A/N: Oh my. So many favorites and alerts. Thank you all for actually bothering with this. I wanted to try something a bit different in this chapter, hope you all forgive me. I've also decided not to have any pairings for the time being. I'm still unsure about making an alternative story for yaoi or keeping everything platonic.

Late reply to Me-Anne: That's gonna be trouble for me, and I'm still deciding if I am gonna bring Sai to the association or not. I mean, he's got no records whatsoever and I'm not gonna pull off some typical movie plot where he can get an ID no problem and everything is grand potato crisps.

Resurrection

Chapter 7

Hikaru's mind was a whirlwind of chaos once school finally let out and he finished his cleaning duties. All throughout the day he considered skipping a class at some point to rush home and check on Sai. Was he ok? Did he hurt himself? Did his mother find him? Did he have to use the bathroom? He had to find a new home for his friend and fast.

So caught up in his thoughts, he nearly ran into a certain friend he hadn't had the chance to see in awhile since they decided to go to different schools and his duties with Sai took up most of his time.

"Hi-ka-ru!" a female voice enunciated as soon as he stepped off of the crowded train.

Hikaru looked up in surprise to see angry brown eyes glaring him down just a few feet away.

"A-Akari! What are you doing here?"

The young woman's glare intensified at the question causing Hikaru to flinch slightly.

"What am I doing here? Is that all you can say? I haven't seen you in a week! And we're neighbors! Where have you been? You don't call or even drop by anymore!"

"I-uh, well. I've been kind of busy. You know, Go stuff?" seeing the digital clock on the train schedule, Hikaru mentally cursed and looked to find the closest exit. He didn't have time to stand around.

"Don't give me that! I actually ran into one of your Go friends and they said they barely see you! I hope you're not gonna start acting weird like you did that one time. And you haven't given me that supposed Pro lesson you promised me last-"

"Look! Akari-" he paused to lower his voice and apologized. "Look. Something's come up and it's pretty personal. I can't talk right now and I promise that when everything gets straightened out I'll gladly give you 2 lessons. Maybe treat you to lunch after, but I really, really gotta go alright?"

Akari looked hurt for a second before schooling her features and nodding. "Um, alright. If you…say so."

Before rushing off, Hikaru turned and grabbed both of her hands, causing her to blush slightly.

"Seriously, I'm sorry ok? Bet on the promise. Later!"

The girl didn't even get a chance to respond as her childhood friend disappeared in a crowd of heads. Looking down at her hand, she sighed and continued on her own way.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap! That took too much time. Maybe I should have gotten someone else to do my cleaning. Then I could have gotten to the store faster. " Hikaru said under his breath after a few minutes of running home. It was spring time, and though there was a breeze he was beginning to burn up in his school uniform. Really why did their shirts have to have such thick material?

As soon as he arrived at his door, he tried his best to swallow his nervousness and go inside as though nothing was wrong.

"I'm ho-"

The sound of voices from the living room caused him to fall silent and his blood to run cold. Silently, he listened. One of them was definitely his mother's but the other… it couldn't have been Sai, could it?

After a few nerve wracking seconds, he finished removing his shoes and peeked in.

On one couch sat his mother, on the other, another woman who Hikaru didn't recognize. After seeing him in the doorway, the woman smiled gently and nodded her head in his direction.

"Ah Mitsuko, this must be your son peeking in." she said.

His mother turned and smiled.

"Oh, honey you're home. You're just in time, this is Kyoko Ikeda. We used to go to school together you see."

"Oh, pleasure to meet you Ms. Ikeda."

Kyoko smiled into her hand when Hikaru bowed and turned her eyes back to the woman across from her.

"Ah, such a good mannered boy. Honestly that Myou of mine is such a brash thing at times. Ever since she got into that 'Go' game, she's been paying attention to nothing since!"

"Go you say? Oh well my Hikaru here is a Pro! Honey, come sit and tell Ms. Ikeda about your career. I'm sure she'd be happy to hear it."

A bead of sweat ran down the back of Hikaru's neck. He didn't have time to sit and gossip, Sai was waiting. Not wanting to disappoint or embarrass his mother, Hikaru grudgingly sat next to her and tried to be as brief as possible. Yet the woman wouldn't stop asking questions!

Every so often he'd glance at the clock on the far wall and each passing minute felt like an eternity. Kyoto began to look as though she wanted to say something, but held back. Finally, after a good thirty minutes, his mother spoke up.

"Hikaru dear, is there something wrong?"

"Oh. I just really, really need to study for… a test! For tomorrow." Hikaru lied.

"Ah, well let the boy study eh Mistsuko?" Kyoko suggested. It was obvious Hikaru's fidgeting was getting to her.

"Yes, I suppose I should. Go ahead, study hard Hikaru."

The hurt in his mother's voice made Hikaru re-consider going up, but the grown man hiding in his room was a bigger issue at the moment.

"Yeah, thanks mom. It was, um, a pleasure talking to you." Hikaru said while bowing as quickly as possible and walking as fast as he could without looking like he wanted to make a mad dash up the stairs.

Upon entering his room, he found a snoozing Sai on his floor with a book being used as a pillow. Slowly, his sleep clouded eyes opened and focused on the shaken teen approaching him.

"Hey Sai, sorry that took so long. Sort of got held up. But, I got you something on my way home after school. Hope you like it." Hikaru pulled up a plastic bag and shook it in front of his friend.

Sai seemed to smile at his friend's very presence and ignored the bag to pull Hikaru into a hug. Feeling as though all his problems were washed away, Hikaru relaxed possibly for the first time that day and leaned into the warm hug.

"Hikaru, home." Sai quietly said in the youth's ear.

"Yeah, I'm home."

..:.:.:..

Sai allowed Hikaru to slip out of his arms as he began pulling the contents of the bag out and onto the floor.

"This is some stuff I got you to snack on. And I thought I'd let you try some sweets. Oh, and even though there wasn't much of a selection, I got some new books for you. One's a dictionary, and the other's a story book. I got them because they were pretty cheap, I didn't even know they had books at that store! I'll help you with the dictionary tonight, then you can read all day and maybe form some sentences."

Through the rant, Sai mainly understood the word book and smiled. Those were always fun to look at.

First, Hikaru opened something that reminded Sai of the rice ball, only it was a darker color and a different shape.

"This is a strawberry roll. Strawberry. Roll. Eat, eat."

With more confidence than the previous times, Sai accepted the food and took a small, but decent sized bite. It was soft, but much different from what Hikaru had given him before. It didn't take long for him to finish the whole thing. Hikaru watched with a strange expression that bordered between a smile and something else. Sai brushed it off when the boy laughed quietly and pulled out two more. He gave another to Sai and showed him how to properly remove the 'plastic' since it was very un-eatable and ate his own while watching Sai finish his second.

"This is only a small snack, I still gotta bring you some dinner later, but I know that roll's got you thirsty, here, try drinking this. It's a juice box."

After watching a demonstration on opening his own, Hikaru gave Sai a box. After poking and prodding the straw in all the wrong places, Hikaru sighed and opened it for him. Though the drink was small, it was still tasty and had the same flavor as the roll. Whatever strawberry was, Sai liked it.

Soon after, Sai followed the other's fingers and words as he went over the 'dictionary'. The sun had long set by the time Sai managed to get the real hang of reading and speaking. Hikaru even found the definitions for almost everything they ate that night.

"Cat. A… s-small, furry m-mam..mal with…" Sai stopped to look at Hikaru.

"Whiskers." He said quickly.

"Whiskers, short ears, and a looong tail. Cats, also called house cats, are often kept as pets or to catch mice and rats."

"Great, you're really getting the hang of this. Ok… hmm, what animal should we do next, or maybe something else?"

"Dogs!" Sai responded, but quieted down when Hikaru shushed him. He still didn't know why, but they were supposed to be quiet when talking.

"We already did dogs Sai, but if you want some practice, let's go over it again."

Sai silently rejoiced as Hikaru flipped through the pages to the definition and pointed to the picture. As the hours passed, Sai learned more and more about basic speech. Some words were still fuzzy, but Hikaru could get the meaning across.

Seeing Hikaru's finger on the photo of the animal, he tried his best to recite the definition. He only managed to get half of the words right, but it was enough for Hikaru to practically radiate joy. A few times, he saw something drip from his eyes, but it didn't seem to bother the other boy so, like most things, he brushed it aside.

After awhile, Hikaru yawned and stood, massaging his bottom and stretching in the process.

"Looks like it's time for us to go to bed. Come on, let's get cleaned up."

From the floor, Sai poked out his lip and pointed to the book.

"Ah come on Sai. We have plenty of time to go over it tomorrow. And you can keep reading when I'm gone. You have other books to look at too." To set his point in stone, he extended his hand down and prompted Sai to take it.

Even though he really wanted to keep learning, Sai took the hand and allowed Hikaru to lead him to the bathroom. As soon as the run rose, he would keep reading and learning until he could understand everything. Talking was slowly becoming easier, but listening seemed to make more sense. Soon, he would be able to tell Hikaru everything.