Hey, um, guys? I literally don't know what to say. Over 100 reviews? I'm blown away. I was in Spain for 2 months without a laptop so I could do nothing but helpless watch people ask for updates. Thank especially you all who were so patient and understanding, FORGIVE ME. Anyway, your reviews mean so much to me, I added a silly one in as thanks before we get into the angst-er, plot-of this chapter.

Six weeks later

Yato proved to be exceptionally coordinated. Yukine and Yato would go outside on warm mornings and Yukine would draw up a hopscotch game, adding gaps to challenge the growing boy. He was now nearly half Yukine's height. He liked to have stories read to him and he would point out simple words. He liked to bake. He liked holding Yukine's hand crossing the street. He liked when Daikoku put him up on his shoulders. He liked to play with sticks. He liked to go to festivals with Hiyori. And recently, he liked watching other kids play at the park.

It worried Yukine, who up until this point had been able to provide Yato with anything he needed. He could not provide friends to a child god, however. He had despaired at the thought of Yato growing up alone until he, Kofuku, and Daikoku thought of a plan. Ebisu in his current body was roughly six or seven. At Yato's current development, he looked and for the most part, behaved like a three-and-a-half year old boy.

So Yato and Ebisu's regalia scheduled a play-date for the next week. Young or not, it seems the god of wealth still had a busy schedule. It seemed so strange, for Yukine. Yato and Ebisu met in the underworld but within just over a year, both had reincarnated. Although they had fostered a close bond, Yato would not know Ebisu and Ebisu would only remember Yato as the god who took him for food once or twice.

Still, Yukine carefully picked his words, explaining Yato would be having a playdate with an older god and that he should have fun and try to learn something too. Ebisu had been told not to mention the previous encounter. Reincarnation and Yato's untimely death were topics that had not been breached with Yato. He was simply too young to understand or carry that burden, god or not.

Yato and Yukine arrived at the Ebisu's manor on a nice, calm morning. Ebisu's pillar regalia opened the door and beckoned them in. Once inside the sitting room, Ebisu, dressed up as always, emerged from where he had been waiting shyly in the doorway. Once he saw little Yato dressed in the blue and white flowered hakama, his smile lit up.

"Yato, hello. How are you?"

Yato gripped Yukine's pants with one hand and looked down at his socked foot which was scuffing the floor. "'M good."

"Do you want to play with me?" Ebisu asked cordially. Behind him, the retainers who liked Yato nodded along, proud tears in their eyes.

Yato just shuffled a bit, still looking down at the ground and mumbled something no one could hear.

Yukine crouched down next to Yato and touched his arm. "Yato, this is your chance to play with someone closer to your age, don't you want to give it a shot? I think you'll have a lot of fun. I'm sure it would make Kofuku and Daikoku very happy to hear you played with Ebisu," Yukine reasoned. Yato's eyes darted up at Ebisu again and nervously looked away. Just as Yukine was about to have to find some other way to coerce the boy to play, Ebisu extended a hand towards the younger child.

Yukine froze at the gesture. An older boy, a renowned god of riches extending a hand to a young god who was seen as a war god, a disgrace, to some. Yukine's eyes turned to star as this buddha-like holy figure seemed to glow, reaching out to Yukine's god. "Ebisu-samaaa-" he started, tears streaming down his eyes. Ebisu had something in his hand he was extending out to the little god. Something paper.

"I'll pay you 10,000 yen if you play with me." Ebisu said. Yukine felt tensed so suddenly, he felt as if he had turned to stone. Yato just blinked at him.

At least I raised Yato right, he'd never take this bribe-

Yato gave him a grin and stuffed the note into his hakama. "What do you wanna play?"

"YATTOOOOOOO!"

4 hours later

Yukine and Yato had just come back from their playdate with Ebisu and Yukine was laying limply against the table. "I'm a failure as a parent."

Kofuku laughed and set a freshly steamed pork bun and some green tea in front of him. "Cheer up, Yukine-kun, this is good!"

"How can this be good? He's so greedy! I tried so hard to teach him good morals and the second someone waves money in front of his face, he takes it! He's like three years old! He doesn't even need it!" Yukine groaned.

"Think about it! It must mean that even if his reincarnation didn't go like it was supposed to, he still preserved a big part of his old personality, right?" Kofuku pointed out reasonably.

Yukine teared up a little. "Yeah, that was a big part of his personality, wasn't it? That free-loading moocher."

"Plus," Kofuku said gently, "doesn't that mean he's trying hard to become a god of fortune, Yukine-kun?"

2 weeks later

It had been eight months since Yato had died and been reincarnated and Yukine and Yato weren't planning on doing anything special, after all why would they? First of all, Yato didn't know much about his reincarnation at all, even the day. And when the one year anniversary of his god's death came along, how was Yukine expected to celebrate? It wasn't that he didn't love Yato as he was now, he did, with all his heart. But sometimes, at night, in the suffocating dark, the sweat on his fingers felt slick like blood and the blankets were heavy like a body and he could see grown Yato's piercing blue eyes watching him calmly as the life bubbled out of his wounds and Yukine just wanted to scream.

Tenjin had told him during their last visit how such an awful thing was dealt with by regalia. Many of them celebrated 'reincarnation days' with their young masters and they could be great fun with big feasts. Though, Tenjin had told him gently, a god's death did not always sit on their regalia's hearts as heavily as it did for Yukine and they seldom bore the responsibilty alone.

So, Yukine wasn't sure what he was supposed to do on the anniversary or what they should do today, as Yato was jumping off the couch in the other room into a pile of all the futons he could drag to the sitting room.

Then someone knocked on the door. Yukine, eager for an escape from his thoughts, hurried over, with Yato stumbling out of his cushiony landing pad in curiousity.

"Hello, Yukine! Yato!" Hiyori beamed as the door opened. She was wearing a sunhat and a blouse and skirt and a bag full of stuff.

"Hiyori!" Yukine grinned in suprise, beckoning her in.

"Hiyori! Hello!" Yato grinned. She grinned back and crouched down to give the boy a hug.

"Actually, I thought we should go on an adventure today!" Hiyori said, reaching into her bag. "Yato, what's your favorite animal?"

Yato barely had to consider the question, of course he knew! It was the coolest, best, animal ever! And there was a special park they could go and see one, too! "A whale shark! They're huge 'n blue 'n got big spots!"

Yato gave a little exasperated smile. After he'd seen one on TV a couple months ago, he'd been obsessed, and even cried when Yukine told him he couldn't have one as a pet, even if he did all the chores in the house. (And Yukine refused to feel guilty about it! There was no way they could take care of a thirty foot fish! But still, Yato did have a way of making Yukine horrible even for such an unreasonable suggestion.)

Hiyori blinked in surprise at his choice of animal and removed her hand from her bag to spread them into the air. "Then what do you boys say to going to the aquarium with me today?"

Yato, Yukine and Hiyori had a wonderful time at the aquarium, which was more of an amusement park than anything. It was right on the sea, too, and there were even a few rides, although Yato was too short for them. They helped Yato catch smelt from a special pond and a cooking stand where they fried them up for them, then went down to see the flashing scales of hundreds and thousands of fish swimming in multi-species schools swimming with dozens of colors. Yukine put Yato up on his shoulders even though he was getting pretty big because other kids kept not noticing him and knocking into him or blocking his view. He got to pet a sea lion with its coarse dark fur, and stick his hand into a wave pool, though all the fish swam away. Finally, they ended the day at an aquarium show with a huge tank. River dolphins flipped through the air, and seals slipped up and across the stage until finally, a great, blue, spotted shark rose across the pool, rising to the top until its whale-like face breeched the water to recieve food, submerged, made one great lap around the pool, and disappeared from view.

Yato was beside himself, nearly shaking between his two friends.

"What do you think, Yato?"

"T-that was so cool!" Yato sniffled, a blush across his face, clutching the whale shark stuffed animal Hiyori had bought him close to his chest. "Thanks for taking us, Hiyori!"

Hiyori got home late, holding a picture they took at one of the many photobooths in the area. She pinned it to her corkboard with a distracted smile. "I don't know why I thought..." she trailed off, her smile dropping into confusion. "I don't know why..." She opened her bag and pulled out a brown cloth creature with home-stitched button eyes and and a smiling stitched mouth and a little crown insignia pinned to its chest. She stared at the smiling creature and slid off her bed onto the floor, eyes prickling with tears.

"I-I don't know why I thought it was a cabybara."

Yukine, what were you expecting with Ebisu, Yato's really an awkward loner. Also, poor sweet Hiyori.

Thank you and please review! And if you're reviewing, let me know your favorite Marvel characer. Mine's Captain America, I even have a betta fish named after him.