Pinkshuchan: LALIHO! Hey everyone! Pinkshuchan here! Last chapter, Yuki escaped the captivity of a cage in Reiji's castle. Will he be able to reach Shuichi in time? Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Lovers United

The fourth day had come and Shuichi was a little depressed. Sure, he still had one more day left before he had to return to the world of the Creatures of the Night, but a part of him wished that it lasted longer.

Later that day, after they ate lunch, Shuichi wanted to buy something from the convenience store to have as a souvenir. He would've asked Ichiro to do it for him but the convenience store wasn't that far from the apartment and he already put Ichiro through a lot. Besides, Ichiro had to go to work that day so he couldn't even if Shuichi asked him to. So Shuichi went by himself.

There were so many things there; he wasn't sure what to buy. There were so many delicious snacks and drinks and manga and everything. It was hard to decide. Eventually, he decided to buy some strawberry pocky and a manga. The manga was about a boy that wanted to be famous who meets another man who's already famous and they fall in love. Lots of things happen to them and try to keep them from being together like the press and the dark secret the already famous man suffers from, but in the end true love conquers all. He couldn't help but feel that the two main characters reminded him of a couple of people he knew but he couldn't put his finger on it. Oh well! It wasn't important. He walked out of the store with his pocky and his manga and was about to head home through the alley as his shortcut until he bumped into someone.

"I'm really sorry!" he apologized to whoever he bumped into. He looked up to see two men looking at him. One of them was really tall and skinny while the other one was bigger and still taller than Shuichi but not as tall as his friend. The moment they saw Shuichi's face, they smirked.

"Hey look!" the bigger man said to his tall friend, "If it isn't our little witch friend."

Right away, Shuichi knew what was up. These two men were wizards. He didn't think he'd encounter them after what happened yesterday. "What are you doing here?" he asked, "I thought your leader would've said anything about leaving me alone."

"He did," said the taller man, "Turns out you're not an ordinary witch."

"Yeah, well I hear that a lot."

"Not only that," the bigger one continued where his friend left off, "We've seen some witches before and you actually look far more gorgeous than the ones we've seen, even though you're a guy."

Shuichi crossed his arms and glared at them. "Listen, if you're trying to flirt with me, it won't work. I already have a boyfriend. Now, if you excuse me." He was about to walk away before the bigger guy grabbed him.

"So you admit it," the taller guy smirked, "You really are into men. Well, I bet that guy has nothing compared to us." Shuichi struggled to escape, but the bigger man's grip was too strong. The taller man walked closer to him and began touching him in places he didn't want to be touched.

"Wait a minute!" Shuichi cried, "You shouldn't do this to me! Your leader said not to!"

"He said we couldn't kill you. He didn't say we couldn't have our way with you. Consider it a much better souvenir of our home than those stupid snacks and comics." He began moving closer and closer to Shuichi. It seemed like it was it for him.

But then, something began to attack the taller man. Something small. Something tiny. Something that was 3.5''. The bigger man let go of Shuichi to help his friend out. The pink haired witch didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to stay to know. The moment they were occupied with what was attacking the taller wizard, he ran. It didn't last long though, for the wizards caught him running away. They ended up following him.

Shuichi didn't stop running for a moment, not even to rest. He just kept on running until he knew he lost them. But no matter what he did to get them off his trail, they just kept chasing him. Shuichi ran quite a distance when he noticed they decided to stop chasing him. But Shuichi kept running in case they tried any tricks. However when he faced forward, he understood why they stopped.

He was running straight to a giant river.

He tried to stop, but when he did it was too late. He was already at the edge. He tried to keep himself on the ground but he couldn't. He fell right off the edge. But before anything else could happen, Shuichi felt a tug on his hood. He looked up to see that something was holding him up. Something very familiar. Something small, white, and fluffy.

And that's when he knew.

"Yuki!" he cried, "You're here!"

Yuki didn't have the same excitement though. He was too focused on trying to fly Shuichi to the edge again and away from the wizards. But by being in his bat form, he couldn't fly really without ending up falling. Shuichi quickly looked around to see that no one was there that could catch sight of them. This was good on Shuichi's part because he felt that a little bit of magic would be useful at this moment. With his magic, he was able to summon his broom. It managed to catch him. He felt safe. But it didn't last for long, for the wizards were coming up behind him in what appeared to be magic orbs.

The chase continued, but although he knew he was in danger of being caught by the wizards, Shuichi was having a blast. He began howling with joy. But while Shuichi was having fun, the two wizards were stopped by another glowing orb in front of them.

"What the hell are you two idiots doing?" the voice within the orb roared at them, "Didn't I tell you to leave that witch boy alone?"

"Well, technically you told us not to kill him," the taller one explained, "You didn't tell us to stay away from him."

"Don't play smart with me!" the voice growled, "I meant for you to stay away from him. I don't care what reason you'd want to be close to him, but if you try anything to hurt him in any way, I'll kill you on the spot."

"Hey boss!" the bigger wizard spoke up, "What makes him so important anyway? You almost sound like you love him or something."

The voice didn't have a comeback. They knew they hit the mark. "That's it, isn't it?" the bigger man continued, "You're in love with him."

"I'm not in love with him," said the voice, "But I do love him."

The two wizards didn't bother to ask about it. They could tell that their leader sounded a little depressed. Instead, they left, leaving their leader in thought.

Meanwhile with Shuichi, he had just managed to make it back to Ichiro's apartment. He could tell that he wasn't home yet so he was in the clear. He was confused as to why the wizards didn't follow him. But he got distracted by something moving in his hood. He moved his hand back to grab what it was. He felt something really soft in there. Could it really be? He took it out and there in his hands was Yuki in his bat form.

"Yuki!" Shuichi cried for the second time, "It's really you right? This isn't just some dream, this is reality right?"

The white, fluffy bat looked up at him with his golden eyes and tears were starting to fall. At long last, they were finally together again after what happened. Shuichi brought Yuki close to him and held the tiny body close to his face. The latter held Shuichi's face close as if his life depended on it. He never thought he'd see Shuichi again after what happened. But now here they were together again.

"You're really here Yuki!" Shuichi sobbed as droplets of salt water began falling down his cheeks, "I… I didn't think… I'm so…"

Yuki wanted to tell Shuichi that it was alright. But he remembered that they only sound his mouth could make would be the bat screeches. If only Reiji didn't curse him with that. Wait! Reiji! He had to warn Shuichi about Reiji. He tried to explain but had forgotten that he couldn't speak. Shuichi stared at him.

"Yuki, what's going on?" he asked, "Why can't you speak like a normal person? Did something happen to you?"

The vampire bat nodded. At least he could still motion stuff like nodding and shaking his head. He didn't think Shuichi could understand sign language, especially the sign language a bat would give him.

But then, they heard the door open. Shuichi had been so happy to see Yuki again, he forgot about Ichiro. He highly doubted that he would believe that a bat was Shuichi's lover let alone someone the witch knew. He knew he would have to hide Yuki. But that meant more lying and it would be hard with the Pinocchio Year.

"Shuichi! Come on down!" Ichiro called down to him, "We're going out to dinner. I think you might like the place. Consider it the last dinner here in Tokyo."

Shuichi didn't want to cause a commotion by bringing Yuki but he didn't want to leave Yuki alone after they were finally united. He decided to take Yuki with him. He put Yuki in his pocket and told him that he would be fine. Yuki on the other hand was worried that he wouldn't be able to pass the message to Shuichi before the five days were up. After all, this was the fourth out of the five days. Would he be able to warn Shuichi in time?

Pinkshuchan: Complications after complications. Will they ever stop? Then again, a story wouldn't be really good if there weren't any complications to spice it up. Read and Review everyone!