Disclaimer- I still dont own YnM or any of the boys.

Well, people asked nicely, left me beautious feedback...so here is the continuation of "Needing". I think Hisoka might need a manual on the whole dating thing. he is proving to be a wee bit dense. ah well. at least Tsuzuki is giving it his best!
as always, R and R! it makes me feel loved!
-fireun

There was a flower on his desk. A single, fragrant stargazer lily, settled in a long necked, narrow vase sitting in the place of honor in the very center of his personal space.

Hisoka wondered if it was too late to back out of the office and pretend he had never seen the damn thing, and would therefore not have to be blushing so furiously he was sure he was glowing. The slight twist of Tatsumi's lips as he glaned out of his own office and the beaming smile on Wakaba's face as she passed with an armload of papers convinced him that would be impossible.

"Where is he?" Hisoka tried to leech every hint of emotional inflection from the works, keeping his speech clipped.

"He came in early, did some work, and so I let him have a break for breakfast." The smile had retreated to Tatsumi's eyes, leaving only his 'business' face behind. "As to where, your guess is as good as mine."

Internally, Hisoka was a snarling mass of embarrassment. Externally he was placidly apathetic, politely nodding his thanks to Tatsumi before making his way to his desk.

He had to admit, the lily did smell beautiful. And it had obviously been arranged with care...There was, ultimately, something touching about it, and that was almost enough to override Hisoka's knee-jerk reaction to his embarrassment, his typical irritable anger. Yeah, it was touching... 'I have never gotten a flower before. Hell, I died too early to have a date to give flowers to. It figures Tsuzuki would think of something like this, the idiot.'

Tatsumi noticed the small smile on Hisoka's face and finally let his apprehension fade. He honestly hadn't known how the boy would react to such an obvious show of affection. He had presented his concerns to Tsuzuki earlier that morning, and the man had turned those purple eyes on him and smiled so sweetly Tatsumi had wanted to melt.

'Tatsumi, if he can't handle a flower we might as well call it quits now.'

His voice had been so soft, so determined...

That blunt honesty, so rare on Tsuzuki worried Tatsumi. His friend was leaving himself vulnerable to his empathic partner, and he was doing it purposefully. 'I won't let you be hurt, old friend. If anything goes wrong, you know I am here for you.'

A bag plopped down onto the desk in front of Hisoka, landing directly on top of the papers he had been working on. Irritated, Hisoka swung his best glare upwards, only to meet Tsuzuki's smiling face. Tsuzuki winked languidly then trotted over to his own desk, sitting with a pleased sigh. With the amount of satisfaction Hisoka felt radiating off of his partner, he assumed that had Tsuzuki been a cat he would have been purring. Cautiously he peered into the white paper bag, and blinked in surprise.

Coffee cake.

With the delicious crumbly bits and frosting.

Cinnamon swirls...

Not that he would ever really admit it, but Hisoka had been discovering that he himself owned a sort of sweet tooth, a fact he was prone to blame on over exposure to Tsuzuki when the other man teased him about it. Coffee cakes, of all the confections the sugar addict had forced upon him thus far, were his favorite. Something must have shown on his face, some part of his surprised joy, for Tsuzuki's satisfaction turned to a thrumming contentment. Which of course led to a fresh fit of blushing on Hisoka's part. 'I need to stop flushing like a school girl every time I make him happy.' He glanced at the flower. 'Or when he makes me happy...'

Tsuzuki glomped onto Byakko, all but prancing about in his proud joy. "He liked it! He liked the flower and the cake!"

"I am glad you are so glad that he was glad." Byakko watched, bemused, as Tsuzuki did a little dance. "How did you know Hisoka wouldn't just smack you for making a spectacle of him, and first thing in the morning at that?"

"I didn't." Tsuzuki paused in his victory revels to plop down beside his Shikigami.

Byakko blinked. "Well, that was a bit of a risk, huh?"

"Well...I don't know...I am just not happy with being a teddy bear. They can be replaced or left at home and not thought about. I want to be thought about by him as much as I think about him." He turned his stunning eyes towards Byakko, a slight smile twisting his face. "Funny, isn't it?"

"Not at all!" Byakko shook his head, sending his whiskers bouncing. "You deserve to be happy just as much as the next guy. So don't you get all gloomy and guilty about wanting a bit for yourself!"

"Well, it really depends on Hisoka, doesn't it?"