It's been what, five or six months since I've visited? Wow. Anyway, I believe I should apologize-schoolwork was catching up on me, and I had no time to write. Now that summer's up and going, I hope that I can update more often.

However, if I don't get any reviews, then I'll assume that no one is reading this story any longer, and won't update. At all. So, there's your motivation to review, okay? (Ack, with all this new layout stuff, I hope everyone can read this. . . . )

Thanks for waiting for me,

Nagem

Yuki woke slowly, the air burning in his lungs. As he sat up, his stiff muscles protested, and Yuki winced, moving his limbs to try and loosen them up. Beside him, Medlina lay sleeping soundly. Amazed that he had fallen asleep (more or less) in the Makai completely unguarded and woken up alive (alive, well, and not robbed, to boot!) he reached over and shook Medlina gently, so as to wake her.

"M-master's friend?" Medlina squeaked, squinting up at him. Her eyes went wide, and then she winced as the sunlight hit them. Blinking rapidly, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, she grinned at him. "Did you get it?"

Yuki held up the handful of now-dried seaweed. "If this is it, then, yes."

"That's it!" Medlina squealed, hugging Yuki as best she could with her short arms. "You go and heal your friend now?"

"Yeah," Yuki said, smiling and returning Medlina's hug. "Thanks for helping me."

She nodded and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Now go, Master's friend."

"Hold on," the teenager regarded Medlina quizzically. "Don't you want something in return for helping me?"

Medlina smiled sadly. "What I want, Master's friend, you cannot give." Yuki stared at her, uncomprehending for a few moments before the same forlorn look crossed his face as well. He knew what she wanted, and he knew he could not give it to her. "You go now, Master's Friend. Visit?" Her face was hopeful.

"Yeah, I'll come and visit you," Yuki said, ruffling her hair affectionately. "Just make it easy for me to find you, okay?"

"That takes fun out of it!" Medlina giggled, but promised him (after several minutes of Yuki's nagging) she would be easy for him to find. Kissing him on the cheek one last time, they parted ways.

Kurama woke in the middle of the night when he heard footsteps. Blinking to clear the sleep from his eyes, he slipped out of bed silently, praying that he didn't get sick while trying to see who it was that was invading his home. Walking as softly as he could manage, he creaked open his bedroom door and looked out into the hallway. There was no one there. The dark was making his eyes hurt, and nerves were dancing in his stomach, making him nauseous as he began down the stairs. He stopped on the last one, foot raised as he heard somewhat ragged breathing. His eyes narrowed, trying to make out the image of the intruder, then closed, letting his ears do the work. Whoever it was was sitting on the couch, breathing hard, and as Kurama stood there, they got up, and made their way towards where the kitsune was standing.

Gotcha, Kurama thought, leaping into the air and coming down hard on his victim's shoulders, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

"AH!"

"Shuichi!" The lights clicked on suddenly, making Kurama's eyes sting with the sudden brightness. He turned to look at his prey, and was surprised to find a very winded Yuki beneath him. "Yuki!"

"Shiori-san," Yuki rasped as Kurama scrambled off of him and helped him up. "Hello." He grinned at the redhead next to him. "Hey, Shu, nice to see you're feeling better." Kurama nodded, mortified that he'd just pounced on his boyfriend/brother thinking him a thief.

"Shuichi, what happened?"

Kurama quickly considered his options and decided it would be best to tell the truth. "I thought he was a thief."

"What?" Shiori placed her hands on her hips and regarded her sons with a raised eyebrow as Keiichi stumbled down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. "How could you do that?"

"It was dark," Kurama defended himself. "It was dark and I heard footsteps. I couldn't see who it was, so I just assumed."

"What if it were Keiichi or I?" Shiori questioned.

"I would have known," Kurama responded.

"Right," Yuki said skeptically, walking over to join his brother. He tilted his head to one side and grinned, looking almost sheepish. "How about we all go back to bed? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty tired. I didn't mean to wake everyone up with my return home."

"It's all right," Shiori-san said as she began to herd everyone up the stairs to their respective rooms. "We're glad to know you're home. I just wish I hadn't been woken so rudely." She shot a pointed look at Kurama, who whistled, trying to look innocent.

"I'm sure Shuichi had good intentions."

"I did!" Kurama added as he was ushered into his room. The door shut behind him, and he could hear his mother and Yuki talking all the way down the hall until they parted ways at Yuki's room. Footsteps sounded as Shiori made her way back to her own quarters, when she stopped at Kurama's door.

"Shuichi, go to bed. You'll be able to talk to Yuki in the morning." Kurama did not respond. Instead, the kitsune walked over to his bed and snuggled under the covers, the conversation he had had with his friends a few days before running through his mind, making him even more nauseous than he had been before Yuki arrived back home.

"Hey, Shu, you awake yet?" Kurama opened one lazy green eye to see Yuki crouched next to his bed, his head on the pillow, even with the kitsune's. He was grinning insanely as Kurama blinked and sat up, yawning.

"Leave me alone, Yuki, I'm still sick," Kurama mumbled.

"Not for long!" Yuki crowed, holding up his prize. A bundle of odd-looking seaweed, which Kurama instantly knew as the cure, rested in Yuki's hands. "What do you think, huh? Do I get boyfriend-of-the-year award for bringing you this?" He said the words in a hushed tone, in case Shiori or Keiichi were upstairs as well. Kurama held out his hand, and Yuki deposited the bundle into his palm. "Well?"

"I didn't think you would actually get it," Kurama accused him. "I thought you were lying to me when you said you knew the cure."

"What reason do I have to lie to you?" Yuki asked, hurt that Kurama thought of him that way. Ignoring the possibility of being discovered, he leaned in and kissed Kurama hard. "I love you, Shu."

"Yuki."

"Aren't you going to say that you love me, too?"

"I can't," Kurama mumbled. "Yuki, for as long as we've known each other, I know very little about you. I don't know your youkai form, and I don't know who you were before you were Yuki, if you understand my meaning." He sighed. "Yuki, I found out about your demonage right as I re-met Yeirugan. That doesn't bode well, I hope you know."

"So you're. . . . " Yuki's tone contained utter disbelief. "So you're accusing me of being some sort of spy for Yeirugan!" His tone began to climb, but quickly dropped into hushed whispers as he remembered the ningens downstairs. "Shu, I can't believe it, you're actually accusing me of this?"

"I didn't want to," Kurama whispered back. "But you can't deny the evidence."

"Shu, if I wanted you dead, I would have killed you already," Yuki murmured. "I've had the chance. I wouldn't have gone and gotten the cure, I wouldn't have saved you from Yeirugan twice, I . . . I would have killed you in your sleep just now."

"They said you might only be helping me to gain my trust, learn a weakness that Yeirugan could use to defeat me," Kurama replied, somewhat calmer now that Yuki had pointed out the evidence against his friends' theory.

"I. . . . " There was nothing Yuki could say to counteract that.

"Where do you vanish to every once in a while?" Kurama asked. "You could be reporting to him."

"That started long ago, Shu," Yuki said. "I go the Makai every few months or so, ever since I was old enough to control my youki."

"That wouldn't be enough evidence for them," Kurama retorted. "Knowing them, they'd find a way to prove that's what you're doing. Reporting to him."

"So you're going to listen to what they say instead of what I say?" Yuki demanded. "They're your friends! I'm your boyfriend!"

"I've trusted them longer than I have you!" Kurama insisted. "It wouldn't make sense."

"Since when does love make sense!" Yuki demanded. He didn't care now, let their parents hear him shout. It was better to be kicked out of the house than to listen to the one he loved accuse him of working for the enemy. "Listen, to love someone you have to trust, right?"

"Yes," Kurama answered, completely thrown by what Yuki was saying.

"Complete and utter trust, a trust that overrides everything else," he continued. "Right?"

"Yes."
"Then, if you love me, you trust me more than your friends, Shuichi," Yuki concluded. "Unless . . . you don't really love me. Is that the case?"
"No!" Kurama yelped, jumping out of bed and dropping the cure to his sheets. "Yuki, I do, I do love you."

"It doesn't seem that way."

"Yuki, it is, please, just . . . . "

"What?" Yuki demanded. "'Give you some time?' That's always a popular one. 'I need some more time,' they always whine. What else? What other cliche excuses do you want to try on me?"

"Yuki. . . . "

He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself. "Forgive me, Shuichi, for losing my temper," he murmured. "It's just that I can't stand to be accused of breaking someone's trust. That's just not something I do, okay?"

"R-right."

His eyes narrowed. "You still don't sound convinced, Shuichi," he said. Kurama looked confused for a moment, sighed, then shook his head slowly, as if it were the hardest move of his life to make. "I knew it. Shuichi, I hate to say this, but if you don't trust me, then I don't feel like you love me. And I can't deal with that."

"You're not saying. . . . "

"It's over," Yuki said, his voice completely calm, even. "We're over."

"Yuki!" Kurama protested. His eyes filled with tears, and he rushed forward, taking his boyfriend's-no, his brother's-shirt in his hands. "It's only been a few weeks, all relationships have trouble, please just . . . just give it some time!"

"I can't," Yuki said. His voice was still infuriatingly even. "I'm sorry. Now let me go, Shuichi." He reached, put his hands on Kuramas', and detached the kitsune's grip with ease. As Kurama sunk to the floor, feeling weaker than he ever had before in his life, Yuki walked out of the room. Only after the goth stood before his own bed did he let himself cry.

Kurama went downstairs sometime later, looking for Yuki and something to eat. His stomach growled as he entered the kitchen, and Shiori turned, smiling at him, but something was wrong. Her smile was weak, as though she were upset.

The kitsune, of course, picked up on this right away. "'Kassan, are you all right?"

"Huh?" Shiori's smile faltered at her son's concern. "Oh, yes, of course, I'm fine." He raised an eyebrow. It was obvious that he didn't believe her. She sighed, and her smile fell into a worried frown. "Yuki came down about half an hour ago," she confessed. "He looked . . . angry, but I could tell he was sad, too." She sighed again. "There was something beneath his attitude. He was . . . broken."

"'Kassan," Kurama said consolingly. It was his fault that everyone was so upset-if he had just thought quicker, said the right words, then maybe Yuki wouldn't have left.

"I just wish I knew what was wrong." Kurama mentally exhaled in relief. There was only so far a mother's intuition could go.

"Eh, I'm sure he's fine," the kitsune murmured. "He always has been, right?"

"I suppose so." Ever so slightly reassured, Shiori went back to fixing dinner.

Yuki didn't return home for several days, and when Shiori declared him well enough to go to school again, Kurama hated it. Students would send him odd stares or glares as he walked down the hallway, wondering why he and his stepbrother had been missing so much school lately. There were whispered theories, some of which were too close to the truth for comfort. Kurama would shiver every time he walked past a group of girls who were telling about how Yuki and Kurama were "sexually involved" until their parents had caught them. He didn't stick around to hear the rest. Even though they weren't that close yet, Kurama suspected that they would have been by now had certain events not happened.

"Hey, hey, he's still alive!"

"Yusuke. . . . "

"Ooooh, and he's mad," Yusuke snickered. "Whassa matter, Kurama?"

"Nothing," Kurama snapped. He didn't feel like reviewing his relationship with Yuki at the moment. The tantei beside him blinked, slightly deterred, and frowned. Kurama put two fingers to his temples, pressing lightly on the pressure points there to prevent his oncoming headache. "Gomen, Yusuke, it's been a long week."

"More like a long couple of months," Yusuke commented. Beside him, Kuwabara nodded his agreement. "How long's it been now?"

"Only one month," Kurama corrected, rather sharply. He was counting the days, hoping that when he woke up in the morning that Yuki would be back. However, his wish was yet to be granted, and the kitsune had a sinking feeling that this time Yuki was gone for good.

"Sorry, Kurama," Yusuke said, his voice softening a little. "We were just trying to cheer you up, ya know? It really bothers us to see you down in the dumps like this." Yusuke went red at this unusual display of concern. "So we're sorry if we upset you, okay?"

"Thank you, Yusuke," Kurama replied. "I think I'm going to go home now and see how 'kassan is."

"She's been really broken down since Yuki left, hasn't she?" Yusuke questioned, concerned for the woman. She had fed him on numerous occasions, and that made her as good as anyone in the tantei's book. At Kurama's nod, Yusuke sighed, "Well, tell her I said hi, okay?"

"Me too," Kuwabara put in. Kurama nodded, told the two good-bye, and was off.

Kurama was just as tired as Shiori, which probably contributed to his crossness, but he wouldn't show it otherwise. Once a night Kurama would rise and usher a worrying Shoiri to bed, after which he would stay up hours, either visiting with Hiei, hoping that Yuki would spontaneously return and everything would be all right, or listening to make sure that neither of his parents were pacing again. Keiichi was as bad as Shiori, combing the city after work every night until well after dark-he came home rugged and tired with an eight-o-clock shadow that didn't fade even after he shaved. Kurama couldn't afford to worry as much as his parents-with school from seven to three, and then homework and regulating youkai in the Ningenkai, Kurama was hardly left with any time.

"Ah, Shuichi," Shiori said, pouncing on him as soon as he was in the door. "Did you have fun with Yusuke?" Part of the consequences of his mother's worry involved increased questioning-who are you going to be with, what are you going to do, how can I get a hold of you if something happens, can you get a hold of me if something happens, what time are you coming home, do you need any money, would you like me to drive you, and so on. Kurama tried his best, but it was starting to grate at his nerves.

"Hai, 'kassan," Kurama replied. "Kuwabara's got a new kitten."

"Oh really?" Shiori questioned. "What color?"

"Black," Kurama answered.

"I remember when I had a black kitten," Shiori mumbled, trailing off in that half-hearted story that comes with forced, worried conversation. "Cutest little thing, but it ran away. . . . "

"'Kassan, I have a little more homework to do before school tomorrow," Kurama put in quickly, already starting the retreat to his room.

"All right, Shuichi, make sure you get it done," Shiori muttered.

"Thank you, 'kassan," Kurama replied. "Keiichi-san is still roaming the streets?"

"Hai," Shiori replied. "But I don't think Yuki is in the city."

Yuki couldn't be in the city, Kurama reasoned as he climbed the stairs. Someone would have found him, or at least seen him by now. In fact, the kitsune was fairly sure that Yuki wasn't in the Ningenkai at all. It would seem more practical to be in the Makai, especially if he didn't want Kurama to find him-everyone knew the kitsune was avoiding as many things that related-even vaguely-to Yeirugan as possible. The kitsune just hoped that nothing had happened to Yuki.