A/N: Sorry it took me so long. I got caught up in an other Okane ga Nai/ xxxHolic crossover called Tuesday Afternoon.

Part 35:

Icchan paced back and forth. He paused when his baby brother came in with Wizard cradled in his hands and a sneer on his typically impassive face. Ohjiro said, "You're terrible."

"Hey! Either you get a chance to smooch girls or have me lurking around going BOOM! The choice was yours. Besides, you only have to live with me for three more years, then you can fly out of the nest when you blow out eighteen candles on your birthday cake."

Ohjiro knew that was a hollow threat. Icchan was very wealthy and would never really abandon his beloved, baby brother, especially since they had a fourteen year age gap. They gave each other a lot of fake hard times and a lot of faux grief. Icchan had already set up Ohjiro's college fund and scoffed at Ohjiro's plans on moving into the dorms rather than just just stay with him while getting a higher education.

Their parents had passed away two years ago in a flying car accident. Icchan was an adult who held a lucrative and prestigious job. As older brother, he had taken in Ohjiro right away, and the courts instantly made Ohjiro Icchan's ward. At the time, Ohjiro was thirteen and Icchan was twenty-seven. Two years of living with his genius, but wacky, older brother was a trial some days, especially when bail and witness statements were involved.

Now he really understood why his parents had thrown a week-long party when his brother had gone to college at the age of sixteen. Being two years old at the time, he hadn't known what was going on. Later, he had seen the pictures of the party and had seen his parents had gleefully written checks to maintaining Icchan's dorm room. The memo on the checks read, "FREEDOM!," each time.

"I should look into emancipated minor status or a mental health commitment."

"Now, now, you aren't crazy. It's just hormones. Look at more porn or something," Icchan advised, patting Ohjiro on the shoulder.

"I wasn't talking about me being crazy. And why is your answer to every problem looking at porn?" he asked through gritted teeth as he handed over Wizard.

He shuddered, remembering the last time he had borrowed his brother's laptop. He had asked his brother if he could invent bleach for eyeballs after that, but the man just ridiculed him for being a "wussy" and a "prude." Yeah, Ohjiro bought five gallons of hand sanitizer after that and got a job at a coffee shop to earn money to get his own laptop.

The Angelic Layers doll was in hibernation mode, so it lay limp in Icchan's hands. "Don't break him. I really will kill you," Ohjiro threatened.

Icchan lofted Wizard and said, "For the greater good of the man I got pregnant!"

"For goodness sakes! Don't say stuff like that around that king or the ninja! Ashura will singe your eyebrows off again. And you did see Kurogane's sword, didn't you?"

"Yes, I saw it! He shredded my intellectual property rights claim on the babies with it! Not to mention my lien! And their tax forms! No way am I paying Piffle World taxes on the babies."

"You can't have it both ways. Either the babies are yours and you pay taxes on them, or they're Fai and Kurogane's and you don't," Ohjiro said. "Anyway, Ashura will peel your hide off if you keep it up."

Icchan narrowed his eyes. "You've been might chummy with King Thermasilk. What's gives?"

"Oh nothing. I'm just going to help entertain him while he's waiting on Fai to give birth. You'll see." With that, Ohjiro march out towards the lobby of the medical center. Icchan noticed his brother was carrying some Piffle Princess bags.

He shrugged. He'd spy on Ohjiro after he got the babies stable.

Icchan plugged Wizard into his laptop and then laid the Angelic Layer's doll carefully by Fai. "I'm using Wizard's bluetooth connection to communicate to his shell. Basically, I'm going to use him to tell the shell the second baby isn't a parasite and he should be supported, too." Then Icchan glared hotly at Fai's worried expression. "You should have put the zygote back when I told you and made them into one girl!"

Ohjiro sighed in the background and handed the Piffle Princes bags to King Ashura. Then he turned to his brother. "You know it doesn't work that way. Fai couldn't help he was going to have twins because of his genetics. The twins being boys were Kurogane's fault because his sperm dictated that."

"What are you blaming me for?" Kurogane asked, coming into the room with his mother.

"Giving me boys!" Icchan accused with a lofted finger and a dark growl. He then grew dreamy. "Little girls are so charming and well behaved." The he scowled. "Little boys just chase each other around with earthworms and get grubby."

Fai then cringed, guiltily, when Ashura shot him a cool look. "Yes, some little boys chase other little boys around with worms, alright. Hexing the ground all morning to find them deep in Celes' frozen soil and then storing them in a jar. And then some little boys stick said worms in his twin's bed. Yes... some little boys think that sort of thing is fun. Other little boys, not so much."

"I didn't mean to make Yuui cry! Besides! Zellen did the same back to me!" Fai wailed with a shamefaced pout.

Kurogane only shook his head and rolled his eyes. "That's some special fraternal love there."

"We were eight!" Then Fai ignored Kurogane and said, "Lady Suwa, I'm so very sorry for what I said. I don't ever want to deprive my children of their only grandmother. It wouldn't be right. Please forgive me for what I said, and I do promise to make some better efforts to learn you language and culture."

She took his hand, her eyes were tearful. She then tucked some of his hair behind his ear. "I'll do more to talk to Hondo on your behalf. Please stay and let me help you more."

Fai nodded and turned his head away from her and Kurogane, not wanting them to see the remorse and shame in his eyes. He suddenly felt strange. His abdomen tingled, and then he felt as if a knife were driven through him. He screamed and blacked out instantly.

Yuui ran into the fishing shack and felt his breath leave him. Boris was so still and buried under three ratty quilts. He hurried to Boris' bedside and pulled down the quilts. His stress eased seeing Boris' skin was a more natural, pale color. Boris cracked his eyes; the whites were now just a pale yellow.

"You got back. Good job."

Yuui's stomach felt sick. "I accidentally killed someone. I took her magic, and it was in a vital organ. I've never done that before."

"I had a feeling it might happen. But, Yuui, because of your title, there was one day that it would have to happen. No matter how much I wanted to keep you from having to cause that, it was bound to happen. You'll be responsible for many lives, and you must protect them, here and in Celes. Are you clear on that?"

Yuui felt deflated and utterly filled with sorrow. "Not really, but Ran gave me words to think on that I'll consider. I hope you'll give me more. But now, I want to get you back to Fremma Luma Castle. I want to heal you, first and foremost."

Boris chuckled and shook his head and gave him a sorrowful look. He placed his palm on Yuui's cheek and shook his head. "When I turned you into a lich, I took half your healing powers. You haven't been around a mirror to see how dark your eyes are now. When you're restored into a human form again, you'll have your power to heal back. You have the powers of a lich in lieu of your healing, but you can't heal me like you normally would."

Yuui flinched back in shock and anger. He bowed his head, not wanting to look into those hazel eyes any more. "There is a way to heal you. I feel it intuitively. I can project the magic I just took. You've taken one of the things in my life that brings me joy: my ability to heal others." Yuui put his hand on Boris' and whispered harshly, "I truly despise this thing you turned me into. This is a joyless, bloody existence. "

He felt Boris' hand shiver at the reproach. He pushed some of the magic he'd stolen for himself into Boris, letting the necromancer's liver get a boost of energy. Yuui flinched back from Boris' handhold once the exchange was done. Yuui ran from the shack, tears brimming in his eyes. He bumped into Ran on the way out.

Ran gave Boris a stern look with that one, harsh, amethyst eye. Boris glowered back at Ran and ordered, "Wipe that smug I-told-you-so look off your face before I hex you again."

Boris got off the bed with a slight struggle. It'd take just a little longer for his liver to start acting normal. "It's time I hurry and make him a new staff. Hopefully, Milliardo is scared off for a while, so I craft it."

"The healer of Celes will have nothing to do with you when this is all finished," Ran predicted. "Was it worth loosing his love? Throwing away something as precious as him makes no sense to me. You damaged the only treasure you have in your life."

Boris said, "I have no regrets about keeping him from Milliardo. It hurts him, and I despise myself for all the pain I've inflicted on him, but there was nothing else I could do. Besides," Boris gave him a smirk, "you only wish I'd lost his love so you can move in. Not by a long shot have I lost him. I know him, but I do worry I pushed too hard. "

It was a silent, tense trip back to Valeria's castle. As soon as they got back to Fremma Luma castle, Yuui passed out from exhaustion. He needed more magic to sustain him, but he was too afraid to take it right now.

Fai went looking for Yuui in the dreamscape. He found him sitting in the deep snow of Celes out in a section of dead trees. The cold did bit Fai's skin. This dream of Yuui's was powerful if he could feel the cold. Fai wandered over towards him, but couldn't see Yuui's face because he had his hood pulled up and he was slouched over. There seemed to be something wrong. He knelt by Yuui and shook his shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"No."

"What's wrong?"

"Boris. He did something bad to me."

Fai already felt his ire rise. "What did the Baron of Blight do?"

"He turned me into this." Yuui turned towards Fai and lowered his hood. Yuui's face and hands were withered and his skin looked decayed in places. "I'm now a lich. Right now I'm so hungry because I gave my stolen magic to heal Boris." Yuui started sobbing. "How could someone I love do this to me?"

Fai was shocked and utterly appalled. True malice towards Boris sprang to his heart. "I'll be there soon. Just you wait. I'll make him pay for this."

"No!" His raspy voice startled Fai. "I can't hide behind you forever. I need to deal with Boris on my own terms." Yuui let out a deep sigh. "I need to talk this out with Boris."

Fai shook his head. "I'm not letting him get away with hurting you!" With that, Fai pushed himself towards consciousness.

The problem was that when he sank back into his physical body, his whole stomach was on fire, along with his joints. Everyone was standing around his bed with worried looks, even Icchan. He forced his bare feet to the linoleum and supported himself by gripping the edge of the mattress.

He looked at King Ashura and demanded, "Take off the translation spell! Now!"

Ashura looked baffled, but did as Fai bid. Fai asked, "No one can understand us?"

"Look at their faces. There is no understanding us. Our native language is all they hear." Yes indeed, they were looking at them in confusion. Kurogane's face soured and he said something in his own language that sounded something like a long string of moaning and barking.

Fai turned back to Ashura. "Send me to Valeria to Yuui's side or I'll find a way to get there myself," Fai demanded. "I can still channel my magic."

"You wouldn't dare divert that kind of energy from nurturing your children. You just wouldn't dare. Besides, you know I can't take us to Yuui. I'm not allowed to interfere in Yuui's life over the next several months as the price for a wish. Sending you to mother over Yuui would be included in that."

"Send me now or else!" Fai threatened, his temper getting the better of him.

"Or else what? You'll hold your breath until your skin turns blue? You'll slurp soup in front of my guests? Or maybe pout, nag me, and then thrash about on the floor in a fit of hair, tears, and snot? You've tried it all before, it won't work now. You were the one who claimed adulthood because you chose to get pregnant. Now you must own your adulthood and realize you can't always have your way."

Fai felt as though Ashura had dumped cold water on him. He sputtered for a minute, and he decided to play dirty right away. He said, "Boris has turned..."

Ashura put his hands over his ears and shook his head. He said fiercely, "Speak not to me about Yuui! My heart aches being apart from him! If you persist I'll be very put out with you!"

"Send me to him now!" Fai said, stomping his foot, tears starting to stream down his cheeks. Lady Suwa came up to him, laid a hand on his arm, and said something in Japanese. Her tone sounded as if she were trying to sooth him. She patted the bed and tried to get him to lay back down.

He gently tugged away from her and marched up to Ashura. "I need to go save him from Boris! This is all your fault, anyway, for not executing that filthy reanimator! Now my twin is a lich because of him, and you act as if you don't care! Well I care! I demand you send me to Yuui right now so I can do to Boris what you should've done years ago! Your incompetence harmed MY brother! I'll hold you in scorn if you don't do as I say! You let me correct your mistake of not doing in Boris! If you don't go with me to Yuui's side right now, you should never call us your sons again!"

Ashura's eyes grew soft and placid. "When you stop trying to emotionally extort me to get your way, I'll talk to you again. I don't care how stiff-necked you are with all of Nihongo, but your neck will bend with me." He cast a spell at himself.

Ashura then turned to Lady Suwa. "My son is being extremely insolent. His punishment is not having the translation spell put back on until he kowtows to me like any of my other subjects would for speaking such foul things to me. Maybe that will force him to think about his words before using them to me, as his father and his monarch."

Lady Suwa seemed to understand what the monarch had said. She said something back in what he recognized as Japanese. King Ashura seemed to understand her in return. Fai realized with dread what King Ashura had done. He had just restored the spell on himself, so the only words Fai were going to understand were from his father. Fai had never bothered to learn the translation spell either, a mistake he needed to correct right away.

"Please don't do this!" Fai burst out. "I'll feel so isolated. Please don't make me grovel on my hands and knees." When a subject angered King Ashura to this degree, they had to come to court, crawl across the floor of the throne room, kiss his right foot, and make a two hour long apology. Kowtowing wasn't a custom he'd seen in Nihongo. "Kurogane won't understand kowtowing at all. You've never made me do anything so degrading!"

"Isolation and humility will teach you that I will no longer tolerate your boorish impertinence towards me. For you to imply I don't care about Yuui is a very hurtful and insulting thing. I refuse to let you cripple your brother any longer. We both need to let him have a life, even if it's a horrible and painful one. I will not enable our dysfunctions, overindulgences, and guilt towards him any longer. What happened to him wasn't our fault, so we need to stop trying to compensate for what happened to him.

"The more we interfere in his life, the longer and harder his path towards coming to terms with being abused will be. We've been very cruel to him. We've both tried to blind him and lock him away from the world in our own ways. That's why I'm putting my foot down with you like I've never done before. Right now, I'm loving him more than you. I'm also helping you learn to live your own life and face the realities of choosing Kurogane as your mate."

"But Boris...! He's so evil!"

"And for you to judge me over letting Boris live is beyond the pale. As his king, his life is mine to dictate over, not yours. I adored his parents with everything inside me. My love for them both was great. Your scorn over that love for them is intolerable to me." Ashura said in a tranquil tone that belied his hurt and offense at Fai's words.

Fai trembled, knowing Ashura was utterly furious, in spite of his body language. And the demand that Fai kowtow was absolutely shocking to him. That was a worse punishment than a phoenix binding, by far, one his pride wouldn't accept. "All I demand of your kowtow is that you kneel and kiss my ring finger and admit you've said shameful things to me. You are my son, so I'd never publicly degrade you as much as a full kowtow."

Fai refused to get on his knees. Instead he demanded, "What was your wish with Yuuko, anyway?!"

Ashura leaned over to Fai's ear and whispered, "Boris' insanity would have started next week, and Yuui's empathy would have latched onto it. In the mental state he's currently in, Yuui would have gone insane with Boris and they would have killed themselves together in a fit of lustful passion. I gave Boris' sanity several more years in exchange for my apparent apathy. So stop complaining about me being callous towards my beloved son, Fai." Fai shivered at the emphases on the words "my beloved son." His faith in Ashura was restored, and he felt horribly hollow in his stomach at everything he'd just said to Ashura.

Fai's breath left him as Ashura turned away and said, "Ohjiro, come show me how this game works." To lose Yuui by suicide was truly a horrid and shocking thought for both of them.

The king left with two big bags and the teenager. Now, Fai felt truly cut off from everything. Nihongo wasn't embracing him, and now King Ashura had let him know he had to publicly humble himself to be received back into Celes. He had nowhere to run, and right now he couldn't muster that kind of magic. It could harm the twins if he were to channel such a big spell as dimensional travel, he could only manage smaller spells without taking from his babies. He felt panicked.

Fai turned to Kurogane. "Why didn't you stop him, Kuro-regi?" Again with the moaning and barking string from Kurogane's mouth. He did recognize the words "Yuui" and "Boris" in that tirade. No doubt they understood what King Ashura had just said and knew Fai was upset over Yuui for some reason. He was so embarrassed they had figured out everything. Kurogane pointed to the bed and said something.

"I don't understand," Fai said.

Kurogane snarled and slowed down what he said, but it was said through gritted teeth and slaps to the mattress. Lady Suwa also said something, only gently patting the mattress. Fai got the picture. It seemed they wanted him to lay down. Fai got irritated with the request, but complied.

Lady Suwa held up the pillow and said something, pointing to it. She said the word about four more times while Fai gave it a blank look. Kurogane snarled the word and dangled another pillow in Fai's face.

Fai repeated the word, "Kusshon," as best he could. Kurogane nodded as he fluffed it and put it under Fai's head. Fai said the word for pillow and got back from Kurogane the mutilated noise, "Bat-too-shu-ka," which was sort of close, but it sound so flat.

Lady Suwa held up a cup and swirled it around. She pointed inside the cup of water and said, "Mizu."

Fai caught on that it was the Japanese word for water. He said it with the normal inflections of his native language. Kurogane flinched back, his nose crinkling. Kurogane made a horizontal hand gesture and said the word again, "Mizu."

Fai pouted and said, "I don't understand!"

Kurogane took a deep breath and pronounced the word a few times. He moved his hand horizontally each time saying, "Mizu."

Finally, it dawned on him what Kurogane was trying to say, and then a sense of frustration came over him. Fai's native language relied heavily on inflections. The few times he'd heard Japanese, he couldn't really remember many inflections at all. This was going to be tougher than he thought.

Still, he did his best to drain inflection and say, "Mizu," the way his lover did. What drove his determination was the cherished pangs in his stomach. Kurogane attempted the Celian word for water with a flattened, "Vo-ya-da."

"Yeah... close, but not quite right for water." Fai was surprised Kurogane was trying to learn his language, too. Lady Suwa smiled and tried her hand at the two words. He had to admit, it warmed his heart, seeing her effort, too. Fai chuckled and nodded. "Very good, Lady Kuro-sama-mama!"

Kurogane was pleased with some of the progress Fai was making. However, it got confusing when talking about snow and ice. He had asked Fai if he wanted more ice in his water. He shouldn't have been surprised to find out, with some difficulty, there was something like fifty-two words for snow and ice in the Celian language. He decided to skip all that as he crunched up ice for Fai and handed it to him in the cup.

"Zem-a-whas-shi... oh never mind," Kurogane muttered in frustration, handing over the ice water to Fai. "My sons are going to gossip and laugh at me behind my back, aren't they, Mother?"

"Probably." Lady Suwa teased, and then chuckled at her son's distress. "I'm not surprised they have so many words for ice and snow, judging from the sled ride he took us on. There was a lot of ice and snow."

"Aisu... Yuki... yuki... yuki... yuki!" Fai said in glee as Kurogane glowered at him.

"Of course, you get the words for ice and snow perfect, you gossiping little thing."

Fai pointed at his face and said, "Goshippu?"

"Yeah, that's you, someone who's a gossip," Kurogane pointed at Fai. "A gossipy mage. Wear that label well."

Fai pointed to his face again and said in awkward Japanese, "Kuchisaganai? Uizādo?" Kurogane chuckled at Fai calling himself a gossipy wizard and enjoyed his revenge over all those horrid nicknames. Lady Suwa gave her son a pointed look.

"Okay, okay!" Kurogane said and shook his head. He said the word for wizard a few times and pointed at Fai. But shook his head when he said the word for gossipy.

Kurogane watched Fai grab paper and pen off his bedside table. He traced some curls and jots on the paper. He handed paper and pen to Lady Suwa and said, "Aisu."

She took the paper and wrote the kanji below. "I think he wants to learn our writing." She said, "Ice."

Fai then traced his finger over the kanji a dozen times, his brow furrowed in deep concentration. He then lofted his finger, traced a glowing, pink kanji in the air, and pointed at his water cup. In a pink burst the water froze inside. Fai looked delighted. He proudly lofted the cup to Kurogane and Lady Suwa. He babbled in his sing-song, native language. He was obviously pleased with what he'd done.

"Well, at least you aren't blowing up trees," Kurogane said.

"Ki... ki... ki...!" Fai said enthusiastically.

"No... no... no...!" Kurogane shouted and snatched the paper away from his mother before she could trace the kanji for tree.

To be continued.