SEQUEL TO "A RETURN TO THE SEA" This makes no sense unless you've read that one already.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters.

Please R&R

With a startled gasp, Lucille woke up in the middle of the night, due to Kohaku coughing breathlessly. "Honey?" It was too dark to see much, but he could see his friend sitting up in bed, hunched and clenching his chest with both arms. "Kohaku! W-what's wrong?" The blonde tried to sit up, nearly fell back once, but finally made it. "Kohaku?"

"N-ngg…" Another raw cough, and then the violinist practically slumped against the blonde, trembling even though his body felt way too hot. To his own surprise, Lucille managed not to fall over when his friend's weight suddenly hit him, wrapping his arms around the dark-haired man instead. "S-sorry… Didn't mean to… wake you." It was barely more than an exhausted mumble.

"Don't worry about it, are you okay?" Damn, why couldn't he turn on the lights from here? The violinist was trembling so badly, his chest still heaving with every labored breath he took. If he could only see him… Not that it would give him any more options to help, but at least he'd feel less scared. "Kohaku?"

A faint cough. "J-just the cold. I'm fine." Lucille felt the taller man taking a deep but shaky breath. "My throat was hurting badly enough to wake me up, and then I couldn't stop coughing. Geez, I hate nights when I've caught a cold."

"You seemed to do a lot better during the day, indeed," the singer nodded. "Do you think it'll be less bad if you don't lie down again?"

"Maybe, but I don't think I can get so sleep while sitting. Not when I'm feeling like this." A shaky sigh. "I'd better not lay on my back again, though. Somehow makes it hurt my throat to breath, and coughing is kinda... suffocating at the moment."

Carefully, Lucille laid back down, the violinist still in his arms. "Maybe you shouldn't have gone outside last evening, the car must've been freezing after having stood outside in this weather."

"Yeah, probably," Kohaku admitted. "I hadn't expected to make it this much worse, though." Slowly, he turned onto his side and rested his head against Lucille's neck. The singer almost winced when he felt how warm his friend's forehead was, but managed to only grab him a bit tighter. "My head hurts so much…"

"S-should I get a wet towel?"

"N-nah. Then I wouldn't be able to lie against you like this… Besides, I can't even swallow properly right now, if I'm laying on my back, and it'll fall off anyway when I'm on my side." His talking was a bit slurred, still he seemed to feel too sick to get comfortable enough to sleep. "Why won't that damned headache leave already?" he growled after some minutes.

Forcing himself to stay awake, but too tired to even sing, Lucille just hummed a bit tunelessly. As expected, the violinist's body didn't stop trembling, but his breathing did finally calm down. After another few minutes, Lucille felt that his friend wasn't awake anymore, breathing quick and somewhat shallow against his skin. "You'll be okay," the blonde whispered, when he was absolutely sure that his friend was asleep. "I'll make sure…" A yawn. "…of it…" Barely able to finish that line, he drifted off to sleep.

When he woke again, Kohaku felt a lot better. The soreness of his throat had lessened noticeably, and so had the headache. Letting out a relieved sigh, he turned onto his side and opened his eyes, immediately seeing Lucille's beautiful face only inches away from his. "Babe, you look amazing," he whispered, soft enough not to wake the blonde singer. Still, Lucille stirred faintly in his sleep, probably due to the warm breath on his face. Quickly, Kohaku kept as quiet as he could, remembering how tired his friend had seemed last night, and all too aware of the fact that he hadn't done too much good to Lucille's sleep either. Sure, he hadn't meant for the blonde to wake up due to his coughing, but it wasn't like he could've stopped it.

"Mmh… Kohaku?" Slowly, those crystal blue eyes opened, looking at the violinist with a somewhat hazy gaze. "How are you feeling?"

"Better. Are you okay too? Sorry for making you wake up in the middle of the night."

The blonde smiled faintly at that. "That's okay. It's not like we have to get out of bed early." While yawning directly into Kohaku's face, he closed his eyes again and wrapped his arms around the taller man's waist. "You could use some more sleep too."

"Yeah." Tenderly, he embraced the blonde's thin shoulders, pulling him as tightly against himself as possible. "If you wake up again before I do, just wake me. Not having to make breakfast just isn't worth the amount of effort it takes you to do it instead." And considering he really wanted the blonde to have a nice day, it wouldn't really help if he wouldn't be sleeping all day long. Besides, it truly had scared him to realize that such a seemingly small effort could take such a toll on the frail singer.

"Mmh…" A deep sigh, after which Lucille turned onto his back and pushed his left leg between Kohaku's legs. The violinist didn't respond, only looked up a bit startled, but wasn't sure if the blonde was awake or not. After some moments, the singer took a deep breath and mumbled something unintelligible.

"Lucille?" He kept it as quiet as a whisper, not to disturb the blonde if he wasn't awake. No response, as expected, and Kohaku smiled softly. "You're almost too cute to be real." Letting out a sigh, he buried his face in the long blonde hair that was sprawled over their pillows, the silky feeling and fruity smile reminding him without pause that the beautiful singer truly was real, and here with him.

The sun shining brightly down on his face, through a gap between the curtains, was what woke Lucille up some hours later. "Honey?" Not opening his eyes, he turned onto his side, facing Kohaku's side of the bed. When he heard the soft 'Yes, babe?', and felt a warm hand caressing his cheek, he finally did open his eyes. "Good morning."

"Good morning to you too," the violinist smiled. "Feeling well rested?"

"Yeah." Carefully, Lucille sat up and shook his hair away from his face. "You still feeling better?"

"Yup. Even better than some hours ago, actually." The violinist chuckled softly when the blonde gently pulled at his arm to make him sit up to. "You really do seem energetic today."

"I guess I am. I mean, I've slept through most of yesterday, even though my body apparently needed it, but it does make me feel rather restless now."

"Then we'll just have to think of a safe way to keep you occupied." Despite that casual response, Lucille saw the slightly worried look on the taller man's face. Indeed, it wasn't just the large amount of sleep that he had gotten, that made him feel restless now. Rather, it was the thought of that bastard captain being free again. And, to be honest, the fact that he had gotten yet another clear prove that his sister hated him, wasn't something he'd like to keep thinking of either. That she hadn't even asked for information about his health, while she knew what had happened, did hurt. Even though he hadn't expected it to be any different.

"Babe?" Gently, the dark-haired man wrapped his arms around the blonde. "Hey, don't think too much about bad stuff, okay?"

"It's just… I hadn't thought she'd care or anything… But the fact that a messenger who I had never personally met before, does ask out of worry how I'm doing, while she doesn't… just hurts."

"You did try to kill her once," Kohaku remarked thoughtlessly, and honestly wished he could take those words back when he felt Lucille stiffen. "I didn't mean it in a bad way!" he hastily said. "I just meant, that things are completely different since your childhood. And didn't you say yourself, that ever since she was forced to become queen, she hasn't been your sister anymore? Not the person you knew at all?" To his relieve, the blonde relaxed against him again, even cuddling closer. "You know it's only the horrible, selfish doll she became, who doesn't care. The little sister who did care about you, isn't there anymore."

"I know. It doesn't make it any easier to think about my past, though. Or even about the current time." A deep breath, before he went on; "The past few weeks, despite that I was in a coma for a month, have been so wonderful. So safe and without any need to hide behind a mental wall. I almost could forget about… well, about my life. Our lives. This assignment, the mere reminder that there's still a world besides this house and this forest and that small village, makes it hard to stop thinking about everything again."

"You'll have to try to, since we'll be here for at least another few months. The doctors said that you'd that long to recover fully, and I'm not planning on rushing that. If there's anything urgent, the official orchestra can do some real work for once."

"Then make me laugh. Make me have fun, otherwise I think I'll drive myself crazy eventually." Lucille's voice sounded somewhat strained.

"Hey, what's wrong suddenly anyway? You seemed in such a good mood when you had only just woken up."

"Well, then the memory of yesterday evening hit me. After which it hit me that life won't keep as easy as it is now. And now my mind can't stop reminding me of the fact that real life is going to return inevitably." He smiled, and Kohaku was glad to see that it was a real one. "I know it'll be better than before now."

"How come?" he asked without thinking.

That earned him an amused laugh. "Because, sleepy-head, I have something now that I didn't have before." Tenderly, he kissed the violinist, who accepted that without any reluctance. After some moments, the blonde pulled back to get some breath, still smiling. "I have you now."

Feeling somewhat embarrassed about not getting the hint without Lucille having to explain, the dark-haired man blushed faintly. Well, at least he could blame his fever for it. Suddenly, he noticed the blonde looking up at him, those big crystal-blue eyes somewhat unsure. This time, he did understand and gently took the singer's hand. "I'm glad to have you too. Even if it will be more stressful to be in danger, now that we actually allow ourselves to care about the other, it'll definitely be way better than before. And a lot less lonely, in some ways."

The blonde only nodded at that, before carefully moving to the side of the bed. "Could you help me up? I gotta go to the toilet."

Some minutes later, Lucille was sitting slumped in a kitchen chair while Kohaku quickly made some pancakes for breakfast. Like they hadn't eaten those enough already. Well, he had to admit that it was the only thing he could make without any problems. Besides, he still didn't feel too well, so he wasn't that hungry anyway. Might as well just make sure that Lucille would have a good appetite. To judge by the way that the singer stared at the pile of pancakes when Kohaku put them on the table, it had been a good choice.

"Can I have some sugar? And Syrup? Combined?"

"As long as you stop yourself from drooling all over the table. I'm the one who's gonna have to clean it, you know?" That remark earned him a fake glare, but when he put the requested things on the table, the blonde immediately directed his attention at making the most sweet pancake ever. "I really don't understand how you can like that."

"But it's so sweet, it's perfect!" the blonde exclaimed, while stuffing a big piece of pancake in his mouth, the syrup dripping down his chin.

"You're sweet and perfect too, but you don't require to be drowned in syrup and buried in sugar." He raised an eyebrow when Lucille put another piece of pancake in his mouth, smearing some more syrup on his face. "Even though you're doing a pretty good job at that right now."

"Don't complain, honey." A somewhat amused glance. "After all, you'll have to help me take a bath afterwards. If you think I'm perfect, then you shouldn't have any complaints about seeing me naked."

That comment nearly made Kohaku choke on his own, les sugar-covered pancake. "Geez…" Lucille's soft laugh was enough to stop any unfriendly comments he could have made. Instead, he just pulled at the blonde's hair softly. "Don't scare me while I'm eating. And hurry up." Purposely suggestive, he let his hand slide down the blonde's back. "If you want a bath, you can get it."

Nice moment to end this chapter, isn't it? XD

I'll update in a week^^