Been sick. Flu followed by flu. This will probably get limey next (last?) chapter, it seems to be headed in that direction.

Disclaimer: see part 1

Misao plied Kaoru with another drink as Kaoru vainly tried to insist that more eggnog was not what she needed. All the bourbon in it was going to her head while the belly full of cream wasn't doing her any favors as she nervously accepted congratulations from friends and acquaintances at the Christmas party about passing her class. While well intentioned, Misao's hovering was in fact filling Kaoru with soul crushing guilt.

"You didn't need that pretentious jerkoff, just enjoy yourself and crash on our couch tonight!" Misao, who was so skinny a stiff breeze could rock her off her feet, had already had more than a few cups of 'eggnog' in addition to a few shots while preparing for the party. She claimed it helped her relax, but Kaoru figured it was a handy excuse to get drunk off her face without Soujirou circling her like an overprotective hawk. Misao's garish holiday sweater dress looked like it had had at least a little bit of eggnog spilled on it already, not that her friend showed any other outward signs of drunkenness.

Megumi was sprawled out on the sectional, already tired and in her work clothes, as she was making a short appearance before heading out for her shift. Sano was trying to drape himself on her while she comically kept shoving him away and sometimes off the couch entirely. Eventually she would storm off to smoke on the balcony and Sano would come find her and grovel. Their connection was weird, Kaoru thought, but it worked. Wisps of jealousy, a new emotion when observing the pair, filtered through Kaoru's alcohol soaked thoughts.

She was mentally gauging the likelihood of getting caught for edging to the kitchen and dumping her eggnog in the sink when a familiar smiling face edged into her vision. Unable to keep from startling a little bit, Kaoru reminded herself that Soujirou didn't mean to scare her. At least she was pretty sure he didn't mean to scare her. He had that way of going from nonexistent to suddenly present and she supposed it had a lot to do with how he had grown up with a socialite mother who appeared to trade up husbands every five to seven years. Gliding around, generally friendly but mostly unnoticed would have served him in good stead. In his understated forest green buttonup he contrasted sharply with Misao, and yet the pair together were a scene so domestic Kaoru swore her teeth started to ache.

"Kaoru, we're so happy you could come tonight when you have work tomorrow," Soujirou wrapped an arm around Misao who had long ago learned to lean in to Soujirou's sudden appearances.

"You know, it's the time of year to see friends and whatnot." She had almost said 'and family' but she wasn't even sure Yahiko was coming back for his break. Kaoru hoped he would, but saying it out loud was too vulnerable. "I tried to make rumballs for today, but um, I think I put in too much rum and they ended up a little… sticky."

Misao laughed, "I put them in some plastic shot glasses and told people it was rum pudding, don't worry about it."

"I thought perhaps you would bring your boyfriend, but Misao told me you were no longer dating." Misao elbowed her significant other sharply in the ribs but he continued his thought to the end anyway, dark eyes thoughtful. "Misao said his name was Enishi Yukishiro? How uncommon. I've heard it before, perhaps he's an associate of my step-father." Soujirou rarely said Mr. Shishio's name out loud these days. It held a lot of clout in this town, as well as some connotations that were less than savory. "If so, I agree with Misao's previous assessment."

Soujirou gave Misao a chaste kiss on the cheek and a shining smile before moving away to circulate among their guests. It was a strange combination of trust fund babies and working class friends, so Soujirou was elected as the peace keeper to guide people away from the unholy trinity of religion, health, and politics in this crowd. Mostly, he was excellent at steering conversations so Kaoru knew his blunt comments about Enishi had been his version of a warning. Yukishiro must have his fingers in a lot of pies to have done a favor for a politician of Makoto Shishio's caliber. Just another reminder he lived not just on a different world but in a different dimension.

It would be better to forget about him and move on.

"Come on, let me introduce you to one of Soujirou's friends from work…" And the games had begun, as if Misao could forcibly rebound Kaoru in time for New Year.

"I thought you said that all Soujirou's work friends were stuffed shirts with no sense of fun."

Normally quicker, Kaoru wasn't able to dodge Misao's deceptively strong grip as her friend hauled her over to what she vainly hoped was not a set-up. Megumi, from the couch, gave Kaoru a mocking salute. Her friends really sucked sometimes.

Sundays had suddenly become tiresome, but this one was particularly hard because Kaoru was nursing a hangover. More people were stopping by than usual because of the approaching holiday, but other than being slightly busier making hot drinks and selling gift cards Kaoru couldn't say that she was actually fully distracted from the gaping hole that Enishi had left in her life. After she had ghosted him for their last study session there hadn't been so much as a glimpse of him from afar. The only remnant of him in her life was the persistent presence of the older man—Gein—still 'protecting' her. By the time Kaoru was cleaning up shop, tongue still fuzzy in her mouth, she had had enough.

"I need to talk to Enishi." Kaoru walked up to Gein in his usual spot across the street. He had taken to puffy down coats in off black and heavy black gloves with a baclava to stay warm in his constant outdoor vigils. He also wasn't a fast mover, so it wasn't hard to catch up to him even when he tried to bolt. The ever present bags under the older man's dark eyes didn't tell Kaoru much beyond signaling weariness. She could relate to that at least.

Still, her words startled him, eyes rolling around in his head as if looking for a better path of escape. "Look, I was told hold pattern until the end of the month. Can't you keep pretending I don't exist and bugger off back to your little life?"

His growl didn't threaten her, Enishi was far more menacing and even he couldn't cow her. "Then tell me where I can find him."

"Hah!" Kaoru wasn't intimidating the older man either, and it was going to take something else to draw out Enishi's location. While she tried to think of what she could possibly bargain with, he pulled down his baklava enough to pop a cigarette in between his lips. "We're done here."

"Wait! What if I promise to get him to switch out your job with someone else." She said it hastily, knowing it was probably the only thing that would sound convincing and yet there was no plan for how she accomplished that next step of making good on said promise. "Or you can spend another couple weeks in the cold. I hear it's supposed to be a white Christmas…"

Gein blew a thick puff of smoke in her face while she flinched. "Why would the boss listen to you?"

"I got him to tutor me, didn't I? Who in your entire organization would be able to say something similar?" It was a bluff. Kaoru had already used all her collateral up for that same favor and she had nothing else other than Enishi's goodwill for this other condition. But Gein didn't know that, or Kaoru was banking on Gein not knowing that in any case.

"Shit, I'm gunna regret this. I'm already regretting this." Gein puffed again on his cigarette. "There's a bar near the apartment complex, a real stinking hole, he'll be the one at the bottom of a bottle of gin."

That seemed to be all the information that Kaoru was getting, so as the older man walked away she pulled out her phone and looked up all the bars within a mile of her house. Then she looked for the one with the worst social media ratings. That narrowed it down to three, and one was basically right off the bus stop when she got home. That's where she would start: Rack'em.

The odor hit Kaoru in the face before she could even process the warm gust that washed over her. The door had a gross tackiness to the handle that disturbed her so her mind was already in an unpleasant place as her eyes flicked from the garish neon sign in the window towards the dark interior of the pool hall. There was a long bar on the left side in dark wood, as if at one time someone thought this would be a classy place to play a game and drink a pint. The regulars who were at the tables to the right gave Kaoru looks that made her want to clutch her metaphorical pearls. Indistinct music played from a jukebox against a wall. Kaoru might have been able to pick out a melody if the blood wasn't rushing loudly in her ears.

She would have turned around and walked straight home given that it was midday on a Sunday and unlikely to be a fruitful search in this armpit of her neighborhood, but she realized she had struck gold when she saw a familiar shock of white hair slumped over on a barstool.

"Come to collect him early today eh?" The bartender looked more like a bouncer, but then Kaoru had no idea what kind of skill set would make a person a good bartender in an establishment like this. All she had done was walk up to Enishi and say his name. He hadn't responded, but she did notice that as soon as she had approached her former stats tutor that every other person in the room suddenly stopped paying attention to her. There was something eerie about it, like they knew better than to take an interest in this man and his associates.

"You could say that…" She hadn't intended anything of the kind, but Enishi looked like literal hell. Pale stubble stood out on his face, long enough to indicate quite a number of days of indifferent shaving. Unfocused aqua eyes continued to stare down at the bar. He didn't have a coat anywhere in sight either, almost like he had arrived in nothing but a thin emerald green track suit despite being nearly winter proper. When Kaoru had leaned over to see if she might be able to catch his eye and she got a whiff of his breath, it was pure juniper berries. "Ok then…"

Kaoru picked up the folded up round glasses that were resting on the bar next to a half full bottle of Bols Genever (that she promptly handed back to the bartender) when Enishi barely responded to her increasingly bold prodding. She'd had practice at this last night when Sano decided to get so inebriated he had tried to find his coat in Misao's refrigerator, and Kaoru bodily slid herself under an arm to stand them up together. She made sure to lean him such that if he fell it would be towards her. The man was just as heavy as Sano, too, like a bag of lead.

"He'll be back to close his tab tomorrow." Kaoru said with a slight waver, anticipating payment to be an issue. There was probably no way she could cover the cost with what she had on her, and she wasn't about to hand over a credit card in a place like this.

"He'll be back is right." The bartender gave a short bark of a laugh at his own joke then wandered down to serve another patron.

Without any other barriers to their egress, Kaoru stumbled and lurched them towards the exit. She kicked open the door a few times, each kick allowing them to gain a bit of ground until finally they managed a less than graceful appearance outside. Enishi wasn't shivering yet, but she knew that even if he couldn't feel the cold that his body was more susceptible to it in this condition and he could easily freeze if she didn't get him somewhere warm.

This was really not how she envisioned this going.

When Kaoru had thought to find Enishi she expected to either get nowhere with it, or to awkwardly hand him a fruitcake or something as well as her thanks for the help he had given her in passing her class. Frankly, in the couple of weeks in which she hadn't seen him she had been absolutely bored out of her mind. Even worse, his words were still careening around her grey matter about how she lived her life for other people.

He might be, once she thought about it, a teensy bit right. Not that he needed to be such a beast about telling her at that time.

Finding him in the middle of a downward spiral hadn't really been in any version of her plan. Taking him back to her home was unthinkable, and really his condo was on the way so it wouldn't hurt to try to deposit him in his proper location. As her purse plopped down her arm to rest in the crook awkwardly, Kaoru tried to shift Enishi and get her strap back on her shoulder to no effect. She leaned him against the side of a building and quickly tried to readjust all her askew clothing while she watched him slowly slide down the exposed brick.

"C'mon, you have got to help me a bit with this…" Kaoru tried scolding and cajoling in turns but the only common denominator through their steady progress was how willing Enishi was to drape his body around her. Eventually they made it to his building, where an interior doorman buzzed the door as Enishi approached. Kaoru tried not make eye contact as if escorting a very drunk Yukishiro was somehow her moral failing and she didn't want to be observed.

It was much warmer inside after they made it through a second set of sliding glass doors that welcomed them into an entranceway of faux marble that led to nothing but dual elevators and another opening to a room that appeared to be the maildrop. Kaoru thought about dumping Enishi's largely prone form here and heading home, but if she hadn't abandoned him before it was even harder to justify it to herself when the journey was almost at its close.

At least this time as he oozed down the wall she leaned him against he appeared to fight to stand under his own power so maybe the alcohol was starting to wear off a bit. Kaoru looked at the small selection of mailboxes until she found E. Yukishiro and then repeated the number to herself over and over until she was reasonably sure she knew where to go and then rejoined her charge in the hallway. He was in the process of slowly leaning sideways using the wall as support, squinting.

"Ah," Kaoru pulled out his glasses from her bag and unfolded them to gently replace them on his face. Once his unfocused eyes encountered her, he pulled her in to a bear hug that stole her breath with its sudden force. She gave a little cough as the moment stretched from spontaneous into excruciatingly prolonged. "We need to get you back home, Enishi," Kaoru said much too loudly into his chest, pushing futilely at what she was reminded was a rather smelly drunk version of this acerbic man.

At last pulling away, Enishi swayed and considered her with half lidded eyes before leaning against her again. Kaoru sighed and directed them to an elevator. It opened with a ding and a well-dressed woman regarded the two of them with amused condescension as she got out. Kaoru closed her eyes as the woman passed as if that could render her invisible. She didn't need anyone else to tell her she didn't belong here. She was well aware.

Kaoru punched the top number and the smooth elevator deposited them on a long floor that held only three doors. The world of luxury condos was very different from the dense apartment complex in which she had been visiting Misao and Soujirou last night. They had a number of neighbors up and down their hallway and even knew a few of them. Kaoru would have been beyond shocked if Enishi had ever spoken to any of his neighbors. They shuffled to his door at the end of the hall and Kaoru poked at her companion.

"Key. Enishi, you'd better have a key on you or I swear—" Kaoru tried to think of something sufficiently threatening but she was drawing a blank. Luckily, Enishi produced a flat silver key from a pocket and after a couple tries got it in the lock he managed to navigate it with a click and swung the door open. He was finding his feet more solidly once they passed the threshold, and she watched him not even bother to close the door behind him as he seemed to find his way by memory in the dark room.

There was a shaft of light from what looked like a partially ripped down drape over the window, and slowly Kaoru's eyes adjusted to the dark. Fumbling along the wall, she flicked several switches until she had apparently turned on a ceiling fan, and a kitchen light at the very least. It was enough to see that Enishi was standing in front of his nearly empty refrigerator and pulling out a bottled water. He dropped down onto the floor of the kitchen, the snap of the bottle opening the only indication he was still conscious behind the high counter.

Kaoru shut the door behind her at last, giving in to curiosity and concern both. The living room which lay straight in front of her looked as if it had been trashed. She recalled he had mentioned that his home had been broken into, but she suspected that was not the cause of this particular brand of destruction. Most people searching for things don't bother to shred curtains or take blades to couch cushions she would expect. There was stuffing, dust, and scraps of fabric all over the place. Pieces of chairs, or possibly stools given there was one intact one butted up against the kitchen counter, lay in random locations. The door to the balcony was open, which explained why it was bitingly cold compared to the hallway.

As she slid the balcony door closed she noted she could practically see her house from here. Did he ever come out here? Did he think of her as she thought of him: reluctantly yet compulsively?

"Clearly, you've encountered some… personal difficulties… but I think this pity party has gone on long enough!" Kaoru strode back through the living room, dodging broken furniture, until she had rounded the bend back into the kitchen and found Enishi staring down at his half-full plastic water bottle as if it contained answers.

Weary eyes met hers and slid back down to the water.

"Nope. Stand up, Enishi. You stink and your condo is basically unlivable." She tried to think about things that Megumi had said to her to snap her out of her own funky moods. "Have some pride!"

He was a rock, a miserable statue planted on his fancy imported tile floor.

"Fine. I am going to turn on some heat and clean up this sty so I don't feel like I'm leaving you in a trash heap. If you decide to join the living then you can start by taking a shower." Surely this would be better than a fruitcake. She'd help him out a little and then dust her hands and forget all about the past few months. First order of business was pulling those blinds away from the huge windows dominating the back wall and getting some light in.

It took far too long pushing buttons on his thermostat before the air seemed to warm. Since she didn't have the luxury of heating her own home as much as she liked she turned it all the way up to a balmy temperature that would finally erase the chill from her bones. Carrying Enishi back to his home had stirred her blood at first, but when she had started sweating she had gotten cold again far too quickly.

Kaoru was grunting, pushing a sectional couch back upright and together when she heard what sounded like a shower start up in another part of the condo. She hadn't even noticed when Enishi had collected himself off the floor and prowled into his bedroom. However, she certainly noticed when he wandered out in nothing but a towel around his shoulders and a pair of fitted grey sweatpants a few minutes later. He hadn't bothered shaving, still, but given how out of it he seemed she was glad he wasn't handling razors.

Silently, he joined in the work of reassembling his living space. Pretty soon it looked respectable, with the debris in a neat enough pile in one corner. Kaoru dusted her hands and smiled, as she had found that if you turned over most of the slashed cushions and shoved them down on the couch that it mostly remained useable. It had taken far longer to sweep up the shattered glass from the coffee table off the plush carpet.

"I couldn't find a vacuum, and you probably don't want to wander around that glassy spot next to the couch until you vacuu—oof" He was holding her again, suddenly, but unlike before when she could muffle her protests against his odiferous green track suit all that was under her face was firm pectorals. Enishi smelled like expensive body wash and for the barest of seconds she closed her eyes before the struggle to escape had to begin.

"Kamiya, don't." It was an order. It was a plea. His voice was low and scratchy, with none of the world-shaking self-assuredness that was his hallmark their entire association. Whatever he was going through had broken him down.

Her heart ached for him, and she hated herself for it. Kaoru was so easy to manipulate, and even as she observed it happening she couldn't shake out of it to save herself. He appeared to be honestly hurting and she empathized, remembering how only Yahiko had prevented her from descending into debilitating depression after their father died. "Drink less. Eat some food. Stop drawing the blinds." She formed words practically against his skin, feeling his arms tighten around her protectively. "Whatever you're feeling will pass."

This time when she pushed away he didn't stop her, and Kaoru got a really good look at his well defined stomach muscles before she could turn away and collect her purse and coat from the floor. She'd be dreaming about those abs tonight, and kicking herself awake out of shame no doubt. Enishi watched her go, jaw tight with words he couldn't speak.

"You're allowed to fall apart, you know," Kaoru said hesitantly before she opened the door to leave. She made the mistake of looking back, meeting eyes that conveyed equal parts resentment and dark invitation. "Let me treat you to dinner sometime, when you're feeling better."

As the door closed behind her, it occurred to Kaoru that that had sounded a lot like she had asked him out on a date when she had really meant it to be more like thanks or encouragement. Immediately behind her she heard a crash, and with a flinch Kaoru suspected the last stool had just met its grisly end at Enishi's hands.

She hurried towards the elevator before she was drawn back into his madness.