Aofery: Hey, again :) Ha ha, two-shot, anyway. It was actually a one-shot, but I arbitrarily split it into two parts when I was editing it. Lol you know me and angst. And Yato just sucks at Boundaries.

Part 2

"I don't know what to tell you," Yukine said as he followed Hiyori along the perimeter of the park once again. "We camped out here, except for the last night when we stayed in Tenjin's shrine. But if he doesn't want to be found, he probably isn't staying here anymore."

"Well, where else did you go?" she asked. She took a surreptitious sniff at the air, and Yukine kindly refrained from teasing her about her ayakashi sense of smell.

He also managed to bite back the 'I already told you' that sprang to his lips. They had covered this ground half a dozen times already, both figuratively and literally. Yato had been missing for an additional two days. Yukine spent his mornings helping out in the shop and Hiyori spent hers at school and trying to do a little studying, and then they met up in the late afternoon or evening to wander the far side of the city in the hopes of stumbling across Yato. Hiyori seemed intent on secretly sniffing every street corner in the city, but apparently hadn't turned up anything so far.

"We didn't go anywhere near our normal haunts or where we might run into you or anyone else we know," he said. "I mean, we can go around the job sites again or back to the stores and everything, but…"

"There has to be something."

"I don't know what to tell you," he said again. "We mostly just looked around at stuff in places we hadn't been before and did a couple odd jobs." His nose wrinkled. "I think he might've scavenged food out of dumpsters or swiped some whenever I didn't want to pay for a restaurant. That's pretty much it. We were too tired to do much of anything. I couldn't sleep in the dark, and I'm pretty sure I kept Yato up all night too. He helped me do my math homework one night, so there's that."

Hiyori's head snapped his way. "He helped you with your math?"

"Yeah. Can you believe he can actually do math?"

Her face crumpled, and he eyed her in alarm. "He offered to help me study if I came to the festival."

"Oh. Oh, Hiyori. Don't cry." Yukine wrung his hands together as tears filled Hiyori's eyes and glimmered there, threatening to fall. "You didn't do anything wrong. Maybe your wording wasn't the best, but you were right to put your foot down. You know he has no sense of boundaries. It's just a mistake. He has to know that. I can't believe he ran off like that over something so stupid. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

"But I still hurt him, and I didn't mean to," she said, scrubbing at her eyes with her fists. "Or, I didn't mean to that much. He was being pretty annoying."

Yukine nodded vigorously. "Yeah, he's like that. And he's kind of overly sensitive sometimes. But he always bounces back. Things will be fine, you'll see. Let him sulk for a few days, and he'll come back when he's ready. We're not going to find him if he doesn't want to be found. It's not like this is the first time he's run off. He was gone way longer when he went to Yomi. This is nothing."

But it wasn't nothing, and they knew it. Yukine thought Yato was, as usual, being too overdramatic and Hiyori was worrying too much, but he couldn't deny that it was a sticky situation. And he always hated it when Yato left him behind. It didn't help that Yato had taken Yukine with him at first, and only left him after he'd demanded to go home. If only Yato could talk about problems instead of letting them fester and blow up, then none of this would have happened.

"I guess," Hiyori said, but she didn't sound convinced. "I just wish…" Yukine raised his eyebrows, and a bitter smile twisted her lips. "Well, never mind. Be careful what you wish for and all that."

"But maybe if you made a cancelling wish, wishing he'd come back…"

"I've tried. He still won't pick up the phone."

Yukine puffed out his cheeks in annoyance. They had tried calling Yato from a variety of numbers when he wouldn't answer Hiyori's calls, swiping everyone's phones and even borrowing strangers', but he never picked up. Either he had a sixth sense for when it was them on the other end of the line or he wasn't answering any calls at all. Of course, once they rang him a dozen times from different numbers, he might have picked up on the fact that he was getting considerably more calls than usual and put the pieces together. Whatever the case, he was off the grid.

"Then just wait, I guess," Yukine said. "No point worrying too much. He gets himself into trouble, but he can usually get himself out of it if he needs to. He'll be back when he's done sulking."

Hiyori squinted at the setting sun in the distance and ran a hand through her hair. "Maybe I'll make a wish anyway," she murmured, more to herself than to Yukine. "At his shrine. I don't know. Maybe it won't make a difference, but maybe he'll hear it."

Yukine thought Yato tended to be rather deaf and obtuse and was unlikely to hear—or at least listen to—anything unless you shouted it straight into his ear and drew a diagram that took advantage of copious amounts of capypers and food, but he kept his thoughts to himself. After all, Yato could feel when Yukine was upset. Why couldn't he feel when Hiyori wished to him? At the very least, it was worth a shot.

"That's a good idea," he said. "I know he would appreciate it."

"It's a start, anyway."

Yukine waited for a few seconds more, shifting impatiently from foot to foot in the hopes that Hiyori was ready to head home, but she continued staring at the sunset, lost in thought.

"Maybe we should call it a night," he said finally. "We aren't going to find him tonight, and you still need to study for your exams, right?"

"Oh. Yes. I suppose."

Hiyori didn't look like she was feeling very motivated to study—one more thing Yato would have to answer for, if she failed her exams because of him—but at least she conceded to give up for the night and head back. Before heading to her own house for the night, she huddled in the corner of the attic with Yato's shrine for a few minutes. Yukine pretended not to notice, but he did catch a gleam of gold out of the corner of his eye and circled back after she left to confirm there was a five yen coin wedged under the tiny torii gate.

"Cheer up, Yukki!" Kofuku said at dinner when he merely picked at his food. "You and Hiyorin have been so down. Yato-chan will be fine. He always comes back."

"I'm not down," Yukine said defensively. He had learned better by now. He knew how to control his emotions so he didn't sting Yato. More or less.

"Still," Daikoku grumbled, mouth twisted up in a frown as he stabbed his fork at his plate, "he shouldn't wander around so long without a shinki. What's he going to do if he runs into ayakashi or a god with a grudge? It's reckless."

Kofuku shrugged and talked through a mouthful of food. "Yato-chan didn't use to keep shinki around all the time, you know. He'd lose them and then go it alone for a while until he picked up another. So he's used to fending for himself when he has to, don't you think? I think he'll be okay for a few days."

What little of his meal Yukine had managed to swallow down solidified in his stomach like a lump of stone. Kofuku's words were meant to be reassuring, but Yukine didn't like to think he could be so easily discarded, that Yato would be just fine without him. And however self-sufficient Yato might have been, he'd had Nora to fall back on. Now that he had released her and left Yukine behind, he really was alone and defenseless.

Yukine believed Yato was tough and could fight his own battles if it came down to it, but…

Well, maybe Yukine didn't trust him entirely. And something bad could always happen.

So while Hiyori halfheartedly tested different phone numbers and different wishes that stacked up with five yen coins at Yato's shrine, Yukine started his own campaign. He lied here and there or swiped a candy bar from the corner store before sneaking back to return it a few minutes later. In short, he made a bit of a nuisance of himself, but carefully. Just a little here and there. Not enough to make his back blister with ayakashi eyeballs. He had no desire to actually blight Yato—just sting him a little.

If he was getting into trouble, Yukine reasoned, Yato would have to come back eventually and put a stop to it. Except that Yato didn't, not for another two days, and Yukine didn't want to stick to such an uncomfortable scheme if it wasn't going to produce results.

He had one last trick up his sleeve, although by this point he wasn't holding his breath.

He took up his flashlight—now with fresh batteries—and ventured into the dark streets after dinner, waving off Kofuku and Daikoku's concern. He traipsed up and down the streets, shining the flashlight down black alleys and into shadowy corners. He couldn't bring himself to walk all the way to the far end of the city where he might be more likely to find Yato, but even staying close to home left him quaking in his boots. Shivering in his sneakers, more like. Without Yato beside him or chattering in his ear or explaining math homework, the shadows were twice as dark and terrifying.

The first time a shadow moved in a distinctly sentient way—a stray cat darting behind a trash can, as it happened—Yukine nearly jumped out of his skin and scurried back home. Instead, he pulled his jacket tighter and shrank down into it as far as he could go and kept walking.

The fear was good, he reminded himself. The stomach churning, the heart pounding, the teeth chattering. Fear was something Yato would feel. And maybe, just maybe, if he knew Yukine was terrified, he would come to see what was wrong.

But it wasn't Yato who found him. It was Bishamon.

"What are you doing?" she asked, materializing from the shadows and sliding off Kuraha's back.

For the fourth or fifth time in as many minutes, Yukine nearly had a heart attack. "What the hell?" he wheezed, clutching at his chest. "You scared me half to death."

"Seems you're already scared half to death," Bishamon said, unimpressed. "I thought you didn't like the dark. Well, come on, then. Yato said to bring you home. I don't know why he couldn't just do it himself, given you're his shinki and all, but he's always been a lazy, good-for-nothing bastard."

Yukine went still, staring at her wide-eyed. "Yato?" he asked.

"Yes," she said impatiently. "He's your master, isn't he? Come on."

"Wait, you saw Yato?"

"Isn't that what I just said? We were just patrolling, cleaning up after a vent and minding our own business, and then the stupid bastard popped up out of nowhere and told us to take you home. Can you believe the nerve of him? We were halfway across the city, and he sent us all the way back here!"

Yukine gaped until Bishamon started looking uncomfortable.

"What?" she asked.

"Yato's been missing," he said. "We can't find him."

It sounded much too pathetic to say he'd been wandering around in the dark for the express purpose of trying to entice Yato back. And he didn't want to give away too much information—he still didn't quite trust Bishamon and Kazuma while they were targeting Yato's dad. So they hadn't told Bishamon anything, and she hadn't known Yato had disappeared. He could scream that she'd just run into the missing god and waltzed off without knowing any better.

"Oh?" Bishamon tilted her head and pursed her lips. "Well, he's still hanging around. It doesn't really matter to me what he's getting up to. He seemed fine."

"And he told you to get me? Did he just say to find me or did he know where I was?"

"He told us where you were. Or, he gave us an address two streets over and told us to look around the area."

Yukine looked down at the circle of light the flashlight shone at his feet. His plan had failed, but not entirely. Yato hadn't come back, but he had noticed something was wrong. He had found Yukine, and then he had found Bishamon and sent her after him. That wasn't what Yukine wanted, not really, but it made his throat clog up anyway.

Yato was okay. He was still hanging around and paying attention. He still cared. For tonight, that would have to be enough.

When Bishamon held out her hand, Yukine let her pull him up onto Kuraha's back and take him home.

As relieved as Hiyori was that Yato seemed to be alright wherever he was, he had been missing for a week and a half and still wasn't coming back. It wasn't for want of trying. She called his phone multiple times a day and left voicemails, took walks around the city and sniffed around just in case, and brought all her spare five yen coins to leave at his shrine as offerings. So far, nothing. Yukine had gotten the closest to teasing Yato out of his hiding place, and even that hadn't brought him home.

Hiyori wasn't one to give up, though. At the end of the day, she still went out and took her evening stroll around the city with Yukine. He kept casting nervous glances at the sun, as if it might suddenly plunge below the horizon without warning even though there was still a good hour of light left.

"Don't you think it's maybe time to…let it go?" he asked. "I mean, he's made it clear he doesn't want to see us. He'll come back when he feels like it."

This was just the latest round of the circular discussion they'd been having from nearly the beginning, and Hiyori was tired of it. She thought Yukine was too, but what else could they do?

"No," she said. "I messed up, and I'm going to fix it."

"He messed up too," Yukine pointed out.

This was a well-established fact that Hiyori didn't feel the need to rehash again, so she said nothing. For all Yato made mistakes and pushed boundaries to the breaking point, Hiyori was the one who had crossed a line and genuinely hurt him. She didn't feel good about harping on his flaws when she had made such a colossal and careless mistake of her own.

Yukine tried again. "You really are going to fail your exams if you keep obsessing over him instead of studying. So you said something you shouldn't have. I say awful things to him all the time and he gets over it. It's not like you meant anything by it. I'm sure he knows that."

Hiyori worried that if Yato knew that, he wouldn't be avoiding her like the plague. And although she'd been doing her best to study, she found it difficult to concentrate these days.

"I'll study tonight," she said, and Yukine gave up.

They did their rounds in silence for a while, and Hiyori was just about to call it a night when Yukine paused in his tracks and tilted his head, a frown stealing over his face.

"Is that Nora?" he asked.

Hiyori looked around but saw nothing. "What? Where?"

"I don't know. Somewhere back there. I thought I heard her."

He pointed down a side street and exchanged a look with Hiyori.

"Well…" Hiyori shrugged and turned down the street. "I guess it can't hurt to check. If she's around, there's trouble afoot."

If they couldn't find Yato, maybe they could at least find the next best thing. Nora always seemed to keep tabs on Yato, although Hiyori didn't want to think they might have ended up together.

They walked down the side street, which spit them out into a wider avenue running along a scrap of greenery masquerading as a park. Hiyori glimpsed a koi pond with a bridge set farther back, and a few trees and benches dotted the lawn.

On one of those benches, straddling the road and park, Yato lay stretched out flat on his back, legs dangling over the end and one arm draped over his face. Nora stood behind the bench, arms folded across the back as she leaned against it and peered down at him.

"–already," she was saying. "Isn't it better than moping around by yourself?"

"I'm pretty sure I already told you to go away," Yato mumbled, his voice muffled by his sleeve.

Yukine started forward, but Hiyori grabbed his arm. He switched his glare to her, but she shook her head. She didn't want to scare Yato off before getting close enough to catch him. He hadn't noticed them yet and Nora was distracted, providing them with the opportunity to slowly sneak up on the pair, drifting behind any bits of cover they could find on the way.

Nora sighed, black eyes glittering. "You're always so difficult. What did you expect? I warned you what would happen. They were always going to abandon you. They can't accept what you are. You shouldn't have thrown me away. I'm the only one who can love you the way you are. Me and Father."

Yato snorted, but even that sounded tired. "Father doesn't love anyone, least of all us."

"Oh?" Nora's voice sharpened and her eyes flashed. "Even so, I never saw him kick you out into the streets because you weren't good enough for him."

Hiyori flinched. Yukine was quivering beside her, his face contorted with anger.

"It's not like that," Yato sighed. "And I think it's worse to keep someone caged who doesn't want to be trapped, don't you? Sometimes you just have to…let them go."

A shiver ran down Hiyori's spine. She didn't want to be let go. Leaving the thin cover of a lamppost, she followed along behind an elderly couple ambling in Yato and Nora's general direction.

"Come home," Nora said with renewed determination, her mouth tight around each word.

"I already said–"

"No. This isn't right. You said they were better for you, but obviously that's not the case. If they don't want you, then come home. At least we do."

"That's enough!" Hiyori cried, the last fraying threads of her temper and self-control snapping. Abandoning her cover, she made a beeline for Yato, rushing to get to him before he ran.

Yato shot bolt upright on the bench, arm falling away from his face. He stared at her like he'd seen a ghost. Nora didn't startle noticeably, but the displeasure painted across her face made it clear that she hadn't noticed them before.

"Hiyori?" Yato asked. His eyes narrowed, and Hiyori could practically see the urge to bolt flickering in their depths.

"You again," Nora said. "Haven't you already done enough?"

Hiyori winced, but she wouldn't be cowed so easily. "Stop feeding him that nonsense," she snapped. "Yato, let's go home."

Yato just stared at her. He didn't smile or run over like he normally would, but at least he didn't run away either.

"Go away, Nora," Yukine added from beside Hiyori. "We can take it from here."

And, surprisingly, Nora did turn on her heel and disappear into the park, although her dark eyes smoldered. "I'll be back to pick up the pieces when they're through with you, if Father doesn't get to them first," she said coldly as she went.

Yukine looked like he wanted to run after her and pick a fight, but Nora was a problem they could worry about later.

"Yato?" Hiyori asked hesitantly. She slowed, approaching him more cautiously so as not to spook him. "Will you talk to us? There's been a misunderstanding. Don't you know I never wanted you to run away? Come back, Yato."

Yato's face seemed to crumple all at once, but only for the span of a heartbeat. "But there are still three more days until your exams," he said, and although his face was perfectly blank again, his voice was small.

Hiyori felt her own expression folding in on itself. Her lips trembled, and Yato went blurry behind a film of tears.

"Oh, Yato." She launched herself at him and wrapped him in a tight hug. He wasn't going anywhere now—even if he tried to teleport, he'd take her with him—and neither was she. He held himself stiff and rigid in her arms and, after a moment, patted her back awkwardly. "Forget the stupid exams for now."

"Too late, anyway," Yukine grumbled. "She's spent days looking for your ungrateful ass instead of studying. And what were you doing hanging around with Nora?"

"Hey," Yato said defensively. "She's the one who keeps stalking me. And what do you mean? I thought the whole point was that I was in the way of studying."

"Well, yes, but that didn't mean I wanted you to run off for good," Hiyori said. "I was really hard on you, but–"

"But you do need to learn how to respect boundaries and quit being so clingy," Yukine interjected.

"But you know I didn't mean it, right? I mean, I was frustrated and sometimes I really do need some space, but I would never wish you away. You know it wasn't a real wish, don't you?"

She released Yato and leaned back to peer at him anxiously, but he only looked down at his hands limp in his lap.

"I was in your way," he said with a shrug. "You were right. So I gave you some space."

Hiyori's heart clenched, but she pasted a smile on her face. "And now I'm asking you to come back."

Yato hesitated, fingers picking at the fabric of his pants.

"Quit being an idiot." Yukine whacked Yato hard upside the head, eliciting a yelp. "When I said I wanted to go home, you were supposed to come with me. Anyway, we're way more fun to hang out with than Nora."

Yato darted a glance up at Hiyori, who felt even worse.

"Come on," she said gently, although he shouldn't need her permission. "Let's go home."

Yato hesitated a moment longer, then nodded once and stood. "Okay, then!" he said brightly, all uncertainty wiped away. He flashed them a blinding smile. "Vacation was fun and all, but I guess I can cut it short. You will not believe what I found the other day…"

Hiyori exchanged a look with Yukine as Yato started down the street, practically bouncing. The change was instantaneous, like flipping a switch. Just like that, everything was normal again.

Yukine didn't look any more reassured than she felt.

Yato chattered like a magpie the whole way home and barely let either of them get a word in edgewise. Maybe he didn't want to hear what they had to say.

Kofuku and Daikoku greeted them enthusiastically at the door.

"Yato-chan is back!" Kofuku squealed, throwing her arms around him.

Daikoku's relief was more restrained but still palpable. "I see you finally found him."

Yato laughed and then excused himself, saying he'd be right back as he disappeared up the stairs.

"He's still being weird," Yukine muttered.

"Well, you only just found him," Kofuku said. "Give it a little time. Make sure he knows you didn't mean anything by your wish, and things will go back to normal."

Hiyori murmured her agreement. She imagined she could see Yato's hurt woven into his every gesture and expression. She needed to make it up to him, but also… She didn't know how to set boundaries with someone who took them as rejection. Yato didn't take kindly to boundaries, and she needed a way to refine them without chasing him off entirely.

When he didn't come back right away, she was afraid she'd done just that.

"I'll just go check on him," she said, casting an anxious glance at her phone. He had been gone for over five minutes. While that might not be very long in the grand scheme of things, it occurred to her that he might have taken the chance to climb out the window and run off again.

Apparently, Yukine was on the same page. "If he ran off again, I'm going to kill him myself," he grumbled.

Hiyori climbed up the stairs. The door to the attic stood halfway open, and she slipped inside.

Yato crouched near the window, his back to her. Hiyori let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and padded across the room to join him. He was frowning at the shrine perched on the windowsill, brows drawn together in a puzzled furrow.

"What are you looking at?" Hiyori asked, although she knew.

He shook his head slowly and gestured to the dozen gold coins scattered at its base and wedged inside. "What's all this?"

"Wishes, of course."

Yato looked at her then, his expression lost. "Wishes for what?"

"Wishes for lots of things." Hiyori tore her gaze away from him and looked down at the coins. "But mostly for you to come home."

"…Oh."

Neither of them said anything for a few seconds, but then Hiyori drew in a breath and steeled herself.

"I called you a bunch of times," she said. "You never answered."

"Ah…" Yato sounded sheepish. "Sorry. I turned off my phone."

Hiyori didn't ask if that was before or after he saw her calling.

"We looked for you everywhere. We were worried. And Yukine wasn't happy that you ran off without him."

"It's not like I wasn't coming back. He was ready to go home, and I wasn't yet."

"But you should always feel like you can go home. Like you're welcome there. And I… I'm sorry, Yato. I was frustrated and worded things badly. That wasn't a wish. I didn't mean it."

"But you were right," he said with a shrug. He poked one of the coins with the tip of his finger and then picked it up to examine it more closely. "There's a reason humans forget about us. There's a reason Tenjin insisted I should cut ties. You do have another life, and sometimes we'll interfere with it. And let's be honest, I'm no good at leaving you alone when you need space. You should be allowed the chance to live free of our interference when you need to."

For a moment, Hiyori forgot how to breathe. "You aren't going to cut my ties, are you?"

He looked at her, an almost curious expression on his face. "You asked me not to."

Hiyori seized on that and nodded eagerly, desperate to shut down even the faintest shadow of a misunderstanding that might occur on that front. "Right. I wished to stay with you forever, didn't I? That was a real wish, Yato. That was real."

Yato swallowed hard, the lump in his throat bobbing up and down. He looked back to his shrine, and Hiyori caught a glimpse of gold shining in the light as the five yen coin slipped in and out of his fingers.

"Okay," he said. "That's okay. But you should probably go. I'll stay out of your hair until you're done with your exams. You should go study. It would be bad if I made you fail."

"Will you still be here when I'm done?"

The coin slipped between his fingers again, disappeared inside his fist and stayed there. "Yes. Yukine would lose his shit if I left again."

A brief smile flickered over Hiyori's lips before vanishing. "Okay."

She knew he was right, that she really did need to pass her exams and had already lost too much time, but still she hesitated. She didn't know that things were really okay yet, and she didn't want to make the same mistakes twice.

"Yukine said you helped him with his math work," she blurted out.

Yato raised his eyebrows at her. "Yes?"

"Well, you… Um…" She felt her face heat and dropped her gaze to the ground. "He said, um, that you were good at it. And you said, before, that you might be able to, ah, help me study too? I mean, only if you want to, though."

Hiyori could feel Yato's gaze on her, burning into her skin, and she squirmed under his scrutiny. The silence stretched out for a long moment as he mulled over her offer, and she thought that it was maybe too soon. Too presumptuous that he might be ready to help her after she had so violently pushed him away.

"Okay," he said.

Hiyori looked up. "Okay?" she repeated, surprised.

Yato offered her a small smile—not overly bright and plastic like before, but something a little less happy and a little more genuine.

"Okay," he said again. "If you want."

"I do," she said. "I wish you would."

And as luck would have it, she found one more five yen coin in her pocket to seal the deal.