Ok, I have gotten two emails asking me to update, one threatening bodily harm via a wooden spoon, so I figured that it was time to update. These are the things that spur me on, I need them. Now, moving on to the excuse. I'm going to go one the good failsafe of too busy. You see, my movie is premiering June tenth and the slight problem is that it is not edited yet nor is the soundtrack written. That is my top priority at the moment, I hope you understand. If none of you have ever tried to produce a film then you could not understand how hectic it gets. I think we still have another scene to film!!!! (go to www.thegreensword.tk because it is awesome!)

Ryo's fingers hovered over the glowing numbers on the phone, itching to dial Dee's cell phone number but suddenly getting cold feet. What if Dee had decided that he didn't care about him any more? What if he was mad?

"You will never know until you call him." Ryo told himself, pressing the first number. "Now I have to keep going or else I will get the operator." The rest of the numbers flew by and soon a familiar sound of ringing followed. It rang twice before it was answered.

"Hello, Dominos Pizza, what can I do for you?" the voice on the other side commented lazily.

"DEE!" Ryo laughed, recognizing Dee's voice and knowing him far too well to actually expect that he had called Dominos Pizza by mistake.

"Ryo! Oh my god!" Dee's laugher carried over the phone. It was a sweet melody to Ryo's ears, the sound of that man's laugh made him long for his touch. He felt himself go weak in the knees and need to sit down. He collapsed on the carpet, now glad that he had gotten the long phone cord rather than the short one

"I'm sorry for not keeping in touch with you for all of this time, but I don't know if I could have been able to stand hearing from you but not being able to be with you. Please forgive me, I know that it is a lot to ask." Ryo held his breath. He feared Dee's reaction, there was no way that he would forgive him just like that and he didn't want him to realize that he had broken down at the very sound of Dee's voice. "And, I want to invite you up to visit me." Ryo had no idea how Dee would react to the sudden change in his mood.

"When can I come over?" on the other end of the line, Dee smiled. Drake laughed at the idiotic expression on his face but was soon smacked by JJ. "Oh, please say soon!" There was a pause as Ryo spoke, and then "Next weekend works for me too, but, just so you are warned, I have changed some......You have too, that's good. I mean, you were perfect as you were, but it is just good that you don't think that having the love of your soul mate ripped away from you, for two years, for no good reason, wouldn't change someone."

They continued on until their goodbyes were said, without saying the words, instead they swore to see each other soon. Dee put the phone down and looked to Drake and JJ.

"He invited me to visit him for a weekend." Dee told them in an excited yet hushed voice. "I'm just not sure if going would be such a good idea. I might end up doing something that I'll regret afterwards. I think I might call back and cancel." Dee bit his lip, chewing hard on one particular area, fingers playing overtop of the phone. The excitement was gone now, he was already filled with regret.

"Oh come on! You told me yourself that you don't really care about James, what do you have to loose?" Drake asked, having to push JJ off of his mouth first. Even though they saw one another every day, JJ always acted like it would be their first and last moment together in years.

"I know, but I thought that I was over him." Dee slouched down on his desk. "I suppose you never really get over love, do you?"

"Never." Drake confirmed, "And if he had the power to make you give up everything for that long, that was love." Drake reached around JJ and pulled two doughnuts out of the box, handing one to Dee and keeping the other for himself. JJ immediately started whining for one and Dee left the room so that he and Drake could share one however they wished.

"And Ryo complained about me being horny!" he muttered to himself as he left the precinct. "If he could only see them now that Drake isn't so uptight." Dee flung himself in front of a cab, forcing it to pick him up, and gave him an address for the other side of the city, willing to pay whatever price he had to in order to get there as fast as possible. He had to tell James that the date was off.

He was dropped off in front of a large building that stretched upwards for stories beyond count. He entered the lobby and headed directly to the stairs, climbing to the sixth floor by foot rather than the elevator. He had always thought it to be too crowded. About in the middle of the hallway, he reached James' apartment and knocked on the door.

"Come in" James called from inside. Dee opened the door to find his new boyfriend stretched out on the couch watching TV. "Dee, what are you doing here? We don't have a date tonight, do we?" James sat up as Dee cam closer.

"No," Dee moved over to the couch and sat down in a space recently vacated by James' legs. "I have to cancel our plans for this weekend. I know that you were looking forward to it, but something came up."

"Is it some other guy?" James' soft blue eyes formed into an unnatural looking glare after his confused question. "If it is, just tell me."

"Yes, it is, very good friend of mine invited me to spend the weekend with him. I want to visit him while I have the chance, because I haven't heard from him in two years, but it sounds like he has had some tough times." Dee carefully manipulated the facts so that James couldn't see the truth beneath them. "So, yeah, it is another man."

A look of relief spread over James' face, still clueless as to the truth and willing to believe anything that Dee told him. He rapidly agreed to canceling their plans and attempted to start a make out session with Dee who, for the first time in his life, refused. He had too much on his mind for that.

He had to get ready to go, physically and mentally. He had the entire week to pack that wasn't the problem. He just wasn't sure that he could face the man who broke his heart, not only broke it, but shattered it beyond the point of repair. After Ryo had left him he had plunged downward, drinking more and giving up on his attempts to quit smoking. He had promised Ryo that he would do neither, but that had been when he still thought that Ryo loved him, that was what had given him the power to change. Without it, he was worse off than before. It had only been the week before that Dee had been able to scrape together enough courage to ask another man out again, James, but he knew that he didn't love him. He knew that he would never love so truly again.

The news anchor droned on and on about the latest crisis as Ryo and Amy snuggled on the couch, half paying attention to the strife of some small country that they had never heard of and completely ignoring the story on a small town's trouble in putting up a monument in the park.

"Randy, I wont be able to be here when your friend gets here. I have to watch Melody's chorus concert." Amy whispered to him, not wanting to break the calm silence that had fallen over the room. "You remember my niece, right? The cute little girl with the curls. She has a solo and I promised that I would go to it and then the date got pushed back because the renovation on the auditorium was behind schedule."

"That's alright, it might even be for the best, that way I get to talk with him a little bit first." Ryo sighed slightly, chewing on his bottom lip.

"Is something wrong, baby?" Amy asked, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Are you having second thoughts?" she loosened her grip to allow Ryo to turn around to look at her. His liquid back eyes had a sad shine to them, as though he were about to cry.

"More like third or fourth. Dee, the guy I invited up, he made a big difference in my life. He really changed me and made me realize things about myself that I never would have figured out on my own. He means a lot to me, but since I left the city, I have managed to forget everything that he showed me, it wasn't easy and it wasn't a good idea either. I cant wait to see him, but I don't want to mess up my life here. I got in more trouble with him on my first week on the job than I have in my two years here combined. There are other things, but I think that it is in my past."

"If that is what you want." She snuggled back down with him, kissing his cheek before laying her head down on his chest. She could think of nowhere else that would be better, no glory that could be greater, than being with him. She had met he him on the three anniversary of her husbands death after a three year marriage. He had always said that threes were always popping up in his life. When she talked to Ryo she could tell that he was the one, something inside told her that it would be alright to date again and she was quick to settle down. "I love you."

Ryo mumbled something in response, not wanting to claim love when he was having doubts about it. Talking with Dee had changed something in him, though he was not sure just what. He wasn't planning on abandoning Amy after a single call from a lost love, and certainly not a gay one at that. He had decided long ago that it had been nothing more than foolishness. Dee was the exception, the one man he could care about, but he wasn't gay. He was always certain about that. He would not allow himself to be put under a label like that, never. He had not moved past that part of his life, it had never happened, Dee had only confused him and tricked him into thinking that he loved him. After he met with him, he would see that his life was all straightened out and that he didn't love Dee. He had told himself that many sleepless nights. Despite his insistence, he was never fully able to convince himself that he didn't need the black haired man.

Ok, I know, short chapter, shorter than the rest even, but I couldn't find a way to drag it out any longer. I don't want to have them meet yet because that would be just cruel because I don't like to mess around with chapter length so it would have been cruel to you for letting them meet and then not letting you see any of the action yet, and I use the term "action" lightly.

Sorry about long updating time, I need more people to hound me to get me to write!