No More Flowers

Lucien

Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei does not belong to me… *sticks tongue out* :P

Notes: This is the continuation to 'Red Tulips'. I decided to continue it because the ending wasn't really an ending at all. Err… if you notice some grammatical errors and/or misspelled words, please tell me. English is not my mother tongue, but I stare at a Tagalog-English dictionary everyday. Unfortunately, I'm not that fluent with Tagalog either -___-. Oh well, here is the story! *eye twitch*

~*~*~*~*~

Hisoka muttered and kicked a stray stone on the pathway. The morning had started out all right. He couldn't somewhat put a finger on why he was in such a bad mood.

It was about an hour or two after twelve noon. The weather was a tad hot and Hisoka didn't know why he wanted to take a walk. He had left Tsuzuki dumbfounded and wondering if something was wrong.

…Of course something was wrong --

-- He just couldn't tell.

He grumbled and muttered some more. He felt awful about leaving Tsuzuki's company after all that the man had done for him that morning.

"It's normal, it's normal," the boy reassured himself over and over again, "its normal. It should be. Flowers can be given to virtually anybody."

But why was he so worried about what Tsuzuki had done? There wasn't anything wrong in it, after all.

Hisoka had grown in a strict and disciplined environment wherein giving flowers to another of the same gender was an act of taboo. No, scratch that. Even in his upbringing, it was alright to do such a thing.

Flowers could be given for birthdays, weddings, graduation, even funerals. So Hisoka couldn't understand what was bothering him so much.

Maybe…

It bothered him that he felt something for Tsuzuki. And that it wasn't just regular emotions that he felt. What do I mean by 'regular'? Maybe 'regular' was friendship, admiration, sympathy, and the like. But… he wasn't feeling any of those. What he felt was a completely new and different emotion from anything else he had felt before.

It frightened him. Almost anything new – that wasn't proven and tried safe – worried him. Years of suffering had made him jaded, but one night of fear and torture had made him protective of whatever he had.

No, he mustn't remember that night. He was trying to forget, after all. He was trying to forget the deed itself, but his tormentor… his murderer would never be forgotten.

One thing about his murderer was that he liked dolls. It struck people as general eccentricity for one to like dolls – mere playthings for little children. He was a character, people would say.

Another thing about his murdered was that he… he liked flowers. He liked red roses. If you look at the shade of the roses that he sometimes carried around, you might think of brick-red, or maroon, or even China-red, but… no other color fits his character and his roses better than blood-red. The moon, particularly, seems to agree with that one. Whenever his murderer made a kill, it would be known to the boy – Hisoka – by the color of the moon.

Silver or whitish grey means that nothing had happened. No kills for the day. If it was blood-red, well… something was wrong. A few days later, there'd probably be a case for Hisoka and his partner Tsuzuki.

Over time, Hisoka had gotten over the moon. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary now.

Hisoka kept on walking. He had reached the village park now. He wondered how he got there. The small house cum apartment that he and Tsuzuki shared in Chijou was a bit far-off from the residential homes he had reached just now. He sat on one of the benches in the park, knowing that he needed to rest for a while.

The weather was bit cool now and a gentle breeze would blow every now and then. The breeze wasn't warm or cold, it was just… a breeze. Anyway, children were starting to come and play now, some accompanied by their caretakers or parents.

Hisoka was glad that he took care in picking a bench far from those happy people. No, not happy, too happy. People like that always gave him a headache.

A small boy, about seven or eight, was panting after having slid in a fairly small slide, Hisoka observed. The boy looked around the park, taking note of the benches. Some were filled with fat ladies who were chatting merrily, some were occupied by young teenagers who held hands and displayed their affection for their partner. The boy's roaming eye settled upon Hisoka who was sitting alone in a concrete park bench, away from the bustling groups having fun.

The boy slowly walked towards Hisoka, and Hisoka, having noticed, shifted a little.

"Hullo," the boy said with a silly accent that was cute and annoying at the same time.

Hisoka had sensed that he was different from the others. This boy wasn't as energetic as the others, and he was alone. Moreover, there weren't many feelings that oozed from his heart unto Hisoka's mind.

"Hello. What's your name?" Hisoka asked, remembering proper etiquette.

"K-Ken, what is yours?" The boy seemed to have trouble pronouncing the letter 'K'.

Hisoka's face remained blank.

"My name is Hisoka."

A short silence passed.

"Oh." The boy remarked, taking a seat beside Hisoka, wiping the sweat that had materialized in his forehead.

"Brother – I mean, Mr. Hisoka, you don't live here, do you?"

"Yes."

"Where do you live?"

Hisoka wanted to say that he lived in a place in the heavens – in Meifu.

"I live near this place, you know the apartments?"

The boy nodded.

Hisoka was about go away and forget about this Ken-child but after taking a look in the boy's eyes, he felt compelled to talk to the boy more. The boy, on a closer look, was thin and pale. His eyes were very deep and looked deficient of sleep. His cheeks were a bit hollow and his lips were thin and slightly curved.

Hisoka knew that the boy was sick with something. The boy was probably suffering from some terminal disease. But with Hisoka's special ability of extra sensory perception*, he knew that the boy would pass away in a year or two, and so, he wanted to make a memory for the boy. Hisoka remembered the years he had spent in the pristine hospital which brought about fetid memories.

Hisoka went on, "But, that's only where I and my partner stay. We really live in Meifu – the land of the dead. Things aren't much different there than what you can find here."

The boy's eyes widened.

"Eh? Then… b-brother, are you dead?"

Hisoka attempted to laugh.

"It depends on how you describe 'dead'."

"Oooh…" The boy fawned. "Tell me a story about M-m-meifu."

Hisoka thought for a moment before answering.

"Once, there was a happy-go-lucky man. He was friendly and cheerful – although… Anyway, there was also this mad-scientist where I live. At least he calls himself a scientist. But no one trusts his experiments. One day, he gives a potion to the first man and then… Do you know what happened to the man?"

The boy's head shook vigorously.

"No, tell me!"

"Okay. The man was twenty-six in appearance but really old inside. The mad scientist had turned the man into a child. And the child was so cute and adorable and --"

"You like the child?" Ken interrupted.

"Y-ye-e-s," Hisoka's answer was dragged out slowly, with a slight stammer on his 'y'.

After some small talk, the boy left.

Hisoka wondered why he had some hesitation saying that he liked the child… Tsuzuki

After some more minutes – about ten or fifteen – something clicked in Hisoka's mind. It was like finding a key that fits a lock out of a thousand keys. He knew what he should tell Tsuzuki now.

~*~*~*~*~

Upon arriving, Hisoka took off his shoes and laid them neatly beside the door mat. He wondered what his juvenile partner was up to.

After looking around in the rooms, he found out that his partner was up to nothing. Tsuzuki was just sleeping on the couch. Hisoka thought it to be weird since Tsuzuki was not fond of sleeping on the couch.

'It's too hard,' he'd reason, and Hisoka would always let him sleep on the bed thereafter, knowing it futile to have another argument.

Hisoka sat on the corner of the couch that Tsuzuki was sleeping on. Hisoka's partner didn't take up much space as he lay slightly curled. Tsuzuki had taken off his blazer and his sleeves were rolled up. Hisoka thought that it was due to the hot weather earlier.

After some more minutes, Tsuzuki began to rouse. He was smiling, which was good, Hisoka observed.

Silence passed. Tsuzuki was fully awake now.

Hisoka cleared his throat.

"Tsuzuki, I want to talk to you."

Hisoka's partner flashed his amiable smile at him.

"Okay, I'm listening."

The young boy felt incredibly hot inside though the temperature of the living room was cool. He managed to speak calmly.

"I want to thank you."

Tsuzuki was still smiling, albeit confused.

"…for?"

"I want to thank you for this morning. I want to thank you for everything. You've always been there for me."

"Oh, you're welcome."

More silence passed. Tsuzuki sat straight on the couch and unrolled his sleeves.

Hisoka was looking at Tsuzuki's purple eyes.

"I don't think that thanking you is enough, though."

"…No, it's enough and more for me. I should be thanking you too, considering that you've always been there for me too."

"That's what partners do."

Can I see something here?

"Yep, thanks."

It went on like that for a few more minutes. The two thanked each other profusely. They thanked one another for a sweet, lending a pen, finding his book, and so on.

Hisoka, hating all things pointless, decided to change the topic.

"The flowers," Hisoka whispered, pokerfaced.

"You want a garden?" Tsuzuki wondered aloud.

"No. The tulips you gave me earlier."

"Oh, you meant those flowers! What about it?"

Hisoka wanted to say that he didn't like to be given flowers. Flowers reminded him so much of his murderer – Muraki. Hisoka also wanted to ask why Tsuzuki picked red tulips.

"…"

"…Don't you like it?"

"Yes, I like it," Hisoka lied, "I like it very much… Why did you pick red tulips, Tsuzuki?"

Hisoka's question was rushed and just added on. After so much delay, Hisoka decided that he wanted to be frank with Tsuzuki. Straight to the point and no nonsense, that's how you should talk to him.

Hisoka couldn't tell what Tsuzuki was feeling by his face. Reading Tsuzuki's emotions would be hard, considering the fact that Tsuzuki always had a barrier nowadays. Moments when he caught Tsuzuki off guard was getting rarer and rarer.

"I picked them… for you; I thought that you'd like them. I also picked them because…"

Tsuzuki paused and looked worried. Some seconds passed until he continued.

"I picked them because I like you."

Hisoka's heart skipped a beat. He was feeling a tad light-headed. He didn't know what he felt.

Tsuzuki was biting his lip.

"I – I'm sorry. Please forget about it."

"Don't be."

"What?"

"Don't be sorry, Tsuzuki."

The two looked a bit awkward. Hisoka continued and mumbled on.

"Don't be sorry… I like you too…"

Whatever happened from there on was beyond words.

Their conversation – or rather, confession, took place in the early afternoon. Now, it was a few minutes before ten, and the two were again sitting at the divan, Hisoka reading a novel and Tsuzuki staring at Hisoka as time passed by.

"Hisoka, can I ask you something?"

Hisoka held his book and inserted his thumb to keep track of the page he was reading.

"Yeah?"

"When you asked about the flowers… you seemed upset. Why?"

Hisoka sighed before replying.

"It's hard to explain. At first I thought that the flowers where wonderful. And really, they were. But then, I remembered some events that I associate with flowers. Like… him…"

"Oh."

"I shouldn't be saying these things to you."

Tsuzuki disregarded Hisoka's comment and smiled.

"Okay, no more flowers next time, then."

Hisoka nodded and was about to say something, but was cut short when Tsuzuki leaned over the short gap between them and gave Hisoka a hug.

"Because they make you feel bad…" Tsuzuki added in a whisper.

Somewhere in between their hug, Hisoka let go of his book, smiled, and returned the hug.

He would just have to get lost in the pleasure of reading the novel again.

'No more flowers.'

What a wonderful promise.

--Owari--

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: *eye twitch* I don't like the ending. I don't like the Ken-guy either. But the hugging scene was fun. O.O (Again, sorry if the characters are OOC, but at least I didn't call Tsuzuki and Hisoka 'the man' and 'the boy' again :/ )

* Um, a footnote… I referred to Hisoka's ability slash empathy slash ESP. I don't know if he can foresee deaths, but if he can't, leave it to his common sense to know that the Ken-boy is sick and will die soon. He is a bit OOC, striking a conversation with a stranger, but I like him that way. Doing random acts of kindness, I mean.

Anyway, please review! :P

- Lucien Dawn (- __ -)