A/N: This chapter has officially been beta'd! Yes! Normally I am the type of person that hates being told anything at all, because I'm a stuck up person that hates to be told I'm wrong, but I just love my beta because when I go through her corrections I can see exactly why she says it and it doesn't make me angry at all!

Anyway, the beta was kinda the reason for the long wait on this chapter, but trust me, it's worth it.

Hope you; read, review, and enjoy.

"Hey, Blondie."

There was a sigh and Kurogane's red eyes looked away from the back seat of the car toward Fye. The man kept his eyes straight ahead on the road, assuring that they wouldn't crash, but still a frown lined his face, his eyebrows knit uncharacteristically. "Why have you taken up calling me 'Blondie'?"

"You have nicknames for me...hey, would you rather I called you 'Fye-kitty' or 'Fye-kit'?"

"Do you want an honest answer?"

"Yeah, let's make it an honest answer."

Fye chuckled, "Then yes, I'd rather be called Fye-kitty or Fye-kit."

"All right." There was a short pause. "So Fye-kit?"

"Yes Kuro-pup?"

"I think he's waking up." There was another pause before Fye took one hand off the steering wheel and reached into his pocket. After a moment the hand reemerged and he held out a pair of earplugs for Kurogane to take. "What the hell are these for?"

"I was thinking that you could balance one on each index finger and see which one falls off first. It'll entertain Kamui to no end...Put them in your ears, Idiot."

"Why?"

Fye just sighed again, "Who worked with this kid?"

"You did."

"Yes, now trust me and put the damn things in your ears before he wakes up." Kurogane raised an eyebrow at the difference he could see in Fye. It wasn't that he was colder, he had known that was going to come with the job, but he was so much more serious. He swore more, didn't let Kurogane joke, and only joked himself when he seemed to get annoyed. Kurogane blamed the government for this, since he didn't have anyone else he could blame.

Carefully reaching out, Kurogane took the objects from Fye and placed them snuggly in his ears.

Not two minutes later he was very glad he had obeyed Fye. He felt Kamui sit up in the back seat and then, as clear as day Kamui's sheer pitched scream filled the car. "You tied my fingers together!? You sick freak!" The sound was almost loud enough that Kurogane wanted to put his hands to his ears even though he had the ear plugs in them already.

He looked to Fye. Fye was now speaking, although Kurogane couldn't make out a word of Fye's speech, his own ears seeming to be fine even though his ears were devoid of any protection. Kurogane supposed that this was logical, like Fye had said, he'd worked with Kamui. If he knew that Kamui was going to scream like that the teen must have screamed like that before. Which also led to the thought that Fye had grown quite used to it during his time with Kamui.

After a minute or so Fye stopped talking and apparently Kamui started speaking again. Kurogane couldn't be sure because he couldn't see Kamui's lips move from his position, and he couldn't hear his words this time, but he was suddenly sure Kamui had spoken. It was obvious from Fye's next actions. The blond's eyes grew wide, then narrowed into a glare and he pulled onto the shoulder of the highway. He then proceeded to undo his seatbelt, turn around in his seat, grab Kamui's chin in a rough manner and then yell loud enough for Kurogane to hear the first few words. "Listen up you little brat!" Kurogane was sure that more words came after that, but he couldn't understand them.

Kurogane watched the clock. He started watching at 5:47 p.m. and stopped at 5:53 p.m. when Fye finally turned back around in his seat, put the seat belt back on and made motions toward his ears for Kurogane to take the earplugs out. "You sure?" Fye nodded and the doctor obeyed. "Is he going to be obedient now?"

Fye chuckled, "I would never call him obedient, only patient and curious. He's now curious to see where we're taking him, aren't you, Kamui?"

"Yeah. Curious would be one way of putting it, Fye."

"You expect us to get out of the car, walk up to that, knock on the door, and present ourselves looking like this?! You can't be serious Fye!"

"Ah, but I am." The actions in question were them getting out of the car dressed all in black and walk up to the front door of the house they were in front of. Normally, Kurogane would have no problems with doing such a thing, but this case was...a little different. The house was what one might call picture perfect. A white picket fence, perfect paint job, perfect everything, right down to the sunlight hitting it all in just the right way to make it sparkle. Kurogane and Kamui would be completely out of place with their black clothes and dark hair, and Fye would be half out place with black clothes, but half in place with his blond hair. "Come now, out of the car and toward the house!"

Obediently, they clambered out of the car and while Fye seemed to be walking on clouds as he went up to the door, the other two were anything but enthusiastic. "Has he always acted like this?" Kurogane mumbled to Kamui.

The teen raised an eyebrow. "Like this? Happy?" Kurogane nodded. "Not usually, in fact when I knew him he only acted happy when he was around people he felt he needed to be happy around, but when we were alone, he never smiled." Kamui shrugged, "So, in answer to your real question, he might just be acting for you, or he might really be pleased. Go with whatever makes you sleep at night."

Kurogane snorted and walked directly up to Fye's side, taking his hand and holding it gently. Fye's eyes widened with surprise, but when he looked to Kurogane he smiled and squeezed the hand that held his. "Kamui is still behind us?"

"Yeah."

"Good." The blond brought up a hand and knocked against the door in loud rapping noises. As he brought his hand down the door opened as if the person behind it had been waiting there the entire time. The person behind it had long black hair that was held back in a ponytail and he wore glasses on his face.

"May I help you?" The man had a soft voice that was both fatherly and comforting.

Slowly Fye nodded, "Are you Clow Reed, or Ashura Flourite?"

The man chuckled, "I am Clow Reed. What can I do for you?"

Fye pulled his hand away from Kurogane's and reached behind him, gripping to Kamui's shoulder and pulling the boy in front of him. "I actually have two requests. Do you have any room for this boy? He's about seventeen, but he's having quite a lot of trouble getting along with people who aren't exactly like him. I can't very well send him out into the world if he can't get along with the people around him."

"Are you related?"

"No, unfortunately he doesn't have a true relation in the world. I've just known him for a couple years, that's all. Can you take him?"

"Of course we can. We have about ten children at this time, but we still have plenty of room," Clow smiled down at Kamui. "So what is your name?"

For a moment Kamui just glared up at the man but then Kurogane noticed Fye frown and jabbed his thumb into the boy's back. Then Kurogane spoke, "You can call him Kamui."

"Just Kamui?"

"Yep, just that, he doesn't have a last name, at least, not that we know of." Fye grinned, which elicited a smile from the other man as well.

"Well, that's a shame, but we'll still be glad to take him. Thank you Mr..." Clow held out his hand to Fye and Kurogane saw Fye bite his lip, obviously showing that, like Kamui, Fye had never chosen a last name.

"Kurogane. Mr. Kurogane." Fye looked to his lover with wide eyes as Kurogane said this. "He's a little afraid of his last name, because it's the same as mine."

Clow looked a little surprised, "Oh, are you two related?"

"No, married."

"Wha--" Kurogane cut Fye off with a hand over his mouth.

"He's just afraid of what other people will say."

"Ah." Clow nodded. "That's understandable, even now gay marriage is a taboo to many people, but I won't judge you. Since you don't like speaking your last name, may I ask what your first name is?"

Fye looked to Kurogane with seething anger as he pulled the man's hand away, "Fye, Fye Kurogane." At last the blond reached out and shook the man's hand. "And as I said earlier, I have one other request."

"Speak it at will, Fye."

"May I speak to Ashura Flourite?"

"Be assured that it would be perfectly all right...if he were here. However he is out with the other children until early tomorrow morning. Is it possible that I could help you with whatever you want to know?"

Slowly Fye shook his head, "No, it can only be him." He paused, "It's more of a personal thing than a business thing."

"I see...well, are you two in a hurry to go home?" Fye looked to Kurogane who shook his head, and then Fye copied the action. "Well then, why don't you two stay here for the night? We have plenty of space with the house being empty until tomorrow, and I'd be glad to have two gentlemen such as yourselves stay here. Then you would get to see Ashura during breakfast."

"How does that sound Youou-chan?"

"What did you just call me?" The doctor looked to Fye's grinning face and knew that the Youou was somehow payback for the last name and the marriage excuse that he had given Clow. Kurogane found that to be completely unfair, he'd only been trying to help Fye, not piss him off. The assassin was just purely trying to piss him off.

"You heard me."

"It sounds great..." Kurogane growled.

Kurogane had been watching the two A.I.'s for almost five hours now. The word war was a little of an overstatement, but the word peace was the largest overstatement in the world. Fye tried for peace, mostly he would keep his mouth shut and would try to play nice with the younger one, but Kamui pushed at Fye's buttons constantly, the result of making Fye angry was about ten times worse than the result of making Kurogane angry.

"All right! That's enough! One more word and I'm putting you two in separate corners!" Fye looked to Kurogane and opened his mouth, "Ah! Not a word!" Fye sulked and shut his mouth, seeming to become half his size as he sunk in his seat. "Kamui, go to your room, now. It's ten o'clock."

Kamui looked to Fye and raised an eyebrow at him, "You never told him that we stay up late into the night and early morning did you?"

"I did...he just doesn't always let that happen..."

"Bed!"

"Pfft." Kamui stood to his feet and waved his hand back and forth in a very Fye-like way as he walked out of the room, "Sure, whatever."

"We should go to bed too Fye-kit, especially if we're going to be up first thing in the morning."

"If that's what you want Youou-chan."

Kurogane sighed, "Are you still angry at me for saying that we're married and saying you had my last name?"

"I'm not angry. I understand perfectly well why you did it. For that reason I am not angry with you. I'm..." Fye sighed and turned his head to Kurogane, "I don't know. It's not angry, it's not disappointed, it's not sad, and it's not even so much that it hurts here." Fye put his hand to his heart. "I don't know, but it makes me feel negative. Perhaps lonely is the best word, but not even that's right because you're here with me, now."

"Can you try to explain it?"

Kurogane held his arms out slightly and Fye sighed, standing up and moving before sitting on Kurogane's lap and resting his cheek against the man's chest. "I guess the simplest way of putting it is that even to say it is a promise that I can never imagine being kept..."

The doctor frowned, his hand running through the silken locks of Fye's hair. "What do you mean?"

"To say that...it means that not only do you want me, but you love me, that one day you might hand me a ring and ask me to take on your name..."

Kurogane raised an eyebrow and took Fye's hand lifting it up so that he could see it clearly, "Your fingers are so long, a ring would decorate them beautifully. I don't see what's so wrong about giving you one..."

Fye jammed his eyes shut and clenched the hand into a fist, "You don't understand Youou, I don't expect that to ever happen."

"Why not?"

"Because...I know that you'll find someone else, or you'll grow bored of me and you'll leave."

"Do you think me that fickle of a lover, Fye?"

"No...you're wonderful; loyal, gentle, loving, all the things I wanted, and all the things no one would expect from someone who looks like you. I...just can't see it happening to me. Something will go wrong, it always does."

"No. Listen to me. Are you listening to me?"

"Yes..."

"Good, I...I love you Fye. That's a lot to say to a man I've been dating for less than half a year, but it's true. I love you. I want you. I never want to be without you, I wanted to be near you so much I told you to live with me. I've never done that before Fye. If you want a ring, I'll go out tomorrow and buy you one, but don't think that! I won't leave you."

"Promise?"

"Of course, I don't say things I don't mean."

"You love me more than you love Yuui?"

"Yes. I loved Yuui, but I love you. You, Fye, not Yuui. I love you more now than I can ever remember loving him..."

Fye chuckled a chilly, lonely chuckle that held a small hint of happiness behind it as he pulled himself up and kissed Kurogane's lips. "I love you too...Kuro-chan. I love you more than anything else."

"I'm glad, now, what kind of ring do you want?"

Fye's chuckle became a laugh, "Whatever Kuro-tan gets me will be the best thing I could imagine, simply because he thought of me when he bought it."

"Not specific enough..."

"Come on...let's go to bed."

"You feel okay?" Kurogane asked as Fye removed himself from the doctor's lap. "I don't think I have ever even imagined those words coming from your mouth."

"Hm...they only come from my mouth when I'm changing the subject. Come now, bedtime."

Kurogane sighed as he stood to his feet and followed Fye from the room, "I should have known. Is it too much of me to ask you to go to bed at a godly hour and really want to go to bed?"

"Of course it is, you're talking to a cat."

"How forgetful I am..."

"You two are just playing a joke on me, right? You're not seriously dragging him out of his room still asleep."

Fye yawned and then handed Kamui's wrists to Kurogane, "If a herd of cows stampeded across the hall right now, he would be trampled to death because nothing but a dose of cold water is going to wake him up. I didn't think Clow Reed would be pleased if I got his bed soaked with water so we're taking him to the bathroom and drowning him in the sink." The blond yawned again. "I'm going to fill the sink, follow with him."

As Kurogane hoisted the teenager over his shoulder he realized that he had never been so glad that Fye was Fye and not someone else. At least Fye woke up when you took the blankets off of him and shook his shoulder. Mind you Fye was never too pleased with you for doing this and would glare at you for ten minutes and yawn until noon, but at least he got up.

"Okay, stick his head in the sink."

"Just like that? He'll drown!"

"No, he won't, just do it."

"Okay..." Kurogane obeyed and dumped Kamui's head face first into the sink.

Instantly, Kamui jerked and pulled out of the sink, gasping for air. "SIX EIGHTY-FIVE!"

"That's Fye to you, and you wouldn't wake up. You can't blame me for wanting to have Kuro-rin stick your head in a sink of cold water." Kurogane chuckled as he remembered when he himself had shoved Fye's head in a cold shower in attempt to wake him up.

Kamui turned to Fye with a glare, pointed a single finger at Fye's chest, sputtered water, opened his mouth, took in a deep breath, and then said nothing for about twenty seconds. "I don't even know where to start with all the things I want to say to you, so I'm not going to say anything."

Fye chuckled, "You already have...and I think I know what you want to say...go on, get dressed breakfast is in ten minutes. If I find you just went back to bed I'll have Kuro-chu throw you in a cold bath next time." The teen stalked off, hair still dripping wet as Fye laughed full out and clung onto Kurogane's arm. "Shall we go downstairs? Kamui won't be joining us for at least twenty minutes."

"What? Is he that slow to dress?"

"No, he's going to take that long to spite us, come on." The blond led the red-eyed man down the stairs and into the dining room where Clow Reed greeted them with a genuine smile and told them to sit.

"Do you two mind waiting a few more minutes? I just got a call and the others will be home in a quarter of an hour."

"Oh no, we don't mind, it'll get Fye five more minutes of sleep."

"Hey..." Fye spoke in mock-anger. "I may be slow in the morning, but when I get up, I get up." The man chuckled and left the room, leaving the pair alone and in silence until they heard movement and chattering in the other room.

It was loud, but not overly so, almost like a school hallway after the bell rang. A couple of people passed through the room and glanced at the two men who were obviously almost ten years older than they were. A minute later the voice of Clow could be heard talking to another man. "He's right in here, he wanted to speak with you so much that he was willing to stay overnight. I didn't ask what it was about, and I didn't pry, but, he seemed to want to speak with you very badly. It's probably very important."

Fye turned around in his seat to see Clow and another man who seemed vaguely familiar. Mid-back black hair and a kind smile. The smile faded as the man looked at Fye's face. It turned into a look of surprise, and then the man who was apparently Ashura looked to Clow. "Is that him?" Clow nodded, and Ashura looked back to Fye. His face turned from surprise to a parental-like anger as he reached out and grabbed onto Fye's ear. "Yuui Valeria! You are in so much trouble!"