Aww, you guys rock the casbah. Thanks for all of the encouraging reviews. I just can't keep you guys in suspense so I'll get on with the show. This chapter is dedicated to hyper-writer14 for adding me to their favs list and to Kativa-Chan because, well, lets be honest people: There's no better way to show someone you love them then by…telling them you love them. So enjoy, you two! This one's especially for you.

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"Look at me."

Hatori's voice was as deep a rumble as thunder on an ominous night. His eyes were as sharp and fierce as a blade. His composure was rigid and controlling. And yet all of these qualities were downplayed by the sophistication of his attire. A dress shirt, a vest, a tie. Tidy pants that he'd no doubt ironed earlier that very day. Shoes that clicked in a masculine way against the wooden floors, shining ebony and tied with the same measure of perfection as everything else was done with. Yuki stared hard into the chest of his foe for he could not bring himself to gaze upon the lacking symmetry that was the doctor's face.

"Look at me, Yuki."

A moment's hesitation was beaten down by the confidence instilled within Yuki by his martial arts teacher, the same man who had dared to teach the stupid cat and just about everyone else in the family who was familiar with the hobby. Those focused violet eyes rose until they settled upon the one queer marsh green orb left unhidden by the dark strands of hair. Hatori frowned somewhat, a gentle gesture that made the corners of his lips descend less than a fraction of existence but the impact was as strong as a snake bite.

"Have you not suffered enough, Yuki? Why must you be the inventor of your own sickeningly cruel doom? You have been given the greatest gift by having Tôru in your life as a friend and nothing more. Never anything more. Don't you understand that? It's impossible." He spoke quietly, his words so blunt and unfeeling.

"So you've said before." Yuki hissed in seething reply, his fingers twitching at his sides with the urge to ball into fists.

Staring down at the young one, Hatori seemed nothing more than a lifeless guardian of stone. Inside, however, he was a raging waterfall of concern. He had watched Yuki suffer throughout childhood, sometimes because of his doing in the matters of erasing memory. He had watched the change in this prosperous young man with the addition of Tôru in his life. But now he sought to destroy all of that strife and achievement with a foolish teenage lust. How unexpected for someone so promising.

Stepping forward, he saw Yuki tense and even heard a bone somewhere in his body click, "You will stop this nonsense or I will stop it for you. You know my capabilities."

An icy finger of panic stroked along Yuki's spine until he could feel his back arching as though to try and escape it. The idea of his love being smitten from his mind but the force of a stranger seemed barbaric, more so than any case he had considered before. He felt selfish but it could not be helped. Within himself, he could feel his soul wrapping chains around his love, refusing to release it for anything in the world.

"Don't be ridiculous. You can't do that to me!" Yuki's voice rose with bravado masking quaking terror.

"Keep your voice down. The last thing you want is to have Kyo holding you down as I erase your memories of 'love'." Hatori stated matter-of-factually, feeling ill in his heart for having to treat Yuki so coldly.

Despite his steely manner, Hatori had known once what Yuki realized now. True love, whatever stage of development it was at, was bliss. Sometimes he missed Kana so sorely that he would need medicine to aid his troubled sleep. He would be willing to take Yuki's memories not to hurt him but to save him. However, no such compassion showed upon his face, no matter how much he wished he could get it to shine there.

"How can you even suggest such a sick thing? You know better than perhaps any of the other Zodiac members how important it can be to find love in someone." Yuki accused as calmly as he could, weary of the previous threat.

"And how dangerous it can be to yearn for something you can never have. I had to learn that the hard way, Yuki. I don't want you to make the same mistake."

"I'm not making a mistake. Tôru knows my secret; our secret. She would never judge me for it. She would never turn her back on me."

"It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself as much as me. I know you realize that this union would work on a level of understanding but you would be cheating Tôru out of any hope for the kind of relationship humans need."

Yuki let out a shaky breath, his eyes widening only a moment before they fell to their usual calm composure and he leaned back against the wall. He had known that, of course, but to hear it spoken aloud was more painful than he anticipated. He could feel himself sinking, falling forever. All he saw were swirling wraiths of shadow and nausea. He blinked and when his eyes opened, he was laying on his back with a curious weight pressing down the surface on his left side.

"What…?" Yuki muttered, finding his tongue fat and sluggish in his mouth.

"Don't speak, Yuki. You'll strain yourself."

The prince groaned and turned his head, finding his sight set upon Hatori once more although his body did not flinch for he simply did not have the strength. He swallowed the dryness in his throat.

"What did you do to me?" He asked, more out of curiosity than actual anger.

Turning away from the medical bag he seemed to be rummaging through, Hatori set that chilled gaze upon him but it felt looser than it had when its intense grip had wrung the life out of Yuki's soul.

"Not a thing. You upset yourself into fainting. I put you in your bed and had dinner downstairs."

The initial emptiness of the mind when first awoken faded and Yuki bolted upright with a force of adrenaline. Sitting up straight, he shook his head.

"The dinner! Miss Honda must be so concerned. I must tell her that-"

"She's asleep." The doctor interrupted, annoyed that his patient was not following orders, "She and Kyo escorted Momiji home and returned with my bag. I gave you something to help you sleep when you began to thrash and they called it a night after that."

His pale hands curled into fists, wrinkling the blanket in their strangle hold. What a fool he was. How could he have gotten himself into such a position? He did not doubt that Tôru was not asleep at all but in fact fretting alone in her room that the ordeal was somehow impossibly her fault. Ripping back the blanket, he twisted his legs and set his feet upon the floor. Hatori's hand fell down onto his shoulder with such a forbidding touch that he could barely breathe a moment.

"Let me go, Hatori."

"You're unwell, Yuki. You really have given yourself a fever with all of this foolishness." Hatori retorted, a hint of emotion in his voice obscured and incomprehensible in his flat tone.

"I have to see if she's alright!"

The world spun. The squabble lasted seconds at best before the bed and Yuki's back snuggled together once more and his body was crushed into its welcoming softness. The weight of a thousand worries lay atop him and when his vision focused from the blur of eternity, Yuki stared up into the gentle face of Hatori, eyes wrinkled at the corners as tears welled in their lower rims. With his hair pushed aside in the fuss, his face was all the more becoming. Yuki exhaled before cool and yet sweetly plush lips pressed against his own, dry and speechless.

'He's kissing me…'

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Ahahaha! The power of cliffhanger endings. What will Yuki's reaction be! Will be submit to the sexy doctor or will he be defiant and turn himself into a victim of passion! …I don't know yet, I'm sort of working it out as I go.

Yuki: …I'm not gay!

Oh shut up. See you next chapter everybody! More reviews, more reviews!

Yuki: For your witch's brew…

What!