Author's Note: Look, an update already! I just sat down and wrote this part so fast!!! Aren't you all so glad? And we have more Touya with Yuki! Hurray! But, I'm really looking forward to writing what comes next. The angst, the emotion...I am going to love this! ~grins~

So, I'll list my thanks and go on from there. Kira, Teldra, S.K.-chan, Megami, Askani Blue, Peacewish, L-chan, and Silver Angel, thank you for your reviews. I appreciate them. Also, thanks to Aishuu and Xandra who don't leave reviews, but also don't hesitate to tell me on IM that they love my stories. ~blushes~ Oh, and Neko-chan for dedicating a story to me. ~glows~ I'm not good at telling everyone who doesn't actually leave a review for me how much I appreciate them in my notes, so it's about dern time! I usually get lazy and just go to the handy list and put up the names, but this time I really felt obliged to tell these others that I appreciate it all! I really really really do! THANK YOU!

And now, the part you've all been waiting for...the fic! Enjoy!

Shades of Discovery

Back to Normal

Summer break passed too quickly. I was kept busy with work, so I only managed to talk to Kaho once, for a little while, before she returned to England. She assured me that she was in love, she wished me luck in sorting out my own feelings, or at least admitting them, and then she was gone. I wouldn't see her again for years.

What I regretted most though, was that Yuki and I didn't have many chances to hang out and talk. I didn't feel much urgency about it though because nothing happened. At all.

In the next few months I would regret that most of all.

A week before summer break was over I was walking home from work, slowly, just enjoying the late afternoon freedom I suddenly had. Tomorrow was Sunday. No work for a change, and Sakura had traded her daily chores for some sewing. I chuckled to myself at how good tomorrow would be as I walked past Yuki's house, hoping he'd be home.

Sure enough, he was outside, tending to the flowers. I stood still a moment, watching as long as I could before he became aware of me. There was only that barest hint of that other self about him, something I could dismiss as my imagination if I hadn't come to rely on my sixth sense years ago. I could almost convince myself that that night had been a dream, if I tried hard enough.

Not that I wanted to try.

Or, maybe part of me did. There was that part of me that wished I had never seen my Yuki change into some strange other. I felt out of place in his life now, especially since it seemed he didn't remember anything that had happened. To him, life went blithely on as if he had passed out from some effect of the earthquake that night. He had even said, "It's something that's known to happen in the middle of an earthquake, right?" I assured him that I'd heard something along those lines once, and left it at that.

After all, that had been the end, and I was just an outsider.

I sighed at the thought and Yuki's head snapped up. "To-ya! What are you standing over there for?"

"I was just walking home." I shrugged. "It was a long day at work, so I'm taking my time and enjoying the freedom of the afternoon."

"I was just about finished here, want to join me for a snack?"

I shrugged again, then nodded. "Sure, why not?" I told myself not to eat too much, Dad was cooking supper tonight and not the monster.

Yuki smiled as he started putting things away. "Sorry I haven't been around much lately. The summer seems to have made me lazier than usual. Just a bit more tired these days."

"No, I've just been busy with work. It's okay."

We walked into the house and I looked around at everything with a new eye. I hadn't been here since that night. I remembered the empty feeling I'd had before when I would visit. It suddenly made sense. I rubbed my arms as they broke out in goosebumps, but it was short-lived as Yuki pulled out a huge plate of food.

"I thought you said a snack. This is a meal, even for you."

"Well, I guess. I've been a little more hungry lately."

A little more tired, a little more hungry...I wondered if this had something to do with--

No, even if it was related, there was nothing I could do about it. It wasn't my place.

The silence between us grew to something it never had before. It was deep, dark, and uncomfortable. I didn't know what to say, and he didn't know why I was acting like this lately. But, part of me was still waiting for him to snap out of it and realize--

"Sakura told me that Mizuki-san had left again."

I nodded, half relieved that he had broken my train of thoughts, and half dreading the conversation that I knew was ahead.

"You said you would tell me about her, To-ya. I don't want to press you, but--"

"No, it's okay. I should have talked about this before. Years ago, Kaho was my girlfriend. My first girlfriend."

"But she was Sakura's teacher. That would make her very young for--"

"No. She was an assistant teacher when we met."

"But you said it was years ago. How many--"

"I was fourteen."

He tried to say something, but nothing came out. The silence grew into exactly what I had expected, but had hoped not to deal with from him of all people. Until finally--

"Wow."

I couldn't hold in a chuckle at his final reaction, though there wasn't much amusement to it. "That's all you have to say?"

"Well, tell me the rest! I've been waiting this long, so you could tell me the whole story and not just the shocking part."

The way he smiled when he said that disarmed me utterly. I wondered how this conversation would actually turn out. Surely it wouldn't be as bad as I had built myself up to think it would be.

I started out slowly, telling him in general how things had started between us. I told him about how we had met at the shrine that night, and she had seen the magic in me right away. I told him how shocked I was when she had been at school the next day, and how I was even more surprised to see her teaching. As I talked I remembered the good things that we had shared, how happy I had become despite how bleak life had looked before. She had helped me heal. When we had been together, things had come together in ways that put the pieces of my life together from the scattered and haphazard way everything had fallen before.

I owed her so much.

"So, why didn't you want to talk about it?"

As usual, Yuki had cut to the heart of things and saw what I was really avoiding. "She left me. It was about six months before you and I met, that summer, and I had no idea. She didn't say a word until the night before she left. I kept coming back to the shrine to see if it had been a joke. I had helped her clean and tend things when I was troubled and needed to talk before, but now that I needed help the most she just wasn't there."

"How did it happen?"

I let out a bitter laugh, remembering the pain vividly. "It was at the festival that summer. She pulled me aside, under the tree (I knew he'd know the one I was talking about), and just said she'd be leaving the country. The next day. It had been the anniversary of me telling her that I loved her, but I suppose that didn't matter. She just left with no warning, walking away with a smile on her face as if everything we had ever shared was just a passing fancy."

"Sometimes it seems that everyone keeps leaving," he said softly. Almost too softly for me to hear. I looked at him closely before deciding how to reply.

"Sometimes. Yes, sometimes it does. I don't know if I could take losing someone else right now, and the last thing I would want to do is leave someone else behind."

He looked startled, but then he smiled at me, dazzling me. My heart leapt in my chest and I trembled slightly as I thought about what I wanted to say next. I wanted to clear the air with him and get everything in the open, including all I knew about him. "Yuki, I--"

Somewhere else in the house a clock chimed and I jumped. I had been here a lot longer than I should have. Dad and Sakura would be worried, so I really had to hurry. I came to the conclusion that my timing was just terrible as I stood suddenly. "I'm sorry, I should have been home fifteen minutes ago at least."

Hurt and disappointment flashed across his face, but only for an instant. "Gomen ne, Touya, I distracted you and kept you too long."

"No," I said softly. "This was a long overdue talk. I needed to let it out, and I'm glad you were here to listen. We should do this again some time." I smiled at him slightly, and that small gesture made his entire face light up.

Then I was rushing out of his house, almost running home. I was frustrated with myself. I had wasted time talking about myself that whole time.

And yet, what else would I have said? "Oh, by the way, did you know that you're not human? Sometimes you turn into something that looks like an angel and once beat the heck out of my sister and one of her friends. It's okay though because they still seem to have their crushes on you...oh, and so do I."

Baka.

I couldn't say that. I couldn't think of what I should say.

Maybe I shouldn't say a thing. After all, I had seen how powerful the other half of Yuki was and that was the last person I'd want to upset. If Yuki was meant to know, he would know already, right?

I frowned, not happy with that line of reasoning. If I decided to accept that, I'd be giving up, and I just didn't give up. I couldn't do that.

What could I do though?

I would just talk to him about it on another day and hope I wasn't saying something I shouldn't.

It could wait though.

Nothing was happening.

Indeed, at that time nothing was happening. I should have known things wouldn't stay that way.