Author's Note: Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know, I've been extremely derelict in finishing this fic… my apologies to all who have been following it… but you know how it can be with school and writer's block… Anyway, as usual, I want to thank my sis Blitzkrieg9688 for all her hard work in pestering my constantly to write, and in providing me with lines when I'm stuck… which usually turn out of be the best lines in the fic. Also, thanks to everyone who has left reviews!

And yeah… I know I said "to be concluded" in the last chapter, but this one turned out a lot longer than I initially thought, and I figured… it would be better to make it a four chapter ficcie instead of a three chapter one. So yeah… enjoy!

Chapter Three: Seeking (AKA: Kei Goes Slumming)

Himeno hummed to herself as she sat at her computer, typing up the last page of a term paper for one of her Marketing classes. Although she hated writing long papers, she was always happy to be nearing the end, and happier still for the sense of accomplishment that they carried. From her purse, a muffled MIDI of "Whistle While You Work" from the Disney version of Snow White began to play. She abruptly jumped up from the chair and ran to the door where her purse hung; a Snow White ring-tone on her cell phone could only mean it was one of the Leafe Knights calling, and she had been waiting all day to hear from Goh and find out how his lunch with Kei had gone.

Her face brightened when the caller ID revealed the caller to, in fact, be Goh. She quickly flipped the phone open. "Goh? I wanna know EVERYTHING!"

"………Himeno… can you watch the kids this afternoon?" Goh's voice was low and his speech slow.

Himeno frowned. It wasn't the request that bothered her, but the tone in his voice. He sounded morose but oddly under control. It seemed that his meeting with Kei hadn't gone well. "…Are you all right?" She asked.

"I… well… not really. I just need to get out some and think… Don't… don't worry about me, Himeno-chan…" Goh answered flatly, before hanging up.

"Damn it, Goh…" Himeno sighed as she put her cell phone back in her purse. For a moment the thought of going out to look for the Knight of Fire, to see if he was really OK, crossed her mind, but she thought better of it. Goh sounded thoroughly determined to sulk, and she knew well enough by now that when Goh got into one of his moods, there was no shaking him out of it. She had bullied his secret about Kei out of him, but that was only because he was already on the verge of telling her anyway. She felt a bit guilty for making him go confess to Kei… obviously the Knight of Light had not returned his feelings, and now Goh was nursing a broken heart. She plopped down in her chair, now thoroughly bummed out, and not really wanting to work on her term paper anymore.

But then, her cell phone began to play "Whistle While You Work" again. She jumped up and ran back to the door to retrieve her purse again. Taking it out, she examined the caller ID, and her pulse quickened. Kei! "Ano… moshi-moshi…" She said as she answered, trying to sound casual, knowing Kei wasn't likely to be particularly pleased with her.

"I suppose I have you to thank for Goh blindsiding me this afternoon."

Himeno flinched. "I hope you weren't that cold to Goh," She snapped. There was a long pause. "Well?"

"Have you heard from Goh?" He finally asked, sounding extremely reluctant.

"…And what if I had?" Himeno answered loftily, but apparently Kei could not be so easily distracted. Nor was he about to share the details of the conversation with her. She could tell by his carefully (too carefully) measured tone that he was trying hard (too hard) to sound like his usual calm self. He's really upset…

"Please… I need to find him…"

Himeno flinched. She couldn't help thinking this was all her fault. "Well, I'm sorry, Kei, but… I don't know where he is. He asked me to watch Mannen and Hajime and Shin and then hung up… he said he needed to think."

There was another pregnant pause and Kei sighed on the other end of the line. "OK… thanks…"

Himeno was burning to ask him about the details of what had transpired, but knew it would do her no good. Maybe she had been wrong to interfere… "Kei… are you all right?" She asked, wondering how often she would have to ask if one of her knights was all right in one week when there wasn't even any fighting going on.

"I will be when I find him… It shouldn't be difficult… after all, we have a connection," Kei said, somewhat gravely.

"Oh yeah.. you're both Leafe Knights… it shouldn't be hard at all for you to find him…" Himeno said, some of her worrying lessening.

"…That, too…"

Before Himeno could say anything else, the line went dead.

"Kei…" She frowned at the screen of her cell phone, and slowly returned to her desk, this time leaving the pink phone nearby where she could answer it easily if anyone else called again. What did he mean… "that, too"? Was that a good sign, or a bad one?

It didn't take Kei long to find Goh once he actually got to looking. A few hours had transpired between his clash with Goh at the café and Kei finally breaking down to call Himeno. He had called off from work for the afternoon, claiming to be sick. He hung around the parking lot for awhile before driving about aimlessly, his emotions cycling from angry to confused to worried and back again. Some part of him seemed to hope that Goh would just come back and that they could talk things out. Now, whether he would apologize for being insensitive or upbraid Goh for behaving childishly in storming off, Kei wasn't entirely sure.

But after finally calling Himeno, Kei was determined to go and find Goh himself, though he was still reluctant to put forth a great deal of effort in doing so. Himeno was right, however; finding Goh was as simple as bending Kei's will towards finding the younger knight, and the magic of the Leafe did the rest. He could have teleported directly to the spot where he sensed Goh (which thankfully wasn't any place too far enough; apparently Goh hadn't been angry enough to leave the city to sulk) but he decided to drive, in order to try to sort his thoughts out for himself and be ready to go on the offensive when he found Goh.

Goh… why was Kei even going through this effort? If such a misunderstanding had occurred between Kei and any other person, Kei would have waited things out and let the other person come back to sort things out and smooth over any hurt feelings. Always the strategist, Kei would never go into any confrontation unprepared. And yet, here he was driving towards what had the potential to be an explosive altercation, and he really had no idea what he wanted to say to Goh. Somehow "I'm sorry" didn't seem to quite cut it. But what else was there to say?

Goh hadn't directly come out and said it, but he had as good as implied it: "I love you."

There are only two ways to answer that statement, and both ways would change things between he and Goh forever. Kei felt his throat tighten uncharacteristically. It had been a very, very long time since anyone had said that to Kei… and longer still since Kei had said it himself. Another time… practically another life. How would he, how could he, answer Goh's unasked question, "do you love me back?" honestly? Damn Goh for putting him in this position! Damn him for making me… feel… Kei gasped, unbidden, and found that his eyes were stinging slightly. He swallowed thickly and glared at the road ahead. Control was everything Kei was about… without his control he was nothing. It was inconceivable that he could be thrown so out of whack in a few short hours, but he was.

It was getting dark.

Kei's mood blackened further when he noticed the area he was driving into was becoming noticeably less well-kempt than the area he and Goh had met in over lunch. There were less shops and restaurants lining the streets and more bars and pool halls. While it was by no means a horrible part of town, it wasn't a neighborhood that Kei ever graced with his presence.

Kei eyed the pubs along the street as he slowed down. He could feel Goh getting closer and closer. Goh wouldn't go and drown his sorrows in a bar, would he? I've never seen him drink anything but juice or chocolate milk before… would he really go out and get drunk over what happened today? Kei hit the brakes when a familiar vehicle caught his sight: a small black motorcycle with red and orange flames painted on the sides, and a vanity plate which read "Go Goh". Goh's motorcycle.

Would Goh go out and get drunk? Apparently he would. Taking a deep breath, Kei pulled up to the curb and parked, vowing to get in, get Goh, and get out as quickly as possible.

If my car gets stolen because of him, I'm going to kick his ass, He thought sulkily as he pushed the doors to the bar open.

Kei stopped in the threshold of the bar. He had only taken three steps in and he already felt adrift in a sea of leather, tattoos and body-piercings. Clad in his cream-colored Italian tailored suit, purple dress shirt, yellow silk tie, and brown leather dress-shoes, Kei stuck out like a sore thumb. He slowly took in the scene around him, thinking to himself that surely, this must be what his own personal hell would look like. Taking a deep breath, Kei steeled himself and slowly loosened his tie as he pressed his way into the crowd, wrinkling his nose in distaste at the loud rock music and at the smell of cigarette smoke and sweat that hung in the air. He took the utmost care not to touch a single square inch of tattooed skin.

People started to move out of Kei's way when they noticed the dapper and completely out-of-place man. The look of directness on his face and his "don't mess with me" air seemed to shine right through the pretty face and shining hair. Just as he was about to ask someone if he'd seen Goh, he caught threads of a conversation in the general area of the bar (which he had been trying to push his way towards) over the music.

"Is it so wrong to want to be loved? I mean… so what if it was a man…"

Kei flinched, feeling a chill run up and down his spine and a deep flush run from his toes to his forehead. Peering around a musclebound, shirtless body that was in front of him, he caught sight of Goh hunched over the bar, apparently in the care of three goth girls who couldn't have been a day over 21, who were listening to his story with sympathetic looks on their faces.

"What a bastard," One girl was saying, as Kei inched his way closer and closer, the Knight of Light doing all sorts of strange contortions to avoid touching any of the people around him.

"Don't worry, I have lots of gay friends… I'll find someone for you…" The second girl was saying, patting Goh on the back as the third girl passed him another beet.

"But I don't WANT anyone else!" Goh practically wailed.

"Give it time, honey, you can get over anyone with enough time…" The third girl said.

"I don't WANT to get over him…" Goh said miserably.

At that moment, someone bumped into Kei, causing him to fall forward against the bar, causing empty glasses to clatter and the people gathered around to give him nasty glares, including the three girls who had apparently decided to take Goh under their collective wing. They stared at Kei; Kei stared back.

"You lost?" One of them finally said, a bit of a sneer in her voice, completely opposite to the sweet and caring tone she had taken with Goh.

"....I suppose I am..." Kei said vaguely, having to pitch his voice above the loud music. He looked over at Goh, who was now laying with his head resting on the bar. "....Actually, I came here looking for him," He said, gesturing to the Knight of Fire. "Goh..." He began, but when he reached out to shake the other man's shoulder, the girls all slapped his hand away in unison.

"You must be Kei.." The first girl, who had been patting Goh's back, said quickly.

"Goh told us all about you.." The one who had been passing the drinks added. "I don't think Goh has anything to say to you."

Kei frowned in irritation. He was in unfamiliar territory now, physically, psychologically and emotionally. More than half of the people in his bar were probably perfectly willing to kick his ass just based on principle and his looks, and he could already sense several of the leather-clad, stud-bearing patrons drawing closer around to bar, so as to hear the exchange between Kei and these girls.

What the hell was Goh doing in a place like this anyway??

"I need to take him home," Kei said evenly. "Our friends and...his family... are worried about him." His determined glare and set jaw added, silently, 'and I will not be moved from this spot without him, so back the hell off'.

"He'll go home when he's ready... he's hurting!" One of Goh's defenders argued, and Kei resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Not as much as he's going to be hurting in the morning, He thought, uncharitably. As he had noted earlier, he had never seen Goh drink anything but juice or milk. He now had several empty beer glasses arranged in an arc around him on the bar, as well as a couple of empty shot glasses, which could have held god-only-knows-what.

"No... he's coming home.. with me... NOW.." Kei said, slowly, and forcefully, knowing the people who had been edging in closer to listen were now pressing around them even more tightly.

"....Kei?" Goh lifted his head wearily from the bar and blinked, looking at his blond comrade wearily. "...What're... you doin' here?" He asked, his tone a mix of confusion and bitterness.

"I came to take you home," Kei said, crossing his arms and doing his best to look stern and impressive. "Himeno and the others are worried about you. We don't know what to tell the kids."

Goh just stared at him. "...I'm such an idiot..." He said, pathetically.

"Yes, you are.." Kei nodded, but just as Goh's newfound protectors were about to leap on Kei like tigresses protecting their cub, he added, "But ....we.... all love you anyway..." His throat stuck a little on the 'we' and 'love'.

Goh gave a weak chuckle, and looked down into the amber liquid in the glass in front of him. "Yeah… I know you do… just… not the way I… wish…" He trailed off, shaking his head.

"I never figured you would be the whiny type when you got drunk," Kei said harshly, growing quite tired of Goh's uncooperative attitude, broken heart or no. "Get up, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and come home with me, Goh." He felt his own face beginning to heat up and he hated this place and the people in it more and more with each passing moment.

"You don't have to feel responsible for me, Kei… I'm a grown man, I'll get over it," Goh growled, shaking off a second attempt by Kei to take hold of his shoulder. By now the three girls had backed up, catching on that neither Goh nor Kei were paying them any attention, but they remained close enough to listen, as did the rest of the small audience they were attracting.

Kei took a deep breath and briefly cast his eyes upwards at the ceiling. Leafe give me strength… He thought, before moving close enough to Goh to lay his arm over the Knight of Fire's hunched shoulders. To the casual observer, it would appear that it was a gentle gesture, but Kei's grip was like a crushing weight, not only with his own subtle physical strength behind it, but a good deal of Leafe as well. Goh was pretty much halfway to being pinned to the bar, and it would take a great assertion of his own powers to shake off Kei's hold, and even if he could muster up the concentration to do so, he wasn't trying. Kei leaned down, placing his lips near Goh's ear.

"I'm… sorry, OK? Can we please get out of here so we can talk about this in private?" He hissed, leaning so close that his lips actually brushed against the top of Goh's ear. "And no matter what you think, I DO feel responsible for you… I've known you your entire life, and you've always been a hothead." Before Goh could interrupt, he went on, "And you've always been a very dear friend…I was just so shocked by what you said to me this afternoon… you know… you really didn't even give me a chance to give you a straight answer once I figured out what you were talking about."

Kei was speaking so softly that there was no way anyone around them could hear them. He was using a little bit of Leafe to transmit his thoughts as he spoke as well. He hoped that, even in Goh's inebriated state, the Knight of Fire would be able to understand what Kei was getting at without the blond Knight of Light having to do or say anything drastic.

"And for the love of Leafe, do not start crying," He added, as an afterthought, when Goh let out a betraying sniffle.

"Kei… I want to erase everything that's happened today…" Goh whispered back. "I'm… so ashamed of the way I've behaved…"

Kei sighed again, silently asking any listening god for patience once more. "Everything, huh?"

"Everything… I want things to go back to the way they were… I don't want things to be weird between us…"

"Hm… even when you're drunk you're unfailingly honest."

"What's wrong with that?" A definite whining tone was creeping back into Goh's voice, and he was getting louder with each word, carrying himself farther and farther from their private whispering. "Maybe I should quit wearing my heart of my sleeve… All it does is make me into the laughing stock of the Leafe Kni-"

Kei let out a little muttered curse and pushed Goh's face sideways with his hand so they were face to face.

"Shut UP, Goh," He said, exasperated, as he pressed his lips to the younger knight's own, muffling any further words. Kei wrinkled his nose a little at the smell and taste of alcohol on Goh, who was stock-still with surprise.

"Hey, pal… if you're not gonna buy a drink, take a hike… and get him out of here, while you're at it… he's reached the cut-off point," The bartender said irritably, interrupting their little moment.

"Do you believe me now that I don't think any less of you??" Kei demanded as he pulled away, his voice slightly panicky. His face was flushed and his heart was pounding like crazy. "Can we PLEASE go home now??" He clutched both of Goh's shoulders and practically turned Goh's body on the barstool, so he was facing him head on. "That is, unless, you think so much less of ME now…"

Goh just stared at him for a long moment, his eyes slightly droopy, and he nodded, his words slurring ever so slightly for the first time, as if giving up his complaining had run all of the energy right out of him. "Um… yeah…… think maybe I… better go…" He said, a bit vaguely. "IF…. I can stand up…"

"You're hopeless.." Kei sighed as he looped his arm around Goh again. "On three, OK? ...One... two.... thr-"

Goh stood up much more quickly than Kei might have expected, almost causing the blond man to stumble over. Goh swayed on his feet, and Kei had to invoke a little more Leafe power to keep Goh from falling over (and dragging Kei down with him, since he was taller and heavier than the blond).

"Ooh... stop the room, I want to get off..." Goh mumbled, rubbing his fore head with his free hand.

"Don't we all.." Kei muttered, before looking over at the three girls who had been protecting Goh, who were now watching the duo with somewhat starry eyes. "Um... thank you.. for watching him...."

"Um.. no problem…" The girl who seemed to be the leader of the trio picked up her drink. "Good luck.. I guess…" They seemed to be a little disappointed to have lost Goh, but, they all gave a shrug and moved away, disappearing into the crowd of dancers.

"Shall we?" Kei renewed his grip on Goh. "Just one foot in front of the other…"

"…Nnn.. what about my bike?"

"And his tab!" The bartender hollered, before Kei could answer Goh.

Kei grumbled to himself as he fished around in his wallet with a free hand, pulling out a few bills and passing them over. "Is this enough?"

The older man looked the money over and nodded, not saying anything else as he headed for the cash register.

"My bike?" Goh pressed.

"I'll have it towed to your apartment…"

"Unh…. Kay…"

Just like when he'd entered, people seemed to just unconsciously move themselves out of Kei's path as he stumbled towards the exit with Goh. They got outside, and Goh sucked in a breath of the cool night air with a little moan of discomfort. "I don't feel so good…"

"I'm not surprised," Kei said tartly. "Do you need to throw up? If you do, do it BEFORE we get in my car… I just got the interior detailed."

"Your concern overwhelms me…" Goh growled. "Hey………….. you just kissed me… a minute ago… back there…" He added after a pause, as if it had just dawned on him.

"How observant of you…" Kei grunted as he and Goh stumbled towards the parked Mercedes, which was, thankfully, still in the pristine condition Kei had left it in. "Are you gonna make it?"

"Nnn.. I just want to go to sleep… or barf… I can't decide which…"

Kei wrestled his keys from his pocket and hit the keyless-entry button. The locks popped open and he bustled Goh into the front passenger seat. After a few unsuccessful tries by Goh, Kei had to fasten his friend's seatbelt for him.

"So… 'bout that kiss… er… that WAS a kiss, right?" Goh muttered, his head lolling to the left as Kei got in the car.

"Let me know if you need to throw up or anything and I'll pull over…" Kei said quickly as he started the engine. "…And… yes… it was a kiss."

"Hn… kay…" Goh shifted and leaned his head on the window, a small moan quivering in his throat then dying off, replaced by a soft snore. Kei sighed and shook his head as he stared at Goh, waiting for him to sit up again. Moments passed, Goh didn't stir. He was out cold.

He REALLY must be drunk… if he had his full faculties, he wouldn't have just accepted that… he's going to be crazy in the morning… if he remembers this at all… Kei reached over and gently pushed a wayward spike of Goh's hair out of the slumbering Knight of Fire's face. Why… why did I kiss him? I could have silenced him in other ways… Kei took a deep breath. He had to take a moment to think. Everything had been something of a blur from the moment he stepped into the bar to the moment he buckled his seatbelt.

He had gone in there with such a single-minded determination. A man with a mission, he'd made a bee-line right for Goh. What would he have done if he couldn't find him in that crowded place? Or if those girls and the people around Goh had put up an even bigger fuss to keep Kei away?

I would have gone through them all… no matter what… He realized, as he continued to play with Goh's unruly hair. What does that mean? ….I DID kiss him, after all… He sighed, for the thousandth time. "Well… you're out cold… whatever am I going to do with you?" Kei said aloud as he carefully removed his jacket, folded it, and gently placed it under Goh's head, so that the younger Knight wouldn't be leaning directly on the glass of the window.

After a moment of thought, Kei started the car and headed out, wanting to get out of this neighborhood. His own apartment would be much easier to get to… there was a highway exit not far off, and from there, it wasn't far to the part of town Kei lived in.

…He'll kill himself, stumbling over all the junk on the floor at his place, in the state he's in… Kei thought, knowing he was rationalizing and making excuses for the fact that he was taking Goh home with him instead of returning the intoxicated man to his own abode.

They were going to have a lot to talk about in the morning.

To be concluded…… This time, I mean it.