Thank you to all of my reviewers on the past few chapters! I realized while I was writing the last chapter that somewhere around chapter three I switched the voice of the story from present tense to past tense. ::shrug:: I have no idea why that happened.

Disclaimer: I don't own FY.

Warning: It's still got yaoi in it.

---------True Happiness--------

The room was dim, to my great relief. As soon as I opened my eyes, I'd become aware of the splitting headache I had, and I was sure sunlight wouldn't help a great deal. I took deep breaths, trying not to think about the headache. Or, actually, think at all, because thinking was rather painful at the moment. Slowly I turned over, wincing as the room twitched oddly.

Chichiri was sitting in the chair beside my bed.

I blinked. Even with the dream I'd had, I couldn't quite believe that Chichiri was actually in my room. But here he was, solid and real, in the chair by my bed. He was asleep, but he was there.

Focusing my eyes on his face made my head protest, but I did it anyway. He wasn't wearing his mask, and I could see that his face held a slight sadness. His cheeks were tearstained, showing that he had, in fact, been crying, as I'd seen in my dream.

As I watched him, his eye opened, then widened in surprise. "You're awake, no da!" he murmured, reaching for his mask.

I freed one arm from the sheet and reached out my hand "Don't..." I croaked.

He looked at me, confused.

"Why do ya think ya gotta wear that thing all th' time?" I asked hoarsely. My throat was dry.

"Seeing my real face bothers most people, no da."

"Don' gimme that."

He blinked.

"Ya gotta know by now that yer friends don' care how ya look."

"Well, I guess not, no da," he said, but the mask stayed in the air halfway to his face.

"What's yer real reason, then?"

He just looked at the floor, avoiding my eyes.

"All right," I turned away from him, annoyed. "Wear the damn thing. It don't matter."

There was a soft sound behind me, and when I turned back to Chichiri, I saw that he'd put the mask on the table beside him. He was watching me, with a look in his eye that I didn't understand.

I grinned at him, not quite sure why I was so happy that he hadn't put the mask on.

He smiled back. "How do you feel, no da?"

"Like shit," I said cheerfully.

"Headache, no da?"

"Yeah, no da."

He reached forward and placed one hand on my forehead. His touch was cool, and my heart made an odd, skipping jump that left my cheeks warm.

"Are you making fun of me, na no da?" There was laughter in his voice, and when I turned to look at him, he was smiling broadly.

"A'course not, no da," I said, making my voice sound offended. "I think odd speech patterns're contagious, no da."

"Maybe you'd better see Mitsukake after all, no da." He took his hand off of my forehead. "Unless you're feeling better?"

My mouth opened in surprise. My headache was completely gone. "Wha...How'd ya do that?"

"To put it simply, no da, I isolated the pain in your head from the rest of your senses and formed a ward around it. The pain's still there, you just can't feel it."

"Sugoi!" I exclaimed. "I gotta remember you can do that, 'Chiri, it'll make life a helluva lot easier..." I broke off in surprise.

Had I just called him "'Chiri?"

I looked at him.

" 'Chiri', no da?"

Apparently I had.

"Hey, it's easier'n sayin' 'Chichiri' all th' time," I said.

Suddenly he smiled. "All right, Tas, no da."

" 'Tas'?"

"Hey, it's easier'n sayin' 'Tasuki' all th' time," he said

I laughed at his impression of me. It was actually pretty good.

He tilted his head to one side and put on an expression that would have been an evil grin on anyone else. But Chichiri didn't grin evilly...

Did he?

"Unless...you'd prefer 'Tas-chan no da..."

My face went serious. "Only if I can call you" ::grin:: " 'Chiri-chan',"

He laughed. "Maybe not, no da..."

"Aw..." I laughed with him.

"No 'chan', no da." He said firmly. "Call me Chiri if you must, but no 'chan'."

"All right!"

"But I warn you, if you do call me 'Chiri', I'm going to call you 'Tas', no da."

I blinked at him.

He blinked back at me.

"Aw, all right..."

Chichiri laughed.

Suddenly there was the sound of feet running in the hall outside my room. Chiriko popped his head in the doorway.

"Chichiri-san!" he called. "I found something I think you'd be interested in reading."

Chichiri picked up his mask. "See you later, Tas, no da," he flashed me a last grin before fixing his mask into place. He stepped out of the room.

Which left me alone, trying to figure out why I felt so resentful of Chiriko.

'He took 'Chiri away.'

I brushed the thought away. That was absurd. I could see Chichiri whenever I wanted. I could put on a shirt and see him in the library right now.

'He took 'Chiri away from you when you were alone together.'

I shook my head in disgust. That was stupid, utterly stupid.

'If it's so stupid, then how do you explain the way you felt when he touched you?'

He was messing around with my senses then. That weird heartbeat could've been caused by some weird reaction to that.

''That weird heartbeat' felt like a stronger version of what Nuriko's smile used to do to you.'

The voice at the back of my head was making it sound like I was in love with him.

'Baka! You ARE in love with him.'

I sat bolt upright. "No, that can't be right..."

And yet, when I thought about it, it made perfect sense. Everything that had been confusing me for the past few days fell into place.

My eyes widened.

Shit.

Of all the times for the voice in the back of my head to be right...

I'd fallen in love with a monk.

--------To Be Continued

Tasuki's not clueless anymore! My vacation is almost over...::sob:: I won't be able to post as regularly...But I think I'll only need a couple more chapters to finish this thing, so hopefully it won't take too long. I'm trying to make up for the lack of time later by posting lot now. I hope the rush hasn't made the quality of the chapters go down. I know it may have affected the length, but as long as the story gets done, chapter length doesn't matter, right? ::ramble ramble:: Ok, I'll stop talking now.

~Mikazuki