Disclaimer: I don't own FY.

A/N: I have no clue what possessed me to write this, but I did.. .^^.;; Please R&R.

~*~

Looking around to make sure no one else in the encampment was awake, Tasuki left the tent that he and Chichiri shared, starting a slow, steady walk up the mountainside.

It had been yesterday - just yesterday, for Suzaku's sake, that he had last seen him alive. He had been laughing, and then, in that drastic movement, he had sheared off all of that hair.

Beautiful hair, too. He had seen it down a few times, and always the sheer mass and beauty of it startled him, made it easier to see his friend as a female.

But he wasn't a female. He was a male, and the haircut left that obvious.

Damn, but if he had lived Nuriko would have been quite the lady killer.

Tasuki finally reached the mound of snow where his friend lay. He stood there for a minute, quiet, shifting from foot to foot nervously.

"Hey," he said softly, after some time had passed. "It's just me, ya'know. No need to get riled or anythin'. Mind if I sit down?"

He plunked himself down across from the unmarked mound.

"Man, I'm sorry we had ter bury ya here like this...I wish we could take ya back home to Kounan...Hell, I wish ya were still livin'."

He smiled broodily at the snow, then held up the bottle. "Sake? Tamahome told us how ya out-drank him the other night. Somethin' about a 'Nuriko Special'. I'm gonna....I'm gonna drink one every once in a while, and remember ya."

He started to cry. ""Che! I still dunno know why ya did it, Nuriko. I dunno why ya did it alone, either. Why'd ya hafta go and leave me alone... I ain't gonna forgive ya for it, either. When I catch up ter ya, I'm gonna yell at ya."

He took a drink, feeling the tears burning in his eyes. He probably shouldn't be here, or at least have left a note. What if he got drunk, fell asleep, and froze to death? What a lame death.

"Yeah, I'm gonna yell at ya, Nuri-chan...Fer leavin' me. And Miaka. And Hotohori. And fer makin' me cry." Tasuki smirked down at the sake bottle in his hands. "Man, the emperor's gonna be pissed at ya...No, he isn't though, is he? He ain't gonna care. Dammit, did you have to die, Nuriko?"

He glared at the snow, and poured some sake onto it. " Here, have a drink...Man, I couldn't have done it if I were you...Ya always were the strong one, Nuri. And not just yer strength...ya were strong inside..Dammit, Hotohori never gave ya a second glance, and yet ya gave him everything. And Miaka, too. I dun think anyone appreciated you enough until ya were gone...I mean, ya even helped Miaka get the damn Shinzaho. I dunno how ya did it, but them bracelets of yers turned on and worked. I knew ya were there, too..."

A tear found it's way down his face, and he didn't bother to wipe it away. "I guess I dun understand why ya had ter die alone...Ya loved all of us, but we didn't love you, did we? Well..." Tasuki grinned down at his hands. "I know now's a bad time ter be tellin' ya this, wit' ya bein' dead an' all...But I loved ya, Nuri-chan. Ya were a real friend. Mebbe more, I dunno. But I miss ya a lot, and it's like there's this hole in my heart where ya used ter be, and..."

His eyes burned and he started to cry. "'Che...if ya were here ya'd tell me to stop cryin', wouldn't ya? But I ain't gonna stop, Nuri-chan. I'm gonna cry an' ya can't stop me!"

Tasuki bent his head and cried. He cried until he felt a warmth steal around his shoulders.

"I guess you didn't know me so well, then," a voice murmured into his ear. "I would tell you that it's okay to cry, but not to cry for me. I lived my life the way I wanted to, Tasuki-chan. I don't regret anything.." Tasuki looked up, only to see Nuriko's face inches from his. And he was smiling. "And you're not drunk, either."

Nuriko waggled his finger in front of Tasuki's nose, grinning. "So don't go thinking that I'm some sort of dream. I'm here, Tasuki. Just a little dead, but I'm here."

"Nu-Nuriko?!" Tasuki's voice came out as a strangled whisper.

"Yeah, it's me." Nuriko let go of Tasuki's shoulder and sat down next to him. "Did you want something? I mean, you came all this way, just to see little me..."

"Yeah." Tasuki looked crestfallen. "Yer dead, Nuri."

"I know." Nuriko smiled at him. "I'm with my sister, though. She came to get me, so I wasn't afraid, Tasuki. She yelled at me, too, though, for dying."

"She did?"

"Yeah." Nuriko looked down at his feet. "So, what did you want, Tasuki- chan? Just to talk? I can't stay here for very long. If you were asleep I could stay, because I'm only a spirit, Tasuki. I'm not very substantial."

Tasuki bit his lip, one fang showing, and he took a fortifying swig of sake. "I wanted ter tell ya that I loved ya, Nuri. I didn't want ya ter die alone like that." Nuriko was very quiet as Tasuki went on. "Ya were so full of life, Nuri-chan...I dunno why they didn't see it. But then ya died an'...an' it was like my world fell apart, too, ya know? I didn' want ter believe that ya were dead, Nuri...that ya were gone, so easily...Ya seemed so strong, before, an' then ya were just lyin' there like some fragile little thin' that was gonna break if we touched ya... I guess I jus' wanted ter tell ya that I loved ya and ter say goodbye, ya know?"

Nuriko smiled at him. "Tasuki, go to sleep."

"Eh? Why?"

"Because I said so," Nuriko told him, grinning broadly. "Don't make me knock you out."

"'Kay, 'kay...sheesh..." Within moments of settling himself against Nuriko's grave he fell asleep.

"Now, open your eyes," Nuriko's voice said, sounding farther away.

He complied, and almost started. "What the-!"

Nuriko laughed and hugged him. "You're asleep, baka. I can touch you here. You were breaking my heart, and I needed to hold you, and -!!!"

Tasuki clutched him tightly, crying all over again. "Nuriko!!! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry!"

"It's okay." Nuriko recovered from his shock, holding Tasuki gently. "It's okay, Tasuki. I'm here. I'll always be here for you. I love you, too, you know."

Tasuki cried against Nuriko for a long time, listening to his friend draw breath that didn't exist.

*

The next morning Chichiri found him leaning against Nuriko's grave with a bottle of sake, smiling.

Chichiri paused for a moment, worried that Tasuki had managed to freeze himself to death, but then he noticed something odd - Tasuki was glowing faintly from a soft red light.

"Ne, Tasuki-kun...are you alive, no da?" Chichiri asked. Kneeling down and poking Tasuki in the knee.

The bandit stirred slightly, as if pulling himself away from someone else, and vaguely, Chichiri wondered if someone was trying to control his mind.

*

"Tasuki," Nuriko said softly, looking across at his friend. "I have to go now."

"No!" Tasuki jumped up, flushed and angry. "Ya can't go!"

"I have to. You need to wake up, and I need to go home." Nuriko smiled gently. "I'm here, though, always."

"But - " Tasuki searched for words.

"No buts," Nuriko told him firmly. I have to go, and so do you. But if you need me, I'll be there."

Tasuki looked down at his feet. "Jus' one thin', then..."

Nuriko looked at him quizzically. "What?"

"If I die, will ya come and get me? I dun want ta die alone." Tasuki grinned at him rakishly. "I dun inten' ter die, Nuri, but I dun wanna be alone, neither."

Nuriko grinned. "Of course, Tasuki-chan. Now wake up."

"'Kay..." He stood watching as Nuriko seemed to fade out of sight, and he focused on Chichiri instead. "'Chiri?"

"Thank goodness, no da! I was getting worried no da!" Chichiri scolded him. "Where were you no da?"

"Here...I was talkin' wit' Nuri." Tasuki rose steadily to his feet.

Chichiri was quiet. "Tasuki-kun, Nuriko is dead."

"I know that," Tasuki said, picking up the sake bottle. "But he was 'ere, 'Chiri. An' I dun' care if ya dun' believe me, so jus' let it go."

Tasuki started down the mountain, leaving Chichiri standing there looking down at the snow.

Tasuki had been there alone, but...There was another set of small, delicate footprints, and a spot where someone else had been sitting, right next to Tasuki.

And, oddest of all, there was a small strand of shorn-away purple hair by where Tasuki's shoulder had been.

Tasuki had been able to say his goodbyes.