Okey doke, people. I'm back from my vacation! -applause- I would have updated yesterday, but my mother grounded me from the computer. However, she did let me on the computer to do some research for Debate Class, so I was able to spend a minute or two saving my document to my account. So now I'm at school chugging coffee and hoping to stay warm.

I must warn you ahead of time: I have no idea how good I am at angst, so this chapter may not live up to expectations. Eh heh... Please don't hurt me. Anyways, on with the chapter!

Chapter Three

There was an awkward silence as Hisoka sat down at the table, back facing Tsuzuki. "Well, out with it."

Tsuzuki glanced around the room, just trying to avoid having to look directly at his partner. Hisoka's apartment was small, with a couch against a wall by the window, a wooden kitchen table next to the kitchen itself, with little more than a stove and a refrigerator, and two more doors. He assumed one led to Hisoka's bedroom while the other was a guest room. "What are you talking about?"

"Please, Tsuzuki. I'm an empath. You may think that you've got your shields up strong and that I can't sense anything, but I can and I know you've got questions. Out with it."

Tsuzuki looked around a moment longer as Hisoka turned around to look at him. "There's no one else here?"

Hisoka snorted. "No, why?"

Tsuzuki's eyes hardened and Hisoka caught a feeling of hurt and betrayal. "Cut the crap, Hisoka. I saw the door open on its own. Who else is here?"

Hisoka felt his temper rising, though in the back of his mind he knew it was unfair since Tsuzuki didn't even know why he had left, much less about his powers. "No one. It's just you and me."

"You're lying." The comment had a hint of anger in it, and Hisoka felt his hands clench as his own temper flared. "I saw it with my own eyes, Hisoka."

"Yeah, you'd know a lot about that, wouldn't you, Tsuzuki? You'd know that there's nothing strange that happens in the world and everything is always how you perceive it." Hisoka was struggling to keep his temper in check.

"Then what else could there be, Hisoka? Some automatic door opening system? Because in this part of town, and judging from the place you're living in, I'd say that's highly unlikely." Tsuzuki's hand slammed down on the table, causing Hisoka to jump in surprise, but he kept his gaze squarely level with Tsuzuki's. "Who have you been staying with all this time Hisoka? I never would have thought it of you, but I guess I was wrong."

"You bastard!" Hisoka's control finally snapped. "For your information, buddy, I don't like mortals and I would never have a human for a housemate, especially considering how much I'd have to explain the first time I get an injury and it heals in seconds! I thought you knew me better than that!"

"People change, Hisoka."

"Yeah, well my opinion of mortals is about as likely to change as your sweet tooth! Do you really want to know why I left? Do you?"

Hisoka flung his hand out, and one of the chairs levitated in the air and did a flip before he lost control and it landed hard on the floor, splintering. Hisoka moved his hand again: a cup sitting on the table flew into his hand with so much force that the water literally jumped out of it before he slammed it back down on the table. A pillow from the couch assaulted Tsuzuki, beating him over the head ferociously.

Tsuzuki held his hand up to shield himself, but the bashing didn't stop.

"You are so stupid! I can't believe you would ask me that! I have been busting my ass trying to blend in among humans in the scum of the city so that I can get a handle on this power for five years now! I can't believe I left because I was worried I might hurt someone, since this wonderful power is charged by emotions! At least if you had gotten hit in the head by a flying coffee mug, it might have knocked some sense into your thick skull!"

He nailed him with a final blow upside the head, and then let the pillow fall to the floor. "To think I thought… Oh never mind. To hell with you!"

Hisoka turned and stormed out of the dining room and through one of the two other doors. He slammed the door so hard that it made the windows rattle and shook the glass abandoned on the table.

Tsuzuki stood next to the table completely stunned by what had just happened. Hisoka had moved the objects with his empathy? Was that even possible? And he knew that Hisoka could have hit him a lot harder than just assaulting him with a pillow.

Tsuzuki slapped a hand over his eyes and groaned at his stupidity. He had just succeeded in seriously pissing his partner off. It looked like he had some damage control to do. But to his surprise, a strange warmth had grown in his chest as he realized that the empath had left out of concern for his co-workers and not because of dislike or anything like that.

In all honesty, he was somewhat relieved by the empath's reaction. His outrage had been too great to be feigned. But then he realized that he had probably just pissed Hisoka off enough that the empath might kick him out, and at the worst wouldn't come back to JuOhCho with him.

Nervously, he poked his head through the door Hisoka had disappeared into. To Tsuzuki's surprise, it wasn't a guest room as he had first suspected. The room was filled with work out equipment. A treadmill was against one wall, a weight set against the other. In the center of the room was a mat above which hung a punching bag chained to the ceiling.

It was currently being pounded on by one seriously angry empath.

Hisoka was moving fast, even faster than Tsuzuki had seen him move with a sword. Left jab, right hook, all passed by in a flurry as sweat poured in droplets down the empath's face. Tsuzuki noticed that Hisoka hadn't bothered with putting on gloves, and his knuckles were red.

Hisoka had changed into a sleeveless white shirt while Tsuzuki had been in the other room, and the purple-eyed shinigami noticed that his curse marks were burning all along his arms, except from his wrists to below his elbows, where bandages were wrapped tightly, something Tsuzuki had seen before in people who had to fight a lot. He wasn't sure if it was needed or just a tough fashion statement, but it was obvious that Hisoka didn't mind them.

He gave the punching bag one last vicious kick that made Tsuzuki wince. It was obvious that Hisoka was trained just as well in fighting with his hands as with a sword. Hisoka looked at him as he grabbed a towel off the corner of the mat and glared. "What?"

Tsuzuki flinched at the angry tone while Hisoka toweled his sweat-drenched hair dry and hung the towel around his neck before turning to walk towards the treadmill. He messed with the control on it, before sighing tiredly. "Stupid key. I can never find it when I need it."

He made to walk past Tsuzuki, but the other shinigami's hand darted out to catch his arm. Hisoka flinched and started to put up his mental shields, before realizing tiredly that his empathy wasn't working because he was so exhausted. His curse marks flickered slightly as they faded away.

His mind felt fuzzy and was spinning slightly; probably a result of getting hardly any sleep at night and the fact that he had probably just sweated out most of the water in his body.

"I'm sorry." Was that Tsuzuki talking so low? He could hardly hear anymore. He was so tired…

"It's no problem…"

"Yes, it is!" Hisoka raised his head to look into a pair of amethyst eyes. His exhaustion was visibly showing now, and Tsuzuki looked tired too. How long had he been out looking for Hisoka, or had he just found him by dumb luck? Tsuzuki took a deep, shuddering breath as he continued.

"I shouldn't have been so mad at you, but I was so tired. I know it's an excuse, but I've been looking for you for so long and I had thought you might be in trouble or something… Then I find you here in this city, and at first it seems like you didn't care at all."

"How did you find me?"

"I got a tip from a guy you beat up at the… Inferno, yeah, the Inferno. You'd know him by the greasy black hair and tuxedo."

"Oh yeah, him. He slung his beer in my face."

"Yeah, well I waited on top of a nearby building until you got off of work and… I kinda followed you back. I know it seems like I was stalking you, but I didn't want to run the risk of you detecting me through your empathy." Tsuzuki looked a little sheepish as he said this.

Hisoka sighed. "I'm tired, Tsuzuki. I'm tired of beating people up for a living, I'm tired of living like this, and I'm even tired of having to get myself out of bed and walk down that street every single day. I just want to go home…"

His plight was tugging at Tsuzuki's heart strings. As he had suspected, his first impression was wrong. He put his hands on the youth's shoulders. "One more question, ok Hisoka? Then I'll take you home to Meifu."

"What 'tis it?"

"Why did you leave?"

"Didn't wanna hurt anyone… can't control it… tired…" Hisoka leaned forward and shut his eyes as he rested his forehead against Tsuzuki's shoulder. He dimly heard Tsuzuki's voice as his mind drifted out of focus, but when he opened his eyes again he realized he was in his house, in his room, and he rubbed his eyes when he realized that everything was the same as it had been five years previously.

He stumbled forward and plopped down on the bed without much ceremony and curled up in a ball. He dimly heard Tsuzuki chuckle as the older shinigami grabbed a blanket from the closet and placed it over him, not wanting to have to move his partner now that Hisoka was comfortably positioned on top of the bed. Hisoka realized dimly that he was unaccustomed to such kindness after five years away, before he remembered that Tsuzuki was always like that.

"Welcome back, Hisoka. I'll see you in the morning."

Eh heh heh... Please, no author abuse. This wasn't exactly my best chapter, but you can understand Tsuzuki jumping to conclusions. His emotions were a little thin after looking for Hisoka for five years. And Hisoka would probably be pissed if Tsuzuki rounded on him so... yeah. This wasn't one of my better chapters, but like I said in the summary, the real action is going to happen after Hisoka returns to work, so I kinda needed a conveniant excuse to get him back and this was the best I could come up with.

Anyways, no author's notes in this chapter, because there wasn't much to talk about. This one was pretty straight-forward. But it's about five minutes from the start of school, so I'm gonna post this and be on my way. See you guys (those that are left) in the next chapter!