Notes: This is the second last in the series, and can be attributed mostly to Ria, who gave me the idea for what to do with it. ^_^ ::Glompies Ria::

Fortunately for my sanity, I don't find myself with two couples to fix. I'm not sure precisely what explanation Tsuzuki gave to Hisoka, or exactly how pathetic a face he had to make or how much he had to whimper, but the next time I saw the two of them, they were just as affectionate as ever. In fact, they were considerably more so, but as they were in the privacy of their own office, they had no idea I was about to intrude.

I must say, though, that if Tatsumi had caught them at that, they certainly would have lost a day's pay.

All in all, it seemed a stroke of luck that they didn't need my help reconciling, because I had my wings full with my own human. He was moping with the best of him. Probably more so than I'd ever seen him mope before. It was horrendous. He even stopped eating breakfast. (Though around mid-morning he always got really hungry and went to get a donut, so no real danger there.)

If Tatsumi was moping, no one knew about it. He was locked in his office with even more stacks of paper than usual. Though it was nearly the time that the annual budget report was due, this wasn't particularly unusual, but usually he would at least go home to sleep. I suppose he was afraid that if he left his office, he might see my human in the hallway.

But all in all, things were not working out. I had lost my ally. Tsuzuki was far too busy making up with Hisoka to help, and in any case, I'm not sure he would have wanted to risk Hisoka's wrath again. So I was somewhat at a loss as to what to do next. Tatsumi and my human were not helping by avoiding each other constantly.

However, there was a plus side: at least they had both acknowledged their own frustration to themselves, if not to each other. At least, I think that can be counted as a plus, though it did make my human quite irritable.

My human came back from the budget meeting even more irritable. Tatsumi had been annoyed and given him even less funding than usual. Of course, Tatsumi usually gave him very little for funding. I don't really understand human money, but I do know that the number for this year was substantially lower than it had been in years previous.

"How does he think he has the right?" my human asks me, splashing different potion components around in his anger. I think he's hoping to find something really nasty to do to Tatsumi. I'm not sure I would blame him. "Just cut my funding because he has a problem with me personally? It's not fair!"

He slams a beaker down so hard that it cracks, spilling green goo everywhere. He doesn't even notice, he's so angry. It rather alarms me. I mean, when he's making something gooey, it probably isn't good to get all over the counters. "Besides, who does he think he is?" my human continues to fume. "He's so high and mighty just because he's better at hiding his feelings than I am. Oh, well, I'm so sorry for being human."

At this point, I'm pretty sorry that he's human, too. Animals are so much more logical about things like this.

"You know what?" My human puts down what he's holding with a thump. "I'm going to go yell at him. Maybe that'll make me feel better."

I somewhat doubt it, but he gives my alarmed hoots no heed, and storms out of the room. His hair is everywhere and his lab coat is flapping in the breeze that he makes for himself as he walks briskly down the hallway. Tsuzuki sees him and looks about as alarmed as I feel, but gets out of his way without comment.

My human pushes into Tatsumi's office without even knocking, which is definitely an office no-no, but at least it gets Tatsumi's attention. He looks quite displeased, and much more severe than usual. "I'm busy," he says shortly.

"You sure are," my human shoots back. "What the hell is wrong with you? There was no need to cut me out of the budget just because you were angry over a stupid argument about cake."

Tatsumi pushes his glasses up on his nose and gives my human a world class glare. "Funds were tight this year. I cut what I believed to be necessary."

"Oh, don't give me that bullshit," my human protests. "You're mad about what happened last week and you're taking it out on me by taking away my funding. Well, you know what? That just means that I'll have to do a funding request for every experiment I want to do, so believe me when I say that I'll be sitting on your doorstep this whole year!"

"I'll keep it in mind to come in through the back," Tatsumi says sharply.

"So you hate my company that much?" my human challenges.

"If you're going to continue acting like a spoiled child, yes!"

I don't really think that was the best thing for him to say right there. My human looks absolutely enraged, which is a state that I (thankfully) don't see him in very often. "I'm the one who's in the wrong here?" he asks incredulously. "Oh, well, I'm so sorry. Maybe I would have been more likely to just act normally if you didn't glare at me every time it looked like I might speak!"

"Maybe if you ever said anything useful -- " Tatsumi began, but my human cut him off.

"Maybe if you weren't afraid that I'd say something you wouldn't like!"

Tatsumi draws himself up, looking infuriated. "And exactly what are you implying? What do you think you're going to say that would upset me so much?"

"You know what I mean," my human says, but he's looking like he wishes he had kept his big mouth shut.

"No, I don't believe I do," Tatsumi says, even though we all know damn well that he knows exactly what Watari meant. "Please, don't spare my feelings. Whatever's on your mind, just tell me. That's the only way to settle this."

"You know what's on my mind, damn it!"

"So you won't say it?" Tatsumi asks.

I have a feeling that this is going to start going badly any minute now.

"Why should I?" my human snarls. "It's not as if saying it would do any good. Not as if mere words could melt the shell of ice that you've built around you."

"It's there for good reason," Tatsumi says. "Not that you would know anything about it."

"Gee, I wonder why?" my human replies. "Oh, wait, I know. It's because you never tell anyone a damn thing! I know you were in love with Tsuzuki. EVERYONE knows you were in love with Tsuzuki, okay? Now get over it and stop treating it like it's some huge secret!"

Uh oh. The shadows in the room are starting to ripple. We have one seriously pissed off secretary here. My human glances around and starts to look slightly concerned. Like he doesn't know what he would do if Tatsumi actually loses his cool.

But apparently he's not worried about it. He marches straight up to Tatsumi, pokes him in the chest, and says, "Who's being the spoiled child now, huh? Keep control of your powers."

Tatsumi just gapes at him for a minute. But the shadows settle down, which can only be good.

"I am not," he said stiffly, "out of control."

"Oh, yeah," my human says, rolling his eyes. "I'm not surprised. Do you even know how to be out of control? Do you know how to let your feelings go even the slightest little bit?"

"I've never needed to," Tatsumi says between clenched teeth.

"Yeah. As I said. Ice water."

"Don't assume you know anything about me!" Tatsumi yells. They're standing toe to toe, shouting in each other's faces. Oh, this is just excellent. Why do I even bother?

"Well, don't assume that you know anything about me!" my human shouts back. That's it. I think I'm going to give up and just leave the two of them to their yelling, and WHEN did they start kissing?!

.......?!?!

Okay, I'm confused.

No, they're not stopping. They're really going at it, in fact.

.................

I don't understand this at all. They were yelling at each other just a minute ago. And really, really angry, too. And now they're kissing. And Tatsumi just backed my human against the wall. I'm lost. This doesn't make any sense!

.....humans. Who can figure them?