Honestly, not so proud of this one. It just seems sort of short and slow, and we don't really see much of Wonderland...yet. I promise I will try to speed the plot up in the following chapters, this fic is only going to be under twenty chapters!

Hikaru waited on the hill for almost the entire day before Yuki finally returned carrying his load of stones. Sai and him both sat and chatted while Yuki expelled every ounce of hatred and rage in his tiny fox body, shouting angrily and tossing rocks freely.

Hikaru had learned that he could talk to Sai out loud however much he wanted. The people here didn't seem to care if he was crazy when he did so, and nobody ever called him a schizophrenic. He doubted Yuki even noticed, so caught up was he in his vengeful storm. As the fox finished his tirade of insults directed at the big ball of fire in the sky, Hikaru cheerfully piped up with, "Now we can play a game, right, Yuki?"

Yuki turned to him sullenly. "I suppose. We'll wait until the-" He glared at the sky for a moment. "Sun sets."

Hikaru nodded, and Yuki padded over and sat beside him, his tail curling up around his body. There was a few seconds of silence as Hikaru and Sai enjoyed the peace.

"...Do you live here alone?" Hikaru asked to break the ice.

Yuki stiffened a fraction. "Yes."

"Just you?"

"Yes."

"Is it hard?"

Yuki looked at him oddly. "Why would it be hard to live without people? All you do is stay somewhere far away, it's very simple."

"No," Hikaru shook his head. "I meant something else. Do you get lonely, is what I am asking. Do you miss friends?"

Yuki's tail twitched, and his ears rotated curiously. "No. I cannot miss what I have never had. Tell me, young boy, do you miss your friends?"

Hikaru was caught off guard by this question, and only managed a, "What do you mean?"

"You are here, in the middle of nowhere, with a fox that lives all on its own." Yuki's eyes gleamed. "For all you know, I might not even exist. I might just be a figure of your imagination, conjured up because of your feelings, your loneliness. That is why I don't like feelings. They can trick you easier than blinking."

"If you think that, than you will begin to think that nothing is real," Hikaru argued. "And then how could you live? I would like to be able to eat a cinnamon bun without questioning its reality, you know. And besides, I don't think my brain could make you up."

Yuki snorted, and then got very quiet. "...How do I know that my brain didn't make you up, Hikaru?"

"I think you have been alone on this hill for too long, my friend." Hikaru said sadly. "If you had anybody else in your life, anybody important, you would understand that no imagination could make up people."

They were silent for a while.

"Hikaru, the sun is setting!" Sai pointed out excitedly. "Let's play! Let's play!"

"Alright," He muttered, and grinned at Yuki. "Say, Yuki, you said we could play Go when the sun goes down."

Yuki groaned. "Yes, yes I did...I suppose we could play a game."

Hikaru giggled, which surprised him. He didn't used to like Go that much…He got up and strolled confidently to the side of the hill, where the first tiniest stars were coming out. Pale pink and hints of dark blue blended smoothly together, the stars twinkling, feeble, yet proud. Hikaru stopped for a moment to take in the sheer beauty of it. As he inhaled, he stretched his hand into the sky, his fingers open, searching.

I want to try this time, Sai.

His fingers brushed something neither hard nor soft, and his eyes fluttered closed as his fingers wrapped around the tiny star. He grinned in triumph, glancing over at Yuki, who was waiting impatiently. Hikaru held his hand out between him and his opponent and the star hurled itself at Yuki, purring. Hikaru tried not to feel jealous as the fox grinned sharply at him.

"Alright then," Yuki said. "I'm black."

Hikaru briefly thought about asking Yuki how exactly choosing for colors worked, but didn't want to risk Yuki getting the impression that Hikaru didn't know how to play go, and so he stayed silent.

"So, should I retrieve the stars from the sky or should-" Hikaru began, but was interrupted by a harsh, loud scream. He covered his ears, and was shocked to look up and realize it was Yuki who was screaming, bracing his legs against the ground and apparently being as loud as he could.

Finally, he stopped, and in the ringing silence, Hikaru opened his mouth to ask what in the world that was about, but a ringing, tinkling noise stopped him cold. He looked up into the sky and gaped.

The stars were falling down, raining out of their place in the sky like bells, chiming as they hit the ground. Hikaru turned his wide eyes on Yuki, who was...smiling. Not smirking, or grinning, or snarling. Smiling, a look of peaceful, soft joy as the stars fell around him, some of them getting caught in his fur. There, under the stars and night sky, Hikaru could barely see any dirt or mud on Yuki's fur at all.

The stars eventually stop falling, and they are left with stars littered around the hill.

"I didn't know Go players could even do that." Hikaru said, aghast.

"They can," Yuki chirped, back to his old self. "A lot of the professionals just choose not to."

"I can see why. Now we need to pick all of this up." Hikaru scoffed, bending down and scooping up a single, shivering star. Yuki rolled his eyes and began helping him collect their bounty.

When they had finished and the stars were collected into one pile, Hikaru once again reached into the heaven's above and drew their Go board.

It was a surprisingly easy process to learn, Sai having taught him in the two days it took to reach Yuki. Hikaru had realized it was more about harnessing mental strength than anything else. You simply thought what you wanted to see, and used your finger like a pencil.

As he finished drawing the board, he faced Yuki. "Now you'll finally play a game with me." He stated calmly.

Yuki rolled his eyes and sat on the grass. "Just let me place my first stone, dirty little boy."

Yuki tossed a star on the upper right, which immediately drifted off to come to rest on the lower left. Sai moved his hand to enter Hikaru's, but the boy waved him off.

I want to try holding one, Sai.

Sai blinked, but nodded, and his hand limply fell to his side as Hikaru stared down at the twinkling star. He drew back his arm, and let it fly to land on the lower right star point. To his amazement, it didn't move.

"You didn't ask me where to play." Sai said, his lower lip jutting out.

Oh. I'm sorry. I'm afraid I wasn't thinking.

Yuki placed another stone on the board, and Sai pointed to where he wanted Hikaru to play, though looking slightly disgruntled about not being able to hold the star. The game went on, Yuki, like Kaga, becoming more and more serious the more they played. By this time, Hikaru could make out what was going on in a Go game, and saw that Yuki was quite skilled, despite his outer appearance. He seemed to have a natural ability for reading ahead, and oddly enough, the stars were staying in their places more often than not for him.

"He is cheating." Sai said almost venomously.

Hikaru blinked, surprised. Yuki? How?

"He is controlling where and when they will drift." Sai pointed out. "He whispers to them."

What, and that just works?

"If you are persuasive enough, yes." Sai said quietly. "There is an art to getting someone to do what you want, especially fickle creatures like stars. You make it seem as though they are acting in their own best interests…you trick them, make them stay in the same place throughout the game, make them switch places or drift where you want them to go."

Hikaru glanced suspiciously at him. It sounds like you know all about it, Sai.

Hikaru had never seen the ghost look more offended and hurt than he did now. "Because it has been used on me before, Hikaru." He snapped, and then softened a touch. "Though Yuki is excellent at cheating, that is not something to be proud of."

Hikaru strained his ears for a moment as Yuki was about to play, and he only barely heard the fox murmuring, barely moving his lips, making eye contact with the little, shivering star he held in his hand.

If Go doesn't work out, he could certainly be a ventriloquist.

He shook his head slightly, snapping himself out of it. He stared at the fox as he threw the tainted star on the board and felt a surge of...something. He didn't know what it was. All he knew was that these stars, these playing stones, were beautiful, delicate, a thing of peace, and Yuki was twisting them to follow along in his personal plan. He felt...angry. Insulted.

It was a brief flash of emotion, but a flash nonetheless, and Hikaru felt unnerved by it.

"So you understand, then," Sai muttered from behind his fan. "We cannot let this go on."

Hikaru nodded. It was just then, however, they both realized they had practically been playing the game in their sleep, mechanically placing down stones and continuing their discussion. The game was almost finished, and Sai was horrified to see what he had done. They were definitely losing, thin spots everywhere, stones placed in random places. Yuki was staring at him with a blank look on his face. Hikaru opened his mouth to say something, anything, to excuse his awful play, but it was hard to think of excuses when Sai was moaning about their lapse of attention net to him.

"You were good in the beginning," Yuki said expressionlessly. "but you seemed to lack the attention to go on. Didn't you want to play me badly? Is this boring to you?"

"What?! No! I'm sorry, I was thinking about something else." Hikaru said hastily.

Yuki scowled and looked back at their horrible game. "Do you want to resign now, or let it drag on?"

"I will keep playing." Hikaru said firmly.

Yuki let out a harsh breath of air and flopped backward onto the grass. "Actually, I don't feel like playing anymore. You can leave."

Hikaru was shocked at this sudden change in mood, and at this sudden dismissal, but the prime emotion that began moving his mouth was anger for realizing that Yuki thought he could just dismiss him. He wasn't a dog, for crying out loud.

"Oh, no, I am not going anywhere. We will finish this game, and I will do it right." Hikaru folded his arms as though daring him to argue.

Yuki only closed his eyes and very pointedly began to snore. Hikaru was confused and angry and upset at himself for blowing this chance to recruit Yuki for their journey, and as he got up and brushed grass off of his pants, he said, "I don't understand you. I really do not understand."

He turned around and stomped off down the hill.

Yuki is going to take a little persuading…

Also, thank you to everyone that's read this and/or commented! Means a lot to me :)