Tsuzuki remained alert and awake throughout the whole meeting. However, no one could really blame him for falling asleep. The mission was a relatively simple one. A man had died of mysterious causes, without telling his wife of a collection of stories written for her which could, if published, no doubt support the widow through the rest of her life. Because of this he remained in Chijou, haunting the poor woman trying to lead her towards the manuscripts. It would be the job of the Shinigami to make sure that she found the works, and to discover exactly how the hold man ha did so his spirit could rest, in other words lots of menial busy work.

Within minutes they were back on the streets of Chijou, searching for clues on the meager leads that Tatsumi was wont to give them. This didn't exactly put Tatsumi anywhere near number one on Tsuzuki's list of favorite people. But the two Shinigami were still determined to do their job and do it well, lest they lose any more money than their already restricted budget, so Hisoka read off the details that they were given as the two walked.

"Taso Shiso died four months and two days ago. He spent most of his life working as an accountant, never accepting promotions. Shiso claimed that he needed the extra time for 'something special', which we assume is either his wife Kiyoka or these manuscripts that we've been told of. One night he went missing. His wife called the police, an investigation went out and two weeks later his body was found within his own home, locked inside the closet Kiyoka is suspect, but there is no evidence supporting this, and she herself denies it. The authorities have no leads as to how he died so far."

"You mean we have to find that out on our own?" Tsuzuki asked, watching the sky as he walked.

"That and practically everything else. But it shouldn't be too hard. Remember, we can find things that they can't," Hisoka reminded him, looking up from the information in his hand for a moment before glancing back at it.

"Ah…so where do we start?" Falling back slightly in his step the taller of the two Shinigami glanced over his partner's shoulder at the contents of the folder.

"First, we're going to check on his wife, to make sure that she receives the manuscripts. After that we can deal with exactly how Shiso died.."

"Can we stop for some desert after that?" Tsuzuki's eyes were wide as he tried his best to use a puppy dog look which had been perfected over at least seventy years on his partner. Hisoka didn't stand a chance.

"Just one, we do have a case here, you know, and Konoe and Tatsumi won't be happy if we waste our - hey!

Tsuzuki seemed to either have not heard the second part of Hisoka's sentence or he simply didn't care, because he was glomped onto his partner within seconds.

"Sankyuu Hisoka!"

"Tsuzuki!" the smaller boy protested a split second before his body went stiff. This, however, Tsuzuki was perceptive enough to notice. He quickly let go of his partner, knowing what physical contact did to the teen's empathy.

"Hisoka?"

Suddenly Hisoka's mind was very far away. He didn't notice the fact that Tsuzuki was desperately trying to shake him out of his reverie, or the fact that the quickened pace of his breathing was bordering on near hysteria. All that Hisoka cared about was the cold that seemed to encompass his entire body and seep into the fabric of his soul. He knew where this sort of feeling came from, and he knew what it meant. But what he didn't know was how to stop it.

Just as quickly as the flash came, it was gone. The younger Shinigami drew in a quick, deep breath as the elder stood and watched. Only when Hisoka's breathing had slowed to its normal pace and he pressed a hand to his forehead did Tsuzuki speak.

"Are you okay Hisoka? What was that."

There was a moment of silence between them before Hisoka merely shook his head and put his arm back down at his side.

"It's nothing." He spoke softly. "Come on, we need to make it to Shiso's house and get this over with if you want to get your dessert."

Tsuzuki was grinning once again. "Right!" he quipped before the two of them set off towards the Taso house.

The two Shinigami were of course, too caught up in their own affairs to notice the crowd that was drawing around a nearby outdoor café. Blonde hair was rare in Japan, especially platinum strands framing skin as pale as ivory. Unfortunately for the women in the crowd, the creature of beauty given the shape of a man already had a partner. She was a thin form, always smiling, with soft brown hair and amethyst eyes that saw everything. It wasn't long before they also left the scene, following the Shinigami calmly as a wise feline will creep up on his unsuspecting prey.

~*~

Wooo scary ne? ^_^ More's comin soon, so review! Please?