A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! Anyway, this will be the last chapter, I think. I s'pose I could do an epilogue, but there's really no need for one. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed this story and enjoyed it, I really appreciate it your feedback. :) Onto the chapter.

Judai looked up with a gasp, his eyes drying with surprise. He gaped for a moment, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, unabashedly drinking in the man before him. They hadn't seen one another in such a long time.

The other's face drummed inside his head, warm and comforting with everything it contained. The lopsided smile. The gentle nature. It had matured and changed, of course, but the instrumental pieces were all intact. Finally, he let his eyes slide onto the gemstone pair, completing the moment. They stared at one another for another second, and then Judai managed words.

"Johan... is it really you?" He blinked, clearing the his eyes of remaining mist.

Johan took a long moment to answer, then nodded and sank beside Judai on the ground. Frowning, he replied. "I should be asking you that question." He paused, and Judai dropped his gaze in shame. "Judai, it's been so long..." But Johan was always the caring one, the one who offered Judai comfort, and so he rested a hand on Judai's shoulder. "What's wrong?" he asked, lowering his voice. "Judai... are you crying?"

He shook his head then nodded, unsure about the answer. If he spoke or shifted, Johan might move away; he didn't think he could stand that just yet. "I was just at Sho's house," he said quietly, after some time.

Johan froze a moment and then took his hand back slowly, his expression coarse.

"No!" Judai said emphatically, all too ready to drill the truth into Johan's mind. "I - I hadn't seen him in years, Johan. I hadn't seen anyone really... not - not anyone from those days." That awful, all-consuming guilt sluiced through him, leaving his chest icy.

"You mean... you mean since school?" Johan asked, still frowning. Words had never been such a problem for them before, but they both seemed at a loss.

"Since school," Judai affirmed. He refused to meet Johan's eye. "But when I heard about Edo's death, I... well, I wanted to find out what happened to everybody. Where they all went..." The guilt mingled with sadness once again, and he felt his eyes go bright. Johan surprised him by laying a hand over his, giving him the strength to go on.

"I don't know if you know this," he said, voice hushed with emotion, "but almost everyone is gone, Johan. Manjoume and Asuka... Ryo... everyone." He stopped, swallowing twice to clear his throat. "I thought - I thought Sho was gone too," he said, voice trembling, "which is why I was surprised when he was alive, just - just six blocks away from here." He stopped a moment, pressing a hand over his face. When he continued, it was in a rush. "He didn't want to talk to me, though. He was angry with me, and I don't blame him. Besides, he has a life now...he probably didn't want me to come in and mess it up." Johan squeezed Judai's hand. They hadn't seen each other in so long, yet it was with ease that they slid into their old rhythm.

"But Johan," Judai said, speaking more slowly again, "he made me think that you were gone, and that..." He shook his head, unable to put that kind of sorrow into words. "Anyway. It's some coincidence to find you here." They met eyes again, both pairs creased with sad smiles. "I'm glad you're okay."

Johan sat a moment and then stood, pulling away from Judai for the first time. He strode several feet in front of the curb and then rounded, expression solemn. "I knew about most of their deaths, actually," he said. Judai winced at the easiness with which he said 'deaths' "But only because I kept track of everyone, trying to look for you." His eyes widened, and Judai recognized the deep, irreparable hurt inside them. "They weren't my friends Judai, they were yours. I had no reason to stick around, if you weren't with them. And besides... everyone knows they didn't want me there." He sounded bitter for a split-second but it passed, quickly replaced by a wounded front. He fell to his knees again, hands reaching out as if beseeching an explanation.

"I looked for you. I looked for you all this time, and I thought you were dead, Judai." He blinked rapidly and shook his head, voice husky. 'Why didn't you find me? Why... " He stopped talking, shook his head. "I'm not sure I want to know."

Judai went forward, crouching straight before his friend. He almost reached out, took Johan's hand, but then thought better of it. "I needed to figure things out for myself, Johan," he said softly, no longer pleading. As deeply as he had missed Johan these past years, he knew his time of detachment had been the right decision. He'd needed to feel comfortable inside himself first, before he could let someone else in. Even Johan. "My whole life... I've been on endless trails, the world trying to tell me who I am... I just had to figure it out for myself." He looked up, heart beating double time. Would Johan understand? "But I miss you," he went on, nearly at once, "I always missed you, and everyone else, and I'll never forgive myself for letting them die."

To Judai's surprise, Johan smirked. "Same old Judai, feeling guilt over deaths he didn't even know had happened."

Judai smiled grimly and shrugged. "I could have had more time with them. I could have said goodbye."

They sat beside each other and silence, and Johan did not bother to correct Judai. They both knew that words wouldn't heal his regret; probably nothing ever would.

"Listen," Johan said softly, after some time had passed. "I was actually on my way to the store... my daughter's birthday's coming up, and... well, I have to buy her a present." He grinned.

Judai blanched. "You have a daughter?"

Johan nodded. "Yes. She's four. My - my wife died two years ago." He didn't say that they hadn't been working out. Didn't say that they only stuck together because of her diagnosis.

"Oh. I'm sorry," Judai said. His voice was suddenly less familiar, for he couldn't shake the feeling that he didn't know this man at all. "Never - never mind, then."

"No," Johan said. He was a few steps down the block, but he turned back. "What were you going to say?"

"I... I know you have a life," Judai said softly, "and I have no right to come back into it, but I just wondered if you wanted to have dinner somewhere. Catch up on everything," he added.

Johan hesitated. He almost said no. He almost said that he'd moved on from that life, those times, and that Judai had done the same. Then he reminded himself of the time he'd spent missing Judai, indulging in a brand of heartache he'd never thought he'd know. He remembered that Judai had needed those years alone and that, despise everything that had happened, was heart broken to discover his friends had left him. After all these years, Judai still needed his friends to make him strong.

"Here," he said, handing over a card, "My phone number is on the back. Call me some time, and you can come over. Meet my daughter."

Judai smiled. He'd gotten more than he deserved. "Okay. Goodbye, Johan! I'll see you soon!"

Johan nodded. "See you soon, Judai."

Judai stayed on the sidewalk until Johan disappeared from sight, then he turned and headed back in his own direction. Sadness still welled inside him, disbelief at how so many people could be stolen so young, but... but maybe it would be okay. Johan's face flashed in his mind, the older one along side the one he'd been friends with, and he smiled. Things were not perfect, they would never be perfect, but everything would be okay.