Disclaimer: don't own anything save for the plot…unless I unknowingly copied it from somewhere else.

-xXx-

Shuichi had just convinced his foot to step away from the advancing man when he was shoved backwards into the painted brick wall behind him. All the air immediately rushed from his lungs on impact and his vision blurred slightly as his head collided with the wall on the rebound. He felt a hand close around his wrist.

"Let go!" He shouted, his tone half anger, half fear. He tried to wrench his arm away but the man seemed to have a death grip on him.

"Aw come on, sweetheart. I promise not to hurt you." The man said, forcefully pushing Shuichi backwards until he had him snuggly trapped between his body and the wall. Shuichi turned his head to the side so as not to gag on the putrid smell coming from the man, closing his eyes in a vain attempt to block the situation from his mind. He had to get away, that much was blatantly obvious. Opening his eyes, he glanced down the alley in the direction he had come, searching frantically for an escape route and nearly choked on despair—the only sight he was greeted with was that of three other members of the drunkard's posse making their way down the alley, intrigued by the commotion. That left the other direction. Just as he was about to make another attempt to pull away, Shuichi felt a disgustingly hot, sticky mouth latch onto the base of his neck and he froze. Teeth scraped harshly at his skin and his need to escape increased tenfold. Using his free hand, Shuichi managed to push the man far enough away for him to escape, but the man refused to relinquish his grip on Shuichi's wrist, yanking him backwards with more than enough force to send him crashing into the street. Shuichi winced, certain that a large amount of dirt and gravel had just embedded itself into his palms, which had taken the brunt of the fall.

"Try that again and I swear this street will be painted in your blood." A cold voice echoed through his ears. Shuichi gasped at the familiarity of the voice and slowly looked up, eyes widening when he saw that it was, indeed, Yuki. Regardless of the fact that the blonde pirate was clearly defending him, Shuichi couldn't control the huge spike in his fear level; never before had he heard Yuki speak in a tone as deadly as this one nor had he seen such a murderous look in the blonde's eyes. The man towards whom Yuki's anger was currently directed didn't really seem to notice the danger he facing, either due to his drunken state or sheer stupidity.

"The hell gives you the right t'say tha'?" The man slurred, glaring at Yuki.

Yuki didn't grace the man with any response, instead turning his attention to Shuichi. "Get out of here. Wait around the corner." Shuichi glanced down the alleyway; the group of men had almost reached them. Yuki followed his line of vision but didn't say anything beyond, "Do as I say and go." This time Shuichi just nodded his head and stood as quickly as he could, relying on the stone wall to support him. He closed his eyes, trying to calm the shaking in his limbs, and ran, not stopping until he had rounded the corner where Yuki had told him to wait. He stood there for a moment, leaning against the wall, struggling to catch his breath while he fought to not cry. Sinking down to the street he held his head in his hands, taking deep breaths and wishing more than anything to be back home.

-xXx-

As soon as Shuichi had disappeared, Yuki turned back to the man and without even the slightest flinch he slammed the man's head against the wall, watching with cold disinterest as the man stumbled around in shock.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Giving you what you deserve." Yuki said, following up his words with a deadly right hook that instantly knocked the man unconscious. The group of approaching men stopped, shocked at what had just happened. Had they been sober, the trio of men probably would have realized at this point that the smartest course of action would be to turn and run. However, alcohol and pride never seem to lead to a happy end. All at once the group descended on Yuki, punching and kicking whenever they felt they should or could, angry at him for hurting their friend in such a way. Luckily for Yuki, their alcohol imbibed minds slowed their punches and threw off their targeting, making it both easy to deflect, dodge and counter them and soon enough they all joined their comrade face-down in the pavement. Yuki gave a disgusted look down at the group of men who were either groaning in pain or completely unconscious, wiping a bit of blood away from his mouth where someone had landed a lucky punch—Shuichi would freak if he saw the blood. He gave the closest man one last kick for good measure before turning heel and tracing the path Shuichi had made minutes ago, hoping the boy had for once done as he had been told and was waiting.

Rounding the corner, Yuki scanned the street for Shuichi. He finally caught sight of him sitting on the ground, curled up around himself. Yuki sighed in relief; at least he hadn't run off or gotten into any other trouble. Walking over to stand in front of him, Yuki nudged him with his foot.

"Oi. Brat. You ok?" Shuichi looked up at him instantly, a flurry of expressions ranging from guilt to relief crossed over his face before he nodded his head.

"Yuki…are you ok?" Shuichi asked softly.

Yuki regarded Shuichi in the dim evening light. "Don't ask stupid questions." He said shortly, "Now let's go." He held out his hand in order to pull Shuichi to his feet. Shuichi looked at the hand hesitantly before looking back up towards the blonde's face. Sensing a question from the pink haired boy was imminent, Yuki cut him off before he stole the chance to speak.

"We'll talk when we get back to the room." Yuki said without any ceremony, he reached down and grabbed Shuichi's arm, yanking him to his feet. Keeping his hand locked on Shuichi just to be sure he didn't somehow manage to disappear, Yuki started to lead him down the street, only stopping when he felt Shuichi stumble beside him. Yuki looked back at Shuichi, taking in his appearance for the first time since he had stepped in to save him. For some reason the boy was no longer wearing his coat and instead had it bundled up in his free arm, hugging it closely too his chest.

"Shuichi, you'll catch a cold if you run around at night dressed like this." He said, reaching forward to take the coat from his arms and retie it around his shoulders.

"No!" Shuichi cried, immediately backing away. "I mean, I'm fine, it's a warm night."

Yuki looked at him, regardless of what Shuichi said, there was no way he would believe that. At the moment, the boy looked positively dreadful, as if he would pass out any minute due to an overwhelming combination of fear, pain and shock and it took all of Yuki's will not to turn around and stamp the life out of the man who had done this to him. Instead, Yuki took the few steps back and lifted Shuichi into his arms without a word, silently making his way back to the building they were staying in.

"Yuki, I'm sorry." Shuichi said quietly, the instant they were safely back in the room. Yuki didn't speak until after he had set Shuichi on the bed and was able to look directly at him. Not that it made a difference as Shuichi was refusing to make eye contact, still carefully cradling his jacket in his arms.

"Why did you leave?" Yuki asked, making every attempt to keep his voice calm and avoid getting angry.

"I'm sorry. I really am." Yuki opened his mouth to make a snide comment about Shuichi's inability to answer the question directly but something about Shuichi's frail demeanor stopped him.

Yuki sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I knew I should have left you on the boat." He said softly, sitting down next to Shuichi on the bed.

The comment caught Shuichi's attention and he looked up at Yuki suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

Yuki gazed down at Shuichi, studying his face, everything from the way his sweet, pink hair rested on his forehead to the way he was ever so slightly biting on his bottom lip in curiosity. Without fully realizing what he was doing, Yuki brought his hand up, molding it to fit against Shuichi's cheek. He brushed his thumb briefly along Shuichi's bottom lip before leaning down and covering those lips with his own. Quite suddenly images of the other man flashed into his mind, his imagination reworking them into being worse than reality and he was reminded that a kiss was probably the last thing that Shuichi needed at that moment. Yuki pulled away slowly, fully expecting to see a look of hurt or disgust or even fear etched into Shuichi's face. However, when he pulled away he found Shuichi was staring at him, wide-eyed.

Yuki watched him for a moment, trying to judge his reaction to the kiss but in the end he couldn't make heads or tails of it. Finally, Yuki cleared his throat and changed the subject, "Anyway, I suppose I should be asking whether or not you're ok."

It took a moment for Shuichi to realize that Yuki was addressing him, and when he did, the only answer he could manage was a quiet "fine" to which Yuki aptly rolled his eyes.

"That's a bullshit answer and we both know it." The blond stated bluntly. "Now tell me where you're hurt."

"Really, I'm fine." Shuichi said, breaking out of his daze now that Yuki was back to being his normal, callous self. "It's just a little bruising." After a moment's consideration Yuki nodded—if Shuichi didn't want to talk about it he wasn't going to press it. He stood up from the bed, removing his shoes and pulling off the more uncomfortable articles of clothing. When he turned back he noticed Shuichi was still sitting on the edge of the bed, he had kicked of his shoes but was still holding tightly to the coat.

"Shuichi give me that, I'll hang it up." Yuki said, holding out his hand. Shuichi looked at him and then hesitantly shook his head causing Yuki to narrow his eyes in suspicion. "Alright, what are you hiding."

"It's nothing I—" Yuki didn't wait to hear anymore of what Shuichi had to say, he grabbed the coat from Shuichi's hands and tossed it onto the bed, ignoring Shuichi's yells for him not to. It landed on the bed with a soft thud and Yuki heard a small cry come from inside and soon a tiny, furry head poked out from the folds of the fabric. It was a small gray kitten, probably no older than three months and it was staring up at Yuki with hugely dilated eyes, probably terrified half to death.

"Shuichi, what's this? Why on earth do you have a cat?"

"I found her while I was waiting for you. There was no way I could just leaver her!" Shuichi exclaimed in defense, moving over to cuddle the kitten back into his arms. "Please don't throw her out."

Yuki sighed, sitting back down on the bed. "Really, it's just one thing after another with you." Shuichi made no response. "Shuichi, I can't keep a cat on the ship, cats aren't fond of such large amounts of water."

"But maybe this one is!" Shuichi said, giving Yuki a pleading look.

"I'm sorry. She can stay for the night, but that's it. Maybe we can find a home for her tomorrow." Yuki said, even though he hated getting the boys hopes up like that, he had to say something to appease him.

"Promise?" Shuichi asked, a painfully hopeful look filling his eyes.

"Y-yeah, I promise." Yuki reached out, gently stroking the kitten's silky fur with the back his fingers. The kitten watched him suspiciously for a moment before rearranging itself in Shuichi's arms and closing its eyes.

"Hey Yuki?" Shuichi asked after a moment or so.

"What?"

"Why…why did you do that?"

"Do what?" Yuki asked, distracted by the softness of the kitten's fur.

"Why'd you kiss me?"

Yuki's hand paused and he looked up to see Shuichi staring curiously at him. "A moment of insanity?" He joked, hoping Shuichi might somehow, possibly, buy it.

"Yuki!"

"Fine. Let me ask you a question first though."

"Ok…"

"Would you mind if I did it again?"

-xXx-

So…what say you? I know, I know, it's kind of short but I wanted to do one more update before I shifted to focusing for finals (someone shoot me now!). Also the tone felt a little…strange to me. I haven't been in the happiest of moods as of late and I think that ends up being reflected in my writing. But anyway, I hope you found it enjoyable nonetheless!

Replies of the Review sort:

Riddiculuvampire: Right? That boy…always getting himself into situations haha

Ray: Thanks! :D

Cookiesfortheneko: AWWW thank you! Your comment made my week shiny! And yay! Shu's safe :D no way could I let anyone other than Yuki touch him like that! Guess I just don't have it in me to be that mean to him…

KyouyaxCloud: Ugh if those two were honest with each other, so much drama could be avoided…but then it would be quite as fun ^_^

Arad D. Hunter: aw glad you like it! And yay! Shu's fine

Angel Wings-008: Yup, there's a slight parallel, but I couldn't let it be fully replicated; I don't like seeing Shuichi hurt, he's too sweet

Lilgurlanima: Of course someone saved him :D How could Yuki not come at exactly the perfect time? Haha

Dragonfire04: aw thanks!

Yaoifangirl: hahaha so impatient! But I promise…or at least I think it will start getting cuter soon =^_^=