Note: Ready for it? *cracks knuckles* Time to get down to some serious plotting, my friends.

Chapter 4

Yato's hands were trembling, and it put Yukine on edge. As a rule, Yato didn't do a lot of trembling. Sometimes his hands would get extra sweaty or he would grip the blades a little too tight, but trembling was reserved for those things that really shook him up. It was how Yukine had known Yato was so upset during the transformation to a hafuri, when the god had thought his shinki was dead, even if he had quickly covered it up with a smile and a thank-you and a promise to brag to everyone. It wasn't the bragging that had told Yukine how much Yato cared, but the trembling.

Yukine could count on one hand the times it had happened since. Yato was a seasoned warrior who knew better than to tremble in battle and rolled with the punches, and it took something major to make him lose focus and let such unwieldy emotions seep through.

Yato was thoroughly rattled already, before he had even lifted a blade, and Yukine didn't understand. He had understood with the phantom that looked like an old shinki—Sakura—because clearly there had been a heartbreak there and Yato had to love so much to fall to pieces in the face of an illusion. He had seen how shaken Yato was, and it had told him a lot about his god.

But this was…ridiculous, really. It made Yukine uncomfortable to see that thing wearing his face and the thought of killing something that looked exactly like him was a bit unsettling, but it was just an ayakashi. Why was Yato so rattled by that? He had already faced one of these things before and should know better, and Yukine was right there, held in his very hands. How could Yato be tricked by a glamour when the person it mimicked was right in front of him? Why did he care about the thing so much just because it looked like Yukine?

"Yato," Yukine said impatiently. "Just kill it."

"Yeah…"

He groaned. Yato's fingers were still trembling and wrapped around the swords too loosely. In other words, not the grip he used to fight.

"It's just an ayakashi."

"…I know."

The ayakashi watched them from where it stood in the middle of the chamber several paces away, illuminated by the light seeping through the exit and past the binding runes to bathe the cavern in just enough twilight to keep Yukine from panicking. There was no life in the amber eyes that peeled back the gloom, but there was something a little too lifelike about them. A porcelain doll that had no soul but could still blink its eyes and speak its programmed phrases. The disconnect between the trueness of its form and lack of real humanity made it all the more unnerving, and even more so that it was Yukine's form it chose.

"Why would you leave me?" it asked, and Yukine squirmed at hearing his voice in its mouth. Its eyes never left Yato's face, fixed always on its prey. "I promised to stay with you forever, didn't I? Do you still not trust me?"

They were the same insecurities Yukine had faced mere weeks before when Yato had vanished without a word and turned up in the underworld with Nora, the ones that had made him angry and upset until Yato finally handed over a few of his closely guarded secrets, and hearing them voiced by his doppelganger set an uncomfortable itch prickling at the back of his mind.

But Yato's hands tightened and his brows drew down low above grim eyes, and he finally lunged forward. He was favoring his injured arm and leg, and Yukine took note and readjusted accordingly in the half-second it took to close the gap.

"I thought you were supposed to love me," the ayakashi said sadly.

Yato's eyes widened and he faltered. His forward momentum stumbled to a halt as he pulled back his strike. Yukine cursed and threw everything he had into forcing the blades forward, but he still only managed to make a shallow slice across the thing's chest. Not deep enough to kill. The ayakashi hissed and struck back, scratching nails like claws across Yato's arm and leaving blight in its wake before retreating a couple paces.

Yukine hoped the attack and blight would snap Yato out of it—hello, it was obviously an ayakashi!—but the god stayed still and hunched over, looking small and forlorn with his shoulders curving around his lowered head like broken wings.

"Come on," Yukine snapped. "Don't listen to that thing. It's not me, and I know…"

He trailed off, not sure where he was going with that or if such things should be voiced, but Yato nodded once. The god twisted the left blade into an offensive position and stepped forward, but every movement was weighed down with reluctance.

"You said you would give me a place to belong," the ayakashi said, and hazy snippets of half-forgotten promises made at his naming filtered into Yukine's brain. "We belong together. Here."

Yukine scoffed. "This place sucks. And Hiyori is still waiting for us up top."

Hiyori… He hoped she did her fancy soul call thing soon, because the purple bands glowing across the exit didn't look like they were going away any time soon and he and Yato couldn't keep running forever.

Yato's halfhearted swipe sliced through empty air as the ayakashi slid backwards, and Yukine wanted to groan. Yato could take out an ayakashi in one hit, even while injured. This thing was no match for them, but it was still getting special allowances for the face it wore.

"You wouldn't really kill me, would you?" it asked, amber eyes glittering coldly in the gloom. "You told me to live, remember? To live as a person."

Yato's hands tightened around the swords and a terrible moment of deathly stillness fell over him like the calm before the storm. No trembling, no breathing, no nothing.

Yukine tensed. The ayakashi had pushed a little too far, made a misstep and spoken a wrong word, and Yato was going to snap. It was the same hardening of determination that had come in the moment when the Sakura clone said something wrong and suddenly Yato saw it as an ayakashi rather than his shinki and killed it.

Yukine didn't understand what it was that snapped Yato out of his daze so abruptly, what it was taboo for the ayakashi to say, but every trace of hesitation and wavering had been wiped away.

Yato lunged forward faster than thought and sliced through the ayakashi before it could so much as blink. It screeched loudly, first in Yukine's voice and then rising to an unearthly ayakashi wail, before shattering into the air and vanishing. Yukine immediately tried to forget what he would look like with wide gashes torn through him.

Yato's arms fell back to his sides limply and the points of the swords nearly dragged on the ground as he bowed his head and stared down at the rocky floor with his dark hair falling across his eyes to cloak his expression.

"Yato…?" Yukine asked hesitantly. The god didn't stir.

That was what Yato had told Yukine during his ablution. They were the words that had made Yukine step back away from the line instead of crossing it. They were the exact words that had stopped Yukine from turning into the very thing that had dared utter them now.

Yukine couldn't say he understood what was going on in Yato's head, but a quiet sort of half-understanding gnawed at the edges of his heart.

"Yukine," Yato said in a low rasp.

The transformation overtook Yukine in a familiar whirl of magic and change, and he inched closer to Yato's side as he slid out of the god's grip. Yato cast a sidelong look his way, dull eyes sweeping up and down his body as reassurance, and frowned down at the ground again.

"Uh…" Yukine didn't know what to say. "We have to go," he whispered, even though he didn't know where else they could go. His gaze skittered nervously across the stony walls before returning to Yato. The shadows were making him uneasy again. A thin, bitter smile twisted Yato's lips for a brief moment before vanishing, and Yukine tried again. "Look, I know it was weird, but… It was just an ayakashi. I'm right here."

Aren't I enough?

"I know." Yato's voice was tired but gentle, even if he didn't look up. "And I'll make sure you're safe, just like I promised. But there's not much point running anymore."

"What?" Yukine asked, aghast. This was worse than he had thought. "You can't just give up! Yato, snap out of it! It wasn't me, just a phantom that looked kind of like me. I'm okay, and we need to get out of here before–"

"Still so young and innocent," Hiyori's voice sighed from behind them.

Yato didn't even flinch, but Yukine nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around. Izanami's glamour was firmly back in place. She lounged in the mouth of the tunnel they had come through, effectively blocking off their exit. Yukine's skin crawled at seeing her wear Hiyori's face, especially after having glimpsed the skeletal horror beneath it. She didn't seem furious anymore, more amused and conversational now that her prey was trapped.

"Izanami!" Yukine squeaked, pressing closer to Yato's side.

Yato's total lack of reaction finally hit the shinki. He must have known Izanami was coming, was there. That was why there wasn't much point in running anymore. They were already cornered.

"It was you," Izanami continued pleasantly. Even the strange kindness of her voice creeped Yukine out. He knew how quickly it could change to wrath. She smiled and Yukine cringed. "It had your memories and thoughts…or at least Yato's memories and thoughts of you. It even had your name. Do you see, little shinki? It had everything Yato loved about you. Was everything Yato loved about you. And so it was you. Isn't that right, my dear Yato?"

She seemed pleased with herself, eyes shining with delight and lips curved into a bright smile. It was…almost childlike. She had made her arguments, made good arguments, even, but the conclusions she drew and the way she drew them were born of a child's egocentric logic. It was my view of you, so it had to be you.

Yukine didn't think Yato's problem was the same, but there was just enough truth in Izanami's ramblings to give him a bit of insight. He bit his lip and eyed his master. Was that why Yato could know the illusion was an ayakashi yet still hesitate to kill it anyway? Because he knew it wasn't Sakura or Yukine, but it was still a manifestation of what they meant to him and represented everything he cared about?

Yukine swallowed hard. He had been a strange kind of jealous of Sakura, somewhere buried deep beneath his concern for Yato in the place where he pushed all the petty thoughts he was ashamed to have, just seeing how much Yato had still loved her after hundreds of years and in the face of a mere ayakashi. That he had loved her enough to even transfer some of that love to something he knew would hurt him just because he couldn't bear to reject any part of her.

Yukine had been ashamed of such uncharitable thoughts, but he suddenly realized that Yato had done the exact same thing for him. He had thought Yato's reaction ridiculous, but now he wondered if maybe it was a strange, soul-deep kind of love.

"Yes. And no." Yato turned around slowly, damp grit scraping beneath the heel of his boot as he pivoted about, and lifted his head to meet Izanami's gaze. "Congratulations, you caught us. Now let the kid go and we can make a deal."

It took a second to register what Yato was implying, but then Yukine stiffened and turned on him in horror. "No way! We can't make a deal with her! She'll want to keep you trapped down here!"

"I assume so," Yato said flatly. "That was the deal."

Izanami's face brightened like the sun and she clapped her hands together. "You will stay? How wonderful! I'll still honor the deal I proposed and release the boy if you wish, despite how rudely you ran away. Although are you sure you want to send him away after killing his replacement? It's not nice to kill your friends, you know. I don't think friends are supposed to do that. But we can always make another! I'm sure you have lots of friends we can make!"

"Not right now, thanks," Yato grunted. He shoved his hands in his pockets and watched Izanami with dull, flat eyes. With his weight shifted to his less injured leg, he looked unsteady. Like he was bowing under the pressure and might topple over at any second. "But I would like to propose a couple addendums to your offer."

"No!" Yukine jabbed a finger at Yato's chest. "You are not staying down here, and she won't make a deal otherwise. I told you, we're both getting out."

Yato sighed and cast a tired gaze over Yukine, a look that made the shinki's heart sink down into his stomach. A look that said didn't I promise you that I'd get you out, no matter what? It was the look Yato got when he was planning to do something unbearably stupid. Not 'I'm about to buy a hundred useless charms' stupid or 'guess how I'm planning to annoy you next' stupid, but 'you are my world and I am going to burn everything down, including myself, to keep you safe' stupid. Yukine hated that look. It was stupid, it was selfish, it was–

It was the look Yato had been wearing ever since they first fell down into Yomi, only now he wasn't concealing the most jagged edges under halfhearted optimism and sweet-nothing half-truths. He had tried everything else he could think of first because he would always fight to live, but once he felt like he had run out of options…

"Just let me handle this," the god said tiredly.

He looked so resigned, and Yukine was not used to a resigned Yato. He was used to a fiery Yato who never gave up, never stopped fighting. That the situation seemed so hopeless to the one who never lost hope frightened Yukine even more than the shadows pressing round.

"Don't you dare!" he snarled, shoving hard at Yato's chest. "We can fight or run or– We just need time until Hiyori can do a soul call and–"

Yato's eyes softened ever so slightly, filling with a poignant pity like he knew something Yukine didn't and was sad to see the breaking of his innocence.

"You can't take him!" Izanami screeched, her otherworldly rasp seeping through Hiyori's voice. "He's mine!"

Yukine cried out as something like a hundred thin cords lashed out and wrapped around his arms, his chest, his neck. Hair, his brain supplied helpfully as he gasped for breath. The strands cut into his skin like steel wire and tangled about him until he was hopelessly trapped, and he was dragged back into Izanami's grasp.

She bent over him, and the glamour flickered to reveal empty black eye sockets and crawling beetles and centipedes scuttling among graying bones. A chorus of chittering hisses filled the air as the frightening, animalistic women with blue-gray skin and pointed teeth rose from puddles in the corners and emerged from shadows along the walls to crowd around. Everything was pressing in so close and the darkness was creeping in and Yukine couldn't breathe, and he would have screamed if the hair wasn't strangling him.

"Silly child," Izanami hissed. Her teeth clicked and clattered in her permanent, fleshless grin, and Yukine trembled and tried to squirm away as she leaned in to stare him dead in the eye with shadowy eye sockets. "There is no way out. Yomi is mine. Every entrance and exit is sealed until I say otherwise. And I know all about the soul calls that stole away my friends last time. No one will reach Yomi this time. There will be no soul call. So let's make a deal, little shinki, because you will not escape without one."

Yukine whimpered, heart thundering and eyes darting about as the monstrous creatures and slavering darkness closed in all around him. Izanami had to be wrong. Hiyori would do a soul call any second now and save them. She had to.

"That's enough," Yato said flatly. "Leave him be. You're making a deal with me, not with him."

Izanami straightened up and her ghoulish women retreated a couple paces. They left Yukine in a heap on the ground, hopelessly tangled in snarls of dark hair stronger than steel. He turned terrified eyes on Yato, who hadn't moved during the attack. The god stood straight and tall, hands buried in his pockets and dull eyes fixed on Izanami. He didn't even glance at Yukine.

Nor did he seem surprised or upset by the claim that Hiyori wouldn't be able to soul call them.

"But there's not much point running anymore."

Had he already given up on their trump card? No wonder he was so resigned to his fate and ready to give in.

"You can't–" Yukine rasped past the noose tied tightly about his throat. He flinched as Izanami looked back down at him.

"I'll stay and do whatever you want to ensure my continued presence, and do it without putting up a fight," Yato said, completely ignoring the shinki. "In exchange, you will let Yukine go. I would also, as your friend, like to ask that you never again pursue or interfere with anyone involved with me and that you no longer send ayakashi with glamours outside of Yomi."

"You would eat the food of Yomi first," Izanami said. "I won't unseal the exit until you do."

"Agreed."

Izanami's demeanor changed again, swinging back to childish delight as her glamour slipped back into place. "Then of course!" She clapped her hands together and beamed Hiyori's smile. "I don't mind doing favors for a friend. What else are friends for? If you stay and be my friend, I promise to follow your wishes. Oh, this is so exciting!"

"No," Yukine wheezed, clutching futilely at the hair around his neck and trying to tug it away.

Yato couldn't do this. Of course Yukine wanted to escape Yomi, but not at so high a cost.

But neither Yato nor Izanami paid him any mind. Izanami was practically dancing with glee as she gestured for one of her ghoulish servants to produce a plate of food and scurry over to Yato, who watched expressionlessly. Yukine didn't realize there was a glamour on the food until it started to flicker, and his stomach turned at the quick glimpses of rotten flesh crawling with maggots that was hidden beneath what could have otherwise been a normal meal.

"Don't you dare," Yukine choked out as Yato reached down to break off a piece of the rotten food. He kicked and squirmed, but the web of hair held him fast. "Yato!"

Yato brought the cursed food to his mouth in one smooth motion and pushed it between his lips. He chewed and swallowed without even the faintest flicker of disgust touching his face.

Izanami laughed and clapped her hands and released Yukine. The hair unwound and slithered away like a living thing, leaving Yukine in a gasping, shivering heap on the cold stone floor.

"We'll be friends forever!" the goddess said, unbridled joy rippling across her stolen face. She waved a hand thoughtlessly and the purple runes stretched across the doorway to the outside melted away. Five minutes ago, this would have been cause for celebration. Now, it left Yukine feeling cold. "The child can go. Come, my dear Yato! We'll have so much fun!"

Yukine couldn't believe it. He wanted Yato to laugh and spit out the decayed food from wherever he'd been hiding it and grab Yukine to race out the door. He wanted Yato to snort and say that Izanami was foolish to think such a tiny morsel would be enough to keep him trapped down here forever. Instead, Yato stood motionless and watched with unblinking eyes.

"Go, Yukine," he said.

Yukine shook his head in denial, jumped to his feet, and rushed over to his god. "You idiot!" he wailed. "What were you thinking? There has to be something–"

He reached out to shake or hit or hug—he hadn't decided yet—his god, but his fingers stopped before hitting skin and he jerked his hand back to stare wide-eyed. Something wasn't right. There was something too lifeless about Yato's eyes, something hazy about his skin like it might shimmer and change if Yukine looked too closely. Yato was standing straight and balanced on his feet, not favoring his injured leg anymore, and, come to think of it, he had taken the food with his injured arm without so much as a wince or awkward movement. Something was not right.

Yukine stepped away, horror twisting his features. "What…?"

"Release them!" a new, authoritative voice demanded. "We will be taking them back with us."

Yukine's gaze snapped to the unbarred exit, and he blinked blankly at Bishamon for a long moment. The goddess was decked out in full armor and more shinki than he could count, her silver armor and lavender eyes and golden hair shimmering like the sun as she stepped into the shadowy underworld. Kofuku peered around the edge from the outside, Kokki clutched in her hand, and Hiyori's worried face appeared beside her.

Yukine's mouth hung open. He was too taken aback to remember how intelligible speech was supposed to work.

"You again," Izanami said, irritation tinging her voice before her face lit up with delight again. "You're too late. Yato already ate my food. He's going to be my friend forever. Why did you think I unlocked the doors? Take the boy and go. I'll honor the bargain not to interfere with you if you leave now."

Bishamon's eyes widened. "He didn't."

"No…" Hiyori said in a choked voice, her eyes filling with tears. "We were too late?"

Yukine didn't know what to say. He looked back at Yato, but he was seeing less and less of his god there. Was it a side effect of eating the food? Was he turning into a creature of the underworld already? Yukine's brittle heart was cracking, and nothing was making sense.

"Wow, even the psycho bitch came? I'm flattered!"

"Yato?" Yukine whipped around, his jaw dropping to the ground as Yato unfolded his limbs and emerged from behind a rocky pillar against the wall. The shadows slid away from his face as he strolled towards Izanami, and triumph sparked bright and hot in his eyes until they gleamed like ice-blue stars in the gloom. "But–but–"

Yukine looked between the two likenesses of his god, one soulless and staring and the other bursting with life and smug self-satisfaction. He inched away from the former. If there were two Yatos, he had no doubt which was real.

"What in the world…?" Bishamon wondered aloud as she gaped at the twin gods in a way Yato would undoubtedly find highly amusing.

"There are two Yatos," Hiyori said faintly.

"Yato-chaaan, I'm so confused," said Kofuku.

No one was more confused than Yukine, whose brain had short-circuited completely.

"Lucky I picked this thing up, huh?" Yato twirled what appeared to be a paintbrush between his fingers, and it took Yukine's fried brain much too long to make the connection to the brush Izanami had been holding earlier. When it did, the shinki's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as a hazy idea began forming in his mind. "We wandered through your hideout with the fancy box, and I happened to find this and take it with me. I mean, sure, it was sort of a halfhearted idea that maybe I could use it as a bargaining chip or something, but I couldn't come up with anything.

"And then you caught up to us and I had this craaazy, spur-of-the-moment, last-ditch effort idea. Honestly, I can't believe you fell for it. You should've been able to tell it was an ayakashi from a mile away, but I guess people see what they expect to see, want to see. So congrats on your new friend. I'm sure you'll like him."

Yukine opened his mouth to say something very important, but by the time he'd gotten that far, he had already forgotten what to say and, in fact, how to make his tongue work. The resulting sound was more of a strangled croak than anything.

Ayakashi glamour, the same as the thing that had looked like Yukine. But an ayakashi couldn't summon a shinki no matter how good the glamour and it had definitely been Yato struggling in that last fight, so when…?

Yukine wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry. The only possible time to effect a switch would have been when Izanami lost her temper and lashed out at Yukine, putting her attention on him and taking it off Yato. Which…would explain why Yato hadn't put up a fuss when she snatched him.

That was such a crazy, ridiculous, impossible idea to trick Izanami at her own game. It was…exactly the type of totally insane thing Yato might try if he was desperate and out of options and shamelessly trying one last thing without regard for its plausibility. That was the Yato Yukine knew, fighting to the last breath.

And if this last desperate gamble had failed? Yukine's gaze slid back to the ayakashi wearing Yato's face and he swallowed hard. It was like looking at an alternate future.

"You cheated," Izanami said in disbelief. Her glamour wavered just a little but stayed in place.

"Of course not!" Yato said. He pouted with an air of injured innocence. "Aren't you the one who said that the glamours were us? If the ayakashi that held everything I knew about Yukine was Yukine, then the ayakashi that holds everything you know about me is me. I even named it Yato for you. I mean, you don't know all that much about me so it might not inherit my awe-inspiring charm and wit, but I guess you should have thought about that beforehand. By your rules, the deal is sealed.

"You can have this back." He handed Izanami the brush with a flourish. "It wasn't part of the deal, and I'd hate to take it and then owe you again now that we're finally squared up. It's been a pleasure doing business with you, but we'll be on our way now."

Izanami stared at him, mouth half-open and brush held loosely between her fingers. Yato was wearing a pleasant smile as he turned away and sauntered towards the exit with a slightly uneven gait. He slipped his arm through Yukine's as he walked past, and the shinki stumbled after him. Despite his obvious limp, Yato didn't slow or look back.

"Keep up," he said in a low voice. "I don't think she'll renege, but I don't trust her."

Yukine snapped his mouth shut and picked up the pace. No way were they going to be stuck down here after all that.

"Visiting hours are over," Yato added a little louder, voice bright but eyes hard as he narrowed them meaningfully at Bishamon. "Out you go."

Bishamon shook her head sharply and backed out of the cavern, rejoining Hiyori and the others in the light of day. Yukine nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to join them.

"You tricked me!" Izanami wailed, her otherworldly screech cutting through the glamour like a hot knife through butter.

Yato yanked Yukine outside and shoved the shinki behind him as he turned back. Yukine peered around his side to see that Izanami's glamour had sloughed off completely, revealing her in all her ghastly, skeletal glory. Her minions writhed in agitation, twisting the shadows in a macabre dance, and stringy hair whipped through the air like a maelstrom.

"And whose fault is that?" Yato retorted, and now his voice was hard as steel as he glared back. "You brought this on yourself. I felt kind of bad for you, you know. You reminded me a little of myself. But you went too far. The manipulation, the tricks, the hostages…" He shook his head, eyes hard and filled with disgust. "You're just like my father.

"So keep your puppet friends and leave mine alone. Don't forget our deal, my lady. Keep your glamours and your tricks, and leave us in peace."

Izanami wailed loudly enough to shake the rocks and echo endlessly in the cavern, but she couldn't leave the shadows and Yato turned his back on her and marched off. He ushered Yukine along and dragged the others after him with the sheer force of his presence.

Yukine wanted to ask what Yato meant, that Izanami was like him, because it was ridiculous and stupid, but he was still in shock. And he didn't dare ask about his dad either way. He knew little enough aside from a couple reluctant secrets they had pried out of the god, but the thunderous look on Yato's face and iciness in his eyes told Yukine more than any words could.

"You–you– What?" Bishamon spluttered as they headed down the path away from Izanami's thundering fury. "That's…totally insane!"

"Is it going to blight you?" Hiyori asked anxiously. "Like Ebisu?"

Yato shook his head. "Ebisu's invocations were imperfect and the masks didn't completely shield him from the effects of naming phantoms. He wanted the brush so that he could control ayakashi without worrying about the blight. It's fine."

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Kofuku said, edging up alongside them and peering first at Yato and then at Yukine. "We tried to open a vent, but we couldn't bore all the way to Yomi."

"I'm sure," Yato grunted, expression unchanging. "She knew we were soul called last time and wanted to prevent it happening again."

"I'm so sorry," Hiyori whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "I tried, but… I couldn't call you back."

Yato's eyes finally softened, and he smiled at her. "It's okay, Hiyori. Nothing you could have done." A sly smirk overtook his face. "Besides, I saved the day! Because I am so wooonderful!"

Hiyori didn't even roll her eyes like she normally would, just bit her bottom lip and watched Yato and Yukine with large, teary eyes.

"You're both hurt," Bishamon observed. "Do you need to come back with us? We can tend your wounds and set you up in a recovery room again, if you want."

And Yato, being the idiot he was, turned to Yukine with a frown instead of worrying about the blight slowly creeping across his skin or the gashes torn into his leg or the arm that looked like it was about to fall off.

"She got you good," he remarked. "That hair of hers is the worst."

It was. There were thin lines of blood welling along the stinging cuts sliced across Yukine's skin, and they burned. Yukine had a new appreciation for all the welts Yato had come back with last time. But they weren't what hurt the most.

Yato pulled the scarf from around his neck, wincing as he jostled his injured arm, and unfolded it before folding it back over itself the opposite way and then in half a couple more times to make a long rectangle. He tied it snugly around Yukine's neck like a bandage to cover the lacerations there.

"We'd better get you cleaned up," he said.

Yukine, to his utter humiliation when he remembered it later, burst into tears and threw himself at Yato as everything finally caught up to him.

"Bakagami!" he wailed, burying his face in the god's chest and clinging to him tightly. "I thought you ate the food and would be stuck down there forever!"

"But I didn't," Yato said cheerfully, wrapping an arm around the shinki in return and patting him on the head. "My brilliance has saved the day once again! It's alright, kiddo."

Yukine leaned back and glared up at Yato, his vision blurry with tears. "But you would have, wouldn't you?" he demanded angrily. "If it hadn't worked, you would have given in to save me, wouldn't you?"

Yato cleared his throat and shifted on his heels. He didn't say anything, but his eyes told Yukine everything he needed to know. The all-consuming love that had nearly dragged him to the underworld for Sakura could have just as easily kept him trapped there for Yukine.

Yukine knew, in some cobwebbed corner of his mind, that it would have been logical, that Izanami would never have let Yato go either way and it would have made sense to at least get one of them out, but that didn't make it any better. Because Yato could be stupid and obnoxious and childish sometimes, but he always won. He was always there when the dust cleared and the battle calmed. He didn't do things like die or get trapped in hell for eternity. He was larger than life and practically invincible and would always be there for Yukine to count on.

And maybe Yukine had taken it for granted that Yato would always be there, would always escape the fray to joke and laugh and live another day. He felt like they had just brushed up against an alternate universe where that hadn't happened, where something had gone wrong, and it terrified him more than Yomi's blackest shadows.

"You idiot!" he cried, shoving Yato hard in the chest and beating at him with small, angry fists. "What were you thinking? You could have–could have–"

Arms wrapped tightly around him, and he struggled for a couple more seconds before giving in and dissolving into great, heaving sobs as he clutched at Yato again.

"It's okay," Yato said quietly. "We're okay."

Yukine didn't quite understand what Yato and Izanami understood the glamours as, but he had the sudden, gut-wrenching feeling that there was a little piece of Yato still stuck down in Yomi. Maybe it was the ayakashi wearing his face, but maybe, more than that, it was a close call and a quiet heartbreak and something he didn't understand. Maybe Yato had left a piece of himself down there or maybe the underworld had sunk its teeth into a small part of him and kept it trapped there, but experiences changed people and could take little pieces of your heart along the way if you weren't careful. Yukine didn't know, but if there was a lost little fragment down there somewhere, it only reminded him of how close he had come to losing Yato…and himself. They both could have—should have—faced a far worse fate.

It only made him cry harder, but Yato just held him close and stroked his hair.

"It's okay," Yato said again, dropping his voice to a whisper as he buried his face in Yukine's hair. "I love you too."

Note: Hey, I got them out, okay? It just took a little creativity lol I couldn't rely on just a soul call or they'd have the same problem with Izanami possibly setting more traps for them. They needed to essentially strike some sort of deal, somehow one that would be favorable to them. And this sort of crack-y solution is the reason we got a multichapter instead of a one-shot, because I wouldn't have continued the premise and had Izanami keep targeting them if I didn't have a way to resolve it. Although I did consider leaving Yato trapped... But it didn't really go along with the theme and mood I wanted, so it took a little more finagling lol

Poor Yukine needs a vacation XD