Hikari: I'm really bad at updating. So sorry if anyone was waiting for this. It didn't seem that popular so I wasn't really inspired to update, but I think this chapter is more interesting! Enjoy!

Until Death Did Us Part

Chapter Two

Dull Black

"Did he come out," Pirika asked Manta the next morning, her eyes wide. In her sleeplessness, she heard Manta outside his room, and she also heard no one else come after him. If he had come out, Manta would have seen him.

"Sorry Pirika," Manta apologized sincerely. He wanted his friend to come out too, but he was beginning to think that it would never happen. This was the morning of the seventh day, and hope was certainly growing thin by now.

"Maybe later today," Pirika said with a sort of fake-hope in her eyes.

"Maybe," Manta mumbled, then in a voice too soft for Pirika to hear, "Hopefully."

"Everything will work out, that's what he always said," Lyzerg spoke up. "And now's definitely the time to start believing in that phrase."

"Maybe if all of us believe hard enough it will actually happen," Pirika tried. She wanted to badly to cheer everyone up, and it was beginning to show just how desperate she was by some of the things she said.

"Just keep offering him your support," Jun said as she came into the kitchen. "That's really all we can do for now, at least until we actually see him again."

"I guess you're right," Manta sighed.

Everyone simply ate in silence after that, after-all, what was there to really talk about anymore, now that he was never around.

sksksksk

The door opened a small crack, enough to let in only a band of sunlight, but even that blinding the unusually pale boy. He blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the bright light, and then let his dull black eyes search the hallway before him. No one in sight.

He gently opened the door a little more and stepped out of the room. His brown hair cast shadows across his face since it was not held back by his usual orange headphones, seeing as he had broken them the night before. He would have to get a new pair, maybe.

The boy silently walked down the hallway, and looked into an empty sitting room stacked high with books. He went over to the pile and sunk down on his knees to find what he was looking for.

"Yoh," came an unsure voice after some minutes of fruitless searching.

The brunette instantly turned his head to see the person whom had questioned him. He looked the boy up and down, purple hair, golden eyes, Chinese clothes, it had to be Tao Ren. But then Yoh looked behind him and saw another boy. This one had blue hair and was in what looked like heavy summer clothes, Horo.

The sight of his two friends made his eyes go wide and tears begin to collect at the edges. They had seen him, they had seen his pitiful state.

Horo made a move to get past Ren, but he held out his arm and kept the older boy back while he spoke, "Nice to see you again Yoh. Are you any better?"

Yoh looked up at them with questioning dull black eyes as they appeared to survey him. He had no idea how to respond, or even if he could since it had been a week since he had last spoken to anyone, aside from yelling get out. Now they acted like nothing had happened, how was he supposed to respond to that.

"You okay," Horo tried, making to go to his distressed friend on the floor. But again Ren held him back.

"Stop Horo," Ren hissed in his ear, quietly enough so that Yoh could not hear them.

Horo glared in return, but made no move to get to Yoh again. They would just have to wait for him to respond.

Yoh looked up at them for a few more minutes without responding, until he finally let his head drop and he began his searching once more. Ren and Horo just stood there, what could he possibly be looking for in here.

The piles were fairly big, but from where Yoh was now, it looked like he had gotten through quite a few of them. He was now in the middle and still going. Whatever he was trying to find was still hidden within the stacks of old books.

Minutes passed by slowly as Yoh went on, trying to ignore the two boys looking at him, watching him. And worst of all, he still had not found it, the only thing that would ever remind him of his brother, the one he so ruthlessly killed.

Ren and Horo were both growing tired of watching the sight, but they wanted to wait, they wanted to know what Yoh was trying to find in the growing mess. So they both sighed in defeat and watched in silence as Yoh worked.

Ten minutes later was when Yoh finally held something up. It looked like a tattered album of some sort, and the other two boys could have sworn they saw a hint of a smile on Yoh face as he brought it to his chest.

He stayed like that for a moment and the other two were sure he had forgotten about them even being here, seeing as he was hugging the book. He looked utterly happy for the first time in a week, and for that the other two were extremely grateful.

Yoh slowly stood up, the book still clutched tightly in his hands and he started forward with unsteady steps towards the doorway in which Ren and Horo still had not left. Of course, he never made it to the doorway, instead he tripped over a small pile of book and fell down flat on his face, the book flying out of his hands.

It slowly stopped at Horo and Ren's feet open to the middle. The pages were tattered and the pictures were faded, but the two could still make out the few pictures in the book. They were of either Yoh or Hao, or sometimes even both of them. Ren was about to bend over to look at the strange album further, when he noticed the look in Yoh's eyes.

They were large and watery, but not in the adorable sort of way he would sometimes use as a joke. He looked on the verge of tears, and Ren would not stand that. So, instead of going towards the album, he bent down to Yoh's level, along with Horo, and let Yoh come very close to the two of them, burying his head in their chests.

Ren and Horo were both sympathetic, although Ren would never admit he had done this. They both could understand why Yoh felt like this, he had killed his own twin brother, the very brother his soul had split from, of course he was going to be upset.

Yoh just stayed in the comfort of his friend's arms, not caring that he was now sobbing. Why did he always have to make a fool of himself, why did he always have to be the one to fight? Why could he never be the weak one who watched from the sidelines? Why was he even born?

The last question he could answer, he was born to destroy Hao and make it so he could never come back. But why did it have to be him? There must be others who would be just as capable, and would be strong enough to do it. He was not the strongest shaman out there, he just got lucky when he fought Hao.

"Yoh," Ren ventured to say after a few minutes of silent sobbing.

Yoh looked up with the same dull black eyes at his two friends and blushed out of shame for what he had been doing, crying like a child who did not get his way. That was no way for Yoh to behave, he was a teenager now, he should be able to face this sort of thing.

"Sorry," Yoh mumbled, making to stand up and leave. But Horo and Ren both grabbed him before he could go anywhere and pulled him back down. Yoh just looked at them in confusion and shame.

"We're glad you're doing well enough to leave your room," Horo smiled kindly.

"Yeah," Ren muttered, this was too much emotion for him. "What Ainu Baka said."

"Who are you calling Baka," Horo said indignantly. And with that, him and Ren went as it as they always seemed to.

Yoh tried to smile a little, it was fun to watch them fight, after-all, but he simply could not make the muscles work. So instead, he quickly gathered the book in his arms and hurried out of the room, stumbling slightly on the way.

"Well, at least he came out," Ren sighed, tired already. Usually, fighting with Horo was relaxing and regenerating, seeing as the fight really did not take any energy and Ren suspected Horo felt the same. But this time, it made Ren feel even more tired, maybe because the fighting was so superficial, and he had no feeling behind what he said. Horo was his friend, and he only called Horo that as a joke and they both knew it, but this time, it was just different, tiring.

"Maybe he'll eat something now," Horo said optimistically.

"We can only hope," Ren sighed. Then he got up off the floor and went out the door without another word. Horo just looked after him as he walked down the hall. But then, he noticed one of the pictures had fallen out of the photo album Yoh had come in to get.

It was a small picture with both Yoh and Hao in it. Yoh looked to be about seven of eight, and they were both holding ice cream cones. Yoh was smiling as he always used to, and it looked like Hao was smiling a bit too, and they looked happy. Horo cocked his head to one side slightly, why would Yoh have these pictures? He never knew about Hao until just this year.

Hikari: Read And Review Minna-San!!!!