Monkey: Whoo! I managed to updated today! XD I didn't think I would! XD Oh right, I own nothing!

So in this chapter, we still don't find out who Edo likes, but it'll come up soon, don't worry ;D

Enjoy!


Seira nearly jumped out of her car as soon as she hit the brakes. Unlocking the front door, she looked around the living room first.

"Haou?" She called out. "Sweetie?"

When she didn't receive an answer, she made her way up the stairs. There was a faint smell of coffee in the air so at least her son was awake, or had been.

His door was locked.

"Haou?" Seira knocked softly.

Silence.

She sighed. "Haou, I know you're there. Are you alright?"

Her reply was a faint sniff.

Gold eyes went wide. He was crying? But Haou hadn't cried since he was a small child! And even then, it was very limited. "Honey, can you open the door?"

She waited patiently for him to do so, completely ignoring the fact that she could probably force the door open. But that wouldn't make things any better for them at the moment.

There was a shuffling sound heard before a light click reached her ears.

She didn't touch the doorknob until she heard him walk away from the door. She was worried about him, yes, but she knew that he would rather not have to face her so soon. Seira quietly opened the door and stepped inside. Her gold eyes landed on the figure of her son who was sitting on the chair by the window, his face turned away from her.

"Haou?"

"I'm fine."

His voice was cold, surprising her and keeping her from going forward. Just what the hell had happened?

Haou sniffed again and moved a hand to rub at his eyes.

Patience be damned.

Seira walked over to the brunette and pulled him into her arms. "Haou, talk to me."

He didn't. But he didn't pull away from her either.

She held him for some time, rubbing soothing circles on his back. She didn't know why that always seemed to work, but she was glad it did.

"Mom?" he finally called out.

"Yeah?"

"Am I... not supposed to be happy?"

The quiet, shaky voice made her frown. "Not happy? Haou, everyone is supposed to be happy. It's one of the few things we're guaranteed in life. It may sometimes seem like we're living through hell, or that things just keep getting worse and worse for us, but tomorrow's another day. At some point, everyone will be happy." She pulled away from him a bit and looked at his face. He quickly looked down to avoid her gaze. "What brought this up? Haou, what happened?"

"... Nothing."

"Haou, don't lie to me. Now tell me what happened."

He looked up at her, his eyes misting from the tears pooling in his eyes. He felt so stupid for crying over Jehu and especially in front of his mother. This was exactly what he meant! He never would've done half the things he did in the last couple of weeks if it hadn't been for his so-called soul mate!

Feeling his mother staring down at him, Haou finally sighed and began telling her the whole story, not exaggerating one bit of it, making sure he was as accurate as possible. No need to make mountains out of molehills. Although, with the tears, he might've already done that.

Seira kept quiet the entire time and listened to every word he said. She nodded when Haou finished, and gave a small sigh. "Oh Haou, you both are so confused."

He raised a brow at her. "Both?"

Smiling sadly, she continued. "You two are just... unsure of how to display your feelings about each other. And you don't know what to do to make all this work." She ignored Haou's disbelieving stare. "I mean, every couple has their spats, so I'm not faulting you guys for it but, I think the both of you need to just sit down and talk it all out."

"But mom, that's just it. We're not even a couple. And I don't think sitting down and talking about this would help."

"Are you sure? You've already yelled at each other and gone to blows, I don't think there's that much more you two can do before talking is your only option." She sat down on his bed and he followed suit, sitting down across from her. "Although, this whole soul mate thing has gone out of hand. You two are killing yourselves over not being able to be with each other that you don't even realize it and you're setting up barriers for each other."

Haou opened his mouth to speak but she shook her head.

"Let me finish. Yes, you two are supposed to be together and supposed to be happy, but that doesn't mean it has to start now. You guys could get to know each other better first before you start jumping into anything. Maybe then you guys would find out why exactly the fates thought about putting you two together."

Haou kept silent. His mom was right. The both of them had thought that by seeing the red string of fate, it meant they were tied together from that day forth. They probably were, Haou wasn't so sure of the technicalities, but they weren't chained to each other. They could try again and take their time.

Fine. Forget it. I hope you find your happiness with someone else.

Or maybe not.

Haou sniffed again and wiped at his eyes. Maybe they both had been a little too harsh with each other. But Jehu didn't have to say that to him! Haou wasn't even giving up on his soul mate! He just had no idea what to do!

And neither does Jehu…

"Look, I've never met your soul mate, but it sounded to me like he was trying," Seira spoke again, pulling Haou out of his thoughts.

You're taking his side, Haou thought.

She smiled. "I know it may seem like it, but I'm not taking his side."

Damn the telepathy all mother's seem to have.

"But I'm not saying I'm taking your side either. You both were out of line and you need to go and apologize to each other and talk things out." She clapped her hand on Haou's knee, smiling. "So, wanna go get something to eat?"

"I can't go out like this..." Haou began.

Seira stood up and held out a hand for him. "Nonsense. You look just as adorable as you always do."

Haou furrowed his brows together and crossed his arms over his chest. "Now I'm definitely not going."

"We'll get some of that iced coffee you like so much."

He took her hand and looked up at her. "Thanks mom."

"No problem. Now let's go!" Laughing, she dragged him out of his room and out of the house.

As she drove, she let her thoughts wander to her son and his soul mate. She grinned. Who would've thought her son would be caught up in a roller coaster of mishaps?

"Mom look out for that tree!"

"Whoa!" She quickly got them out of harm's way and she grinned sheepishly. "My bad."

Haou shook his head.

At least there was still a sense of normalcy in his life.


Reiko dropped her plate when Jehu stormed into the house and started slamming doors. "What the…?"

Jehu raced up the stairs and she could hear Sparkle barking up a hell storm.

Those two really haven't quite gotten along yet.

Amber eyes sent a glare so full of rage that even Sparkle stopped barking.

This worried Reiko. Ignoring the shards around the kitchen floor, she ran out of there and raced up the stairs. "Jehu!"

A door slamming shut was her only answer.

Sparkle whimpered and Reiko bent down to pet her a bit before stepping over her chains and pounding on the door. "Jehu! Open this door! What the hell is going on with you?"

"Nothing! Leave me the fuck alone." The last part was mumbled, but Jehu had no doubt that his mother would be able to hear it.

She raised a brow. Oh there was definitely something going on, she wasn't stupid. Maybe her earlier feeling had been right.

"Jehu?" She called out a little softer. "What happened?"

"Nothing." He repeated. "Just leave me alone."

Reiko frowned. "Did you and Haou have another spat?"

"No!" His immediate response let Reiko understand what happened. "No. Please, don't ask me anything about him either."

Well there was something definitely up. She inwardly cursed when she remembered that she had no way of contacting his soul mate. Hell, her son didn't even know his last name, what hope did she have of contacting him?

"Fine. But I thought I'd let you know that I spoke to your father. He wants to have a word with you later tonight. He's staying in the next city over for a couple of nights but he's going to be calling you."

"He can try." Jehu replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I lost my cell like a month ago. I don't need it so I figured I didn't need to tell you about it. Now, if he wants to talk to me, fine. But until then, can I please just rest?"

Reiko shook her head at the first bit of information. That idiot. No wonder he never picked up. Although she stopped trying to get into contact with him like that after a week. But she gave in and sighed. "Alright. I'll come back later."

"Hn."

Reiko turned back to Sparkle and unchained her. "Come on, Sparkle, let's go for a walk." The dog barked happily and let her owner guide her around with the chains.

With one last look at her son's door, she frowned and walked down the stairs, careful not to trip over the dog.

Jehu on the other hand, was lying facedown on his bed. God, that little spat between him and Haou could not have gone worse.

Ok, so maybe it could have, but at the moment, he didn't want to think about that.

But he had to wonder if they had meant every word to each other.

Jehu knew better than anyone that he could be a real ass when he was drunk or in a terrible hangover. His post-drunk state hadn't been so bad earlier, but at the moment, he couldn't be sure.

He rolled over onto his back and closed his eyes. "Why him? Did Fate and Love decide to screw two people over? After all this, they can't possibly think that this will still work out, we're moving too…" His eyes widened. "Fast… Fuck."

Bringing his hands up to clutch at his hair and closing his eyes tightly, he cursed colorfully, but softly, in case his mother could hear him. He doubted it, but he didn't want her to think he was going to do something stupid again.

"Ugh." Jehu lowered his hands and frowned. He opened his eyes and let his thoughts attack him.

They had been going too fast.

Well, at least he had. He had been the one to push Haou, who he couldn't even see was suffering from all this. He was so confused.

And Jehu hadn't made it any better.

But the question was, should he apologize?

Could he?

And would that make a difference?

After leaving Haou with that last line, he doubted the other would forgive him, much less want to see him.

But he would lose much more if he didn't try.

"I hate you, Fate, Love. But at least you guys give me an interesting life." He glared up at his painted ceiling with mild irritation, then he sighed and closed his eyes.

He meant when he said he wanted some rest.

Maybe he could see his soul mate in his dreams, happy, even if it wasn't with him.


Haou held his head as he walked. The sheer amount of noise as he made his way through the school's entrance was nearly tripled in his ears. His headache was making the tiniest little shuffle sound like some kind of explosion, and it seemed like it liked it.

Gold eyes closed as he silently cursed. There was just no end to his constant, irritating pain!

Why was he cursed with it all? Had he been a bad person in a previous life?

He gave a small sigh as he walked by his locker and into a maze of open hallways.

A crazy mother, a stoic father, a guy for a soul mate and migraines from hell.

Haou stopped walking abruptly. He looked around and noticed he had walked in the completely opposite direction.

Damn, I'm losing it.

He was about to turn around when something suddenly caught his attention.

Near the end of the hallway that led to a flight of stairs, standing casually up against a set of silver lockers, was Jehu.

I wonder if now would be the time to…

His thoughts were cut short when a girl nearly came out of nowhere and hugged the bluenette tightly.

"Jehu!" She managed to exclaim loud enough for Haou to hear her.

What the…

Haou narrowed his gold eyes slightly at the sight. Who was she and why wasn't Jehu pushing her away?

A flicker of shock ran through his eyes when he saw Jehu, who had looked really surprised mere moments ago, now smiled widely and hugged the small brunette girl just as tight.

They seemed… happy.

A string of jealously pulled at Haou when he saw those two pull apart only enough so they could face each other.

Haou couldn't believe it.

Jehu had told him to go find happiness with someone else only two days ago. But Haou never thought Jehu would act so quickly!

And to think that he wanted to try to talk to him again.

His vision blurred faintly and he forced himself to turn on his heels and walk away, in the direction of his first period.

Fine then, if Jehu wanted any part in this soul mate business, then he would have to come to him first.


Haou felt like absolute shit. His head was killing him and like he's always known, no matter how many pills he takes, none took the pain away anymore.

He was beginning to wonder if he had taken too many pills in his short life that now his body adapted to the pills and no longer took effect. Maybe they would never work again! Maybe he was doomed to have a headache forever! Maybe he would end up dying of a headache!

Ok, so maybe he was overreacting.

But damn, he wanted nothing more than to clutch his head, curl up into a ball on his nice and comfortable bed and wait until the pain died, or at least faded.

He sighed and knew that was never going to happen. Not in the middle of class anyway.

His thoughts drifted to the day where he had sat in Jehu's arms, in the infirmary.

He had been so—

No.

No. No. No.

He would not think about Jehu like that.

Haou bit back a groan as the pain in his head increased and shifted from his left side to behind his eyes.

God, just thinking about him made his headache worse.

He let out a slow breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and tried to focus on his teacher.

Having a migraine sucked.


Jehu frowned in boredom as he laid down on the beds in the nurse's office. Mieko-san had left for a moment, an emergency of some sort that she could only treat outside the office and left Jehu in charge.

Ok, so maybe she threatened to experiment certain poisons on him without him knowing if he screwed around in her office, but it was the same thing for Jehu.

He just had to make sure to treat anyone who came in there and get them out as soon as he could, he could only stay there for so long.

Right now he was alone in that room, and had been for the last twenty minutes. There was still a half hour left before class ended, but for Jehu it felt a lot longer.

Haou…

He wondered what the other was doing, and half wished for him to appear there, like that time when they had their first encounter after the shrine.

Like that time when he held him in his arms.

The bluenette shook his head briefly before closing his eyes. At least no one would be able to sneak up on him, the door was closed and he would be able to hear it. It was supposed to always be open, but since the nurse wasn't there, he figured it would be alright. It wasn't for the students so much as for Jehu himself. If he fell asleep and Mieko-san showed up, the sound of the door opening would wake him up and he wouldn't have to fear for his life for a few precious seconds.

And people said Mieko-san was super nice and sweet.

My ass.

She just seemed to have a personal vendetta against him.

But oh well, it made things interesting and that was good enough for Jehu.

The soft ticking of the clock on the wall next to him ended up lulling him to sleep minutes later.


It was third period and Haou was feeling worse than he had in the morning. His skin felt hot to the touch and he was sweating a bit in the cold rooms. His vision was a little blurry and he felt lightheaded.

Great. I'm gonna die in school. Wonderful.

But it was third period. And he did not want to see the nurse right now.

I can… I can hold out for another period.

He knew Jehu was a student aide there, and he did not want to see him at the moment. Especially in his condition.

His teacher noticed his flushed face and frowned. "Haou?" She called out, lowering the book in her hands. "Are you alright? Do you need to go to the nurse's office?"

He looked up at her, gold eyes clouded. He nodded slowly. "I'm fine."

She shook her head. "Haou, you don't look alright." She went to her desk and signed out a nurse's pass. "Go to the nurse's office, you can get caught up later."

She walked over to him and gave him the paper. He reached out grudgingly and took it.

A girl sitting next to him spoke in a timid voice, barely able to reach Haou's ears. "D-do you need help getting to the nurse?"

Haou shook his head and didn't even offer her a glance. He stood up, gathered his things as best as he could, frowning when he dropped a book and left the room.

If the teacher thought he looked bad and kicked him out, he really had no choice.

But I don't like it.

He swayed a bit as he walked down the hallway, then carefully stepped down the stairs. A couple times he had to stop when his vision swam and he felt himself go forward a little.

He made it on solid ground in a moment and he looked around, trying to remember which way the nurse's office was.

Was it right? I think it was right…

He went right and hit the dean's office.

I… knew it was left.

He slowly walked down the open hallway, leaning a hand against the concrete wall as he went along to stay balanced.

Concrete walls? What a cheap school.

If only he was able to remember what he learned back in freshman studies, that someone who built prisons built that school.

Talk about irony.

He finally reached the infirmary and frowned when he saw the door was closed. That door was one of the heaviest in the school for some reason.

I'm gonna fall against it.

Shaking his head, he grabbed the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door forward.

Jehu was woken up by the sound of the door opening. A quick glance at the clock showed he'd been out for almost ten minutes.

Sitting up, he jumped off the bed and walked towards the hall.

Amber eyes went wide when he saw Haou there, looking up at him with a confused glance.

"Jehu… I don't feel so well…" And that was all he said before his vision went black and he collapsed forward.

The bluenette hurried and caught him before he hit the ground. When he felt the other's forehead against his chest, he could feel Haou had a fever.

Damn it, he's burning up.

He let Haou drop his things and since the other was out cold, he placed one arm around his shoulders and the other under his knees to pick him up.

Had he been awake, he might've glared at him and squirmed out of his grasp for carrying him in such a way, but at the moment, Jehu was spared the profanities.

Or maybe he wouldn't be mad at him.

Jehu took him to the bed he had previously slept in and gently laid him down.

"Haou?" He placed the back of his hand against the brunette's forehead and cursed.

Where the hell did that scary witch hide the thermometer on me?

He searched around the place and found it then put it in Haou's mouth.

Softly, he reached out and brushed Haou's sweaty hair out of his eyes. His breathing was heavy and Jehu was wondering if it was really alright for him to take care of the brunette. He should probably wait for the nurse to show up, but Haou might get worse until then.

Jehu gave a small dry chuckle. "And to think I was kind of hoping you'd come here so we could talk about what happened, but instead you come here because you're dying." The thermometer beeped and Jehu pulled it out of his mouth.

He frowned when he saw the numbers staring back at him.

The option for waiting was thrown out the window.

He searched around the place and began getting the things he would need to calm Haou's fever down.

At one point, Haou's fever finally began to die down a bit, and by then, Jehu was sitting by his side, holding Haou's hand, soothingly rubbing his thumb against the back of his hand. The other hadn't woken up since he got there and Jehu was only glad that he seemed like he was getting better now.

Mieko-san finally returned towards the end of sixth period. She had treated the kid that had fainted in class back in third period quickly, but before she could return to her room, she received a call telling her that her mother was in the hospital, so she went to go see her.

As it turned out, she was out of the danger zone and Mieko-san returned to work as soon as she could.

When she returned, she was surprised to find a note from Jehu taped onto her office door and a sleeping Haou as the only person there.

You're lucky. Haou was the only person to come to the nurse's office after you left. I'm leaving now, in the middle of sixth period, because Haou's finally fine and I think I'm going to ditch school altogether now since I basically ditched anyway. Don't tell him I took care of him. Jehu.

Mieko-san smiled at the note, even though she would never catch herself smiling like that in front of the bluenette.

Boys. She thought with a shake of her head.

Haou began stirring on the bed and he opened his eyes, narrowing them slightly when he saw where he was, then widening them when he felt much better than he had before.

"Nice to see you're well."

Haou's thoughts momentarily went to the sight of the surprised bluenette when he first walked in there. But he saw no traces of him now.

When he looked at the clock, he saw why.

School would be over in about fifteen minutes. There was no reason for him to stay there that long anyway.

Haou looked up at the nurse and nodded once. "Thank you for taking care of me."

She crumbled the note in her hand behind her back and smiled. "I didn't do anything, I just got here." Screw what Jehu wanted, even though she did owe him. She lived that year for screwing with him. "It was all Jehu. He took care of you the whole time. In fact, he just left a little while ago, when he noticed you were fine."

Gold eyes were shocked. Jehu had taken care of him? Even after everything that's happened?

"Really?"

"Really. Now, you better get your things and start going on home, unless you want to go back to class."

She picked up the thermometer and stuck it in his mouth when he opened it to reply. It beeped moments later and she nodded when Haou had the perfect temperature.

Mieko-san hated to admit it, but Jehu did a good job.

Haou gathered his things at a calm pace, all the while thinking about his soul mate.

I wonder why he did it…

As he left, he never noticed the knowing look on Mieko-san's face.

Oh, these two are fun to watch.


Monkey: Why yes, this story is finally going to get a move on :D And yes, that part of the school being built by someone who builds prison is true. XD Cookee's and my high school was built by someone who builds prisons! Isn't that great? Takes "school prison" to a whole new level! DX

I know it seems like I skipped through the nurse's office scene really quickly, but I didn't want it to seem like all those other stories and shows and all that that have that kind of a scene, so I just rushed through it, sorry Dx

So, are Haou and Jehu finally going to get together? Who the hell was that girl that hugged Jehu? Is she a love interest? Will I put these two through more Hell? Will I update again soon? Well I can answer the last two. Maybe and Maybe xD

I'm going to be gone for a week or so, since I'm going on vacation to California and possibly Mexico again :D Whoo! But I'll try to update again before I leave, if not, then I'll update as soon as I get back, whenever that is. xD

And whoo! We're officially past the halfway point of the story! XDD

Hope you guys liked it! And whoo for really long author's notes! XDD