Thank you to my eight reviewers! I apologize the first chapter was so short. They get longer, I promise. ( although this ones not all that much longer)

Well, this was unexpected.

Watari was now performing every test he could think of on Tsuzuki trying to explain the disappearance of his memory. The man had not received any horrible head trauma, and besides Tsuzuki was a shinigami, a blow to the head would not have been enough to lose his memory like that. It seemed to be spell, or demon related. Hopefully it wasn't something too complicated, something that could be easily dealt with...

"I'm going to take your top off now to check for marks." Watari said as he began to push back the man's yukata. Tsuzuki was unresponsive, as he had been since Hisoka had run off, but then he hadn't exactly been that responsive before either.

Well there were no clearly visible marks on his back, he'd have to go back over it with a microscope, or maybe a black light could turn out something new, or maybe...

"Excuse me, am I interrupting something?" Watari jumped at the sound of Tatsumi's voice, he hadn't even heard the door open. "Tsuzuki-san, are you feeling any better?" Watari pulled Tatsumi out of the room after he saw the perplexity on Tsuzuki's face. "Watari-san, I hope you have a good excuse for pulling me into the hallway so roughly."

"Tsuzuki has lost his memories." Watari was blunt; his head was still spinning with theories and explanations.

"Excuse me?"

"Tsuzuki remembers nothing...or very little…-it seems he doesn't know who anyone is, or where he is."

Tatsumi took off his glasses to clean them despite the fact that they were spotless; he was obviously trying to stay calm. "How much did he forget?"

"I don't know, he didn't seem to even recognize you, so a lot."

The glasses were back on, but Tatsumi kept fiddling with them, Watari wondered If Tatsumi realized what he was doing. "Does Kurosaki-kun know?"

"Yes, he's the one who figured it out, but he didn't take it too well, he ran off. I don't know where he is now." Watari added before he could be questioned on the matter.

"I think it's as good of a response as we could expect...let me go talk to him, we at least need to know how much he forgot."

Yeah, that probably would be helpful, shame he hadn't thought of it. "All right, but I need to do blood work."

Hisoka had run out of JuOhCho, his tears trickling down his cheeks. He had managed not to sob until he reached the riverbank that Tsuzuki always visited when he was depressed. He sat in front of a tree near the bank, hugging his legs tightly to his chest and his head buried in his knees.

He wasn't crying now, not really, he hated crying so he had forced himself to stop, but his eyes were still bright with several unshed tears. Now, he was staring off into space blankly, brooding over what was going on.

Right now, he could leave and Tsuzuki wouldn't notice or care. All he was too Tsuzuki was some freak-boy who had ran out of the room, for a reason he couldn't even guess at. The amethyst eyed man had only told him his feelings six month's ago, now Hisoka was nothing to him. And Hisoka hadn't ever told him. He had never told him how much he loved him.

And he did love him, more then he ever thought possible. Even earlier than six months ago he had felt this way, and known it too.

But he had been scared; terrified of countless, meaningless 'what ifs'. He had tried to tell Tsuzuki more than once that he felt the same way. Every time, however, he panicked, he would start sweating horribly, and all his blood would rush from his face, and the colors in the room would start to swirl together.

He had tried, but not hard enough. Because if he had tried harder Tsuzuki would have known how much he loved him, and then maybe he would have remembered him.

And he was being selfish.

He hugged his knees tighter when he realized it. He hated himself when he got like that, when he started acting childish.

But it hurt, and it wasn't fair. He didn't even remotely know how to deal with something like this. How was he supposed to help Tsuzuki?

And he was most certainly going to help in any way he could.

He would not abandon Tsuzuki no matter what the circumstances.

These thoughts helped give him strength. He had to get himself together; he had to be there for his partner, maybe now more then ever.

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"So...I'm a shinigami?" Tsuzuki's face was blank as he asked this. Part of him wanted to laugh and ask the man to tell him something he didn't know.

Fortunately, Tatsumi was a never ending fountain of patience, especially when it came to his old partner. "Yes Tsuzuki-san, as I said, you've been dead for a little over seventy years now." Tatsumi paused hoping to get a response from Tsuzuki aside from the indifferent stare. The other man was so indifferent to his situation that Tatsumi couldn't be sure if Tsuzuki even believed him. Failing to get Tsuzuki to do so much as blink, Tatsumi opened his mouth to speak again, only to be cut off by a new voice in the room.

"You still had strong attachments to this world, so you were allowed to work here." Both men turned to look at the boy, Tatsumi wondered how long he had been there. It couldn't have been long; his senses couldn't be that bad.

"Ah, Kurosaki-kun!" Tatsumi knew he was voicing a little too much of his relief that the boy was finally here. Not that he had any qualms about taking care of Tsuzuki; it just wasn't his duty anymore. "I was just getting to that, but you could probably do a better job." he was serious, there was no point in pretending that there was anyone who knew Tsuzuki half as well as. He looked at Tsuzuki as he stood to leave. "This is your partner, Kurosaki Hisoka. He will probably do a better job of filling you in on the necessary details. Kurosaki-kun I leave the rest to you." He was halfway down the hall when a running Watari crashed into him.

"Ah, Tatsumi-san...did you leave Tsuzuki by himself?" Watari seemed too ignore the collision, and that they were both on the ground right now. "I was just about to go do more blood work. There's another theory I came up with..." It seemed to be a habit of Watari's when he was focused on one thing; he couldn't be bothered with the little details of life, such as finishing sentences.

"Watari-san, I know this is important, but if you could, please at least give Kurosaki-kun twenty-minutes alone with him."

"Ah, so bon came back? I'm glad, I was worried when he disappeared for so long."

"I think he's handling it better then anyone could have hoped. For Kurosaki-kun to have Tsuzuki-san forget about him, the single most important person in his life, it's probably more traumatizing then we could imagine." To that Watari could only nod.

"So I really am dead?" Tsuzuki was having problems completely grasping this. According to this boy in front of him and the man from before he was a shinigami, someone who brought stray souls in for judgment.

What a perfect job for him; it must be his fate to destroy the innocent.

The boy seemed to cringe a little, he couldn't quite figure out why. "Yes, for more then seventy years now." He found himself believing the boys words; probably more easily then he should. But it seemed natural to trust him. The man before had said this was his partner..."Yes, I've been your partner for about three years now." Had he said that aloud?

He breathed in deeply, God help him but he believed the boy. It scared him to think he had lost seventy years, it scared him to wake up in a hospital again, but most of all it scared him to think that he had chosen to continue existing, especially as a murderer.

He felt his hand being squeezed gently. The boy, Kurosaki, looked to be on the verge of tears. It was a surprising change from how overly composed he had been. Kurosaki pushed Tsuzuki's bigger hand to rest on his face. The boy spoke softly, but firmly. "I promise I won't leave you alone."

It also scared him that this boy cared so much.