Only five reviews, in truth I was hoping to reap a bit more before updating, but I just wanted to update. I'm really curious as to how this chapter will go over with you guys. So tell me more than just 'it was good' or 'it was bad'. Give me reasons, I'm very curious as to how this chapter turned out from other's POV's.

Soooo: warnings: Shounen-ai, language, um, ... what else... fluff, angst? Ah, but that's nothing to shield yourself against, so that's not a warning, that's a ... a... a... good thing. Or something like that.

Right, and once again, this is still in Rikuou's POV, will most likely stay that way through the whole fic, and once again, the next stanza will be the next chapter.

Reviewer reponses at the bottom

ENJOY: (And look at the lyrics before reading the rest of the fic)

Must Get Out: Chapter 2

I held the sobbing body close to me, rocking him gently as I felt his body exhausting itself through quiet sobs, warm tears slipping down his face and neck, brushing in that humid warmth against my chest. Too much… it was too much for him.

"R-Rikuou… my head…" he managed to mutter through his sobs, and in a way it relieved me that his mind wasn't so overwhelmed with emotions that he couldn't even feel his own body anymore.

"Does it hurt?" I whispered, mindful that my mouth was right above his ear, and it would hurt him if I spoke loudly. He whimpered softly, the plangent sound scratching another gash into my heart as he nodded pitifully against me, his thin, small body shaking violently with the effort of containing all the rampaging emotions inside.

"T-there's some… in my drawer…" the pained voice choked out weakly as I gently pried him off of me, letting him sit back onto my bed, his crying renewed as he wrapped his arms tightly around himself, golden-brown hair falling into his face as tears continued to course down his delicate face. A beautiful, sorrowful, crying angel.

My eyes were sorrowed as I made my way into his room, sliding open the top drawer and rummaging through his things- books, random items such as rubber bands, papers and pictures, hardly aware of what I was doing, just doing it.

My hands continued sifting through small personal belongings, while meanwhile, my mind rummaged through images of his pain, images of my pain, and I cursed our gifts. His gift, most of all, for the agony it was putting him through, for the tenderness of his heart, for my inability to make it better…

Kazahaya… he couldn't… his mind —his heart— was too fragile to witness a memory like that… the emotions raged through his mind, clouding his own heart, immersing him in feelings and pains that weren't his, but pained him the same nonetheless. Causing his heart more grief at the fact that it was being overshadowed with torture unknown and unbidden. Memories that were too much for a pure and simple soul like his. He probably couldn't even feel his own emotions at this point, only those destructively forceful ones of the memory he'd stumbled upon, tearing at his delicately childish heart with every image. Destroying the innocence and purity that I had grown to adore and respect, poisoning his mind and reason, to the point where the memory would merge in his mind and he would be unable to distinguish it from his own experiences. It would be too much for him to bear, but what could I do?

My hands stilled momentarily as my fingers slid over a smooth paper— a photograph, and my eyes widened a fraction of an inch. One Saiga had jokingly taken of him and me during one of our usual bickering arguments, me smirking at him and him pouting angrily. What surprised me was that days later, when Saiga had returned the picture to him, Kazayaha had profusely announced that he would rip the picture to pieces as soon as he got home…

It was here. He'd kept it after all.

My head jerked up abruptly as I heard the hazel-eyed boy's voice quiver above silence only ruptured by his choked sobs, plainly audible through the thin wall between our rooms, "I-It's in the… top left-hand c-corner…"

Even through the thin wall, his voice was a mere sound, almost inaudible, and I cursed myself for having made him wait while he was in pain just because I had let my thoughts get a hold of me. Quickly finding and snatching the aspirin, as well as a glass of water from the kitchen, I hurried back to my room, letting my gaze linger sadly on his lithe form, curled up in my bed, holding the covers as if they were the only thing keeping him anchored to any semblance of reality. Which they very well could be, I thought, looking at his lugubrious golden eyes, brimming with tears that hadn't yet exhausted even after hours of crying.

I sat next to him, the bed sinking with our combined weight, and lifted him up gently, watching with a bittersweet gaze as he leaned into my body completely trustingly, drowning once again in memories that he should never have seen in the first place, gripping my shirt tightly in his shaking hands as his crying renewed. His lower lip was swollen from biting on it so much, tints of diluted blood shining wetly.

"Here," I murmured softly, handing him the water with the aspirin in it. He reached out to take it with his tremorous hands, but I shook my head and forced it past them and straight to his mouth, "You'll drop it."

He sipped erratically, his eyes unfocused, as if he wasn't quite there, a fog in his eyes that made me think he was only half aware of what was going on, the other half completely immersed in fighting to control what his powers had so undesirably thrown at him.

Placing the empty glass on the bedside table, I cradled him closer, stroking his hair softly, and closed my eyes. Through the darkness of my mind, with my eyelids shutting out any sight, the quieting sobs became more pronounced, the feeling of the light weight leaning against mine engulfing me, until all that was there, all that I saw, heard, felt and thought of was Kazahaya. His light hair was brushing against my chin, and I drank in the soft smell of chamomile.

I didn't know when he had become so important to me, but he had, and that was all that mattered to me now, to find a way to ease his pain, to comfort him… when he needed it, I'd be there. Through all the jabs and smirks and teasing I would be watching for when he really needed me, and I'd be sure to be there for him.

Though it was painful, it didn't matter if he saw me the same way I did him, or he ever would. It didn't matter if he couldn't help me, or if he was oblivious to the way I looked at him, or protected him, or held him. If he was happy, at least I could take some credit for keeping him that way.

I really did doubt that I would ever hear a love confession from him. I could hope— it was hardly possible not to, since all humans had a tendency to keep a flame alive somewhere in the darkness—but I knew that it was a vain hope.

I kept my eyes closed, listening to his quieting sobs in the deathly-still room on a winter evening.

I don't know if it makes sense or anything, but there's the next chapter.

Awright, now to the lyric explanation...

Fumbling through your dresser drawer- pretty self explanatory. I coudln't think of anything really that Rikuou would need to look for in Kazahaya's drawer. Without it being yaoi or something at least...

Forgot what I was looking for - when he got sidetracked by his thoughts on the picture and the situation

Try to guide me in the right direction- literally, Kaza tells him where the aspirin is.

Making use of all this time- All the time while Kazahaya cried, he used to reflect.

Keeping everything inside-and didn't say anythign of what he was feeling

Close my eyes and listen to you crying-literally self explanatory too.

Responses:

Meg-chan2: Thank you very much. I try to read anythign and everything by CLAMP. I still have to read some of their short-story compilations (the snow tales, the romance tales... etc) And I wanna read CLOVER, but I can't find the first book --grumbles--.

Black Angel of Destruction: O.O evil name... chaotic! fun! Thank you, hope you liked this one as well.

Tokki-tsu: Oooh, cool name. What's it mean? Hopefully you liked the Kaza/Rikou goodness here too.

Kurosaki Aniko: Personally, I don't like yaoi. Too much for me. But I am a very very heavy shounen-ai fangirl . I'm working on the Gohou Drug category, but the Help section's down. Grrrr... anyway, you liked this chapter too, i hope?

Sol-nemesis: There definitely aren't enough good Kazahaya/Rikouu fics. Much less Kakei/Saiga, but there's just something about a couple that's ALREADY a couple that sometimes makes them less written about. I don't know.

Anyway, that done, I want to say that yes, Rikuou may be a bit out of chracter, but once again, I blame that partly on individual chracter interpretations, and the fact that I've read a good bit of the second and third volumes, and you'd be surprised at how... un-cold Rikuou can be. He laughs (not out loud, but more like a chuckle, but he looks sooo cute), he's civil to Kazahaya, they hold serious conversations, and both hold a slightly soft spot for each other everyonce in a while. Plus, there's the chocolate scene, in which Rikuou did NOT shove Kazahaya off... which might tell you something.

Anyway, please leave substatial reviews, lile I said, I want to know what was liked/hated about the fic, and how it went over, and not simply a 'it was good' or 'it was bad'. THANK YOU.

Preview: I'll just put the lyrics for the next chapter... 'This is not goodbye, she says, it is just time for me to rest my head. She does not walk, she runs instead, down these jagged streets and into my bed.' Sound good?