FY isn't mine. Let's go.

"Ay."
Nothing.
"Oi."
Still nothing.
"Hey!"
Still nothing.
"Get up."
Nothing.
"Hey!"
Again, nothing.
"Heeyyy!" Tasuki prodded Nuriko in the side.
Nuriko twitched a little, but kept laying on his side staring wide- eyed in front of him.
"Nuriko, stop it! This isn't funny!" he shook the shoulders of the seemingly comatose seishi, "You're kinda freaking me out here..."
Nuriko's eyes grew wider as they looked jerkily around the room.
"Whoa! That's just damn freaky!" Tasuki jumped away before shaking him harder, "Hey!!"
Nuriko jerked away during mid-shake, taking a gasp for air, "Tasuki! You scared me!"
"I scared you?? You scared me! I fell asleep and I wake up to find you laying there all weird!"
"What?"
"You were laying there staring straight off! And I tried to get your attention, like shaking you and stuff, and you didn't notice!! It was fucking scary!"
Nuriko blinked, "What?"
"I told you!"
"How come I didn't notice?"
"Hell if I know!"
"Huh..."
Tasuki shook his head, "I was worried about you... What happened? What's going on...?" he looked to the purple-haired seishi concernedly.
"I... I don't remember. All I remember is... is..." he scrunched up his face, thinking, "Being in here talking to you..."
Tasuki shook his head again.
"And then... you stopped talking... and I started thinking."
"Bout what?"
Nuriko furrowed his brow. What had he been thinking about? "...Kourin." He had to muster up every bit of strength in his lithe body to form the word.
"Who-in?"
"Kourin... my... my sister."
"Shit! I didn't know you had a sister!"
"...I don't talk about her." Nuriko's head was starting to pound painfully.
"Don't blame you! Sisters are nasty, horrible things!"
"No, no, no..." Nuriko frowned, shaking his head, "Not my sister... She was..." he thought a moment for the right word. He moved his mouth to say what she was, but nothing came out.
Tasuki gave him a puzzled look.
"Aww, come here..." Tasuki pulled Nuriko to him in a warm hug. "It's ok."
Nuriko shook a little, overcome with emotion. He didn't like this feeling.
He tried to push it away, as he always had before. Before, it had been so easy to live. Suddenly, now, just the thought of his sister made him mentally collapse... Maybe it was because before he hadn't really thought about it before... he had just kind of lived blankly without really thinking about anything. Now, it seemed like he was always thinking, and he didn't like it. He was thinking right now! In attempt to stop his train of thought, he raised his head from where it was buried on Tasuki's chest.
"Hm?" was all Tasuki could get out before he found himself being kissed by Nuriko. Although a little surprised, he didn't have any complaints.
A few seconds later, Nuriko jerked away suddenly, leaving a rather disappointed Tasuki to ask, "What's wrong?"
"It's just... This isn't... This isn't what Kourin would have wanted..." "What do you mean?"
"She always talked about how she wanted to grow up to marry the emperor... This... Us... It isn't right..."
"What the hell?" Tasuki did his best to ignore the great bloody gash Nuriko had just ripped through his heart.
Nuriko slouched a little, sighing. How could he tell this? "Me and my sister were really close... best friends..."
"And that's preventing us from making out why? What the hell does that have do with anything?!" Tasuki protested, thoroughly confused.
"Let me finish."
"Alright, alright."
Nuriko shot him a small glare. "See, we were as close as anyone could be... almost like twins." Tasuki thought he saw Nuriko's lips flicker into a brief smile. "We looked alike and everything. God, I loved her..." Any trace of a smile faded. "One day she was killed and... and I wouldn't accept it... So I... I started dressing like her and acting like her. So... So she could live."
Tasuki looked at him like he was trying to solve a hard math problem.
"My parents shipped me off to live with relatives, telling them that I was Kourin-"
"That was a damn horrible thing to do! People not even wanting their own kid..."
"Yeah, but anyway, I've been living as her for... let's see... I think it's been... nearly eight years..." Nuriko buried his face in his hands, "I wish I had died... I wish it every day... I feel so horrible. Since I met all you guys, I haven't done anything for Kourin... I'm keeping her from living... I'm killing her," Nuriko stopped, frowning, as his thoughts meandered off in an unhappy direction.
Tasuki stared at him in amazement. "Man... all this time I thought you were just gay... I never thought you'd be all... cra-...er... I mean, Nuriko... that's some of the sweetest shit I've ever heard of anyone doing," he paused. "But it's not right. She wouldn't have wanted you to live her life... I think she would have wanted you to live for yourself..."
Nuriko smushed his face with his hands, thinking somehow that it would make him not feel so hopeless.
"I mean... she's dead. It was just her time, you know...?" Tasuki cringed, realizing that he was trying to give Nuriko a pep-talk. Tasuki was horrible at pep-talks. "It's just not right for you to keep yourself from living your own life for nothing... cause no matter how much you want to, you can't live your sister's life. You're just making your own life a hell of a lot harder."
"Tasuki... stop," Nuriko pounded his own forehead, "I know, I know... please don't do this to me. I know I've only managed to make my life into a huge mess and I don't care. I want to go back to living for Kourin..."
"But you weren't living for her! You know what you were living for? A damn lie. It's just not right to lie to everyone like that. Hell, you're even lying to yourself... Nuriko just be yourself and don't worry about trying to be anything..."
Tasuki was right. He was only living for a lie. A lie. He deceived people just by breathing, just by living. What a horrible creature he had sculpted himself into... some kind of demon that lives off of lying to innocent people... manipulating their thoughts and making them trust him. They would tell him their soul, and in return he would only tell them a lie. He didn't want to lie to anyone else, but... it was too late. He wished he were dead.
"Tasuki... I'm going to go to sleep. It's getting late."
"Alright," Tasuki sighed, shaking his head as he stood up off of Nuriko's bed.
"Hell..." he sat back down, wrapping his arms around the other seishi in a tight hug, "I love you, Nuriko... You. Not your sister."
Nuriko blinked. Somehow, in some strange way, that simple phrase made it temporarily alright. If someone loved him... it was... it was a lie. "I lied to you..."
"I don't care. I still love you. You need to stop beating yourself down over everything... Just don't think."
"Alright..." he tried to clear his mind, "Maybe it'll be better if I can just sleep it off." He pulled Tasuki closer to him, "I don't know what I'd do without you, Tasuki... I love you." Nuriko laughed dryly as he reached for Tasuki's hands, "Sorry for rambling..."
"Hey, your rambling is one hell of a lot better than anyone else's anything... or something."
Nuriko smiled. Tasuki sure knew how to make someone forget their worries. The purple-haired seishi closed his eyes as Tasuki kissed him. Slowly, he pulled away, standing up once more.
"Night," he grinned as he stepped out the door slowly, closing it behind him leaving Nuriko very alone. He sighed, flopping onto his back. It would all be ok. If he could always have Tasuki around to make him feel better, it would all be ok. Nuriko grabbed the end of his long braid, slowly unbraiding it. He smiled a little, crawling under the blankets, not really caring about sleeping in his clothes. It would be ok, he reassured himself a little. He just needed to live for the moment. From now on he wouldn't dwell on the past or the future... he would just kinda go with whatever life threw at him. It would all turn out ok if Tasuki were there. He ran his hands through his soft, long hair. And Tasuki would always be there.

Finally, they had arrived in Hokkan. The sun was just setting as they stood on the docks, watching the workers unload their things. Nuriko shivered in the cold breeze, wishing that he were back in Kounan where it was a civilized temperature.
"So... how do we figure out where this... 'shinzaho' is?" Tamahome inquired as they sat around the table. Once they actually had made their way to the small country's capital, a journey that had taken only a few afternoons, the group had found themselves at a loss. None of them had any idea what or where this shinzaho was.
"Well," Chichiri started, "We know that its here in this city no da..." he scratched his cheek, "and... I guess that's all no da."
"Great," Tasuki sighed, letting his head fall limply to the tabletop with a loud thunk, "FUCK!"
"Tasuki! Be quiet!"
"Sorry! That fucking hurt!"
"Anyway... I suppose the only way we can find it is to ask people who live here no da."
They all sighed. This was going to be a very long day/week/however long it took them to find it.
"We'll need to split up no da," Chichiri went on, "so we can find it quicker no da."
"But what do we do when we find it?" Nuriko asked. "I mean what if someone else has already found out where it is, but the rest of us don't know that? We need some way of keeping in touch."
"Hmm... That is a problem no da."
"So why don't we just all go together and find an inn, then each day we all meet back there at sunset?"
"Wow, Nuriko!!!!111 You do the think yum yum!!!!!!!1" Miaka beamed at him.
"Erm... thanks."
"So how are we going to split up? Obviously, me and Miaka will go together," Tamahome said, making gooey eyes at Miaka. Tasuki distinctly made a gagging noise. "I'd better go with Chiriko no da," Chichiri had been keeping a close eye on the suspected Seiryuu seishi ever since he had confided his suspicions to Nuriko on the boat. "Tasuki, why don't you go with Mitsukake?"
"Yeah! Since you're such a hothead! Mitsukake is the only one boring enough to put up with you!"
"I wanna go with Nuriko." Everyone seemed surprised that Tasuki hadn't tried to start a fight with Tamahome after his comment.
Nuriko blushed, fidgeting with his hands. He was always used to being shunted one way or another. Never once since Kourin died had anyone actually chosen him.
"But why?" Miaka asked stupidly.
"He doesn't need to be by himself."
"Neither does Mitsukake!"
"Well then why the hell don't you and Miaka take him?"
"We want to be alone"
"Oh yeah! Like you two are actually going to look for the Shinzaho if that happens. I'd hate to be the poor fuck that finds you two in some dark alley! His eyes'll probably explode or something!"
"Hey! You take that back!"
"Make me!"
"You guys, don't start now. We have to get this settled so we can go."
They both angrily sat back down, eyeing each other evilly the whole time.
"Mitsukake will go with Chiriko and me no da."
"Yup... that's me..."
Everyone gave Amiboshi a puzzled look.
"Me being Chiriko... I just wanted to remind everyone that I was, in fact, Chiriko... heh... heheheh"
"Oh okay," everyone said except Nuriko and Chichiri, who exchanged dark looks. Chichiri had a point. Amiboshi was a little too persistent about proclaiming his identity...
Chichiri cleared his throat. "Well, we're wasting time just sitting here no da. I think this is an inn, anyway, so, until sunset, everyone no da," He rose out of his chair. The rest of the company followed suit.
So they filed out of the inn, Mitsukake, Amiboshi, and Chichiri took the road going west. Miaka and Tamahome took the north road, while Nuriko and Tasuki headed off to the east.
"Tasuki," Nuriko started as soon as they were out of earshot of the others, "thanks for saying you wanted to go with me back there."
"Well you couldn't expect me to just say 'Yeah, sure! I'll go with Mr. Personality!' when the love of my life is sitting right across from me."
Nuriko blushed. "The love of your life? You really think that?" Nuriko thought that the idea of him being the love of anyone's life was incredibly hard to believe.
"Shit. Of course I do. I mean, you're a GUY! Why the hell would I want to be with a guy unless he was the only one for me?"
"I don't know," Nuriko sighed, shrugging his shoulders, looking down at the ground.
"Aw Nuriko, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's just... I've just been feeling weird lately." "Weird how?"
"I think I'm going crazy," he laughed slightly, "I keep having these arguments with myself. I don't even know who I am anymore..."
"Nuriko! The sexy seishi! The delicious drag queen! The--"
Nuriko laughed. "But see... I never thought of myself that way... A drag queen. I always thought of myself as a girl. As my sister," he furrowed his brow. "Only... I didn't think of myself as my sister... I thought of myself as me... only I was my sister."
Tasuki gave him a confused look.
"I thought of myself as Kourin. Not Ryuuen..." his soft face crinkled into a thoughtful expression.
"Ryuuen? Is that your real name?"
"Yes. No. It used to be."
"Used to be?"
"Until I was Kourin," Nuriko's brow furrowed, "Until..." he murmured, shaking his head, "No. I've always been Kourin..."
Tasuki looked at him, furrowing his brow. "Look... Nuriko... I sure as hell don't understand what you're saying... but," he paused, looking for the right way to say it, "I realize that you've got a lot going on in your head... And maybe you just need to forget about it. Just don't think about it. You're you. You've never been anyone else, and you aren't anyone else now, so there's no use in driving yourself crazy over it..."
Nuriko sighed.
"I mean... I know I don't know what it's like for you, but... I honestly just think you shouldn't worry about it."
"...You're right..." "Damn straight!"
Nuriko laughed, wiping his thoughts clean as Tasuki's hand found his.

Nuriko and Tasuki sauntered back into the inn a few minutes after the sun had gone behind the mountains, immediately noticing that all the others had beat them back. They joined the table that the rest of the seishi were occupying.
"How long have you guys--"
"A few hours," Tamahome cut Nuriko off, "We found out where it is."
"Holy shit! You mean the shinzaho is lodged up Miaka's--"
"Tasuki! This is important!"
Tasuki poutily quieted himself.
"It's in the mountain!!!!111111" Miaka blabbed idiotically, her head rolling from side to side.
"Over that way no da," Chichiri showed with a wave of his hand.
"Great! Wow... We'll be able to summon Suzaku in just a few days at this rate!" Nuriko grinned.
Tasuki squeezed Nuriko's hand under the table.