A/n: HELLO! Another Chapter here. (bows to reviewers) thank you so much! Also, Foxfeather: Yes, and you'll see why in a couple of chapters. Short chapter here as I won't be able to update again until after the new year. I've also got three short stories coming with the next chapter, but as of the moment I'm not even able to finish this one so I'll leave it here and say it's on hiatus until 1/10/06. please review! And if you're over 18 please visit the forum I created!

Follow Me

Hisoka sat up quickly as he realized he was not only no longer in Watari's lab, but was now in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room.

His heart began to race.

Nothing was familiar but it all felt dangerous.

Suddenly a man Hisoka never wanted to see again tossed the woman who had supposedly killed herself, harshly into the room.

"Oriya!"

However neither seemed to know he was there and he watched silently.

"I'm not a bad person Miss. Akina! Don't make me hurt you further."

Hisoka fought off waves of dizziness as the woman screamed.

She was very scared and Oriya was very angry, but somehow these emotions were buffered for Hisoka, as if there was a force slowing them down.

"You killed me! Damn you let me go!"

Oriya glared hard and slapped her.

"You owed me, this is your payment!"

Hisoka stood and walked over to her as she fell to her knees but the second he touched her, everything went black and he found himself falling.

He surprised himself at the name he called out.

"Watari!"

Suddenly the blond caught him.

"Hisoka. It's okay you're dreaming."

He closed his eyes and when he opened them Watari was kneeling over him.

He sat up, shaking his head as he rubbed at his eyes.

"That…that couldn't have been a dream. I don't know what it was but it was definitely not a dream. That man, Muraki's friend in Kyoto; he's got the girl we're supposed to be looking for."

Watari looked thoughtful for a moment and grabbed a pen and paper, writing down what Hisoka had said. Hisoka looked at him oddly.

"Watari…what are you doing?"

He smiled.

"You are the empath around here. This could be very important information. Didn't Tsuzuki ever…?"

Hisoka looked down and shook his head.

"He'd always just reassure me that everything was fine. Even though I was always right later on. After this long on the job together you'd think he'd learn but…Tsuzuki's never learned anything from me so why should that be different?"

He thought quietly for a moment.

"Watari…she screamed at him that he'd killed her. If the cause of death was an over dose, how could she still be trapped there in at least a semi physical body?"

Both looked up suddenly as they heard Tsuzuki's voice in the doorway.

"A spell. Probably something like we encountered with Maria."

Watari unintentionally glared.

"What do you want?"

Tsuzuki sighed deeply and closed his eyes.

"Tatsumi wants to see Hisoka before you two leave later. I would have told you in the morning but I noticed your light on."

Hisoka looked at him oddly.

"You went home with Tatsumi hours ago. What are you doing here?"

Tsuzuki looked down at him, watching as he slowly rose from the cot.

"I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd come in early. It's almost five."

He turned to leave but Hisoka stopped him.

"Don't feel guilty that you hurt me Tsuzuki. If you have to make yourself feel guilty over something…don't let it be me because I'll be fine without you."

Tsuzuki's voice was low as he turned slightly to look at his former partner.

"I shouldn't be surprised by that, I know. I never could block my thoughts from you could I? You only pretended you didn't know what was going on inside my head."

Hisoka looked away.

"I was…am enough in love with you that I wanted you to be happy. I knew you didn't want me to know that you still had feelings for him, so I acted like I didn't. Honestly though, I never expected you to turn on me so quickly."

Tsuzuki simply walked away.

Watari's soft voice broke Hisoka from his thoughts.

"Bon."

He wrapped his arms around Hisoka tightly as he watched tears well up in his eyes.

"We'll be okay with out them Watari. We have to be."

Watari brushed his fingers softly over Hisoka's hair.

"Shh now. It'll take time, more time for you than for me, but we'll get over it. Let's go back to my place and sleep a little more."

Hisoka nodded silently and slowly followed Watari as they left.

''

Tensions were high between the four shinigami, though Tatsumi smiled as Hisoka softly knocked on the open door to his office.

"You wanted to see me?"

Tatsumi nodded.

"Come in Kurosaki."

Hisoka made no haste in making his feet move, and found the idea of sitting very unappealing.

Tatsumi seemed to read him with one look.

"It's about the case, you'll need to sit."

Giving no visible sign of the annoyance he felt, he sat across from his former friend.

Thankfully Watari had taught Hisoka the eye dabbing trick or else he might have looked very pitiful after having cried for nearly an hour before finally falling asleep in Watari's arms.

But who could blame him?

He'd fallen hard for Tsuzuki and in just ten minutes his world was turned upside down by the two men he thought he could trust the most.

Everyone knew that Hisoka wasn't one quick to tears, so when he cried they knew he was hurting.

He was also very skilled at hiding his emotions most of the time.

Before this had happened it was usually only Tsuzuki who saw his real feelings, but in the last week everyone had seen the slow break down of his defenses.

Tatsumi stared at the man in front of him.

He really did feel bad about taking Tsuzuki from him.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he looked into Hisoka's wounded face.

"Kurosaki…Hisoka, I lied."

Hisoka nodded.

"I know. So go on. Get it out…I'll listen."

Tatsumi reached out and took Hisoka's hand.

"I know this has affected our relationship quite a bit but…I really didn't mean to hurt you."

The blond nodded.

"I know Tatsumi-san. But you did. And you hurt Watari. I just have to wonder if it was worth it in the end. So what was it that made you suddenly decide you didn't hate him anyway?"

Tatsumi blinked a moment and withdrew his hand.

"I don't know really."

Hisoka swallowed slowly, trying to fight back a sudden wave of tears.

"The answer to that is that you never really hated him at all. You thought it would be better for him if you two weren't together and to be able to stay away from him you convinced yourself that he was nothing more than an annoyance. You didn't want to admit that you were in love with him."

Tatsumi was silent as he sat back in his chair and thought about that.

Hisoka stood and looked down at him.

"There's just one more thing Tatsumi-san."

He looked up and nodded.

"You could have waited at least one more week you know. You were the one who taught me that birthdays were supposed to be fun and that some were important. Well I had an important birthday yesterday…and only Watari remembered."

And with that, he was gone.

Tatsumi sat there silently for a moment.

'I'll find a way to make it up to you Hisoka, I promise.'

''