Seishirou frowned, he had not recognized this boy as the winged creature that had interfered in his play time with Subaru only a few months before. It had been dark and the shikigami's movements too fast to get a clear picture of what that creature was.

Even though he had no interest in killing it either way, he had been quite surprised when Subaru picked it up instead of calling it back. He had assumed it was some sort of spell.

But the boy who had adamantly declared himself to be Subaru's lover and this winged creature who had answered the door now and soared through the sky that night were undoubtedly the same. Although he had not yet decided what in fact this little indignant aberration was precisely.

"Curious," he remarked, running his finger across the brim of one wing experimentally. The wings retracted quickly, sweeping away from his touch and folding on their owner's back with a harsh 'snap'. The boy glared and had he feathers Seishirou imagined they'd be ruffled.

"Rocky-chan is it?" he asked the boy, who snorted in reply. "Well Rocky-chan..." The boy was quite short and he had to bend down a little to be on his eye level. "I'm here to see Subaru-kun. Tell me, is your lover at home?"

"Maybe," was Rocky's response.

Seishirou smiled politely, so the boy wanted to play games. Well that was fine by him, might even be entertaining. "And how are you doing since I saw you last? I take it Subaru is satisfying all of your needs?"

Color flooded the boy's cheeks and he bristled with irritation. "Pervert," he shot back.

Seishirou laughed, "I imagine Subaru's a very good lover, being so sensitive and responsive as he is."

"What would you know about it?" Rocky scowled.

The Sakurazukamori was about to tell the little brat exactly what he knew about that when he was cut off by a firm "Seishirou-san."

"Ah Konbanwa Subaru-kun," Seishirou greeted cheerfully.

Subaru walked towards the door, a very stern look on his face directly surprisingly at both of them. As if they were two children bickering over a plaything. He addressed Rocky first, "It's late, you should be in bed."

The boy opened his mouth to protest and was abruptly silenced when it became obvious that no protest would be of any use. He shot another glare at Seishirou, who cheerfully waved a goodnight to the boy, and stormed towards his room.

"I knew you were fond of animals Subaru-kun, but I never imagined you were the type to keep pets.." a little hissed at the end made it clear exactly what he meant by that.

Subaru frowned, "don't be ridiculous, you know perfectly well that's not going on."

Seishirou shrugged, "your companion seems to have already made certain claims..."

"Which you already know are impossible."

Seishirou smiled smugly, "quite."

"So stop provoking him."

He blinked innocently at Subaru, "me? Provoke?"

"Play your games with me, leave him alone. He's not your toy."

"Of course he's not Subaru-kun, he's your toy," Seishirou smirked. "Don't break his little heart too badly."

Subaru glared in response. "Was there something specific you wanted Seishirou-san?" he asked coldly.

"Confirmation," Seishirou said casually. "I come back from spending quality time with the Sakura and what do I find? My dearest Subaru-kun has returned to Tokyo and moved back into the apartment I procured for him nearly a year ago. Tell me Subaru-kun, after your multiple tours of the country, does this mean you're finally ready to get down to business?"

"And if I am?"

"Then we have much to discuss." Seishirou looked sincerely thrilled and it was a surprisingly gentle if not tender look from him. "The Tree asks about you all the time you know. I think she misses you, I know I did."

Subaru made no reply as he grabbed his coat and locked the door behind them.

Of the things they did that night, discussing was not one of them.
----------------

"Kamui..."

"Go AWAY!" the boy's voice choked from inside his room.

"No," Subaru said firmly. Firmly enough to make the boy tremble between his swallowed sobs. Subaru regretted being that stern with him, but he wasn't prepared to let Kamui sulk in his room for weeks on end. He had to set things straight right now, moments after it happened. "Look at me," he said as he entered the room, not bothering to close the boy's door.

Kamui's tear stained eyes emerged from the ball he had rolled himself up into. He must have realized what a pathetic picture he made as he flinched when Subaru looked at him.

"I'm sorry," the boy whispered.

"It's okay," Subaru said dryly. In retrospect he supposed he was not very convincing at all.

"No I'm really sorry ... if you hate me now I understand. That was rude, I should have knocked or something I'm just really sorry Subaru..."

"It's okay," Subaru repeated, a little softer this time.

"I didn't know that he was here ... and ... and well the smoke gives me headaches and makes it hard to sleep so I didn't think--"

"Kamui..."

"I should have though, I mean even if you weren't-- I should have knocked.."

The tears were escaping him again. He shook them off and continued to apologetically babble over every attempt Subaru made to assure him.

"Kamui, you're not listening to me."

"I'm sorry..." the boy said again. He was sitting on his heels, knees under his chin, wings looming over his small body. He had probably drawn them to make the histrionics more bearable... For a moment he looked like a little lost puppy, large watery eyes on either side of a cute little nose, staring up at Subaru. Not quite listening though, he was clearly too obsessed with kicking himself.

"Kamui when I was younger my sister used to beat me over the head for apologizing too much ... I'm beginning to understand why now."

"Sorr--" Kamui wisely shut up.

The edges of Subaru's lips curved up with amusement. "It's extremely frustrating to try to deal with someone who's too busy apologizing to listen to what you have to say. Besides ... You didn't do anything wrong."

Kamui blinked, "I didn't?"

"Sure ... you should have knocked. But that's not a capital offense. I'm not mad, Seishirou-san's not mad ... you're only one who's upset about it."

The boy bit his lip, folding his wings and pulling them in so that he could sit down properly beside Subaru. "How long?" he asked.

"How long have I know him or how long have I been sleeping with him?"

"Both."

"Let's see... I met Seishirou-san ... almost 10 years ago," Subaru coughed. "God that makes me feel old. And ... last year was when that started."

Kamui stared at his feet, clapping them together softly. And as he disclosed only a sliver of his past to the boy, Subaru stared worriedly at the teenager who seemed to be getting younger as the conversation continued. More childlike with every minute. It was not something that pleased Subaru, he was not especially fond of this pedestal Kamui had put him on in the first place.

"But this isn't what's bothering you," he said softly.

"No..." Kamui admitted.

"Then what?"

"I feel so stupid ... about everything."

"Ahhh.." Subaru hummed, yes he supposed the boy would feel rather stupid in light of everything that had happened. "Well ... it's all right, simple mistake."

"It's a little bit more than that Subaru," Kamui snorted. "I still love you, you know..."

Subaru didn't answer, he couldn't think of an appropriate answer. He didn't want to reject the boy, because the truth was he cared for him too. But all the same it wasn't possible for a variety of reasons he hadn't bothered to think out. It wasn't that he loved Seishirou and not Kamui, it was that he didn't feel the powerful force of a definite love for either one of them ... only a dull affection for both of them. It made things more complicated than he would have liked, but after years of suffering his soul was too tired to define a difference between the love he felt for Seishirou and the love he felt for this boy.

And yet he felt he must allow the boy to think that he loved only Seishirou, because anything else would give him hope. Subaru knew far too well that hope could be the cruelest thing to give a person. Things being the way they were, he couldn't foresee any outcome where Kamui would feel satisfied with him.

"Thank you," was what he finally said.

"Subaru?"

"Aa?"

"You said before ... that Sakurazuka-san was dangerous, that he might hurt me ... but yet ... what did you mean Subaru? Why is Sakurazuka-san dangerous?"

Subaru swallowed the lump in his throat, how to answer this? "Seishirou-san and I have a ... complicated history together. There was a time when he hurt both me and the people I loved. I wasn't sure how he'd react to you ... but now I think that warning may have been a little too severe. I don't think he'll hurt you."

"Why?" Kamui blinked. "What changed your mind?"

"Because he promised me he wouldn't ... and I believe him." Seeing the skepticism in the boy's eyes Subaru added, "he's never broken his word. Of all the terrible things he's done, he's never once broken a promise."

Without invitation Kamui laid his head on Subaru's shoulder-- the Sumeragi didn't mind it much and he wrapped one arm around the boy's shoulders, giving him a soft squeeze.

"Really ... I wish I had my camera," Seishirou commented smoothly from the door, startling both of them.

Subaru frowned as the boy gave an embarrassed yelp and leaped out of Subaru's embrace. "You don't own a camera Seishirou-san, and I thought you were heading home?"

"Nooo," Seishirou smiled. "You politely invited me to leave. I decided to decline." He turned his attention to the boy with a friendly, inoffensive smile, "have you eaten yet?"

Kamui glared suspiciously at Seishirou, his answer was a sharp "no."

"Ah, I see ... neither have we, so why don't we all go out to dinner? My treat."

"Seishirou-san," Subaru began.

"What??" the Sakurazukamori blinked innocently. "You couldn't possibly object to the concept of eating could you?"

Subaru was about to reply when Kamui rose from his bed and walked coldly over to the door. "My apologies Seishirou-san but I'm not hungry."

Seishirou smiled and tapped the boy soundly on the nose. "Ah-un, you should address me as 'Sakurazuka-san' like a polite boy would."

"Bite me."

"Don't tempt me," Seishirou smirked. "I have a soft spot in my heart for cute little boys."

Kamui bristled. "Fuck you," he snapped back.

A vicious glitter sparkled in Seishirou eyes and he smiled with a sharp draw of breath--

"Don't say it" Subaru told Seishirou flatly. The assassin abruptly closed his mouth and looked innocently at Subaru, "say what dear?"

The Sumeragi frowned, "I know exactly what you were about to say ... it won't help, so don't say it. Besides I warned you and advised you to leave, so you've got no right to be offended."

"Warned me? You said 'he will not feel comfortable having you here' ... that was a warning?"

"Yes."

"I think you need to be a little more ominous with your warnings Subaru-kun. 'Will not feel comfortable' is the understatement of the year ... 'throw a complete tissyfit' might have been a tadbit more appropriate if you wished to put the matter lightly."

"Will you two stop talking about me like I'm not here!!!" Kamui snapped, his fists clenched tightly.

Both Seishirou and Subaru were cut off by the boy's sudden outburst in their otherwise calm discourse. They shared a surprised and puzzled stare and a few minutes passed in an awkward silence before Subaru began to snicker softly. Seishirou smiled and Kamui turned a furious shade of red, feeling as if he was being laughed at and looked as if he was about to burst out into tears.

"I'm sorry," Subaru cleared his throat. "I wasn't laughing at you ... it's just cute, the way you two bicker sometimes."

Kamui snorted, still hurt by Subaru's betrayal. "Well you two sound like you're married," he retorted.

"Ah but we are, after a fashion, Subaru's my child bride. How old were you then Subaru-kun? Nine?--So now about dinner...?" he quickly changed courses before Subaru had enough time to decide on an emotional response to his statement.

"I'm not going," Kamui said stubbornly.

"Yes you are," Subaru stood from his seat on the began and roughly began steering Kamui by his shoulders out of the room. "You're entirely too thin."

"And coming from him that's saying something," Seishirou commented smoothly.

"Shut up Seishirou-san."

"Yes dear," the assassin grinned as he followed the two boys out of the apartment.
--------------

"Why did we do that?" Subaru wondered out loud, the two of them spread out over his sheets. Seishirou was still half on top of him, head resting over his heart. The Sumeragi had been waiting for a good fifteen minutes after the sex for Seishirou to kill him, but the assassin appeared to have no plans for his heart save for listening to it beat softly below the skin. So it would not be tonight either... "Moreover, why did we do that last night too?"

Seishirou grinned, still basking in a soft relaxed glow, "and you say I complain."

Subaru frowned, "I didn't mean it like that Seishirou-san. I meant, what are you waiting for?"

"Oh ... that." Seishirou began to drag himself up out of bed, intending to get his cigarettes out of his ... well where ever they had ended up.

"We've put it off long enough."

"So eager to die are we?" Seishirou smirked. "I'm afraid Subaru that you've grossly misunderstood the finally outcome..." he yawned. "Death may not be quite what you expect it to be."

"Even still..." Subaru began.

Retrieving both his lighter, or Subaru's lighter actually... but the important thing was it was a device that could produce the fire with which to heavily pollute his lungs, and a cigarette he sat down on the bed next to Subaru. His finger flipped over the gear, causing sparks but no flame.

Once ... twice ... three times.

He mumbled a curse and shook the lighter a little, thinking maybe it was out of fluid and tried to light it again with no success.

"The safety's on," Subaru commented evenly.

Seishirou blinked and, with cigarette hanging limply out of his mouth, stared down at the lighter. "Safety? Why in God's name does your lighter have a bloody safety? Afraid your little demon's going to burn down Tokyo?"

Subaru politely ignored him, "press the button to the side and try it again."

Seishirou did so, and was rewarded with a bright, smooth flame which he wasted no time putting to use.

A deep satisfying sigh after the first inhale of smoke and Seishirou held the cigarette up to Subaru's lips, watching the Sumeragi's eyes drift close with a soothing nicotine breath before taking another drag himself.

"Safety ... most ridiculously thing I've ever heard," Seishirou grunted. He made a little indigent snort when Subaru sat up and took the cigarette out of his mouth. Glancing back skeptically he commented, "those are bad for your health."

"So are you Surgeon General Sakurazuka," Subaru leaned back with a cocky little smirk framing the smoking cigarette. "But these, like you, are going to take their time about killing me."

Seishirou smiled, "just savoring the experience my dearest Subaru. You only die once you know."

"Seriously..." Subaru mumbled, it was a question though he did not ask it questioningly. "What are we waiting for?"

Seishirou slid up on the bed, wrapping one arm around Subaru's shoulders as he did so. He removed the cigarette from Subaru's mouth again and allowed himself another numbing tobacco sigh. Seishirou made sure to keep the cigarette in his right hand, Subaru was such a mooch. "Well it's been a while ... I thought it best that we get reacquainted with ... things."

"Things?" Subaru grinned. "So articulate after sex." He made a grabbed for the cigarette but found Seishirou's left arm tightened its hold on his shoulders while the right swept it out of his reach.

"Well think of it from my point of view Subaru-kun. I have a lush, rip, extremely attractive-- albeit mindnumbingly irritating at times-- young man ... willing no less ... in my bed, who is actually as close to my equal as anyone will ever get and has the privilege of being the only person with the ability to constantly surprise me..." He exhaled a deep cloud of light smoke. "I'm in no rush to get rid of you."

"This is technically my bed, but I'm flattered."

"As you should be ... But what I meant is that, during this year long interlude the situation as become decidedly more complicated. I can't just very well rush off and kill you like everything's the same. Before it was just you and me alone, now we have pets and apartments and minivans..."

"Minivans?" Subaru laughed.

"I will make a soccer mom out of you yet," the Sakurazukamori grinned. "My point is Subaru-kun, you have matters that I assume you'd like to settle before your untimely death, we both do."

He handed Subaru the cigarette again, watching the Sumeragi consider his words carefully with the smoke. "What do you have to conclude?"

"Ah well, see if you understood what's really going to happen when I finally decide to kill you ... then you wouldn't have to ask that question would you?"

"The Sakura?"

"Clever boy as always," Seishirou teased, ruffling Subaru's hair as he took the cigarette back.

"Seishirou-san..."

"Aa?"

"I get that I'm missing something here. What I don't get is why you have no intention of telling me what it is."

"Two reasons my love, one is quite simply I have only a basic understanding of it myself. I can only hope that things will turn out as she said. The second is it will do you no good to know it only through whatever words I choose to explain it to you. When that final moment comes, you have to feel what must be done in the very core of yourself, not in interpretations of philosophy and theoretics. I could tell you what I think, but in the end it might actually handicap you-- and I'd never forgive myself for that-- because it won't work if you just do what I tell you to. It has to be your realization, your whole soul has to be behind it ... not just the logical part of your mind that tells you 'if this then that...'.

"I could, perhaps, tell you the events that I've used to see this conclusion ... rather than the conclusion itself. But the facts would be colored by my own biases, and there's no guarantee that I'm correct. I wasn't about the course of my seduction was I?"

Subaru shook his head.

"There's also no guarantee that the two of us are suppose to act according to the same conclusions. I think if you were meant to know it, you'll know it whether I tell you or not."

"Neh... Seishirou-san you're getting so fatalistic in your old age."

"Well one doesn't--"

Seishirou's voice was cut off by another voice just outside the bedroom. "Mou.. Subaru you shouldn't smoke those things in the--"

Rocky pushed the door open with a quick turn of the knob, apparently intending to chastise Subaru for smoking in the apartment, and found an image he obviously did not expect. His eyes grew so wide Seishirou half expected them to fall off his face. "Oh my God--I'msosorry"

The door slammed as quickly as it had been opened and the sound of the boy bolting down the hallway and into his own room echoed after it.

"Shit!" Subaru cursed, getting up from the bed to dig up his clothes. "I knew we shouldn't have done this here."

Seishirou, much to his irritation, was laughing. "He's so adorable, I do believe he turned purple when he saw us ... can we keep him Subaru? We'll tell the Tree he followed us home.."

Another wave of laughter and Subaru scowled coldly at his lover. "This is not funny."

"Yes it is. He's a least sixteen Subaru dear, shouldn't you be telling him about the facts of life anyway?"

"Shut up," Subaru mumbled as he put on his pants. "You can joke all you want but at best we've mortified him ... I'm going to go talk to him, can you see yourself out?"

Seishirou looked offended, and shot Subaru a hurt blink. "Me? Not going to let me spend the night? Why am I getting thrown out?"

"Because," Subaru grunted, throwing on a T-shirt. "He will not feel comfortable having you here ... give him a little time to adjust, I'm almost certain he had no idea about us."

"Of course," Seishirou purred, arms wrapping around the Sumeragi's waist. "He thought he was the only one who had naughty dreams about you."

"Not funny Seishirou-san."

"Hrmph, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were using me for the sex."

Subaru waved him off as he walked towards the bedroom door, "later, later ... I'll use you for sex later."
-----------------

Nine years after Hokuto-chan had died for him he had still not been ready for him. He had always been a slow learner when it came to things like this. Using the power was easy, it was knowing how the power should be used ... that confused him. And sometimes it seemed like he was the only one who didn't know what to the do.

But then, maybe a month or so after Seishirou came to claim him everything really began. The older man was ambushed by love. And all Subaru knew then was that he needed things to go slower. He hadn't even a clue how to handle what was being demanded of him.

So he ran.

He ran and tripped and fell, discovering a boy so much like himself. The mistake was reaching out to him. Subaru should have known better than that. He should have known that without Seishirou he was simply a void which things never escaped. He was only half a person, he needed someone else to balance him.

And for a long time that had been his twin, but she had chosen to give him to Seishirou ... and now that he was gone...

It was stupid of him to attempt human contact when engaged in the game with Seishirou. Stupid of him to not only reach out to the boy but to share the intimacies they had.

It had only been a few months since Seishirou's death and Subaru still had not figured out what had made him ready to die. He remember the moment it was decided, but not the reason.

They had been in Sendai at the time. In a one room hotel room with a double bed and a small couch, a bathroom and little else. Rocky had quickly taken possession of the couch, curling up upon it without a word one way or the other and falling asleep, leaving Subaru abandoned in his own thoughts for the night.

The Sumeragi took a layer of blanket off his bed and gently covered the boy, being very careful not to awaken him. Then he sat, on the edge of the bed staring off into the cryptic blackness of the room. His eyes entertained themselves by running up and down over the boy's body-- studying his features, the texture of his skin, the light movements he made in sleep.

He thought, that he was beautiful. And wondered why he had such a beautiful thing, how he had come by it, and why it stayed by him. But most of all...

He wondered why he couldn't have it.

It was something he never questioned before, that he and this boy could not have each other. It was not because he belonged to another, but because to do so would only be stalling the inevitable. He had set something in motion with the soft chants meant to exorcist that Sakura. He could not begin something else until it was concluded.

But that did not stopped the wanting. The boy nudged at a tiny warm spot in his heart and, mixed with a natural affection he had for one who was so much what he had once been, awoken a small part of him that wanted to live.

But he could not live, could he? Knowing how and when he would die stifled any ability he had to live. All things must die, but their futures are so vague that their approaching deaths do not weight down their souls.

The knowing was torturous ... he was tired of waiting for it.

Then with a blink of an eye it had already been decided. He was ready to die at Seishirou's hand.

They were going back to Tokyo.

Yes ... that's what it he been hadn't it? Wanting to end the wanting, to simply be cold and numb ... to want no more.

With the thought Subaru laughed bitterly and inhaled from his cigarette.

Well that was what he had, there was nothing he wanted now. The wanting had ended and the numbness had taken over.

He had come back to Tokyo, and only a night had passed before he was lying in the Sakurazukamori's bed. He wasn't expecting the sex, but he accepted it. And he did not die that night, nor the night after that when he had lured Seishirou foolishly to his place.

Then...

A strange thing had a happened. In that time between his resignation to his death and Seishirou's suicide at his hands ... he had been about as close to happy as he imagined he ever could be. He had like it, he had liked the dark ache the echoed through his memories upon living with two people he loved. The memory of three people in the past that had seemed like family too.

He should have heeded the warning. And maybe he had in some way. He knew that this would end in tragedy, but he had seemed so certain that the tragedy would be his own death.

In retrospect Subaru thought he was certainly a selfish bastard and that he got exactly what he deserved. He had no problem with dying and leaving two people he loved behind to suffer, just as long as he didn't feel anymore.

Well he didn't feel anymore now did he? Not anything that really mattered anyway, an infectious pain that was consuming his soul and a soft patient love that was trying to make dead nerves feel again.

And so he stood in a dark alleyway of his Tokyo, smoking a cigarette and watching the people move down the street. He had been waiting there for roughly an hour because he hated working in the park. He was close enough.

The Sakura caressed his senses gently. She was very careful not to make it too much like a lover's touch, but it reminded him faintly of Seishirou. Not enough to make him recognize it, but just enough to control him somewhat.

He leaned his side against the brick wall, watching the pseudo-doorway that opened to the street carefully. His eyes searching each person that passed one by one, until...

He saw her. Yes she would do.

He killed her quickly, not for mercy, but because he was tired and he wanted to go home.

Spoken words between him and the Tree. He began to chant the words that the Tree had taught him the day Seishirou died, feeling with his damnable empathy the woman's soul being pulled into its eternal prison.

He tired not to think of it as murder. It was only a feeding. All creatures had to kill and eat something to survive, whether it was a blade of grass or a human being. Did it really matter in the end? Could something so natural be evil?

He could sense the woman's soul reaching out to him. And because he was as tired as he was apathetic, had made no real effort to push her away. He had barriers around his mind, she would be gone soon enough anyway.

In a flash he saw a face.

His sister's face.

And immediately the spell was shattered, he fell to his knees and promptly threw up his own dinner.

The Tree sighed and grumbled in the Earth. It had its meal now it wanted its dessert.

But the woman's soul was gone, flown to the wind like a dove before her wings could be clipped with a joyful sigh of victory.

Subaru spat out a harsh curse and lifted himself off the ground.

The Tree continue to nag him. He had taken away her best and he was a lousy replacement.

"Shutup," he snarled. His head still spinning from the psychic assault. He hadn't been expecting such an average looking woman to strike out at him like that. "It's too late now, she's gone ... you got your blood so shut up and be happy."

The Tree snorted indignantly but voiced no special objections. It was true, this soul had escaped.

He cleaned the blood off his hands in a nearby fountain, amused by the dark red clouds leaking into the clear water, and began walking home briskly. He looked forward to his bed.

"Subaru-dono!" an unfamiliar voice called for the first time.
-----------------

Seishirou lips were soft as they rounded the curve of Subaru's shoulder. The same shoulder he had dislocated in a fit of passion nearly a year ago, Subaru thought.

The tongue darted across the more sensitive pit at the elbow, perhaps expecting a greater response than it got, for it drew away reluctantly.

He wasn't aware of Seishirou stare. His attention was fixed on the patterns of white citylight violating their darkness. The window was open, and small breezes blew the long, elegant curtains around in little circles and pushed a stray lock of black hair up and away from the Sumeragi's face every so often.

Subaru could have stared out at Tokyo's skyline from Seishirou's bed forever. But a sudden pain of teeth sinking into his arm jarred him away from his beloved Tokyo with a sharp yelp.

"Ah, there you are," Seishirou purred up against his ear, his arms pulling Subaru into an embrace-- their bodies spooned together. "Where were you Subaru-kun? What took you so far away from me?"

It was practically an instinct to snap, "none of your business."

Seishirou's hand slide down Subaru's arm until his fingers brushed across the star, making to burn a little. It was not especially painful, just uncomfortable. A reminder to Subaru.

"It's always my business," Seishirou said lowly, his face nuzzling the back of Subaru's head with little kisses. "You're worried."

"Aa," Subaru admitted, returning his attention to the skyline.

"And you feel guilty, which really is really no surprise since you feel guilty about everything."

"Aa," Subaru said again, before he glanced coldly at Seishirou. "And I do not."

"Yes you do ... now les' see, two for two ... going for a perfect score. You're worried about.."

He felt Seishirou lean forward, or perhaps pull him closer, and his tongue flick across Subaru's ear as he said, "Rocky-chan Neh?"

"Yes,"

"Your little talk didn't go so well?"

Subaru sighed, "No it's not that ... it's just..."

"Just? Subaru-kun are you keeping things from me now?" The older man's head rested on his shoulder teasingly. Subaru did not need to see the dark predatory look to know it was there. It had to be something about Seishirou's nose that gave him the ability to catch the looks of so many animals. Tonight it was a wolf.

"There are some things Seishirou-san, which are none of your business. And not my place to make your business either."

"Oh? I'm hurt Subaru-kun ... I realize neither you nor I have much experience in the matter, but don't people usually confide in their lovers?"

Subaru snapped his tongue irritably. "I was wondering what I'm going to do with him now."

"Do? And this somehow is none of my business? I'm insulted ... I think what you do with that boy is certainly my business."

More teasing... Did Seishirou never get tried of that? No matter how old they got, or what happened between them?

"I'm serious, I won't let him just become a third wheel here. That's not fair to him ... but, he's got nowhere else to go."

"He's not that young, you were living on your own at his age..."

"That's different."

"Is it?"

"Yes ... I wasn't alone really. I had Hok-- I had family. He doesn't have anyone."

"Besides you?" Seishirou asked curiously, his hand was crawling up and down Subaru's spine, tracing gentle patterns over the skin.

"Aa ... and well he's the closest thing I have to family left."

"Ahhh ... I see," Seishirou teeth worked over Subaru's ear softly. "That is troublesome isn't it? What to do? What to do?"

Subaru sighed softly, his mind lapsed for just a moment to enjoy the feeling of Seishirou's delicate touches. His serious green eyes opened again and his expression seemed all the more sober. "He doesn't belong here, not now ... perhaps when we're finished ... but..."

"He'll only get in the way now."

"Yes... right now it can be only you and I. No one else can be involved." As the words slipped passed his lips, Seishirou's hand slide down his arm to lace together their fingers, back of the hand to the palm. "Maybe when this is over... Would you mind that?"

Seishirou considered the question briefly before shrugging. "I don't think I would no. I suppose that depends how you intend the relationship."

The words were dripping with more teasing, and Subaru gently elbowed Seishirou in the ribs. "Pervert," he accused.

Seishirou laughed off Subaru's scorn and turning the attention of his wondering hands back to Subaru's back. "I wouldn't worry about it Subaru-kun. Rocky-chan and I have come to an understanding."

Subaru allowed himself to melt into Seishirou's simple touch before those words sent a heavy jolt through him that pushed him back into alertness. "You what?"

He sat up, staring down at his lover almost horrified with desperate eyes. Eyes that searched for any indication that what he thought he heard didn't mean what he thought Seishirou meant by it.

Seishirou smiled gracefully, propping his head up on his hand and letting the other hand slide off Subaru's body and land on the sheets with the Sumeragi's motion. "That boy has very bad timing, normally it would be fatal."

"You didn't... you wouldn't..."

Seishirou blinked, "and why not?"

"Because you promised me you would leave him be."

"And I will, it's a harmless bet Subaru-kun.

"Seishirou-san" Subaru growled.

"What? He thinks he knows you better than I do, I'm just giving him an opportunity to prove it. If he wins he gets what he wants." The older man rose so that he was face to face with the Sumeragi. He smirked warmly and breathed the words "which is you" across the skin of Subaru's neck.

"And if he loses?"

"He leaves."

"That's it?"

In a cute gesture, Seishirou raised both of his hands defensively. "I swear. I have no intention of laying a finger on the child. It's simple bet, winner gets lovable kawaii Subaru-kun, loser packs their bags."

"And what if I told you both to fuck off?"

"Well ... he's a very cute boy Subaru-kun."

After a long silence Subaru frowned and concluded, "I don't like it."

"He could have said no, it was his choice. Besides you said so yourself, he can't be involved in this. This is you and me and no one else."

"You've already decided that he's lost then?" Subaru regarded suspiciously. He felt Seishirou's weight against his back and the man's cheek press into his shoulder.

"Are you going to leave me Subaru-kun? I'm hurt, I can be all cute and snugglely too."

"Fuck you," Subaru snorted.

"You know ... you're beginning to pick up some of the little gargoyle's more unpleasant quirks."

"I don't like thinking that things are decided already. I especially don't like thinking everyone else knows he's lost except him, I especially don't like anything that associates you with the word 'bet'... Brings up bad memories."

"Honestly Subaru-kun, has anyone every told you you're high maintenance?"