Greetings! I have to say, thanks so much to the three people that reviewed! I updated just for you guys! I really hope this chapter makes you all happy! Beware of the just-might-be-cliff hanger.

I hope this isn't too OOC, I'm thinking I got all their personalities right, eh? Anyway...read! And Review! Or I'll send Kengo's possessed sister after you!


It appeared that Akira wasn't going to get any straight answers at this point. All Kengo would do was avert any real information and give him minor details. He knew the blonde was hiding something and it greatly irked him. Akira had to fight the urge to pummel him into the ground. He began to wonder why he didn't do just that. It always worked before. Then again, those times Kengo didn't look like shit, to be put very lightly.

Even though Akira had tried the healing process why they were flying, he knew it hadn't helped much. Hell, even Shirogane couldn't heal wounds perfectly. That's why they trusted it all towards Master over at his bar.

Akira finally gave up for the time being, but still cornering Kengo so he couldn't get away. Not that the blonde had much strength to get very far, anyway. "Will you stop freaking out? God, you're such a girl," Akira commented when he brushed Kengo's bangs back to get a look at a nasty scrape that had collected lots of dried blood.

Kengo flinched and wished the wall would let him retreat further back. "Ow! Stop it," he hissed through his teeth. It really stung. Akira only rolled his eyes and backed off.

"Fine, whatever. If your brain leaks out it won't be my fault."

"Wha-what?!" Kengo's eyes widened. Could that really happen? He shook his head and glared back at Akira. "Haha, very funny."

"Who says I'm joking?" Akira said flatly, his expression giving away nothing. "Head injuries are extremely dangerous and they bleed a lot. You should know this by now." With all the times he had hit him...Akira frowned at the memories. They were never this bad, were they?

Kengo touched the wound on his head, wincing when he barely touched it. He supposed Akira had a point. "Well, it healed over anyway," he mumbled, glad that the other wasn't crowding him now. Of course, that didn't last long. Akira stood in front of him again and caught Kengo's chin so he couldn't turn his face.

"No it hasn't. It's going to get infected," he stated, letting go and walking towards the door. "I'm going to get some stuff for it." As he opened the door, he turned around, eyes narrowed. "Don't try to leave," he warned.

Kengo laughed uneasily. "Leave? Me?...eheh...never..." He watched Akira go and let out an exasperated sigh, sinking down to the floor, back propped against the wall. "Damn it...he's not going to drop it. Why the hell is he so miffed about this to begin with? Ahg!" Kengo tugged at his hair in frustration. "It's so confusing...!"

Akira glared at Shirogane, who apparently stayed by the door the entire time. He walked on past him towards the hallway. Shirogane followed after with a smile. "I was beginning to wonder if you really hated your friend or not."

"What are you talking about?" Akira asked, rummaging in the medicine cabinet after he opened up behind the mirror. Shirogane chuckled and tipped his hat.

"Well, with the few instances I've seen you with him, it looked as if you wanted to get rid of him for a long time."

Akira shrugged, finally finding what he wanted. Alcohol, a few cotton balls, and quite a few band-aids, along with a few other things. Something told him, by the time he was through with checking Kengo, he was going to need them all. "I did want to get rid of him," Akira replied, giving Shirogane a hard look with his eyes. "Why else did I try to get him out of this mess? Truth is, I can't get rid of him."

"But you could have left him there." the silver haired man smiled again. "You didn't, either. There must be a reason."

"Yeah, he's an idiot and I wasn't going to leave him there to die. What, you think I'm that heartless?" Akira snapped.

"No, not at all," Shirogane cooed, wrapping his arms around the rigid Akira. "I think you have too much of one...but you can't seem to open up all the way-"

"Let go of me," Akira seethed, trying to break away from the older man's arms. Shirogane only chuckled softly and let go.

"Truth is, Akira...you care about him more than you think. You don't want to lose him at all. To lose him would mean you lose a part of yourself." Shirgane's face was only mere inches from Akira's, lips nearly gracing his nose. Akira kept a defiant glare but shuddered at the closeness. He really wished Restraining Orders could work on "ghosts".

"Shut up," Akira growled for the umpteenth time before shoving Shirogane out of the way and stomping back to his room. "And stop following me!"

"Akira, If I do-" The door was once again slammed on his face and the man sighed. "He has yet to open his eyes to see what's really there in front of him," he muttered.

"Uh, Akira?" Kengo asked sheepishly, seeing as his friend looked utterly fowl at the moment. He didn't like the shadowy look on his face as he came closer with whatever was in his hands.

"Stay still, this will only hurt worse if you piss me off," Akira said, placing most of the first aid junk on the bed. He pulled Kengo onto the bed before the blonde could protest and held him down with one hand on his chest gentley. "Stay."

"But, Akira-" Kengo began to argue, but Akira shut him up with another one of his looks. Kengo quickly swallowed his words and wisely shut up for once. He bit his lip to stop himself from making any noise to upset the other when Akira dabbed his head wound with the alcohol soaked cotton ball.

"Stop flinching," Akira said in aggravation once Kengo jerked his head back when the cotton ball dripped with the burning substance onto his cut.

"Sorry," Kengo mumbled.

Akira frowned when it started bleeding a bit. Finding the gauze he had taken with him, he neglected the band-aids, wrapping the gauze around Kengo's head instead. "Hey, did you break anything?" he asked. He had noticed the blonde's hesitant breathing lately and was starting to worry, if only a little. "Like, your ribs? They hit you hard there?"

"Um," Kengo blinked, not realizing that Akira was asking him something instead of snapping at him to stop whatever he was doing. "What?"

Akira let out a huff and shook his head. "Take off your shirt." Kengo gawked at him, mouth hanging wide open as if he was some kind of guppy fish.

"What-why?" Kengo demanded, holding onto his shirt tightly with his hands. "I don't want to," he whined.

"I want to see what all they did to you, Kengo," Akira said with a glare. "If you don't cooperate I'll just take you to your sister right now and tell her you got in some retarded street gang fight. She'll love that. Or if that doesn't bother you enough, I'll rip the damn thing off."

Kengo scooted backwards on the bed to get away from Akira, his back eventually hitting the wall. He didn't have much room. Akira had a rather small bed after all. Akira loomed over him, eyes gleaming. "Well?" he asked ominously.

"Okay, okay! Just back off already!" Kengo pushed him away and made a face that was a mixture of a pout and a glare. One of the faces Kengo was notoriously good at. He had plenty of practice in his day. Akira rolled his eyes and stood back. He wasn't too far away from Kengo, though. He wasn't going to let the blonde chicken out. He needed to see the extent of the boy's injuries.

Akira had already spotted the rips and tears in Kengo's clothing not too long ago and knew what had made them. The smell of blood wasn't strong, but that didn't mean he hadn't bled at all or that the wounds weren't dangerous. "Hurry up, Kengo," Akira ordered, impatient.

Kengo sighed heavily and stared down at his legs, feeling the heat build up in his cheeks again. It wasn't that either male hadn't seen each other without clothes on, considering the boy's shower at school, but with Kengo's sudden unusual thoughts and feelings about his friend did not make this easy.

Finally, with a deep breath, the blonde quickly took off the dirty, soiled shirt he had on. He was thoroughly surprised by his own injuries as Akira was. He had been completely unaware of the bruises and scrapes that adorned his arms and chest and he blinked dazedly when he raised his arm to look at the colorful collection of purple and black. "Huh..." Kengo mused.

"Seriously, Kengo," Akira seethed angrily, glaring at his friend's battered chest. "How more stupid can you get? Did you even comprehend the extent of your injuries at all?" he demanded.

"Well, I-uh..." Kengo shrank back, again not used to Akira getting so worked up about this. "I knew I hurt a lot..."

"Gah!" Akira looked up at the ceiling and shut his eyes, gripping his brown hair tightly with his hands in frustration. "Come on, Kengo! What the hell did you get yourself into? Look at yourself! What were you thinking! no, never mind, you weren't thinking at all. You never do," he fumed.

Kengo stared down at his hands now, watching them ball into fists at everything Akira was shouting. "I know what I was doing..." he said quietly, voice shaky. He could barely recognize his own voice and was afraid to keep on talking. "I know it might not have been smart...but I had to do it..."

Akira stared at him, confused. "Had to do it? Kengo, you told me you accidentally ran into this gang-" he frowned, gritting his teeth. "I knew you were lying!" He opened his mouth to shout more accusations of Kengo's intelligence before the blonde lifted his head and gave Akira a look that for the first time shut the other male up.

Kengo was breathing heavily, finding it a bit harder to breath now that he was so flustered and upset. "You wouldn't understand! Ever since we've known each other all I've ever been was someone on the side lines or someone you always had to get out of trouble. For once I wanted to...to prove to myself...that I wasn't so useless..." Kengo stared back at his balled up fists that were now shaking. His gloves started turning a darker shade when wet drops found themselves on the fabric.

Akira was silent for a while until he spotted water dripping from Kengo's lowered head. "Kengo, I let you join us didn't you? You proved to me then that you could help-"

"That's not the same thing!" Kengo raised his voice again, lifting his head to glare at the other boy, not caring anymore about the tears clouding his vision. "Even then I still notice how you wish I wasn't there!"

Akira, not one for sympathy, wasn't sure what to think or say. He put his hands in his pockets and just listened to Kengo ramble on about how useless he was, or how Akira never trusted him or wanted him around. Finally, after he figured Kengo was now just talking in circles and going completely out of context, he walked up to him and covered the blonde's mouth with his hand. "Enough already."

Kengo blinked several times, surprised that he wasn't being hit on the head with a baseball bat or being flung out the window. After all, hadn't he taken all of this too far? Wasn't Akira fed up with him?

After Akira assumed Kengo had calmed down and wasn't going to rant and cry over stupid things anymore, he removed his hand. "So," he said flatly, positioning himself on the bed next to Kengo. "This whole reason why you messed with these guys...was to see if you weren't useless in a real fight or something? Isn't fighting Kokuchi bad enough?"

"No, that's not it...I mean," Kengo chewed his lip and looked away from the brunette. "It sort of is, but not completely."

Akira placed his hand on top of Kengo's head to turn it around to face him again. "You can't even explain yourself correctly, you know that? Don't hurt yourself even more."

Kengo opened his mouth to retort, but shut it again. He didn't want to tell Akira that it was because of him that he wanted to prove to. He knew he had already failed. While he was fighting with himself not to fully explain to Akira, he had a delayed reaction of Akira's fingers going up and down his arm.

"Wha-whaaa-what are you doing?!" Kengo practically flailed and nearly punched Akira in the face. Since Akira had learned quick reflexes for a while, he caught his arm just before it smacked him in the chin.

"Calm down, Kengo, I'm not molesting you or anything," he muttered with a roll of his eyes. He had only been feeling around the bruises until he found a cut just under Kengo's arm. It had barely scabbed over. "How long were you actually laying out there?"

Kengo could feel the back of his hair stand on end at the too close touches. The burning in his ears only intensified. "I don't know," he forced out, hoping his quiet, hesitant voice didn't give anything away.

Akira only raised an eyebrow and tugged on his arm gently to pull him closer so he could clean the cut. "Figures," he muttered, ignoring Kengo's winces and pained noises. "Quit acting like such a baby. It can't hurt that bad and nothing is broken." Akira poked the boy's chest for reference.

When Kengo gasped and shied away, Akira began to think otherwise. Wasn't it just the bruises? Or did they kick hard enough to crack the blonde's ribs? Akira's eyes narrowed and he left the boy's arm be while he felt around his chest.

"Ah-Akira, stop!" Kengo yelped, trying to futilely push him away. It really hurt and on top of that, the boy he was so infatuated with was feeling his bare chest. He knew at once he wasn't able to hide his reddened face or expect Akira to be oblivious this time.

Kengo was more than right.

Akira blinked when he stopped, but still kept his hands in place, careful not to press too hard. He studied the blonde's face curiously, as if turning several shades of red was a phenomenon. A that instant, it clicked in his head. Kengo had gotten himself in danger for him. Because Kengo had set in his challenged mind that he constantly had to prove himself to Akira. Had to, because all he wanted was Akira's full attention.

The brunette's lips twitched into a smirk, his hand coming to the blonde's cheek and wiping a stray tear with a single finger, Kengo unable to discern what was happening before his lips met the other in a kiss.


AHHH! Chapter two is done! Is this it? Will I continue?! Most likely. I am SURE Chapter three will be the last...IF I write it. But isn't this a good end...? or too much a of a cliff hanger? Uhg. you, the people, choose...in a review! It's all up to you!!