It's dark. Where am I?

Ren's head swirled and danced in the ballet of tuneless music. His slender, almost skinny body felt lighter than air as he fought to move himself and obliterate the oppressing darkness.

I'm…alive…?

Somewhere around him, Ren could hear a gentle murmuring, like a faraway, lonely brook. He felt a warm, bubbly sensation surround him, something akin to a warm bath, and he found himself being lifted out of the murky blackness and up toward a dazzling light.

"…nothing…long time…"

"…therapy…hospital…"

"…stubborn…he is…"

His ears twitched as he faded in and out of his unconscious abyss. Two people were conversing in hushed tones near him. One was a deep, throaty growl. The other was a light, forced sound. Both sounded strangely familiar, but Ren could not identify them for his life.

Bason stopped talking. The silver connection he had with his master was jingling slightly, alerting him of increased brainwaves.

"Master Ren?"

Horohoro turned and gazed down at the still figure dressed in a starched, white hospital gown, up to his armpits in the sterile blanket, the deep purple of his shark fin hair stood out in an outlined halo with tears in his eyes. A stray strand strayed into the pale, haggard face and the snowboarder reached over and swiped it away.

A dark hand came up and snatched weakly at his wrist. Piercing cat-like eyes gazed at him half lidded.

IV's and other wires cascaded down from his arms, draping themselves across the safety bar as a pet snake would. The beeping heart monitor was moving a little faster to keep up with the respiration that was now increasing. The oxygen intake was sharply heard as Ren began breathing on his own, fogging up the clear plastic mouth cover. The blanket near his feet twitched as his knee spasmed slightly.

"Master Ren! You are awake!"

Tao Ren could do nothing but hold lightly onto Horohoro's slim wrist for dear life. Hell, he couldn't take his eyes off of the spiked up blue hair, the embroidered headband, crazy, light snowboarding turtleneck jacket.

Usui Horokeu moved his hand down until he was holding the hand of the one he loved so dearly—and almost lost it. He was bursting at the seams. His mouth and heart yearned for a confession at his expense, but his brain cautioned against it…scratch that: strictly forbade it. It reminded him of all the times Ren had scoffed, made fun of, and mentioned how much homosexuals disgusted him. That probably went for bisexuals as well. Which would probably include Horohoro.

"How're ya feeling?"

Ren's eyes remained half-lidded but he grunted. He was enjoying the feeling of Horo holding his hand and stroking his thumb. It sent needles down his arm and spread throughout his central nervous system until his whole body was in euphoria from just that single touch.

If he can do just that with the stroke of his thumb, he thought through a small haze, imagine what he could do with everything else…

A small blush crept to his face when he realized what he had just processed through his mind. Bason chose that moment to make himself scarce.

"Why'd you do it, Ren? Why go to such extreme measures for attention? Did I rub off that much?"

Horohoro's eyes were shadowed as Ren snorted again and sighed; a slight push of air.

Why did he do it? That's what the Chinese shaman couldn't figure out himself. Any number of reasons could have contributed: loneliness, depression, a slight miscalculation of just how warm the bath water really was? Maybe he just gave up?

"Gave up on what?"

? Maybe I really am going out of my mind. Did I say that aloud, or can he read my mind?

"Ren?"

"I just gave up on…everything."

His voice was cracked with sleep and a bit slurred from the drugs. There was utter silence in the room. It was so thick you could have sliced in cleanly in half with a fingernail. The heart monitor bleeped a bit, and the door behind Horohoro opened. A nurse with flyaway red hair, big breasts and a pudgy frame bustled in with an air of arrogant importance.

She walked to the edge of the bed, completely ignoring the stares from the shaman wonders, and pulled up the clipboard containing Ren's information up to her nose, sniffing indignantly.

"Suicide case, eh? Well," she let the brown clipboard shirked back to its place and hung by the silver beaded chain. She swiped a couple strands of her bright hair out of her face and grabbed Horohoro by the upper arm, guiding him forcefully out of the ham-smelling room. "The patient will have to undergo intense therapy for the next few hours. No visitors!" the white wooden door was slammed rudely in his face before he could utter a word. His black eyes shrunk and his mouth hung open. He stayed that way for a good few hours.

"Tray!" Horohoro looked up as Oyamada Manta came sprinting down the hall, earning annoyed stares from the hospital personnel and few visitors mingling in the hallway. A few inches taller since the Shaman Fight, the little man was still shorter than everyone else.

Unlinking his fingers and standing up, Tray welcomed his friend.

"Yoh and Anna were too busy today to come up, so they sent me to check on Ren! How is he?" Manta's eagerness and true concern for the other shaman allowed the usual smile to grace Horohoro's face.

"Ren woke up a few hours ago, but I don't know how he's doing. Some fat nurse shoved me out."

"That n-nurse w-w-wouldn't happen t-to be her, w-would it?"

Horohoro didn't even want to turn and look at what Manta was pointing at behind him. He could practically feel the lightning fly out from behind him, and if his hair weren't already in spikes, it would have stood on end. Still, like in every show, he turned around and gulped.

It was indeed the nurse that had shoved him out of the room earlier that day.

The blue-haired snowboarder seemed to shrink under the anger that radiated from the burly lady. Somewhere around them, a bell dinged, and a big boxing glove swerved out of nowhere and struck him in the face, sending him flying like a limp, wet noodle. Blood spurted out his nose as the same bell dinged again and the fat lady struck a pose.

"Nnngg…chya…ouwie…" Tray's eyes swirled around as he lay stunned on the once-sterile floor.

"Well, at least the fat lady's not singing…" Manta chuckled good-naturedly from his safe spectators seat in the corner. The redhead smiled at him, mistaking him for a little kid, and ruffled his dirty-blonde hair affectionately. Manta giggled. "She doesn't strike me as the motherly type…" he looked down at the still form of Horo. "You can get up now. She's gone."

He sat up and wiped the small creek of blood from his nose. The Ainu was feeling a bit lightheaded from the loss of blood, but nothing a good soda wouldn't cure.

"Man, that lady's got one hell of a right hook. Wanna go see if Ren's awake?" the Koro-Pokkur look-alike nodded and followed the taller man through the door that stood slightly ajar. The room was lightened with open shades, and the object of everyone's worry was sitting up in bed, watching Wheel of Fortune, and sipping some tea. He looked more than a little annoyed by the presence of a pulsing vein in his head.

Nurse Chupicabra from Mexico had left the TV on an American broadcast, clearly against her patients wish. The purple-haired man was drinking his tea with surprising outwardly calmness considering the circumstances.

"Somebody please turn this annoying box off before I blow it up…" he mumbled into his cup. His two friends were quick to obey; not wanting to get themselves blown up in the process. When the television was successfully shut off without anyone being killed, burned, or blown up, Manta and Horo sat on the edge of the bed on either side of the Chinese shaman. The pulsing vein on his head eventually ceased but his eye twitched occasionally.

"How are you feeling, Ren? That nurse didn't pummel you to the ground, did she?" the brunette blinked his huge eyes at the stoic man, hoping for at least a grunt. He didn't even get that.

"Ren? What kind of 'therapy' did that behemoth give you?"

Ren's eye twitched again and the vein returned, only larger than before.

"She recommended I stay at the hospital for another few weeks to be watched and undergo intense psychological testing. Then she sat here for hours asking me the dumbest questions I've ever heard. Bason, however, convinced her that I needed no treatment and that I just fell asleep in the bathtub." He chuckled humorlessly.

"Is that what really happened?"

'Yes, Master. I am curious to know that myself.' Bason sat cross-legged in the air by the large window that overlooked Tokyo's main street.

"Of course, you ninnies. The water was too warm and too relaxing. I fell asleep and almost drowned. Thank you for saving me, Bason," Ren answered after a moment. He put his cup of tea on the small brown tray in front of him and took to looking out the window, right through his spirit ally.

A comfortable silence hung in the room. However, Manta seemed to be the only one fooled by Tao Ren's smooth lie. Then, the ring of a cell phone broke the silence with a cracked whip. Irritably, Ren glared at Manta, who blushed and hurriedly pulled the small black device out of his pocket.

"H-Hello? Oh, hi Yoh! Yeah, yeah. Ren's fine…" the midget slipped easily off the bed and walked out of the room, waving a small hand in a goodbye. "…irritable as always, you know him…"

If it were possible, Ren probably would have glared harder, but Horohoro's laughter stopped him.

"Do you know how ridiculous you look trying to glare while you're in a hospital gown?" he howled, pointing a finger. The seventeen-year-old looked down, and blushed. The gown had a slit in one side and was showing off most of his muscular thigh. He looked like a teenager getting ready for her first prom. Horo heard Bason try to stifle a chuckle and he laughed even harder, rolling around on the floor, knocking things over until he couldn't breathe.

"When you decide to stop laughing, perhaps you can tell me why your still here?" the blue-haired snowboarder looked up and the prone figure of his shaman rival glaring at him, hands on his hips in an aggressive stance.

"Why I'm still here?" he echoed in confusion. The Ainu stopped rolling around and sat cross-legged on the floor in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be here? We thought you had tried to kill yourself so we all came up to see you. What's wrong with that?"

Ren's eyebrow twitched. Being in a room all alone with the object of his desire didn't make it easy for him to be angry. However, something had to be done to save himself from embarrassment.

"You saw me. Now, get out." Turning and stalking back to the barred bed, Ren completely missed the look of hurt that crossed Horo's face. He pulled back the ham-smelling sheets and climbed in, fully intending to go back to sleep.

"Get out? You don't mean that, Ren. Ren, what's wrong? What did I do to upset you? Why did you really try to kill yourself? Talk to me Ren!" he had reached the bed by now, standing on weak legs, supported only by the safety bar. He reached out a hand to touch the mane of purple hair flowing from the scalp of the one he loved, only to have it slapped away harshly.

"Did you not hear what I just said? Are you really that dense? I said, get out now!" cat-like yellow eyes blazed with an untold fury as Horohoro physically cringed.

What's wrong with him?

What's wrong with me?

The hand that had been pushed away now came back full force, gripping Ren's hair in an iron fist. He yanked his head back, forcing those haunting eyes to look at him. He was angry, perhaps angrier than Ren himself, and an ice-cold aura surrounded him. Horo's eyes darkened as he looked at Ren unmercifully.

"What have you got to hide, Tao Ren? What is it that you don't want me to see?"

Those eyes. Ren shivered a bit as he gazed into the blank, dark depths of those coal black eyes. I feel like they're spearing me through, sifting through my every thought. They're beautiful.

Alas, no matter how beautiful thoughts were, and no matter how he longed to hold that hand that was about to spring tears from his eyes, training took over.

"I have nothing to hide. Now, get your filthy hands off me before I…"

"Before you what? Kill me?"

His bluff called, Ren tried to yank the pale, cold hand out of his silky locks.

"I wouldn't give you the honor," the ritualistic banter of insults came and went, each trying to dent the other's façade into giving out the real motives. Horohoro was trying to get Ren to crack and open up, something was clearly bothering the other man. Ren was hiding underneath a mask of anger, hoping, praying and willing himself not to crack under the pressure. His head was starting to fog up a bit, and not much made sense. He had a feeling a stake would be driven through him at any moment.

"…then what is your problem! Your acting like a teenage girl that doesn't want the guy she likes to know she likes him!"

The room grew uneasily silent. Above, Bason and Kororo watched in utter shock as Horohoro nailed the whole problem right on the head. Ren could do nothing but stare as the glass wall before him shattered into millions of tiny pieces. His body pulsated and blood roared in his ears.

"That's it, isn't it?" Horohoro stated quietly as he back away from the bed, letting go of Ren's hair. "You like me, am I right?" both his fists clenched at his sides, the muscles in his arms contracting and bugling out slightly. "Answer me! I said 'am I right!'"

Ren brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them for comfort and buried his head in shame at being caught in a better mousetrap.

"H-hai…" he mumbled miserably.

Author's notes: Well, there's chapter three for ya! I can't even begin to describe how much of a bitch it was to write this chapter long. I'm more one for short, to the point chapters, so this one took a lot of patience. Have you ever noticed that all hospitals seem to smell like ham? Hopefully it came out to your liking and I didn't screw up anything too bad. Constructive criticism (no matter how harsh) is begged for and recommended. Author's don't feel to great about their work if people just say 'I love this story, please continue!' However, if specific points are listed of what you liked and disliked, than the author can work on it, or remedy it. Thank you to Falcon Strife who pointed out the mistake in the last chapter. I have corrected it and apologize for it. That was long winded. Oh, no! I have only two pieces of Sweet and Sour pork left and so much sauce! What am I going to do?!

Story title: Demon's Eye by Deep Purple

Chapter title: Bullet and The Bullseye by The Distillers