A/N: Hello! This chapter is a little strange. I think it might be a little hard to read, but give it a try, yes? Tsuzuki's part is kinda Small and there only for plot purposes, while Tatsumi's part is longer, much more important and a little confusing. Another thing: I've never been to Japan, and probably never will be. I tried to look up information about transportation but wasn't able to find much, so I'll be as vague as I can about some things and use my own personal experience in others and call it poetic license, OK?

Enjoy!

DEAD RECKONING

CHAPTER FIVE

Bus stations- or any other kind of station, for that matter- had always struck him as quite contradictory places. On the one hand, you had all these people going away; for a short while or maybe forever, but all saying good bye. In that sense, those places were just a little less sad than hospitals. Those walls had heard so many farewells through the years. But then there were those people arriving. You could always tell when someone was waiting for a loved one instead of waiting to send them off. Their gestures, their stances, spoke of a very different kind of anxiety. Of course, there were also those who couldn't wait to get rid of their relatives, but that was a whole other story.

As it was, Tsuzuki knew how many different emotions flooded places such as that one, and he hadn't needed to see his partner's involuntary shudders to notice. If it had been up to him, he would have checked Haneda Airport and Haneda Kaku Station (1) first. There was Murphy's law to consider: the last place you look is more likely to have what you were looking for. Since the idea of Tatsumi taking a bus was the most plausible one- buses were, after all, much cheaper-, he thought it wouldn't hurt to get the odds to his favor and check the bus station last. Besides, Tatsumi had been acting strange; why not assume his choice of transportation could be strange as well? The thing is, he wasn't alone, and there was no way in hell Hisoka would have stand two stations and an airport in one day, for the reasons stated before.

Then again, if it hadn't been for Hisoka, he wouldn't have thought about it at all. Knowing himself, he knew very well that, had he miraculously come up with the idea without Hisoka's aid, he wouldn't have accomplished much on his own, anyway. He was a good enough detective, mind you, as long as it was for other people's causes; when it came to his own life, he was down right dense. So, no, he wasn't alone and he couldn't do things his way, which was probably for the best.

He was really, truly thankful for- and touched by- the help as well as the company. Hisoka had slept considerably less than him and he had gone to work (whether he had worked or not wasn't really the issue) yet here he was, tired, in an crowded place, all to help him with his little 'obsession' that really had nothing to do with him, and he wasn't even complaining!

Finally, after almost an hour of going through countless halls, stairs and ramps, after getting lost twice thanks to the very confusing directions given by a bored security guard and a very confusing map, they caught sight of the endless row of glass cubicles that were the booking offices. Tsuzuki was aghast; wasn't there supposed to be just nine bus companies?!(2) Why the hell were there so many offices? And they were supposed to ask in each one?!!

Tsuzuki took out Tatsumi's picture- the 'one' picture- from his pocket and prayed that Murphy's law, the very same he'd been counting on a moment before, wouldn't apply in this case. Hisoka also seemed a little taken aback by all those potential failures. What affected Tsuzuki the most- and he was sure his young partner shared the sentiment- was that some of these offices had pretty long queues. They would be there forever!

The younger shinigami eyed the first booth wearily and sighed.

"Leave this to me," He snatched the picture from his fingers and got on line. "We're gonna be here all night. You so owe me one," the boy all but barked, which probably translated into 'you'll be filling my share of lame ass paper work till kingdom come.' Well, it was worth it... wasn't it?

'Queues,' he thought, as he was forced to take a ridiculously short step. 'So useful yet so darn annoying.' He started whistling to pass the time but Hisoka immediately let him know he didn't appreciate his poor attempts at a melody by elbowing him rather harshly- yet most effectively- on the ribs, so he started looking around for entertainment; he eyed a news stand that had more manga than newspapers, a drugstore, a bickering couple, two bickering couples, three... Was there something in the cafeteria's overpriced water? Then, and purely by accident, his eyes landed on a huge and quite luminous billboard right over the booking office they were waiting in line for. He squinted his eyes to read the tiny black letters. 'Destinations,' it read, 'Kofu, Gifu, Otsu, Maebashi, Nagano.'(3) He frowned, grabbing Hisoka's arm and shaking it a little.

"What?!" the young man spat, yanking his arm away. Tsuzuki just pointed dumbly to his discovery. "Oh?" Hisoka's tone changed from angry to surprised, "Oh," and then resigned. The boy sighed. "I guess there's no point in us staying here, if you say he's gone to the beach..."

Tsuzuki nodded.

"That's what he said, yeah." He gave his partner a bright smile. "But this is good, isn't it?"

The green eyed boy took one look around and, seeing all the other billboards, shrugged.

"It sure is going to save us a lot of time." Then he gave him an odd look. "It's a good thing you saw it," he whispered, looking away. Tsuzuki beamed.

"Are you saying I'm not completely useless?" he teased.

"Shut up," Hisoka answered grouchily and turned away. Not before Tsuzuki saw him smile, though.


In the end, they hadn't had to ask in that many offices. Forty minutes later they had checked ten and there was only one left. They hadn't found much, either. None of the clerks could remember Tatsumi from the day before, but that didn't really surprised him or discourage him; those people didn't even bother to lift their eyes from their computer screens to talk to you, unless you specifically asked for it, and even then they were reluctant.

All they had gathered were a bunch of time-tables for the destinations that were relevant to them. It would take him a while to select the most plausible options,- he wouldn't put Hisoka through that process, the boy had helped enough and deserved to rest- but even then he would be left with a bunch of different possibilities he had no way of confirming or discarding. When the man in front of them took his ticket and his change and moved away, Tsuzuki closed his eyes and again sent out a prayer to the heavens. This was their last chance at some semblance of certainty.

"Next," a young girl with a bored look on her face said coldly. Hisoka approached her. "Good evening, sir, what can I do for you?"

The young man answered coldness with coldness, simply placing the photo on the desk without so much as a nod as a reply to the greeting.

"Have you seen this man?" he said sternly and with such authority that, had he not known him, Tsuzuki would have thought he was much older.

The girl seemed disconcerted- as all the other clerks had been- that someone had taken them out of their monotonous routine and had actually asked for interaction. She blinked and took the picture, immediately widening her eyes and fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat. Tsuzuki immediately perked up.

"Why do you ask?" she asked, almost frightened.

"He's a friend of ours," Hisoka paused a moment to study her, "We're sure he was here yesterday and we want to know where he went."

She seemed to relax at Hisoka's words and her expression turned a little petulant.

"I'm sorry, but I can't give you that information, unless you're police officers." Then she seem to doubt. "You're not, right?"

Hisoka shook his head no and was about to insist, but Tsuzuki wasn't able to contain himself and spoke up.

"But you've seen him, right? You recognized him?"

"I see a lot of people every day," she said uninterested. "If you don't mind, I have to go back to work."

Tsuzuki's shoulders slumped. The girl held out the picture for him to take, and he was going to, but Hisoka pushed him aside and took it himself, glaring at the girl.

"Lets go," he said, and dragged the older man by the arm, away from the desk.

When they were a few yards away, Hisoka stopped walking and handed him the picture. Tsuzuki took it and pouted.

"'Soka!" he whined, "We had to ask her for the schedules, remember? Now we have to get in line again or we won't know were he might have gone!"

The young man shrugged.

"He went to some small town near Yokohama. It's two stops before that one."

Tsuzuki blinked.

"Huh?"

"I took her hand when I grabbed the picture." The boy rolled his eyes. "She so did remember him. I didn't need to be an empath to see it."

He nodded, still a little shocked.

"Yeah, I noticed that too. She seemed scared; Tatsumi has that effect on people."

"So?" The boy scrutinized him carefully. "What now?"

The older man considered it. He hadn't really thought about what he'd do with the information once he had it. Obviously, his first impulse was to run back to that annoying girl and ask her for a ticket to Yokohama. But Tatsumi had gone away for a reason, and that reason was most likely that he didn't want to be around him. Now he knew where he was; was there any need for him to go after him?

"I guess I have to think about it," he said at last.

Hisoka nodded.

"I'm going home now," he declared, "Do you want to be alone or are you coming with me?"

"You go ahead," he said apologetically. "I'm gonna grab a bite before I turn in. I'm starving." He was, but that wasn't why he wanted Hisoka to leave without him. "I'll see you at work tomorrow, OK? I really appreciate what you did and I'm gonna make it up to you," he finished with a smile. Hisoka smirked.

"You bet your ass you are." He was about to leave when he seemed to think of something. "Listen," he said seriously, "Try not to be.... yourself when you go see him. Remember he's the one having problems, he needs you to be supportive, OK? And call me when you leave, so I can cover your ass."

Tsuzuki nodded gratefully and waved him off. It wasn't after the boy was out of sight that he realized Hisoka had said 'when', not 'if'. Empath, indeed.


Tatsumi thought he had dealt with the situation rather well. Once he saw the young inn keeper disappearing behind that mysterious room's door, he had managed to fight the impulse of going after him quite easily, even if the idea hadn't really abandoned him completely. He was good at that, at ignoring what he really wanted to do and finding some trivial diversion to keep his mind occupied.

First, he had gone to check the young man's car and, just as he'd suspected, he'd found that he had left all the groceries inside- as well as the car unlocked, for what his stomach was most grateful. So he'd done the sensible thing and taken everything to the kitchen. Walking through that hall, passing by that door, hadn't been so convenient but the fact that he'd been carrying several heavy bags had helped him fight the temptation. He'd stayed in the kitchen for a while, not trusting himself to be tested like that again without the urgency of weight, and he'd made good use of the time by making dinner. The sun had been starting to set by the time he'd been able to rush through that narrow hall and go back to his room.

Now it was almost 9 p.m and, after doing a very thorough chart about time economy for the rest of the week, he found himself, again, without anything to do. Not even his chart was of much help, since he'd done it thinking he would be too tired for anything else afterwards and had left that evening off. He wasn't tired, not really and, even when he knew that he would have been able to fall asleep sooner or later were he to lay down, something inside of him simply wouldn't let him. Of course, he could have done some of the things he had planned for the following day, but that would have rendered the chart useless.

It was really getting tiresome, this having to avoid his own thoughts and have so little imagination to do so. It wasn't enough that he had to constantly fight the 'Tsuzuki thoughts', now this drunken stranger had added to the conflict by sparkling his curiosity. It was 9 p.m, he thought, looking out the window. Kaede had been just too drunk to stay awake for long, in spite his apparent tendency to noctambulism; in the state he'd been in when he arrived, it wouldn't surprise Tatsumi if he slept all through the night. He could, technically, sneak in to find out...

Tatsumi shook his head violently. This was crazy! He wasn't a little animal, helplessly submitted to his every impulse! Never had been! Why was it so hard to ignore them now? This wasn't the sort of holiday he'd had in mind; he was supposed to be resting from that sort of problem, not find new ones!

He stood up abruptly from the small desk he'd been working on and went straight to fetch his suitcase that was still resting half-unpacked under his bed. He was getting the hell out of there, he decided, opening the suitcase. He was about to move to the closet to get the rest of his clothes when he noticed something that made him frown. Right on top of a brown cashmere sweater, folded neatly inside the aforementioned suitcase, rested a yellow folder he didn't remember packing. It was work, he noticed at once. Had he brought work with him without realizing he'd done so? Was he so much of a workaholic?

Tentatively, his fingers reached out for it and, just as he was about to open it, the sound of footsteps coming from outside his room caught his attention. He immediately, almost mechanically, closed his suitcase and put it back under the bed. It had to be Kaede, he reasoned, though he couldn't really understand what he would be doing up there; yet it wasn't the first time he caught him there, was it? He waited beside his door until the footsteps were distant before stepping outside. The hall was empty, but he got to see a shadow going downstairs. It was safe enough, he told himself; the young man was far enough so that he could follow him and go unnoticed. Why was he following him? He hadn't the slightest clue, but somehow that didn't matter anymore.

With careful steps, Tatsumi approached the top of the stairs and poked his head out to see if he was still there. He wasn't; the footsteps were now definitively coming from downstairs. The blue eyed man waited for a moment. If Kaede was still in the receiving area he would definitively see him coming down. Tatsumi held his breath; it seemed that every time he laid a foot on one of the wooden steps, the damned things would creak as if he weighed a thousand pounds; or maybe it wasn't so loud and he was just too nervous.

He could feel it running through his veins, the adrenaline and thrill that came with the forbidden. Was it forbidden, though? The young man had never mentioned the room, less alone given him any instruction not to enter it; he hadn't laid out any rules. And Tatsumi wasn't really doing anything so outrageous, was he? He'd heard noise outside and had gone out to see what it was. Where logic told him there was nothing to be frightened or feel guilty about, his heart let him know quite clearly that neither his actions nor his motives were good, however demanding, irrational and undeniable his impulses were.

He got a sense of deja vu when he reached the bottom of the stairs and was met by the empty reception, dimly lit by the lamp on the desk. The same sadness he'd perceived the night before seemed even deeper that night, though; it felt as though it had seeped through his skin and taken hold of him. That sadness was now his own.

He thought about the irony of the situation then. He was chasing a shadow. Shadows were his thing, and not only in a mere professional sense. His life was always surrounded by shadows; self-imposed shadows of feelings he wouldn't dare to feel, but that were there nonetheless, taunting him. Like the sadness he now felt, inexplicable, yet so familiar to him. Those shadows he couldn't control. Only Tsuzuki, the greatest of all shadows, the one he kept chasing after and running away from, was able to bring some light into his life at times. Sometimes he would smile, or simply look at him and Tatsumi would be living in a bright world for a few seconds. He was the Kagetsukai, though; the shadows always returned.

And it was a shadow he saw, this time disappearing into the narrow hallway that had been his silent torture that day. He didn't think about how impossible it was, in terms of time coherence, that he was only then seeing Kaede's shadow. Again his mind was set on one goal, logic seemed to loose its purpose and he dived into the hall's darkness head first.

He didn't hear the sound of the door opening, but when he got to THE room, the door was, indeed, half open. The only sound coming from the inside was static from the TV, which was also the only source of light. He had seen Kaede's shadow just a moment before; the man had to be awake and therefore would certainly notice if he entered. That was, sadly, a logical reasoning. Tatsumi really didn't think twice before pushing the door a little and walking in.

His feet moved of their own accord, taking him directly to the couch without any kind of hesitation. By then, he knew what he would find, so he wasn't at all surprised when he saw the sleeping form resting there, reeking of alcohol even after all that time. His face looked so peaceful, yet so troubled at the same time. The blue eyed man knelt next to the young man and contemplated his face with tender curiosity.

"You poor thing," he whispered, brushing a strand of dark hair away from his beautiful face. "You're so beautiful when you're sleeping, Tsuzuki."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Tatsumi seemed to wake from the trance and reality came rushing back into him, leaving him literally breathless. He would have been horrified by his actions, if the world hadn't faded to black at that precise moment.

Tsuzuku

1) Tokyo train station... I think.

(2) This is actually true for Japan, or so it said the website I visited.

(3) All these places are inland.

Thanks to: BakayaroManiac, PJ Zatken, maia8, lyn and Candy-chan.I'll be able to answer reviews again, from now on, unless something 'else' happens to my computer.

JA NE!