Author's Note: Still day...oh, let's call it Day J-4, else I'll get all confused. So if you haven't read at least through chapter four of "Lost in Jade" by now, you're going to be confused. I'll be addressing reviews at the end of this, so if you left questions, that's the place to look.
Also, I'm aware that the idiom is "sleight of hand" and the title of this chapter is not a spelling error. Now see if you can figure out why. ~_^
NOTE: This is now the expanded version of chatper 2
Warnings: Spoilers for "Lost in Jade" and Kyoto Arc. Angst, TsuxTouda, more of the shikigami being characterized however I feel fits them and my needs, and Touda being, well, himself.
Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei is the property of Matsushita Yoko - I'm just borrowing a few things. The plot is all mine though.
Language Note: oibore - (derog.) old man


Black Dove
II. Slight of Hand

Touda watched his master leave the briefing room, waiting for the door to actually click shut before turning his visored gaze back to SohRyu. Tsuzuki had every right to be concerned - were they in GenSouKai, it would have been almost certain that this meeting would have ended in combat. But they were not in GenSouKai and neither shikigami wished to saddle their master with yet more debt for damages to Juuohcho.
"What do you want, SohRyu?"
"I think I liked you better when you were pretending to know the meaning of respect. . . ."
"Get on with it already, oibore."
"Why you --!"
"AHEM. The reason we asked you to stay back is that we need you to work with us."
"Me? What do you need from me?"
"Nothing much. In fact, if Tsuzuki-sensei hadn't insisted on you staying, we wouldn't even be asking this much."
"Rikugou, you're as bad as your oracle. Stop talking in circles and get to the point!"
"Tsuzuki is a worrier by nature," SohRyu said dispassionately. "Since he seems to have some fondness for you for some reason . . . keep him occupied. I don't care how, just keep him distracted. If he sends you back to GenSouKai, so be it. Until then, keep him from worrying about the boy and above all else, keep him here, in Meifu."
"Unless he wants to go to GenSouKai," Rikugou added. "In fact, you could even suggest it to him. He might be happier there. Or at least less prone to worry. But really, the means of distraction is up to you."
"And what will you do? Don't tell me you have a secret way of tracking this boy that takes two whole days to accomplish it's miracle. . . ."
"You are as much on a need to know basis as the shinigami, Touda, and you don't need to know," SohRyu said with cold finality. Or rather, with what any other shikigami interested in staying alive would take to be a tone of finality. Touda, however, wasn't nearly so afraid of the blue-haired dragon lord.
"You're just going to wait and hope for the best, aren't you? You lied to him. . . ."
"I did nothing of the sort!" Rikugou exclaimed in outrage. "The oracle can't stay clouded forever. Besides, if all else fails, we can have the dove take us back to where she lost the trace and backtrack from there."
"The two of you? Right. Like a greater blue dragon and a man with eyes in his palms can walk around Chijou without being noticed. . . ."
"You would hardly make a better choice, hellsnake," SohRyu muttered, uncharacteristically snappish; perhaps their master's stress was finally getting to the formerly implacable shikigami. "IF it should come to that, Kouchin can be summoned to hunt the bird's trail.
"Now, if you are quite finished, I believe you have an assignment of your own. . . ."
"Hmph. I'll keep him occupied, but not for you, SohRyu."
Touda was actually surprised to see Tsuzuki wasn't waiting outside the briefing room. Tracking him was easy enough though, and in hind sight, he supposed he shouldn't've been surprised to find him in the office he shared with the boy.
"Sensei. . . ."
"No injuries?" his violet-eyed master mused, head tilted to one side in open curiosity; from anyone else, Touda wouldn't have tolerated such interest. "What did they want anyway?"
"To insult my intelligence," he grumbled, looking around the office. It was, to put it mildly, a disaster area. Paperwork was stacked across both desks, the remnants of a half-eaten lunch trying to hide between the stacks. Notes from what appeared to be an abandoned case were tacked to the workboard, but Tsuzuki was paying them no attention, his focus fixed rather steadily on Touda.
"Thank you for earlier," Tsuzuki murmured after another moment of silence. "You didn't have to speak for me."
"It was only proper; you are my master. But don't think I'd do that for anyone else."
"Of course not. . . ."
Another uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Touda had agreed to keep Tsuzuki distracted, but he didn't really know how to go about it. He had never been one for the social company of others and uncounted millenia imprisoned within Tenkuu had done nothing to make him more inclined towards socializing with anyone. But Tsuzuki was different. Special. No other could have arranged for his freedom, though Tsuzuki had once argued that Touda was anything but free. Perhaps the shinigami had the right of it, but then again, what right did someone such as himself have of freedom?
Shikai no hakaisha. Destroyer of worlds. He would have killed Tsuzuki in Kyoto, though it would have been the end of what freedom he had, because that was what his master had sought. The others did not understand, thought him heartless. They were fools, the lot of them. Touda would always serve Tsuzuki without question; it was nothing less than what his unlikely master had earned, nothing less than what he deserved for buying Touda's freedom.
"If you're just going to stand there and glare at things, you might as well go back to GenSouKai," Tsuzuki murmured, interrupting Touda's chain of thought.
"Are you ordering me back then, sensei?" he asked quietly in response, surprised to see amethyst eyes sliding away from his when he turned towards his master.
". . . no. . . ."
"I said I would remain until you ordered me to leave," he reminded the man quietly. "I do not break my word."
"If SohRyu were here, he would undoubtedly call you a liar," Tsuzuki murmured with a weak smile.
"Perhaps," Touda conceded, "but he is not here."
"No . . . he's not . . . and I'm glad for that."
Yet another uneasy silence. Touda wondered if he shouldn't just suggest they both go to GenSouKai and leave his master in Suzaku's care. She would coddle him, of course, but he had to wonder if that wasn't the sort of attention Tsuzuki needed.
"Sensei . . . perhaps we should go somewhere else. SohRyu will contact you if there is anything you can do to assist them and in the mean time . . . there is no reason to remain here where you are reminded of your failure to find the boy."
"Not that it really matters where I go, since you'll be able to remind me anyway," Tsuzuki snapped back.
"If my company is so unwelcome, sensei, then order me back to GenSouKai!" he snapped back in irritation. This was not going the way he had intended.
"I . . . fine!"
Touda blinked behind his visor, waiting, but Tsuzuki neither looked at him nor said another word. Had he actually been ordered back or not? He couldn't tell.
"Return with me," he said quietly, surprising even himself. "The peace would be good for you. And Suzaku is far better company than I."
"You would say even Tenkuu was better company," the violet-eyed shinigami murmured, still not meeting his gaze.
"And it would be the truth," Touda replied in complete seriousness. "Will you return with me?"
"I . . . guess I have no reason not to. . . . Go ahead and I . . . I'll follow. . . ."
Touda was silently thankful for the visor that hid his narrowed eyes as he studied Tsuzuki thoughtfully. He wasn't entirely sure the shinigami would follow, but he had little choice in the matter. He would simply have to trust Tsuzuki to keep his word.
As it was in Meifu, so it was dusk in GenSouKai, a crisp spring breeze fluttering through the trees. No one was waiting for them, but the sounds of scuffling feet made it clear that someone was coming. Undoubtedly Tenkuu's doing, and a sign that Tsuzuki had indeed followed him. Who would care to come and greet him?
"Tsuzuki-niisan!"
Touda ruthlessly suppressed the urge to smile as Tenkou pounced Tsuzuki with an enthusiastic hug.
"Tenkou, isn't it a bit late for you to be up?"
"Hai, but Daddy isn't here, so. . . . Besides, you're here!" she replied, giggling as she hugged the bewildered man again. Time for him to come to his master's rescue once more. If this continued, he was going to run the risk of ruining his own reputation.
"Go on, Tenkou, and find Suzaku. Then get to bed."
The childlike shikigami stared up at him with wide eyes for a moment, obviously surprised that Touda had said anything at all. He frowned and with a yip, she scampered back into the palace.
"You scared her," Tsuzuki commented, mildly reproaching.
"So?" he asked, shrugging slightly, offering Tsuzuki a hand up. The shinigami shook his head as he pushed himself to his feet, chuckling ever so softly. Seeing that his hand was being ignored, Touda retracted it, a faint noise of annoyance escaping him.
"Tsuzuki Asato! How dare you summon him and not me! Again!"
"I was what he needed, not you, Suzaku. SohRyu yelled at him enough for the both of you."
"As if I would do such a thing!"
"Aren't you yelling right now?" he replied mildly, crossing his arms over his chest. The fiery red-headed shikigami glared death at him, but that was no new development. He despised the way she coddled their master and she couldn't tolerate his cold mannerisms. And of course she refused to forgive him for nearly killing Tsuzuki in Kyoto, regardless that he had been following their master's orders at the time.
"Please, both of you. . . ."
"But Tsuzuki . . . you summoned Rikugou and SohRyu and then . . . him? Why? Why did you wait so long to ask for our help?"
"Because . . . because Hisoka's missing and I . . . I haven't been able to find him, no matter how hard I tried," Tsuzuki confessed, his voice cracking either from stress or guilt. Probably equal measures of both, but now that he was with Suzaku, there was no reason for Touda to linger. Not that the palace halls were any more comfortable; Tenkuu had quite the list of grievances against him and in his stodgy building fashion, he adamantly refused to forgive Touda for any of them, most especially not for managing to get himself freed.
"Touda! Touda, wait!"
Byakko. He had no interest in what the lazy tiger shikigami could possibly want from him, so he kept walking, making his methodical way towards the stairs that would take him to the roof. Unfortunately, the wind god seemed quite intent on catching him.
"Touda! Didn't you hear me?"
"I heard you, I just didn't care."
"Oh, well, um, what did he want? I mean, it's pretty weird, calling Rikugou and SohRyu and then summoning you."
"He wanted me to play bridge with him," Touda sneered. "What do you think he wanted?"
"Ne, you don't have to be so snarky about it."
"Look, if you want to know, why don't you just ask him? He's with Suzaku."
"You could be a little nicer, you know. . . ."
"Why bother? Leave me alone, cat."
"Such a lonely life you lead. A person could almost feel sorry for you . . . if you weren't such a cold-hearted bastard."
Touda ignored the other shikigami, single-minded in his retreat to the palace roof. The roof was his domain, a place of solitude from which he could see into nearly the entire palace complex, depending on where he sat. The one place in the entire palace that he could be assured that he would not be frivolously disturbed. The one place where he could be assured some measure of peace, no matter how undeserving of such he might be.
It was full night by the time Touda reached his preferred perch, the garden paths lit by the gentle yellow glow of torches, a warm light that failed to reach even to the tops of the trees. The breeze carried the faint scent of sakura blossoms as it whispered past, along with a hint of fresh spring greenery and the promise of rain later. But the sky was perfectly clear as he gazed out over the land, the rooftops silvered with the light of the nearly full moon. It was an illusion, like the countless stars that dotted the black bowl of the night sky, though he couldn't remember precisely what it was supposed to symbolize. He had been told that each star was a human life, or perhaps merely a computer terminal, but the waxing and waning moon? Perhaps it was merely a construct of their own design, but to what end? Such a thing would only be a comfort to a human who was used to seeing it and no humans lived in GenSouKai. Or perhaps it symbolized some intrinsic yet ever-changing element of the virtual world. He didn't know.
"You must truly hate me."
Touda jerked around in a tight circle, towards the source of the intruding voice. He was more than a little surprised that anyone had bothered to seek him out. Then again, it was Tsuzuki. A Tsuzuki who looked far more . . . poised than he had all evening.
"I mean, really. First you send Tenkou running to tell Suzaku that I'm here and then, as if that wasn't enough, you throw Byakko at me as well. Are you really that unhappy with me as your master? Because if you are, maybe you should look for a new one. Hisoka could probably use your strength right now. . . ."
"I will serve no other, not even at your command, for the rest of your days," he vowed sharply as he rose to his feet. Tsuzuki stood his ground as he drew closer, amethyst eyes hardened with something Touda couldn't define.
"Then why? Why set them upon me?"
Touda tried to respond . . . and found himself speechless. Had he actually been motivated by something more than a desire to be away from Tsuzuki's broken emotions? He knew himself well enough to know that he did not handle such emotional displays well, but was that all? Or was there something more? Faced with a direct question, he was disturbed to find that he didn't know the answer. While he could not admit such a thing to his master, neither could he lie to the man.
"Well?"
"I . . . thought she was what you needed. I'm surprised she let you go. . . ."
"Even the mighty Suzaku needs to sleep sometimes. As for Byakko . . . I told him I needed to sleep," Tsuzuki replied with a casual shrug. But the intensity in his eyes belied his careless tone.
"Lying to your own shikigami now, sensei?" Touda asked, a faint smile brushing at the corner of his mouth inspite of himself.
"I'll sleep soon enough," he replied with another shrug. "What about you? Planning to spend the whole night up here?"
"It wouldn't be the first time."
"They hate you that much?" Tsuzuki murmured, a genuinely sad look touching his eyes as one hand reached out to brush fleetingly against Touda's cheek.
Touda said nothing as he turned away; there was nothing to say. Tsuzuki knew even better than he did how strenuously the other shikigami had objected to his release, knew all too well what requirements had been forced upon him as part of his freedom. A freedom that was as fleeting as the breath of a single man who had refused to take no for an answer. And they hated him all the more for doing everything he could to honor and obey Tsuzuki? Could those fools not see that, had he succeeded in killing their master, it would have been the end of his freedom, if not his very life? Yet still they questioned. . . .
"Like calling to like, you and I," Tsuzuki murmured. "Dark and brooding, with a power they fear and despise."
"So it is. . . ."
"It's not good to always be alone."
"There are worse things to be. . . ."
Tsuzuki laughed then, a quiet sound that floated on the night air even as it tried not to carry. It didn't last; there was too much weighing down the man's spirit.
"I suppose there are at that. And being with me is probably one of them, so I'll say good night. Don't forget to get some sleep yourself, Touda."
Touda turned back to watch Tsuzuki walking away, contrarily annoyed that the man was leaving so easily. That was not the fighting spirit that had reached out to him in the deepest dungeons of Tenkuu, nor the persistence that had promised to free him from his eternal prison. Did the boy really mean that much to him? Or were these deeper wounds, only aggrevated by his inability to find his partner? Touda could only stand and wonder. . . .
And this is any more like you, just watching him walk away?
"Sensei. . . ."
Tsuzuki paused at the top of the stairs, but didn't turn around, even as Touda drew closer.
"Sensei . . . why did you summon me? I offer little enough in the search for your partner. . . ."
"You know, at the time, I didn't know. . . . But . . . you were right. You were what I needed. Your strength, your confidence . . . and maybe even your arrogance."
"A kiss for arrogan
"Aa . . . that. . . . No, that was different. . . ."
"Dominance, knowing I couldn't protest?" Touda asked quietly.
"No!" Tsuzuki declared hotly as he spun round to glare at him, surprising him with the anger in those amethyst eyes. As if . . . as if Touda's words had offended him somehow. While it wouldn't be the first time something he had said had offended someone, Tsuzuki had never looked him that way.
"I would never . . . well, I did . . . but never again without your consent!"
"What does a servant's desires mean to his master?"
"You expect me to believe that is how you see yourself?"
"You are my master, Tsuzuki Asato. I am bound to serve you and obey you in all things, without question. Failure is to be imprisoned once more. But I would no more fail you than I would serve another. . . ."
Touda suspected he knew what had brought Tsuzuki to the roof, but he had no proof and without that . . . it was a calculated risk, but he wasn't the sort to just let someone walk away. Careful of the armored claws that extended from his bracers, he pulled Tsuzuki closer, until only bare centimeters separated them. The other man's breath tingled against his lips and he could feel a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth.
"If there was something you wanted, sensei," he whispered, the words taunting his master if the slight tremor was any indication, "then take it."
Something in those shimmering violet depths clicked into place and the space between them vanished as Tsuzuki claimed his mouth in another hungry kiss, hands clenching on his arms possessively. He could taste the desperation and the longing, that unbridled desire almost as potent an aphrodisiac as the dark power that lurked within his master, calling out to him.
It was Tsuzuki who broke away first, his hands dropping to his sides and his eyes closing as he rested his forehead against Touda's.
"No . . . not if this isn't what you want. . . ."
Touda shifted his right hand from Tsuzuki's neck to cup the back of the man's head, claws extending past his fingers momentarily in a silent reminder that Touda could withdraw at any time, if he so chose. He adjusted his own position minutely, kissing Tsuzuki's forehead before sliding his other hand down to the other man's waist, drawing the shinigami against him. For a moment Tsuzuki simply leaned against him, a weary sigh echoing up from him.
"Perhaps if you rested first. . . . You have a room?"
"Somewhere. No idea where, though. I think I'd rather stay with you anyway."
Touda caught himself smiling again; he'd done that more since Tsuzuki had summoned him than he had in years and it felt at once both strange and completely natural. Normally he would have spent the night on the roof, napping as needed. But with Tsuzuki to consider . . . he did have his own apartment, rarely used as it was.
"If you expect me to carry you. . . ."
"Of course not," Tsuzuki replied as he straightened, smiling tiredly. "But you will have to lead the way."
Resisting the urge to smile yet again, Touda silently led his master through the slumbering halls of Tenkuu to his apartment. An unremarkable yet luxurious antechamber led to an equally unpersonalized bedroom of fine screens and black wood furnishings. Tsuzuki's arms wrapped around his waist from behind, sighing as he rested his chin against his unarmored shoulder.
"I suppose I'm not surprised," the shinigami murmured, his breath warm on Touda's cheek. "Sleep beside me? Be a shame to waste such a fine bed. . . ."
"If you wish, sensei," he replied, though he had been intending to sleep on the floor. In hindsight, he should have known better.
Hesitant fingers tugged and probed at the restraints that had become such a part of Touda's current existence, seeking out the latches and clasps that would release the armor. He so rarely removed more than a few of the more heavily armored sections that it took him a moment to realize what Tsuzuki was doing.
"Sensei. . . ."
"You can't sleep in all of this," Tsuzuki interrupted as he succeeded in slipping off the bone pauldron, his fingers lingering longer than strictly necessary on Touda's shoulder. "There's no reason for it. And no reason I can't help you."
"Sensei," he sighed, trying to protest his master's insistence upon undressing him, but Tsuzuki would not be discouraged. Rather than be handled, he tried to shrug off Tsuzuki's hands, carefully undoing the numerous latches and buckles for his claws and bracers. It was something of a labor-intensive process and by the time he had removed both the armorments and the protective gloves beneath, he was surprised to find himself in only his long tunic and undergarments, curious fingers probing at his visor. Touda had been so focused on his task that he hadn't even noticed Tsuzuki removing his boots.
The visor. If that was removed, he really would have full control of his powers once more. Already he could feel the magic within him burning more strongly than it had since his imprisonment. He would have the power to burn Tenkuu to the ground, to take revenge on all those who had lashed out at him since his release. He had sworn not to use his powers unless ordered by Tsuzuki, but without the visor . . . the temptation would be too strong.
"Sensei," he murmured once more, reaching up to pull Tsuzuki's hands away from the visor, "you mustn't."
"I want to see you, Touda . . . not this mark of slavery."
"Without it . . . even I am not immune to temptation," he said quietly, turning to face Tsuzuki. His master frowned up at him with troubled eyes, the fear of failure dancing in them once more. Touda knew that look, remembered it as the first thing he had seen through visored eyes.
"I wanted for you to be free," Tsuzuki sighed, repeating his words from that day as he touched the visor hesitantly, tracing the curve of the metal edge.
"Even contained, I am free, sensei. Free to surrender to you as your willing slave," Touda replied quietly, arms folding around his master's waist.
"Don't talk like that," Tsuzuki admonished tiredly, pulling free to walk past him, only to stop a couple of paces away, staring down at the unused bed. Touda wasn't sure how to respond to that verbally, but he knew that Tsuzuki needed sleep and that he couldn't sleep in his current mode of dress. Nor would he be sleeping well with as much tension as he was carrying. So rather than saying anything at all, he walked up behind his master and slowly slipped the rumpled black jacket down Tsuzuki's arms until it dropped to the floor, brushing faint kisses against the back of the shinigami's neck.
"Touda. . . ."
"You cannot mean to tell me you intended to sleep in this rumpled thing," he smirked, though to be honest, it looked very much like his master had done just that at least once already. "I'm surprised Suzaku didn't throw you into the baths . . . or at least make sure you slept."
"She never really had the chance," Tsuzuki confessed, neither protesting Touda's attention any further nor doing a thing to assist with the process of undressing. As if he were too tired to bother, which was quite possibly true. Touda eased his master out of his disheveled suit, a bemused sigh sneaking out of him as he watched Tsuzuki collapse onto the bed without even bothering to pull back the linens.
"Perhaps that is just as well," Touda murmured, kneeling at his master's side. Delicately probing, his fingers carefully investigated the knots across Tsuzuki's back, moderately surprised that the shinigami wasn't protesting. The depth of tension spoke of years of abuse and neglect due to stress, likely at Tsuzuki's own hands. Touda had never met anyone nearly as determined to think the worst of himself. And that determination showed in the depth of tension the man was carrying. Touda actually feared that, to release those knots, he would have to hurt his master even more deeply, so he resigned himself to merely releasing the surface tension. The response from Tsuzuki was immediately gratifying as a long sigh bordering on a purr oozed out of him.
"Sankyuu, Touda," the shinigami purred as he rolled over, ending the massage far too early for Touda's liking. Purple eyes shimmered up at him under heavy lids, proving once more how tired the other man was. When was the last time Tsuzuki had slept a full night? He was almost afraid to ask. Annoying, the gathering fears for his master, so entwined with other emotions he had been happy to forget.
"Sleep. You look terrible."
"I will," he replied and with obvious effort, Tsuzuki reached up to cup Touda's cheek. "With you beside me, perhaps I'll even have gentle dreams for a change. Come, lay down, Touda. You need the sleep as much as anyone."
Touda resisted for only a moment, then sighed as he shifted to lay on the other half of the bed. He was bound to serve and he had given his word, but as he lay there with his hands tucked under his head, he felt no tiredness of his own. But as he lay unmoving, the bed shifted and dipped, Tsuzuki's warmth sliding closer as the man snuggled against him, one arm slung possessively over his torso.
"You do realize we are laying on top of all the bedlinens. . . ."
"Minor detail," Tsuzuki murmured, his fingers tracing a section of swirling embroidery on his tunic.
"You won't think so when you're freezing in the morning. . . ."
"Why would I be cold? You're here. . . ."
Seemingly negligent fingers continued to lightly trace the sewn patterns of Touda's tunic, lulling and soothing him into a false sense of quiescence until, quite suddenly, his perspective on the situation changed. Rather than staring up at elegent yet bland ceiling tiles, Tsuzuki's face was abruptly only scant centimeters above his own.
"You will keep me warm, won't you Touda?"
Such an innocent question, and yet filled with so many unspoken suggestions. And then there was the worried pleading even his tiredness couldn't hide.
"Of course," Touda said softly, a smile threatening. Relief flooded violet eyes and then Tsuzuki was kissing him insistently, his unbridled desire kindling an echo within him. A seeking hand slid under Touda's tunic, carelessly stretching the form-fitting garment out of shape in the quest for living flesh. Every move the man made spoke of possession and dominance and some part of Touda instinctively rebelled against it for a moment before intellect reasserted itself. His tunic was torn in Tsuzuki's urgency and with a growl of annoyance, he rolled them over.
"You," he accused, "are supposed to be sleeping. Not seducing one you know will give you everything."
"You could stop pretending like you don't want it," Tsuzuki growled in response, yanking Touda's head down into another possessive kiss. This time Tsuzuki succeeded in removing the clinging tunic that had thwarted him before, heedlessly tossing it aside. Nipping kisses slid down Touda's throat, his breathing growing heavy as his master's fiendishly skilled tongue teased at one nipple. Memory failed to recall ever feeling anything quite like it and he was distressed at the needy whimper that oozed out of him when Tsuzuki stopped.
"Sensei. . . ."
Teasing fingers ran through Touda's hair, his master pulling him closer to lap and nip at the curve of his neck. His breathing was coming in soft pants, intermittently disturbed by quiet, longing mewls, while his arms trembled with the effort of holding him up, preserving what little space existed between himself and Tsuzuki.
"Sensei," he repeated, his voice little more than a husky whisper, but Tsuzuki seemed to be willfully ignoring him, gentle lapping becoming insistent suction. Seeking fingers explored his back and flanks, one hand teasing briefly at the waistband of his undershorts before trailing slowly lower. Touda's own body betrayed his will, responding to Tsuzuki's touch even though he knew the other man needed sleep more than he needed sex.
"Sensei," he insisted a third time, "sleep."
"I don't want sleep," Tsuzuki said in a husky whisper. "And according to this, neither do you."
"Sensei," he sighed, planting light kisses on the man's face, "I will never deny you what you want, what you need. Whatever you ask, I will give it to you. So please . . . do not ask this."
"Touda. . . ."
"In the morning," Touda interrupted, placing a silencing finger over Tsuzuki's lips. "Anything you wish, only promise me you'll sleep first."
"In the morning," Tsuzuki agreed and from the lascivious glint in those sparkling eyes, Touda knew he meant it.



End Notes
As promised, notes to specific reviewers. But first, a general thank you to everyone who's read and/or reviewed. Can't believe the first chapter got over 200 reads already. Thanks much, guys.

Nel: Ah, but is it or am I just playing with your minds? This arc is just beginning, after all. . . . ~_^

Akira: I'm working on it! Glad you liked it.

Yanagi-sen: Hope this was soon enough, though probably not, eh? ~_^ Maybe this'll help tide you over for a little while? Maybe?

Mason-san: Congrats, you're my new all-time favourite reviewer. ^__^ Seriously, thank you. And now, for your questions!
Why a separate fic? Story integrity, really, as snobbish as that sounds. It's not apparent from the reader's perspective, but the shinigami's hunt for Hisoka needs to be separate from "Lost in Jade" or else things get messy. "Jade," "Dove," and JA#3 are kind of like interlocking gears, with "Dove" acting as a bit of a bridge between #1 and #3. So yes, there is a plan - I rarely start writing an arc until I have it plotted at least through three stories. ~_^
Here's to hoping I continue to at least meet your expectations. And perhaps even do something to redeem Tsuzuki? I've been known to do it (redeem disliked characters, that is), but I'm not going to be egotistical enough to say I'll do it in this case. ^__^ As for Hisoka's problems, well... *chuckles* It was a discussion they needed to have. Whether they're right or not, well, you'll just have to wait and see, yes?