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Part 1

Hiyori loved Yato, she really did, but sometimes he could be a real pain in the neck.

"Pleaaaaseeee?" he whined, flopping onto her bed dramatically.

Her eye twitched as she swiveled her desk chair around for the fifth time in as many minutes. "I already said no. And I thought I told you to stop teleporting in here without permission. You could at least have the decency to knock on the window first."

He looked hopeful. "If I knock on the window, will you come?"

"I said no, Yato. I'm busy."

Yato pulled a face. "But busy with boring stuff. You can do that later, when Yukine is being a slave driver again and we don't have time to hang out. This will be way more fun!"

"Boring it might be, but it's important."

"Not as important as hanging out with us!"

Hiyori jabbed her pencil in his direction. "Oh, yes!" she cried in exasperation. "It's only my future we're talking about. I can hang out with you just as well after my exams. I'm already behind because I keep dropping my body in class. At this rate, I'm going to fail everything and never graduate!"

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Yato said, kicking his legs up in the air behind him and scissoring them idly. "You're smart. Anyway, I can totally help you study. I've been around for ages—I know a thing or two. But let's go to the festival first!"

Hiyori snorted. "Yeah. If I need help drawing capypers all over my homework, then I'll ask you for help. Until then, go away. I have work to do. I don't have to hang out with you all the time, you know. I have a life too."

"But Hiyoriiiii, I really am good at lots of subjects! I can teach you lots. Come on, you know you want to come. We can worry about studying later. You've still got days until your exams. I told Yukine he could have a break to come too. It should be a study-free day!"

She spun her chair back around and glowered at her textbook and the page of questions she'd yet to answer. She wished Yato would just drop it. Didn't she already spend tons of time with him and Yukine? Wasn't that why she was in danger of failing her exams in the first place? She still had a life in the human world, apart from gods and shinki and the supernatural. Sometimes she got so carried away playing with gods that she let her human friends and family—and studies—fall to the wayside. She needed to focus on them too, and Yato didn't make it easy with his incessant badgering and constant interruptions.

"I wish you would just leave me alone," she snapped, knuckles going white as she clutched her pencil tighter. "I have a life here too, you know. It's not all about you. This is important to me—more important than some festival right now. I have to pass these exams. Would you please just go away?"

The faint sounds of Yato moving about in her bed ceased abruptly. He was quiet for so long that she thought he had finally gotten the message.

"Okay," he said, voice quiet. "I see. You're right. It's not fair of me to keep interrupting your life. I'll let you study now."

"Thank you," Hiyori grumbled.

She scribbled a few lines, and no one interrupted her. She breathed a sigh of relief and felt considerably more charitable. Maybe she should soften her words. She had been a touch harsh, even if Yato had been asking for it.

"We can do something after my exams are over," she said more gently. "There will be other festivals."

He didn't answer, and when she spun her chair back around, he was already gone.

Yukine eyed Yato sidelong as they wove through the crowded streets. Yato smiled and made the occasional joke or comment, but his gaze was unfocused and he lacked his normal enthusiasm. He hadn't whined to stop and eat—Yukine had finally had to suggest lunch—or complained about how much it cost or tried to con Yukine into paying for the meal with his hard-earned money from the shop. He had done little more than pick at his food and then pay without complaint. He hadn't even tried sneaking away to buy stupid charms, which Yukine had been sure was the main appeal of this outing.

For all Yato's excitement leading up to the festival, he didn't seem to be enjoying it very much.

Yukine was determined, as usual, not to mention it. Yato's problems were his own business, and he wasn't about to go begging to be included. As long as the idiot wasn't running off to Nora or buying good luck charms, Yukine didn't care what he did.

Still, Yukine hadn't thought he'd miss Yato's inane chatter as much as he did. But as long as Yato still wore a smile and thought he was successfully hiding his moping, Yukine wouldn't pry.

"Too bad Hiyori couldn't come," he grumbled, looking around sourly at the happy people milling about beneath the gaudy decorations strung up and down the street. If anyone could drag Yato out of his brooding, it was Hiyori.

Yato's smile looked like plastic. "Yeah. It's too bad. But she has a life outside of us, you know. Human stuff. We have to let her live. Humans aren't meant to be hanging around gods and shinki all the time, anyway."

Yukine eyed him suspiciously. "Since when are you all responsible?" And then, because the words not only rang true but twisted up his insides with a phantom sense of loss, he added, "Don't act like she's about to outgrow us. She's not going to forget."

"I didn't say that," Yato murmured, but his eyes were distant again and there was a ghost of a frown lurking around the corners of his mouth.

Yukine frowned too. Was Yato stressing about Hiyori forgetting? He did sometimes get a little weird about being alone, and maybe Hiyori being unable to come today had made him insecure again. But there was really no way to tell, and Yato wouldn't talk unless he wanted to.

Anyway, Yukine didn't want to think about it too hard either. The thought of Hiyori someday forgetting them, moving on to live out her happy human life without them, made him sick to his stomach. She wouldn't, of course. They'd always be exactly like they were now. Except that Hiyori wasn't like them. She would still grow up, grow old, forget, die. But it was easy to ignore that when the days were sunny and they were happy, and Yukine did his best not to consider it at all.

"Are we done here?" he asked. Neither of them seemed to be having a good time, and the afternoon was starting to bleed into evening. "I do still have math problems. Hiyori assigned me tons of homework for when she's done with her exams."

"Yeah, sure," Yato said, even though he'd normally put up a fight like a kid protesting bedtime.

They returned home in silence.

"How was the festival?" Kofuku asked as soon as they walked in the door. "Was it amaaazing? I can't believe Daikoku wouldn't let me go! Can you believe the nerve of him, saying my bad luck would ruin the whole thing? Was it super fun? Because if it was"—she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper and cast a glance over her shoulder—"I might sneak out and go anyway!"

Yato smiled, but the gesture seemed automatic, perfunctory. "It was fun. Exactly the kind of thing you'd like."

Kofuku practically squealed, but snapped her mouth shut when Daikoku ambled out of the kitchen behind her.

"You're back earlier than I expected," he said. "I thought Yato would stay out all night and I'd have to go haul you back."

Yukine eyed Yato sidelong, but only said, "Well, I still have a lot of math to work on for Hiyori. She gave me extra work to do while she's studying for her exams."

Yato's lips curved downward. Someone was definitely sulking.

"At least eat dinner first," Daikoku said. "It will be ready in a minute."

Luckily, Kofuku talked enough for everyone. Yato only picked at his food, brows drawn together and gaze distant. It made Yukine nervous. Nothing good ever came from Yato thinking.

When Yukine finished eating, he gathered up his dishes and excused himself. "I think I'll go work on my homework now."

Yato stood up from the table abruptly, mouth twisted into a wide grin. "Actually, we have a job! Why don't you pack up some of your things? We're going away for a few days."

"Ehhh?" Kofuku asked, eyes wide. "You're going on vacation?"

"What are you talking about?" Yukine asked. "What job? Where would we even go? Why would we even go?"

"It will be fun!" Yato said, as if that was an answer. "We'll get away for a few days, just the two of us, and do something different."

Yukine liked things just the way they were and did not want to do anything different, and said as much. Yato insisted it was absolutely necessary and now was the perfect time since Hiyori was busy anyway. Daikoku waxed poetic about getting rid of a parasitic freeloader, and Kofuku whined about wanting to join the fun. Yukine protested some more, in vain.

Twenty minutes later, he had grudgingly packed a bag of clothes and math problems and Yato was ushering him out the door.

"Is this a bathroom cleaning job?" he groused. "I don't want to clean any bathroom that you think will take days. And isn't it kind of late for that? I didn't hear anyone phone you."

"Well, they called this morning and I said we'd be by later."

"You didn't just do the job? You're supposed to take all your jobs!"

"But I wanted to go to the festival!"

"You lazy, good-for-nothing–" Yukine stopped and narrowed his eyes at Yato. "Stop trying to distract me. Is this a bathroom?"

"Nooo…"

"If you're lying to get me to come with you, I swear–"

"It's not!"

"Then what is it?"

Yato pouted and shuffled a few steps sideways as he pulled out his phone to redial the customer. "It's a kitchen."

"Yato–"

Yukine took a swipe at him, but Yato grabbed his arm and teleported them into the middle of a kitchen with a plump, gray-haired man standing next to the sink with his phone pressed to his ear. And an awful kitchen it was. Yukine had never seen so much grime and grease collected in one place, not even when he and Yato had been living on the streets.

By the time they finished and collected their measly five yen, it was pitch black outside and they were no longer on speaking terms. To add to the misery, Yato took them to a grassy park on the other side of the city and declared that they were going camping. Yukine was not amused.

"But it will be fuuun!" Yato whined. "I used to camp out all the time!"

"Yeah, when you were homeless! Now we have a perfectly good room of our own with Daikoku and Kofuku, not that you do much to deserve it." Yukine cast a nervous glance around at the hulking shadows encircling them in the vague shapes of trees and bushes. A pale sliver of moon still hung in the sky, but it was waning fast. In a few days, it would be gone. The stars weren't nearly bright enough to make up for it. "Can't we just go home? It's creepy out here."

"Is not! It's nice and quiet and no one will bother us or tell us to wash the dishes before bed."

Yukine would not call it quiet. The buzzing and clicking of cicadas set the air vibrating, and the faint sounds of traffic and talking floated through the park.

"I'd take dishes over having ayakashi sneak up on me while I sleep," he said, his gaze darting back and forth to track every shadow that moved with the breeze.

Yato waved a hand airily and flopped down onto the grass. "We'll be fine. You have any idea how long I spent camping without any shinki to back me up? I'm a pro."

Yukine shuddered at the thought, and then again as a breeze dipped chilly fingers down the collar of his coat and caressed his neck. He couldn't imagine living out here alone on a semi-permanent basis, always on the run without an effective way to dispatch ayakashi if one wandered along and smelled its next meal.

Yato snatched up his bag and produced a wad of blankets, which he arranged in a messy nest for Yukine. "C'mon, kiddo."

With great reluctance, Yukine sank to the ground and pulled the blankets up to his chin. There were too many shadows, and they moved with the wind. Out here in the night, the shadows were alive. Anything could be sneaking up on them.

"Who cares if you're a pro?" he muttered. "We have a home now. Can't we just go back to Kofuku's?"

Yato fished around in his bag some more. "Here."

He tossed a flashlight at Yukine, and it nearly hit him in the head. Yukine, taking this as the final answer, turned it on so that they had at least a small circle of light.

It wasn't enough, not by a long shot. His heart thundered in his chest, and he couldn't imagine sleeping. Yato made one or two aborted overtures, but gave up when Yukine turned away. Yukine wasn't a child who needed comforting. And he wasn't too thrilled with Yato right now either. Instead, he clutched the flashlight and stared out, wide-eyed, into the dark.

By the time morning rolled around, neither of them had slept much. Yato managed to pick up an odd job helping a girl who thought she was haunted, and then they spent a while slicing up ayakashi and wandering the far end of the city to explore all the shops and buildings they hadn't been to before.

Yukine did not consider this great fun, unlike his master. All he really cared about was convincing Yato to let them go home, but he was having no success on that front. Yato just grinned and led them back to the park and said inane things like "Isn't this fun?" and "Camping is the best!"

And so Yukine found himself huddled in a nest of thin blankets tucked in the grass with little more than a flashlight once more, shadows gathering and grinning down at him.

"Yukine?" Yato asked, after they had feigned sleep for maybe an hour. Yukine said nothing. "Come on, don't be mad. It's more comfy over here." Yukine didn't move. Yato sighed. "Well, if we aren't going to sleep anyway, why don't we work on your math homework?"

Now Yukine rolled over to give Yato an incredulous look. "Math homework?"

"You have to do it anyway, right? You were talking about it before we left. You wouldn't want to go back empty-handed."

"Hiyori would be pissed, but I think she'd understand that you dragged me into the wilderness to fend for myself for days."

Yukine imagined he saw Yato wince, but it was hard to tell in the dark.

"This is hardly the wilderness," Yato said. "And you're not fending for yourself. Come on. I can help you with your math."

"You?"

Yato huffed. "I've been around for centuries, you know. Why do you all think I can't do math? I'm no mathematician, but I think I can handle a little kiddie algebra."

"Kiddie algebra," Yukine muttered.

But he wasn't going to sleep any time soon and he did need to work on his homework, so he supposed there was no reason not to. He pulled out his now-crumpled pages of math and a pencil that's tip had cracked and did his best to improvise a surface hard enough to write on.

Surprisingly, Yato actually did help. He wriggled closer to peer at Yukine's work and offered pointers when he got stuck. Occasionally he got excited and blurted out the answer before Yukine had the chance to get there himself, which was annoying. Aside from that, he was actually a pretty decent teacher. Yukine couldn't believe he actually knew so much math when he was so dumb.

They worked until night began lightening into dawn, and didn't finish until the birds had begun to chirp. Yukine stretched and yawned, and realized that he hadn't spent all night panicking while he had math problems to distract him. He cast a suspicious look Yato's way, but the god gave no sign of ulterior motives.

"Hiyori will be happy, at least," Yukine said.

Now that the sun was casting a little more light, Yato's wince was more obvious.

"Yeah," he said. "That's good."

"Are you fighting with Hiyori? Is that why we're hiding out here?"

Yato started in surprise and went stiff. "What?"

"It sure seems like you're trying to avoid someone, and it didn't seem like it was Kofuku or Daikoku. Are you running away because you had a fight?"

Yato stared at him, mouth half open. Then he snapped his mouth shut with an audible click and looked away.

"It's not like that."

"Hiyori didn't yell at you when you bugged her about the festival while she was trying to study?"

"Well, she wasn't really happy," Yato admitted. There was a tightness to his jaw that hadn't been there before. "But we aren't hiding out because of a fight."

Yukine remained skeptical. He couldn't come up with a more plausible justification for Yato's odd behavior. Yato could never stay away from Hiyori for long, always afraid she might forget if he wasn't intruding on her life every few minutes.

But Yukine knew Yato would never admit to something he didn't want to admit to, so he let it go. For now.

They survived one more night in the park before the last sliver of moon vanished and plunged them into a pitch blackness that not even the stars could push back. Yukine, fresh out of math and long since out of patience, wanted to die. Again.

He couldn't breathe with the dark pressing all around, clogging his throat and tickling his skin. He couldn't see anything outside the dim circle of light cast by the flashlight clutched in his fist, and he was convinced it was dimmer than it had been the night before. He doubted Yato had thought to bring replacement batteries. He was sure, somewhere beneath the clicking of cicadas and sighing of the wind, that he could hear ayakashi skittering around in the shadows, circling closer and closer. And something worse. He could almost hear the faintest whisper of an echo: the hiss of unamused laughter, the edge of a scream, the tinkling of broken glass, the muffled thumping of small fists on wood, the final thud of a door slamming shut.

"Hey," Yato murmured. "It's okay."

He inched closer until he could drape an arm over Yukine, eyes glinting with caution in the dim light as he gauged the shinki's reaction. To be fair, Yukine had not been very receptive to such gestures, but now he was running out of options. Running out of light, of safety. He didn't protest this time. If anything, he edged a little closer.

"I'm pretty sure the ayakashi are out to get us," he said, because there was no way to say the rest of it without sounding insane.

Yato didn't answer for a long moment, then sucked in a breath and sat up. "Okay, then," he said. "Let's go somewhere the ayakashi can't get us."

"Home?" Yukine asked hopefully as they clambered to their feet and gathered up bags and wads of blankets.

Yato didn't answer.

Yukine stuck close to Yato's side as they left the park and wound through the streets. At least there were street lamps here, casting flickering patches of light on the pavement every several feet. Yukine was still convinced something was hunting them from the shadows, be it ayakashi or something even more monstrous, and not even the lights could soothe him.

Yato led him back to Tenjin's shrine and seemed quite pleased with himself. "No ayakashi can get us here!"

Yukine said nothing, only retreated to the opposite corner and huddled against the wall facing away from the idiot. Sure, no ayakashi would get them here, but the walls were closing in even tighter than the sky had. It was like they had gone back in time, given up everything they'd fought so hard to gain to go back to living on the streets. Yukine hated it. He hated Yato a little bit right now too, and ignored his wheedling overtures until the god gave up and settled down farther away.

Yukine sulked in his corner, damp and cold and scared and miserable, wishing he were anywhere else. Then the light of the flashlight flickered. He went still, watching the dim spotlight in alarm. It behaved itself for a few minutes and then flickered again. And then it sputtered and went out entirely.

A cry lodged itself in his throat and cut off his airways. He shook the flashlight violently, hoping to dislodge some last spark of life, but it remained stubbornly dark. His hands shook so badly that he dropped it to the floor with a clatter.

Something moved in the darkness, rasping along the ground. He managed a terrified squeak and pressed himself back in the corner.

"It's only me," Yato said, his disembodied voice floating out of the darkness. When he settled beside Yukine and pulled the shinki close, Yukine lashed out despite logically knowing it was him. "Ow."

Yukine opened his mouth to apologize, but nothing came out. He latched on tight, fisting his hands in the damp jersey and burying his face in Yato's chest so that he couldn't see the shadows closing in. His heart pounded wildly against his ribcage in an unsteady rhythm that nearly drowned out Yato's words.

"It's okay," Yato said. "Sorry, I forgot a spare battery. I can go find one?"

"I don't want a spare battery!" Yukine cried, finally finding his words even though they stuttered and stumbled over each other drunkenly. "I want to go home!"

"Yukine…"

"Why are we even out here when we have a perfectly good room at home? What about Hiyori and Kofuku and Daikoku? What about me?"

Yato was quiet for a long time, while Yukine tried to get his hitching breaths under control. He tried to convince himself that he was being silly, nothing was wrong, nothing was waiting to pounce on him from the darkness. Somehow, it didn't help.

Finally, Yato said, very quietly, "Yeah, I guess it's not fair. Let's get you home."

Yukine went still, holding his breath. He looked up and squinted at Yato's face in the dark, but he couldn't make out the god's expression.

"Really?" he asked in a small voice.

"Yeah." Yato pulled Yukine up off the floor and bent down to gather their things. "Let's go."

Yukine wanted to cry as they slipped out of the shrine and back into the street. The stars and street lights, while still not enough to soothe his frayed nerves, seemed brighter than before. He stuck close to Yato's side as they headed for home.

"Why were we really hiding?" Yukine asked as they hurried down the street. His head swiveled constantly, searching for danger. "Was Hiyori that mad?"

Yato shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked washed out and ashen in the lamplight, deep shadows playing across his face to disguise the sleepless bruise-smudges painted beneath his eyes. He kept his eyes on the ground.

"It's not like that," he said.

Yukine was too relieved to be going home—and too scared of being ambushed on the way—to press the point. "But we're done now?" he insisted. "No more sleeping in parks?"

"Nah. You can stay home."

The lights were still on at the shrine, and Yukine left the relative safety of Yato's side to make a dash for the door. It wasn't locked, and he pushed it open so hard that it banged loudly into the wall.

"Daikoku?" he called. "Kofuku?"

"Yukki?" Kofuku appeared from the kitchen, and her face lit up. "You're back!"

Daikoku shuffled through the doorway behind her, followed by Hiyori.

"Hiyori?" Yukine asked. "You're here awfully late."

She looked awful. Her eyes were ringed with red and smudged with shadow, and anxiety and relief warred on her face.

"Yukine! Is Yato with you?"

"Yeah, of course. He's right…"

Yukine trailed off. When he turned to gesture out the door, the street was empty. A rectangle of light slashed across the pavement, but it illuminated no one. Yato was gone.

Hiyori buried her face in her hands. "I was just really frustrated, you know? He kept bugging me and bugging me—you know how he is—and I really need to pass these exams. I just kind of snapped at him, and he got real quiet and left. And when I came by to apologize the next day, you were both gone and…" She blew out a breath and raised her head. "Well, I looked all over, but I couldn't find you. I feel awful."

A trace of something sweet and cool with an edge of spice lingered in the chilly night air outside, but she had lost the trail right away. Wherever Yato had gone, he must have teleported. She wondered if he had done so before or after realizing she was there.

He was like a ghost these days, always slipping through her fingers. After realizing he and Yukine were gone, she had gone searching. The first day she could shrug off, even if something itched at the back of her conscience. She had known something wasn't right when Kofuku and Daikoku told her that Yato and Yukine had left for 'vacation', but she had held out hope that Yato would quit sulking by the end of the day and come back. He never could stay away for long.

But he and Yukine hadn't come back, not for days, and Hiyori had lost more study time searching the streets than she had gained by skipping out on the festival.

"Was it really that bad?" Yukine asked skeptically. He had regained a little of the color that had been bleached out by the night, and his hands weren't trembling anymore. "You guys bicker sometimes, but… I don't know. He got kind of weird whenever I mentioned you."

Hiyori's face fell. "Is he that mad?"

"Mad?" Yukine asked, surprised. "I wouldn't say so. I figured you were the one who must be mad. He was just down and moody. I don't know what you could have said that would make him run off to sulk for that long."

Hiyori swallowed hard. "I said that sometimes I wished he would leave me alone and told him to go away."

Yukine frowned. "Don't you always do that when he gets up in your space?"

Daikoku and Kofuku, on the other hand, looked aghast.

"Did you say it like that?" Daikoku demanded.

"Like what?" Hiyori asked, startled by his vehemence.

"That you wished he would leave you alone."

"Yes, I–" Hiyori broke off, eyes widening as she finally understood what he was getting at. "Yes," she said again, more of a whisper this time. "Yes, I did. You don't think he'd really…"

Daikoku and Kofuku exchanged a look.

"You didn't say you'd said that, or we might've taken it more seriously," Daikoku grumbled.

Hiyori felt sick. She knew she'd been a little harsh, but she hadn't considered the potential impact of such a small, single word. She had needed to draw some boundaries with Yato, but she hadn't meant to draw a line in the sand.

"Yato-chan is a god," Kofuku said. "Gods grant wishes. Yato-chan, even more than most, knows the importance of every single one. He lives wish to wish, Hiyorin. He takes them very seriously, even if it doesn't seem that way."

"But I didn't even pay him!" Hiyori protested. "He should have known it wasn't a serious wish!"

Kofuku looked at her with such pity that her heart seized again. "Oh, Hiyorin," she sighed. "Yato thinks the world of you. He'd do anything, you know. He grants your wishes without asking for repayment. Maybe you sounded serious."

"But I wished to stay with him forever," Hiyori said in a small voice. "I told him not to cut my ties."

Kofuku smiled a smile edged with glass and melancholy. "And he granted that one too."