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PART V: THE UNFETTERED FLIGHT OF RESPONSIBILITY

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"What are you talking about, Daisuke?" Ken looked almost stricken.

They awoke around 11:00, and the redhead was trying to explain to his newly-found love that he was fully planning on ditching the aforementioned meeting called to send him home.

"I'm not going! You're the genius, is it that hard to understand?"

Ken's mouth was slightly open, deliciously kissable lips at perfect distance apart, eyes wide and staring. "But...you have to get home! This could be your only chance!"

"I don't care." Daisuke pinned Ken to the futon, both hands pressing down firmly on the other boy's shoulders, spice-colored hair hanging down slightly and framing his face in warmth. Despite knowing exactly what he wanted to say, the redhead suddenly found himself completely at a loss for words. "I..." He paused, looking away with a baited breath. "I...you...besides you, I don't...I don't care about anything else." Daisuke bit his lip, cafe mocha eyes wide and pleading.

Ken's lip quivered, and he blinked, long and slowly in the dim light. "That's..." He never finished the thought, tilting his chin upward just as Daisuke leaned down slowly, glacially, a nearly-frozen river of chocolate syrup oozing round and round within his eyes.

Then they were kissing, and suddenly nothing else mattered to Ken, either. Everything that mattered was wrapped up in that spicy-sweet touch of lips, his essence flowing through the vehicle of the kiss and merging so completely with that of Daisuke. There was nothing else but the warm, heavy contact between their bodies, the insistent suction of lips pressing together, and the incredible connection felt when neither boy closed his eyes. Instead, they kissed openly and unabashedly, eyes locked and soft and half-closed with emotion.

Daisuke was the one who broke the kiss, collapsing on top of Ken and burying his face in the other boy's neck. The raven-haired boy rubbed small circles on Daisuke's lower back, and the redhead made a small sound of contentment.

It was a long time before either boy moved, and when they did, it was only as far from each other as their joined hands would allow them to go. After that they ran as far as they could from everybody and everything they knew, ran until their muscles ached and their lungs would soon split from lack of sufficient oxygen.

Their first stop was for ice cream in the park; Daisuke had insisted, but Ken ended up paying. He rolled his eyes as he fished some yen from his pockets, watching Daisuke slurp full-heartedly at his chocolate cone. "I love you," he told Ken dreamily as the other boy paid the ice-cream man in full.

Then they walked, and finished their ice-cream, and collapsed on their backs in a meadow full of tall grass. Daisuke used Ken's stomach as a pillow, their joined hands longingly bisecting the angle of their bodies. The redhead let his eyes drift contently half-closed, watching clouds and the swaying boughs of trees through the dark curtain of lashes. Just being with Ken like this made something deep in his stomach warm, deliciously warm; and the warmth was obviously contagious, for he could feel it in his heart, as well. The blue-haired boy stirred slightly, running fingers through Daisuke's untamed hair, stroking past lily-soft cheeks and slender throat, caressing shoulders and across to clavicles nearly hidden beneath the collar of his shirt. The redhead moved his head like a cat, eyes hooded in the pleasure of being petted, the soft sounds coming from deep in his throat sounding entirely too much like purring. Ken shifted until he lay beside Daisuke, chin upon his palm, elbow braced upon the ground.

"Mmm. Ken." The voice was husky, and deep brown eyes shaded by the even-deeper brown of lashes fixed on his, and then they were kissing, touching, a tangle of limbs and lips and soft cries; enamored as they were, they didn't notice how the temperature dropped slightly, the hot midday sun moving slowly towards the cooler west, deepening the sky and the shadows into late afternoon.

Then forever later (but too soon, in their hearts), it was over, cooling skin damp against the matted grass, and Daisuke laughed, touching Ken's face as he moved to redress.

They couldn't stop touching each other after that; just small things, Daisuke's fingers soothing the skin of Ken's back under his shirt as they walked, Ken brushing a leaf out of Daisuke's hair, Daisuke's hand grazing Ken's, their eyes never leaving each other's.

"You're incredible," Daisuke said simply to Ken as the taller boy brushed his lips softly against the redhead's as they walked along a deserted side street, moving as if drunk on each other. Ken's eyes were wide, every square centimeter of indigo visible to Daisuke, every square centimeter of indigo telling Daisuke exactly how much he loved him, how much he'd missed him.

His eyes had been lonely without lovely chocolate brown ones to look into.

They found themselves underneath an overpass in a part of Tokyo neither boy had thought they'd ever been; they didn't mind that they were halfway lost, because they were so lost in each other.

To Daisuke's delight the small wooded area below the overpass had a creek running through it; they walked hand in hand, whispering to each other over the gurgling water, footsteps deadened by thick moss.

Lost in Ken's eyes, Daisuke barely noticed when he tripped; only the sensation of Ken pulling suddenly back on his hand and tumbling him into his arms registered. He glared at the offending object sitting smugly, low to the ground.

It was a tombstone.

The redhead backed up so fast that he pushed Ken over too, barely missing falling into the stream. "Ken, t-that's a grave stone…"

"Oh, kami-sama…" Ken breathed, a hand over his mouth. Daisuke looked up, but Ken's eyes weren't on the grave stone he'd tripped over – they were fixed unwaveringly over a small hill to their left. "I know where we are," he whispered.

Daisuke followed his love's gaze and saw hundreds upon hundreds of tombstones spread out before him; they all followed neat rows, paths in between, flowers scattered over most. He glanced at Ken, who was still staring with haunted eyes. "What is it?"

"This is where you're buried, Daisuke-chan."

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END PART V: TO BE CONTINUED…

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