Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Yami no Matsuei, 'cuz then I would own Hisoka and Muraki and Tsuzuki and Tatsumi sniff

Warning: Grammar, spelling, OOCness, and yaoi.

The Sound of Tears Falling

Part 1

The sun slowly rose in the sky illuminating the sakura blossoms that bloomed outside. The delicate pink flowers bloomed all year in purgatory, the land in which the dead go to be judged. And there the shinigami worked, bringing in souls from the world of the living. In his office, Chief Konoe sat waiting for a late shinigami.

"Where the hell is Tsuzuki! That idiot is fifteen minutes late!" he ranted.

"I don't know," Ichiro Tatsumi replied calmly, he and the absent shinigami had not even met yet. The only thing that Tatsumi knew about his new partner was that he had a bad tendency of being tardy.

It was that moment Tsuzuki decided to come ambling in, looking very tired. He yawned loudly and sat in a chair in front of Konoe's desk. He looked from venting chief to Tatsumi, sitting quietly in his chair.

"Um, what's going on?" Tsuzuki asked timidly.

"You're fifteen minutes late, that's what's going on!" Konoe snapped.

"Um, well, I...over slept," Tsuzuki explained.

Tatsumi, who had originally decided that it was best to keep quiet, finally spoke, "Anyway, chief, what's the assignment?"

"Oh, alright. This girl, Asuna Kirimia" the chief put a picture on the desk, "she should be dead, but isn't. Her name's been on the kiseki for about a month now. Figure out why and bring her in. Simple enough," Konoe explained. "And, Tsuzuki, this is your new partner Ichiro Tatsumi. Tatsumi, this is Asato Tsuzuki."

"Hello," Tatsumi greeted nonchalantly.

Tsuzuki studied his new partner for a moment. He had blondish-brown hair, icy blue eyes, and wore glasses. He didn't look anything like his old partner who had been a woman with fair hair and green eyes. Hmm...his old partner.

"What happened to that girl?" Tsuzuki asked, "What was her name...Haruka?"

"She quit days ago, you idiot!" reminded Konoe.

"Oh. Okay, Tatsumi, let's get to work!" Tsuzuki said nervously.

The other shinigami rose from his seat and followed his new partner out the door. Tsuzuki had been lucky that Tatsumi had changed the subject because Konoe could go on for hours about how tardiness was inexcusable.

"Do you have an alarm?" Tatsumi asked.

"No."

"Then maybe you should get one," Tatsumi suggested.

"Yeah, well, I don't really like alarms. Too noisy," Tsuzuki told his partner.

"But it would wake you up, therefore you would get to work on time," the other shinigami said, pushing up his glasses.

Tsuzuki nodded, but still had no intention of buying an alarm. He didn't like the constant beeping of them, it gave him a headache. And anyway he got up fine on his own. He was not that late. Chief Konoe just overreacted a lot.

"There she is," he heard Tatsumi say.

Tsuzuki raised his head. A girl, about fifteen was crossing the street. Tsuzuki frowned slightly. It was sad to think of; someone that young was going to die.

"It looks like her time is up," Tatsumi added as a car had gone out of control and was swerving on the road.

Tsuzuki shut his eyes tightly; he did not want to see this. Death may be part of the job, but it did not mean that it was easy for him to see the life snuffed out of anyone, let alone someone so young. Tsuzuki could vaguely hear his name being called.

"Tsuzuki! Tsuzuki, open your eyes, she's alright!" Tatsumi told his partner.

Slowly, his eyes opened and he looked to the girl lying on the other side of the street. It looked like she had jumped out of the way at the last minute. Either that or someone had pushed her. Tsuzuki sighed. Now, once again, someone would die and it would be their fault, even if it was predestined.

"What is with you? I would think that you would be used to this by now!" snapped Tatsumi, harshly. He sighed, "Well, looks like it's time to get to work."

Tsuzuki nodded. He sounded so cold-hearted saying something like that, especially considering the job. They walked over to Asuna. Her eyes were open and she was staring blankly at them. Suddenly she burst into tears.

"Why does this always happen to me!" she cried, "Everywhere I go, something almost kills me! Well, at this rate, I wish I was dead!"

"Well, we're here to help with that," Tatsumi said pointedly.

The girl gaped at the shinigami, not sure what to think. There was no fear in her eyes, only a look of mistrust.

"What exactly do you mean?" Asuna asked, "Are you here to kill me?"

"In a sense," Tatsumi explained, "We are guardians of death, shinigami.You should be dead by now. I can only guess that something or someone is stopping you. An ancestor of some sort, maybe a close friend who died."

"Maybe it's my mother," Asuna said sadly, "She died when I was two."

At the sound of the word 'mother' Tatsumi's usual emotionless face faltered. His azure eyes looked sad and regretful. Tears seemed to begin to form, but he did not shed them. He would not let himself cry, especially not now. They had a job to do. Tsuzuki seemed to notice the sorrowful expression on his partner's face, because he took over.

Tsuzuki nodded, "Then it could very well be her. It would make sense. She wouldn't want her daughter to die."

"Were you serious when you said that you would rather die than go on with the near death experiences?" Tatsumi asked, startling Tsuzuki, Tatsumi could obviously pull himself out of any sort of sadness very quickly.

Asuna looked at them for a moment, "Will this go on forever if I didn't die?"

Tsuzuki nodded reluctantly.

"And death in general may stop, and that could cause major problems," added Tatsumi.

"Alright, what can you do?" the girl asked.

"We can put a shield around you that will stop your mother or whoever it is from stopping you from dying," the sandy-haired shinigami told her.

"Okay, do it."

Fifteen minutes later, the spell was cast and Asuna did not look a bit worried. In fact she was smiling a little bit. It was an awkward smile, the type you see when someone isn't sure what to do next, but she didn't look scared or anything.

"So, now what do I do? Do I kill myself or-" she was cut off by Tsuzuki.

"No! Don't kill yourself!" the shinigami told her a little too forcefully, then he added, "Just let everything run its course."

Asuna nodded.

"Aren't you scared?" Tsuzuki asked, his voice dropping.

"Nope. I guess that I've had so many close encounters with death already, I'm not scared," she got up and gave Tsuzuki a small kiss on the cheek, "Thank you."

Tsuzuki just looked at his feet and Asuna left. Tatsumi stood by the window and watched as the girl walked out the door and into the street. Tsuzuki, however stayed as far from it as he possibly could. He didn't see the car swerve and hit the girl. But he would have to see the aftermath. He didn't know how Tatsumi could just stand there and watch someone die. Was he really that cold? What had happened?

"Tsuzuki, we have to go," Tatsumi said, his voice was soft.

The raven haired man nodded numbly and followed his partner out. He had to go through this daily. He was always surrounded by death; he was the cause of the death. How many lives would he have to take before it ended? He had taken this job hoping for fulfillment, but was it worth it? It didn't seem right. It seemed like he was killing people for selfish reasons.

When the shinigami arrived outside they found Asuna's body in the middle of the street. Her body was bruised and bloody from the impact of the speeding vehicle. The driver was hovering over her, panic in his eyes. He looked around and ran off to a nearby house. The police had to be called and an ambulance would follow, but they would only come to find that they were too late. The girl was dead, that was something that couldn't be helped.

"We brought her in," Tatsumi told the chief.

"Good work you two," Chief Konoe told the pair, "Looks like you may actually get a bonus."

Tatsumi smiled, but Tsuzuki just looked to the ground, biting back tears. Great a bonus, but it didn't compare to horrible thing that they just did. They killed someone. A bonus did not come close to equaling a life. And it never would.

Tsuzuki did not get far after he left Konoe's office. He barely made it to the sakura trees before he fell to the ground, sobbing. It was dark now. The white luminescence that was the moon and stars were the only thing that gave light and that was not much. It was almost pure darkness.

The shinigami had fallen to his knees and allowed all of the tears fall from his eyes like waterfalls. He had been holding them in, trying not to cry in front of Tatsumi or Konoe, but now that he was alone everything he had been fighting to keep hidden came out all at once.

The shinigami's amethyst eyes, red from crying, turned toward the tall trees which surrounded him. Their branches were littered with pink flowers.

Sakura trees...

The story that was told about them was one of the most morbid. But wasn't it appropriate that you would find them in a place like that. In purgatory where the dead were taken. As it was said that the sakura trees are naturally white, pure like snow. But under every tree was a corpse and the blood was drank by the tree, causing the pink flowers.

The sakura tree was surely the most morbid tree in existence.

Tatsumi left the building in a pleasant mood that afternoon. After all, they had finally gotten a raise, what more could he ask for? Tatsumi loved money and he would do almost anything for it. Nothing could ruin his mood. Nothing. Except...

In the dim of the night, he heard quiet sobs coming from somewhere around him. Tatsumi moved cautiously toward the voice trying to find where and who it was coming from. He could barely see anything and had to feel around so he did not walk into anything. The sandy haired shinigami could hear that the noise was very close now. His eyes drifted downward to see the figure on the ground.

"Tsuzuki?" he said uncertainly. Amethyst eyes moved toward him in the black. They were red from crying. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing...I'm alright," Tsuzuki said, forcing a smile.

Tatsumi knelt beside his partner and traced the tear marks on his face. The same sad look appeared on his face as had been there earlier. The same remorseful look that had appeared at the mention of the world 'mother'.

"You should get home," Tatsumi said, his voice was oddly gentle.

"I suppose you're right," Tsuzuki muttered.

"Come on," said Tatsumi, grabbing the other shinigami's arm, "I'll take you."

Tsuzuki nodded and allowed himself to be helped up. Tatsumi seemed to know where he was going, so Tsuzuki asked no questions.

"Hold on, this isn't my apartment," Tsuzuki pointed out to Tatsumi once they had stopped.

"I know," his partner said, "It's mine. I'd hate to see what you would be like if I left you home alone for the rest of the night."

"But...I can't stay here," Tsuzuki protested.

"Yes, you can. Stay...at least until you stop crying," Tatsumi said, ""Deal?"

"But I'm not crying!" the black haired shinigami pointed out.

It was true that he was no longer crying. Now that they were in the light, Tatsumi got a better look at his partner's face. His eyes were extremely red; the tears had left trails running down his face. It was a pitiful sight. Was he always like this? How could he allow something that happened so often effect him so much.

"Then until you look better," Tatsumi said.

"Fine,"

"Maybe you should lie down," Tatsumi suggested, "The bed is over there."

Tsuzuki nodded and began walking into Tatsumi's room. He then laid down on the bed, fully clothed. Tatsumi himself followed his partner and stood in the doorway.

"It's sad," Tsuzuki said, staring at the ceiling, "That someone so young would have to die...and it's worse to know that it's your fault. That you're the killer."

Tears began to well up in his eyes once more. Tsuzuki turned away from his partner. He fell apart so easily. He didn't want Tatsumi to see him, though he knew he was being foolish. Tsuzuki knew fully well that the other shinigami was no idiot and could tell that he was crying. He felt a hand on his shoulder and froze. Then, very slowly, he turned his head so that he saw Tatsumi's face over his.

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself," Tatsumi told Tsuzuki.

"Maybe you're right, but does that mean that this is right?" he asked.

Tatsumi didn't answer. Instead his head began to lower and his lips met Tsuzuki's in a long kiss. Tatsumi could not explain why he had brought Tsuzuki to his house or why the dark haired man was in his bed, and he definitely could not explain why he was kissing him. He barely knew Tsuzuki, but Tatsumi felt as though they had known each other forever. And the feel of Tsuzuki's arms around his neck and his reaction to the kiss...it felt good. Slowly, Tatsumi drew his head back, ending the kiss.

"I'm sorry," Tatsumi muttered.

"No, don't be," Tsuzuki said, then he paused for a moment, "You're not going to let me go, are you?"

"Not unless you manage to make a miraculous recovery," Tatsumi said honestly.

"Then I'll take the couch," Tsuzuki said as he began to get up.

"No, that's alright, I'll take it," Tatsumi countered.

"Uh-uh, it's your house, I don't want to put you out," Tsuzuki replied.

Tatsumi paused for a moment, and took off his glasses before speaking, "We're never going to agree on who takes the cough. Move over."

Tsuzuki eyed his partner curiously, but did what he was told. Tatsumi then laid next to the other shinigami.

"Now will you let me take the couch?" Tatsumi asked.

"Nope."

"Didn't think so."

Tatsumi awoke an hour later to his partner's soft sobs. The Tsuzuki was curled into him crying. Tatsumi felt tears falling onto his shirt. Slowly, he put out his arms, wrapping Tsuzuki and pulling him closer. He ran his fingers through Tsuzuki's black hair, trying to comfort him.

"T-T-Tatsumi?" Tsuzuki said weakly.

"Shh. Now go to sleep," Tatsumi instructed.

He felt Tsuzuki's body shaking within his arms. It made him remember. It made him think about his mother. She, too, had spent a lot of time crying.

When Tatsumi was younger- and still alive- he would often get up in the middle of the night, awoken by his mother's weeping. The young boy would walk into his mother's room, often asking what was wrong. She never answered the first time he asked, just went on crying. He would then go up to her and touch her arm. Her head would move abruptly and she would stare at him for a moment. Then a smile would appear on her face.

"It's alright dear. Now go back to bed," she always told him.

Tatsumi's mother never cried when his father was home, but when he left she would sometimes cry herself to sleep. His sister never knew, she was a sound sleeper and did not wake up for small noises. Tatsumi, on the other hand, could be woken by the slightest sound or movement.

Finally, Tatsumi felt Tsuzuki's body relax and his sobs subside. The shinigami had finally fallen asleep. Even though his partner was now fast asleep, Tatsumi continued to hold onto the other man tightly. He tried to reason with himself that it was better this way because it was comforting to Tsuzuki and that way he wouldn't wake up again, but the truth was he just didn't want to let go. Not because he was too lazy or he didn't want to wake Tsuzuki, but because, for whatever reason, it was comforting to Tatsumi.

Tsuzuki awoke the next morning to realize that he was still wrapped in Tatsumi's arms, and Tatsumi himself was still right next to him, fast asleep. Tsuzuki didn't bother to move. They were off today and he was far too comfortable. He just buried his face into Tatsumi's shirt and began wondering how he had managed to end up there.

He could remember what had happened, he just could not believe that he had ended up sleeping in Tatsumi's bed. He would have been happy on the couch, but it seemed that Tatsumi would not allow it. This was the settlement. Tsuzuki smiled slightly. Oh, well, he didn't mind. It was a little strange though considering they had just met the day before.

Tatsumi opened his eyes to find amethyst eyes watching him. He didn't do or say anything for a moment. A voice in his head told him to let Tsuzuki go, that he had to leave, but he ignored it for a moment. Then, reluctantly, he let go, but his partner did not move.

"Do you plan on moving some time today? You're laying on my arm," said Tatsumi a little more harshly than he had meant.

"No."

"No? We can't just stay here forever," Tatsumi pointed out.

"I know, but I'm comfortable," Tsuzuki said inching closer.

"Idiot," Tatsumi muttered.

Tatsumi moved onto his back so he could at least be a little more comfortable. Tsuzuki then rested his head on his partner's chest.

"Tatsumi?"

"What?" Tatsumi answered.

"Why...why didn't you just leave me?" Tsuzuki asked.

Tatsumi didn't answer for awhile. Why didn't he leave him? It was strange for him to help someone he just met without wanting anything in return. Usually if he ever helped it was for money.

"Are you going to answer me?" the other shinigami broke through Tatsumi's thoughts.

Another pause, "I don't know why I didn't leave you," he answered truthfully.

More silence.

"Ugh, I'm hungry," Tsuzuki finally said.

"Well, you can't eat unless you get up," Tatsumi said fairly.

"Oh, alright," Tsuzuki said getting up.

Tatsumi followed, stopping first to shake his arm. Tsuzuki had cut off the circulation by laying on it all night. He then walked into the kitchen and began looking through the refrigerator in search of food.

"Eggs alright?" he asked.

"Got any pie?" Tsuzuki asked.

"None made, but I can make some," Tatsumi answered.

"No, that's alright," Tsuzuki told Tatsumi brightly, "I'll make it!"

An hour later, pie was finished and Tsuzuki set it on the table. Tatsumi sat down and took a slice.

"I hope you like it, it's my sister's recipe," Tsuzuki said.

Tatsumi took a bite and spit it out.

"Ugh! That was terrible!" he said without thinking.

"You don't like it?" Tsuzuki asked sadly.

"No, it's not that...it's okay, I just think that I'd rather have eggs," Tatsumi said, trying not to upset Tsuzuki.

"Oh, alright," the other shinigami said.

"I'll cook," Tatsumi told Tsuzuki.

When the eggs were cooked, they sat down and ate. Unlike Tsuzuki who couldn't even cook toast, Tatsumi's cooking was perfect. He had made omelets which tasted heavenly, especially if you compared them to Tsuzuki's pie.

"Alright, you'd better go home," Tatsumi told his partner.

Tsuzuki nodded and started heading for the door, Tatsumi in toe. He opened the door, but before he left.

"Y' know, 'I don't know' doesn't actually count as an actual answer," Tsuzuki told him.

"Yeah, I know," Tatsumi answered.

Then he turned around and walked back to the kitchen to clean up.

Maybe one day he would be able to explain...

Maybe one day he could tell him...

But until then,

They would both have to wait.

:Owari:

Well I hope you enjoyed the first part. This was not that easy to write and it is very OOC, but I can never get people's personalities right. ;; and the ending isn't that great. Anyway, after I read book five of Yami no Matsuei I HAD to write a TsuzukixTatsumi fic! sniff, so happy. Now I know how hard it is, but I LOVE reviews so write some, NOW! They tell me how I'm doing and I love really like to know. I also welcome constructive criticism. Thanks for reading! And REVIEW!