It is a lie to say that Yusaku does not worry over what Blood Sheppard told him; no, not told. Taunted.

'You've been too busy protecting something you shouldn't, to worry about your human friends. That was a mistake. You've been wasting your energy on all the wrong things.'

Yusaku turns and shifts onto his side, the words still pouring into his mind. The action is made difficult however by the arm draped across him, along with the long puff of the purple sleeve that weighs against his chest like an additional duvet cover. But he manages none the less.

Still; it's disorienting to wake in a new place, to see walls thrown into a new colour. To see the sun spilling beneath curtains and trickle down into the dark hair of someone the world would prefer dead. Yusaku's eyes rest on those curls, slathered with light and shinning near white at their tips, like gold. And now lets the rest of his gaze travel over the long planes of Ai's face, softened in some strange imitation of human sleep.

'Ai,' says Yusaku softly, the fingers in his curled fist twitching, still half-heavy with rest. And yet the impulse to reach out, to touch, to feel the weight of him, Ai, alive, against them is a burn, a brand on his skin that he has to actively fight against.

Yusaku doesn't do touch. Not really. Not for anyone. And yet here...

'Ai, I know you don't sleep,' he says stiffly, and instantly one gold eye cracks opens, the smile that spreads beneath suddenly making Ai's face look a lot more vibrant and deadly.

'But you do! See how thoughtful I am? Aren't Ai great?'

Yusaku frowns. The thought of Ai just lying there, playing the role of teddy bear for the sake of Yusaku's comfort doesn't sit well with him. Though this thought is swiftly interrupted by the sharp prod of Ai's finger against his cheek.

'Aw, are you worried? Cute.' Ai grins as Yusaku bats his finger away with an annoyed frown. 'But fear not! I have my own diagnostic programs to run that requires me to enter a weird sleep-mode like your average computer would. And it's not like I can't rest.'

Ai babbles on and on about how he can wirelessly access the web and distract himself despite having a 'cute Yusaku-chan present in my arms' and Yusaku watches him, each line of that animated face. Blood Sheppard accused him of wasting his energy on the wrong things. But to him, Ai being dead or depressed or alone is a wrong thing. Far more than wondering about the lives of the other people he cares for, people who have things in their lives they are trying to protect, things they don't need him for.

Still. It's enough to prompt him to send a message to Takeru later, over a bowl of miso soup Ai encourages him to make, just to let him know he's alive. Same to Kusanagi.

And when he does a brief search for a few others, he does not find much out of the ordinary. Except.

News articles. Passionate pleas from Zaizen Akira, face stern, but with a shaken sheen to his lilac eyes.

'SISTER OF RECENT SOL TECHNOLOGIES CEO MISSING' screams one headline.

'Kidnapping attempt gone wrong?' questions another.

'Nah, bet she's ran off with a male gold-digger, lol,' one forum post suggests cheerfully enough.

Everywhere there are photos of Aoi and her wide brown eyes staring out at Yusaku accusingly. You didn't even know I was gone, they seem to say.

Gone. Missing. For weeks. Like he once was, once upon a time.

Yusaku didn't know. He didn't. No, he was too busy following that thread of connection he felt in the network, that spark that felt like Ai.

There's a strange guilt in him at the thought that he hasn't done anything for her in her time of need. And also, that it may not have meant much difference in the long run; that he still may have prioritised finding Ai.

Ai, who is meanwhile scanning the photos of Aoi with a strangely solemn look.

'She's pretty,' he says. 'Be nicer if she smiled more in them though. She was an idol once, right? Though I guess Blue Angel hasn't been on the net a while. She's probably lost a whole bunch of fans.'

Yusaku leans back on his chair. He hasn't considered that. What it means that Aoi seems to have given up on her persona as a charisma Duelist.

'Blood Sheppard said Ghost Girl was focusing on something,' he says. 'And she is quite close with Blue Maiden.'

Ai stares at him blankly. Enough for it to hit Yusaku, yet again, just how much Ai is still missing; Blue Maiden has never really been subjected to the public eye the way he and Soul Burner, or even her Blue Angel persona have. Only the recording of his final duel with Bohman has ever been released; nothing of the ill-fated matches where Aqua and Flame lost their lives, even though he knows Frog and Pigeon newscaster avatars captured their Duels and broadcast them directly to the people involved in the fight against Lightning's faction.

But still, some fragment of that data must exist...and surely Ai is wily enough to pick up on it...

He looks at Ai again who is now peering over at him with a shewd look on his face. 'Huh,' he says. 'I guess it's hard work being an idol.' He grins, his smile low and lavishly spiced with mischief. 'Oh-ho. She must use the Blue Maiden avatar to let off some steam, and maybe do some naughty browsing her fans wouldn't approve of! How indecent!'

He looks far too pleased with himself as he says this, so Yusaku ignores him and stares down at his lap, thinking furiously. Finding Aoi in real life, not just on the net would be...hard. He doesn't really know her as Zaizen Aoi, not really. He doesn't know of any of her habits or hobbies outside of being Blue Angel or Blue Maiden. She could be anywhere. And if she hasn't disappeared of her own volition...

Ai's look rapidly becomes annoyed. 'Oi, are you ignoring me? How cold...' Then he straightens, the annoyance becoming downright stony. 'Hang on, are you seriously thinking of looking for her?'

Yusaku folds his arms. 'You don't have to get involved,' he tells Ai curtly. 'But given what Blood Sheppard said, there's a chance her disappearance might be linked to whatever going on out there, with 'Aniki' and these SOLtiS.'

Ai's face twists. 'And here I was hoping for some downtime...' He shakes himself. 'Where would you even start? Be reasonable, Yusaku!'

'The police reports,' Yusaku says brusquely. 'The interviews. Finding out what Ghost Girl's been up to if she's been investigating the same thing for months.'

Ai's jaw sets.

'I could get it done faster if you'd help,' Yusaku states bluntly, not liking the cold set of Ai's eyes, or the way there's no trace of a smile on his face.

'I won't, Yusaku.'

The words are said almost angrily and Yusaku isn't surprised to hear them; just disappointed.

'Getting involved could just expose both of us to unnecessary danger. Or maybe this entire thing is a trap!'

The look on Ai's face is almost bored and it punches Yusaku in the chest with it; even though Ai has absolutely no reason to be emotionally invested in the fate of Zaizen Aoi in the first place. And even if he does remember her...well. They didn't exactly part on the best of terms last time.

Then Ai shrugs as if completely unbothered, his cape ruffling slightly at the motion. 'Besides...this Aoi girl could have just run away. Maybe she's even doing something similar to what you are now. And if you stick your nose where it's not wanted, you could wreck that.'

Yusaku folds his arms. 'Alright,' he says levelly. 'If you feel that way, you'd better not disturb me then.'

Ai actually gives him an angry look, one that sizzles, and then stalks off as though to do exactly that.

It's slow going. The computer he'd brought before they left the city is some shoddy, second-hand contraption that isn't quite as good as what he's used to working with.

But still. Once you get down to it, hacking is hacking. And watching the scroll of numbers that flicker across the screen is always an immersive experience. In no time at all, Yusaku finds himself sinking into the rhythm of it, the dance of the code he alters and tweaks far surpassing the annoyance he feels at the overly loud clack of one of the loosened buttons on this unfamiliar keyboard; all he has to worry over is the patterns on the screen, and all the loopholes he can exploit.

It's easy; with this he does not have to worry about Ai and his safety, he can forget about the hole in his heart and the tight feeling in his chest when Ai laughs and speaks and reminds him that he's not dead and yet he's not fully, properly, here...

No. Here there is only Yusaku and what his brain and his fingers can do. But unfortunately it seems they cannot do much for Aoi. She never came home from visiting a friend one day – Sugisaki Miya – and Yusaku frowns at the name. He knows she's Aqua's origin, but she's still safe, no longer trapped by an unnatural coma, so he can't see an obvious pattern here.

Still, he types, he searches. But he isn't a magician. Eventually, back stiff and eyes aching, he yanks himself away. The screen wavers in front of him, the way it has oh so many times before. There had been a time when Ai had been the one to pull him away from it, with a chirped comment, or a bad joke...but no. There's no voice to knock him out of this fugue state today. Yusaku has to clamber out of it himself, the same way he has been doing for months now.

In a way, it's another pointed reminder that Ai isn't...doesn't...love him. Yet.

Yusaku fumbles with his phone, enough to curse the fact he doesn't wear a watch. And then stares at the blinking numbers that surface against the lock screen. They reveal to him that most of the morning has raced by, and part of the afternoon too; this would account for the way his stomach cramps and groans and how weak he feels.

Though unfortunately hunger does nothing to overshadow the jolt of worry that strikes him at the fact that Ai has yet to return.

Yusaku staggers to his feet. He's sent a message to Ghost Girl or at least on the forum that posts the sorts of job she's interested in – all posted with a dummy email account of course – but then he's pretty sure that he's dropped enough details in there to trigger her suspicions that it's from him and not an imposter. Either she'll see it or she won't.

Yusaku turns and immediately stumbles into the low-laying table, catching himself with a hard slam of his foot against the floor. The wood bites into his leg, warm and soft, or at least softer in comparison to what he's used to in the city apartments he's lived in.

For there, on the table, are scattered piles of peaches and pears, splashes of vibrant colours both inside and out the shape of a gaudy purple bowl – too many to count. There's even a bunch of strawberries, glowing a dull gem-like red, which Ai has arranged into the shape of a smiley face. And then, as though he couldn't fight the impulse, he's shoved some next to them into the pattern of a winking Ai face, Ignis style.

'Hand-picked with care' lovingly drips the note that's been scrawled out on some torn paper next to them, and left right in the centre of the table, with a pear smoothly slid beneath it to prop it up – there are even tiny love-hearts dotted on the corners of the stationary, Yusaku notes. 'Don't eat all of them at once; leave a few for me to hand-feed you later, okay?'

Yusaku stares at it. At the fruit. When did Ai have the time to go and do this?

He takes a step back and there's a rustle of plastic as his foot knock into the side of a bag jammed full of instant noodles – a few familiar brands knocked in with one he doesn't recognise.

Yusaku feels something well up in his heart at that. He rushes out and through the rest of the inn, but no; Ai isn't here. The inn-keeper mentions that she's seen him slip in and out, when he asks her, a concerned look appearing as she stares at him properly and Yusaku has to work hard to bite back the frantic tone that's seized hold of his voice.

No, Ai hasn't mentioned anything to her about when he'll next be back. But he has asked that she prepare something with lots of protein for him when he came out.

'He seemed quite disappointed that we didn't have any hot-dogs,' she murmurs. And then, perhaps reading the thought in his face, she points at a tray on her desk, fresh rolls of sushi pressed into black packets of seaweed and an unwavering bowl of soup.

'I'm glad I listened to him now,' she says, a stern note entering her voice. 'He said you'd probably resurface in the afternoon looking for him and not to worry; he's just exploring this beautiful place.' She gives him an odd look. Then motions towards the tray. 'He may be a machine, but it seems cheap to repay his thoughtfulness with utter disregard; not matter how programmed that concern may be.'

Yusaku pauses. And though his first impulse is to rush out and find Ai, to drag him back if he has to; he swallows it down. Walks over to the desk. Picks up a sushi roll. Bites into it. And chews.

Yusaku walks through the town, chewing on a peach resentfully. He already misses hot-dogs.

The sun beats down on his face, a truck rattles down the road, rust clinging to its side, and Yusaku can't help but feel wrong-footed by the way he can't smell the sea.

Still, he passes stores, stores maybe Ai walked into to buy the noodles and the fruit...only...some of that fruit was glistening, still wet and shiny to the touch, a few of the sides smudged slightly with dirt, all bruised in a way that often causes store-brought fruit to be thrown out. Yusaku pauses. And glances suspiciously in the distance, where green shines, in orchards and other fields where perhaps fruit could be gathered. And, of course, stolen.

There were tangerine fields; they passed them near the station on the way to their new home. He's no clue where the peaches and pears came from, let alone the strawberries; but maybe Ai wants to complete the collection. So he starts the long trek back to the station.

He's almost there, can even begin to see the tell-tell specks of orange dotting the branches, when he hears shouting. He pauses for a moment. It's not his policy to get involved, unless he thinks someone is about to get hurt – and this sounds more like the enthusiastic whooping of young children than the screams of fear people expect Playmaker to stop. So he takes another step.

'GOOOOOO! KNOCK HIM DEAD!'

The overblown shout is so loud that several birds take to the air. Yusaku watches dispassionately as they quickly become mere black ticks across the sky. Then he turns on his heel and walks – quickly – off the road and into the patch of woodland nearby. To where the oh-so-familiar voice has boomed out from.

'THAT'S THE WAY TO DO IT! NO MERCY!'

Yusaku promptly stops himself before he walks out into a scene that could have come from his own childhood. At least one before the Lost Incident happened and made looking at so much as a monster card painful.

For there are a group of kids scattered across the ground in front of him, the familiar brown backs of Duel monster cards scattered across the ground like the stray fall of autumn leaves. Some however, are turned up toward the sky, revealing colourful monsters. There are even two Duel Disks, several years out of date, with black extension cables pouring out from each of the connector ports that even Yusaku's model no longer requires. The wires of which, criss-cross and tangle in a loose coil around the spread of Ai's feet.

Ai, who is pumping his fists, gesturing dramatically and looking for all the world like he's attempting to make as big a nuisance of himself as possible – except he hasn't stepped on anyone's cards and instead of taking centre-stage, his hand is hooked firmly into the back of an old school robot that hogs the glory instead, each wire jammed fast into its base.

Yusaku's breath catches in his throat a little at the sight. He recognises the design, of course – it's from the same brand that had manufactured Roboppi, made obvious by the round shape of its head and the curved pattern of its visor, not to mention the distinctive stubbiness of the body beneath. Though he notes it is also a much dirtier white colour in comparison to the gentler blue hue that had decorated Roboppi's body.

He watches now as from it's visor it projects a large cinematic screen in the exact same way Roboppi would do for Ai when they were browsing forum posts. On it a Trickstar monster is busy being shattered into pixels, from under the onslaught of white light that pours out of the mouth of a Blue Eyes White Dragon.

A little girl sniffs at the sight, her lifepoints trailing down to zero on the screen. And then resentfully, a full-blown pout puffing up her lips, she draws back the Trickster card from an old school Duel Disk, looking slightly worse for wear.

'Unfair! How'd you get a monster with so many attack points? And it's not even one you get through Link Summoning!'

Her opponent, a stubby boy with a plaster wedged between his nose and his lips, throws out his chest with all the pride of stubborn ten year old.

'I borrowed them from my Grandpa! He has the coolest cards! Much cooler than your lame fairies!'

The girl's cheeks puff out. 'They're not lame! Blue Angel uses them and she helped save Link Vrains!'

'Yeah? Well, she hasn't been using them recently, has she? In fact she's cleared off and taken their popularity with her!'

Unusually enough, Ai is not lapping up the drama; in fact now that the Duel's done, Ai is busy focussing his attention on the robot in front of him. He lets out a few sympathetic clucks of his tongue, despite not actually having one, as the Roboppi lookalike lets out a few whirling clinks, the projected screen shutting off in a rather abrupt fashion.

'There, there, Dumbo! Sorry but your old-fashioned circuitry took a real bruising today...' as though he's a well-practised lab technician, Ai yanks his hand out of the back of his head and then carefully eases the rather chipped white casing back onto its head with a gentle press of his fingers.

A few of the children start groaning at the sight.

'Aw! I wanted a go!'

'Yeah, no fair!'

'Oi, oi, don't be so greedy!' Ai's tone is breezy enough, the same amused, devil-may-care smile fixed on his face as firmly as the casing he's now re-attached to the robot's head. But as he bends down to unhook the cables, spread like the swirling map of tree roots from the robot's base, Yusaku can't help but catch sight of the way his mouth twists, just for a moment, into an unfriendly grimace. The next second, as his head resurfaces, it's disappeared, tucked back into the line of his usual smile.

'Come on, it sucks when your parents nag you to do your homework right? Well, think how this poor robot feels every time you ask it do to another Duel, one after the after, without even a break for supper?! You don't want to be cruel, right?'

One of the kids looks at Ai as though he's an idiot. 'Robots don't eat though?'

Ai gives the robot a friendly pat as he hasn't heard, and Yusaku can't help but notice that it does not bounce or react to it the way Roboppi would have done. 'I've given it a little bit of a reboot,' Ai says, 'adjusted the power settings and improved the battery life; but it's a patch job. The poor thing needs an early retirement. Even I, with all my amazing skills, can't work a miracle! They've got a month at best, before they won't be able to run any duelling program at all.'

Everyone seems to become a little sober at this.

'Poor Subaru,' the little girl with the Trickster deck says softly. She pats one of the white arms gingerly, her fingers running a half-hearted trail over the steel-tipped levers that serve in place of hands. 'They've worked real hard.' She hesitates. 'We...haven't been hurting them have we? With our Duels? It's just...none of our parents want us going on the Vrains anymore and this is the only way we can see our monsters properly so...' her cheeks colour and she trails off.

Ai doesn't look at her. Instead his gaze finds Yusaku still standing amongst the trees, unwilling to intrude.

'It's happy, that you're happy,' he says. 'And it'll do its best to keep you that way until the very end.' He rips his eyes away and sends the little girl a honey-soft smile. 'So be a good girl for it in return, okay?'

She nods shyly.

Ai's gaze sharpens. 'And that goes for your monster cards too! You'd better gather them all up or you'll be cursed!'

One of the boy wrinkles his nose. 'By what?'

Ai grins, stretches out his hands, wiggles his fingers and opens his mouth, all to make some outrageous declaration, but then Yusaku decides to ruin his spotlight by stepping from the shadows.

'You can't call yourself a Duelist if you don't take care of your cards,' he says, bending down to pick up one that is in danger of hosting a new path for a snail. He frowns at the slight crease that ripples over the card art, distorting the lines that make up the monster. 'If you damage them, the program that reads them when you duel virtually might crash – and that's disrespectful to your opponent too.'

Ai scowls but straights and places his hand on his hips, nodding self-righteously. 'That's right! Just what I was going to say.'

Liar, thinks Yusaku, but he does not say this, instead passing back the card to a rather sheepish looking kid who holds out their hand warily for it. He even helps the rest of them them gather up the fallen cards still spread over the grass, watching as with a few beeps, the robot starts to trudge its way out of from beneath the trees. Its wheels cut down a harsh line through the grass, dirt catching in the spokes, as Ai quickly tugs a rather large and knobbly stick out iof its way.

'Bye-bye!' he tells the children happily enough, a wave bursting out of him as they start to follow the robot. Some of them even wave back. And one even mutters, 'I don't care what my Dad says about SOLtiS stealing other people's jobs; Ai's nice!'

Ai grins a bit wider at that, and turns to Yusaku with a flounce. 'Hear that? I'm nice! So you'd better be nice in return!'

Yusaku crosses his arms. 'Oh? And do you think the farmers you stole fruit from will think you're nice too?'

Ai winces. 'I only picked the stuff that would have been rejected anyway...besides! It was for a good cause! Do you want to collapse from hunger? To faint because you're incapable of dragging yourself away from your keyboard and out to the shops? I don't think so!' Ai spreads his arms. 'And look at this place! Fresh produce! You don't find goodies like these lying around the city! In fact, it would be a crime not to take advantage of our new environment!'

'I would still prefer it if you didn't get us in trouble with the locals,' Yusaku says dryly, not appeased in the slightest.

Ai scowls and points after the children. 'What do you think I'm doing! A way to a town's heart is through befriending the future generation!'

Yusaku grimaces. 'And what happens when those children start talking about you to their parents? And they start to realise that you're more than an ordinary SOLtiS! Our innkeeper already has questions, I can tell, just by the way she talks about you!'

Ai frowns and looks away. 'What's the alternative?' he asks quietly, a serious note creeping into his voice. 'Hiding away inside the net forever?'

Yusaku's grip on his sleeves tighten. He remembers a factory months ago and asking, no, telling Ai to do exactly that.

Ai glares off into the distance a moment more, and then huffs. 'Wow. What a fun life. In hiding, with no one to talk to!' He spins and prods Yusaku in the chest. 'I could do it sure, but why should I? I'm all alone, Yusaku. There's nothing out there in the net like me to have so much as a meaningful conversation with. Humans are the closest I can get to.'

Yusaku doesn't have an answer. He didn't back when Ai was plotting out his death, and he still doesn't now when he's been given this second chance to steer Ai away from all that.

'Besides...' a warm tease slides through Ai's tone, makes it soft, and yet lurking within it is a dark menace that has Yusaku's shoulders tensing, even as Ai turns to him and jostles his shoulder with his own. 'There are a few things out here, in this world I want to try...' he leans closer, the gold of his iris brightening, seeming to swallow the outside world whole with its light. 'You'll help your old partner out, right Yusaku? Keep me out of trouble?'

A finger strokes his shoulder playfully, running into the seams of his shirt. With an effort Yusaku steps back and away, brushing it off.

'Explain,' he says shortly.

And Ai smiles as though Yusaku has already said 'yes.'

Yusaku should really say no. He really, really should.

'Aren't you afraid of getting damaged?' he has asks testily, staring at the sign and then glaring at the rules, at all the listed dos and don'ts. But sadly, no, they don't say anything about prohibiting wayward SOLtiS or the idiotic AI in the driving seat. Of course not. Like the innkeeper said, Ai's the first one people around here have ever seen in action.

Ai laughs. 'I know you're not that dumb,' he purrs as he collects a bucket, smiling winningly at the innkeeper who returns it readily enough, fishing out a key for their locker in under five seconds flat. 'SOL Tech designed these things to be reasonably waterproof so they could help the elderly and disabled bathe. Some even have swimming software installed so they can be used as lifeguards in emergency. Besides-' Ai leans closer, his voice brushing the shell of Yusaku's ear in all the wrong places. 'I want to see what you look like, all wrinkled like a prune. I bet you've only ever lived in places that can afford the cheapest of shower stalls.'

Yusaku can turn and walk out right now. He can leave Ai here, and see how far he gets now that he doesn't have a human 'owner' accompanying him. Instead he grabs a towel, tries his best not to let his annoyance stir the expression on his face too much, and stomps into the changing room.

Ai trails after him, laughing at his back all the while.

Thankfully, Ai has kept his commentary to himself - mostly. Enough at least, for Yusaku to relax minutely. The night sky pours out above them, dark and unashamed, and Yusaku buries his body further into the heat of the water, a rock at his back and steam rolling out to blur the shapes around him. Most are more of the same, rocks, while one is a open pipe, water pumping out in a fierce waterfall, and the rest are humans. One is elderly and guiding his trembling hand round a bottle of sake, while a few gesture wildly, resolving themselves into a set of rowdy adults laughing over a joke Yusaku has no interest in hearing. And of course, one shape, the closest to him, close enough to touch, to actually breathe in, is Ai.

Yusaku takes a moment to enjoy the dizzying heat of the water, to feel it pour molten pressure on his bones, to erase the strain in his muscles and erode them into patches of simple pleasure, and then re-focuses on Ai. Ai, who is running a finger round a wooden tray, perfectly balanced on the smooth ripples of the water like a lilli-pad. Ai, whose eyes gleam like candles, like stars in the dark, whose hair has been pulled back from his face, to leave the lines of it open and unblemished to Yusaku's eyes. He's even arranged at the top of his head in a ponytail with the aid of a purple tenugui he's fished out from somewhere, the cloth patterned with pale violets that barely left an impression against the steam that swirls around them both.

Yes, this is Ai, who does not sweat, whose skin does not gleam with it the way Yusaku's body does, who can never release pheromones or attract the human subconscious in a chemical sense, whose body contains slight, unattractive cracks between the limbs, as though everything has been slotted together, a patchwork doll of metal...

...And yet the way his shoulders, his neck, even part of chest surfaces above the water like a mighty archipelago, draws in Yusaku's attention like a laser. He's never known anything like it.

Any other teenager would stare. Might swallow and pray to someone, anyone.

Not Yusaku. He closes his eyes again.

He loves Ai. He knows it, it weighs on him like something physical. Even without the human-like body, the love will stay, will rest and clutch at him like something hungry.

But that's the point isn't it? Yusaku is human. And had this beautiful creature in front of him not been Ai, not had his personality, Yusaku would never feel this need to watch, to take everything he can about him in. In fact, he would pass him by without a second thought.

There's a snigger. Yusaku opens his eyes and watches warily as Ai crawls towards him, shoulders cutting though the water in parody of set of shark fins.

'Yu-sa-ku,' purrs his partner, 'I just remembered; I left you a note earlier, didn't I? Saying that I would hand-feed you? Well, I would hate to disappoint...so say 'ahh!''

Beaming, Ai raises a cocktail stick triumphantly, a tiny crescent slice of tangerine speared though its side. Wounded, it droops, wilting over the steam and looking, in short, like something you would never readily place in your mouth.

Yusaku eyes it, then drops his glance to the tray that drifts at Ai's side, at the plate on it that nurses segmented slices of a peeled tangerine.

'Where did you get that?' he asks.

Ai beams. 'I got the tray from that old guy, who got tired of balancing his sake bottle on it and the tangerine I liberated from over theeeere.'

Ai pointes at a dark shape that drops through the steam like a thunderbolt and after moment Yusaku recognises it as a tree branch.

'I'm not sure that's sanitary.'

Ai scowls, nails digging into the cocktail stick, hard enough to let a worryingly loud creak escapes from it's structure. As Yusaku watches, a single orange bead of juice escapes the skin of the fruit piece it's holding hostage and drops into the thin strip of water between them. A space that rapidly becomes smaller as Ai leans in closer.

'Eaaaat. Ittt.' It escapes from Ai's mouth in little growl, sung out in a little trill of annoyance as he all but shoves the fruit in front of Yusaku's face like a pushy hostess. 'Are you seriously going to refuse a gift from me?'

Yusaku stares at him blankly, taking in the ridiculous pout on his partner's face. And the odd way the purple towel on his head, the one holding back his hair, pokes out at uneven angles doesn't help either.

Without so much as a word he pushes Ai's hand away from him, ignoring the weird looks they're starting to receive from the other people here.

Ai's pout grows into a scowl. 'Isn't this how humans go on lovey-dovey with each other? By feeding each other? Shouldn't you be jumping at this opportunity? The one you love is holding out a sweet treat for you!' He smiles and mimes licking the tangerine slice, and Yusaku watches it, that flash of pink escape his partner's lips in an artful swirl; and despite the fact that he knows it's a hard-light projection, that it isn't a real muscle slicked with salvia, he feels something in him stir at the sight.

Something on his face must give him away because Ai grins, tilts his head to the side coyly, and says in a crooning whisper that's just a little too loud, and that carries across the pool further than he may intend: 'Come on, Yusaku, relax. You deserve a reward for keeping me safe so far...so let's take our time here, and linger as slowly as we want. There's no hurry to get your hands dirty again.'

Okay, Yusaku is definitely not imagining the snigger that escapes from the opposite side of the pool this time.

'That's some program that guy's got running there,' he hears someone else mutter. 'I wouldn't mind having that run on you know, a female SOLtiS.'

Ai seems to flush at that, hunkering down into the water and lowering his body so that his cheeks are artfully concealed by the steam. Only to forget about the cocktail stick trapped in his hands and with a sigh, Yusaku is rapidly forced to fish out both it and the trapped slice. before it flashes out beneath the surface of the pool like an escaped goldfish.

'Come on,' he mutters, dumping it back on top of the tray. Then he lifts himself from the water. 'That's long enough. I don't want you waterlogged.'

Ai frowns up at him, something flashing in his eyes as Yusaku stands above him, skin, limbs and everything in-between unveiled to the light.

'I give you a seven out of ten,' he mutters sullenly. 'You're pretty nice-looking for a computer nerd.'

Yusaku ignores him. Though it becomes progressively harder once they're back in their room and Ai is busy twirling round dramatically in an indigo yukata that Yusaku is not sure he wants to know where he got it from.

'Check it out!' Ai calls out excitedly, his despondent mood of seconds ago wiped clean with another twirl, before he poses with the flourish of a ballerina, hair flying down his back. 'What do you think? This is the first time you've seen me in a yukata, right!?'

He wilts as Yusaku continues to ignore him, wrapped in his own yukuta, a stately green that he borrowed from the innkeeeper.

'Wow. Are you sure you have feelings for me? My plan to make you fall for me might have run into a snag if this is how you react to me in a single layer.'

'You were naked a few minutes ago,' Yusaku points out and Ai wilts even further.

'Gah! Don't rub it in even further! At this rate, you'll convince me I have no sex appeal whatsoever!' He flops down against the table burying his head in his arms dramatically. Only to sneak a peek at Yusaku through his hair not a second later to gauge his reaction.

'Those hot springs felt good at least, right?' he asks apparently giving up. 'The temperature is good for soothing muscular pains and craps right? Should help after a day of you locked over that keyboard.'

Yusaku blinks. And Ai laughs lowly, unrolling himself from the table and crawling round on his hands and knees quite deliberately.

'I knew it!' he crows. 'You're not wincing as much as you were before!' He crawls closer, a hand coming up to perch on Yusaku's knee, the lapels of his yukata falling open, almost artfully so as he folds himself neatly in half. Partially kneeling, his head sways into his partner's personal space, and then Yusaku's hand in on his chest, perhaps to push him away, perhaps not, because the heat is there, sparks colliding as his fingertips meet perfect computer-generated skin...

Ai's face is close, so close, a strange temptation that once upon a time would have had no thrall upon him, but Yusaku wants it. He just wants it.

His hand moves, travelling over those loose lapels, across Ai's neck, onto his face, his hair, maybe to keep him close, maybe to shove him away at the last minute, he hasn't decided yet; this is too soon for either of them. And he's not sure if Ai understands yet, the enormity of the game he's playing...

The door to their room flies open.

Yusaku freezes. He's close enough to see Ai's rectangular pupils widen in shock.

'I'm afraid you don't have time for any of the Dark Ignis' games,' comes the strangely unsteady tone of Ryoken Kogami.

Yusaku's eyes immediately fly over to him, to trace the shock as it drains away from his friend's face, even as it's replaced quickly with a much sterner look as Ai promptly screeches and rips himself away from Yusaku's lap to press himself against the far side of the wall.

'Yusaku! You didn't tell me you had an EX! Is this where you take all your conquests?!'

The innkeeper meanwhile is hovering in the background, eyes wide, while her hands wring together nervously.

'I'm sorry...he said it was a family emergency and he needed to see you at once,' she hastens to explain.

Ai snorts, takes another look at Ryoken's stern expression and then promptly flies back to Yusaku's side, hands burying into the back of his yukata in a childish fashion.

'Is this guy like Blood Sheppard? Another enemy who wants me dead?'

Ryoken's expression tightens at his words, and Yusaku's heart sinks at the sight. Because Ai has no idea, not really, just how important the question he's just asked really is.

Picture this: in a dark room, miles and towns away, a sleeping girl lies. Her hair, unkempt and uneven, travels out from under the press of a visor that sinks down over her head, black and heavy in parody of a crown. The brown strands trailing beneath are long and wavy, nearly reaching a length only Zaizen Akira, Sugisaki Miyu and her long-dead parents have ever seen on her, as they cross a pillow coated in the gruelling stench of unwashed fabric.

Minutes pass. And then:

The girl arches, lets out a cry. Electricity sparks over the headset, travelling down in undulating coils of light over her body to dance cruelly over her sweat-soaked school uniform. And for a few minutes more she shivers. Then she sits up and practically rips off the headset.

Zaizen Aoi, pants, glaring harshly down at the source of her pain. Her hands tremble, as though caught between the desire to throw it, to see it clatter against the floor, or to cradle it close.

Then after a moment, one hand lifts up, to trail through her hair. She frowns at its length.

'I didn't even have a chance to use Marincess Marbled Rock this time...' her eyes narrow. 'Are you still watching me?' she calls out. 'Are you finding this fun?'

Her calls remain unanswered. Only the shadows here speak to her.

Aoi stares down at the headset on her lap. And after a moment she steels herself. Before lifting it back onto her head, to seal away her eyes once more.

Notes: Being Aoi is to suffer. But we knew that already.