Author's notes: So I lied. Next chapter is the end. Really. … I'm planning on a sequel. The sequel where I continue the Gensoukai arc with the same developed Tsuzuki and Hisoka I have here. Things should turn out differently at any rate. I've got about... Oh, six chapters already planned for it. :D I believe this is my longest chapter in Skein yet!

Hi laustic, thanks for the review and I agree... Once they get over all the awkward.. awkward stuff they should be plenty sappy. Maybe.

Hello, Literary Eagle, yeah. I love them. I didn't really before I started writing this story. Too bad they won't be appearing in these next two chapters. I think.

Hey Experimental. Um... You'll find out what Ashtarothe and Enma had planned in this chapter that should answer most of your questions. I hope!

As for everyone else, thanks for sticking with me!

Am I blurry

In your vision

Was I just
A poor decision

Cut me open
With precision

And we'll finger
The incision

Tell me what have I done
(quid pro quo)

To watch you lose
Control

-- 'Ghostflowers' by OTEP

He opened his navy blue eyes and gazed blankly at the cavernous rugged ceiling above him. It was comfortably hot but the stench of sulfur told him he was in Hell.

"Ahh, finally awake, my cute Hidouzaki." A woman's voice purred.

Calmly sitting up, his night vision easily cut through the murky darkness to the powerful, one-winged demoness sitting relaxed on a lush couch. He could taste her power where he sat.

She stood up gracefully, the creak of her garments the only sound she made as she moved. "Having beaten Tsuzuki, even though admittedly underhanded, I offer you the position of my Right Hand and the legions that come with the position for your loyalty and one other thing."

"May I ask what this other thing is?"

"Have you ever heard the mortal's story of Persephone and Hades?"

"No, my Lady."

"Ah, of course you wouldn't. It's an ancient story from the human country of Greece. As a compromise between her lover, the king of hell, and her mother, the goddess of bounty, for eating whilst she remained in her lover's domain, she spent half a year with one and then the other."

Ignoring what sounded like trivial chit-chat, he moved to his feet feeling and hearing the soft material of a yukata settle on his frame. "A power-sharing agreement between yourself and who else, my Lady?"

"Whomever I choose." Her tone held warning, unamused at his reaction, and her power flared in aggravation.

He decided no matter the answers it would be in his best interest to just agree without further questioning. "I accept your offer."

Delightful laughter sent shivers down his back. "Then like the hapless Persephone, for half of the year you will be in service of the god Enma, until Muraki Kazutaka is mine. If you fail after five years, Enma will tear your soul from your body and return it to me. Understood?"

"Yes, my Lady." He smiled. Had he known the Duke's terms, he would have agreed anyway.

She laughed in surprise at the dark anticipation her Right Hand was emoting. "Oh, you've already become my new favorite toy, pet. You are so unlike your brethren demons or damned human souls wandering about."

A wobbly ball blurred into the room leaving the door open and revealing flickering firelight from outside. "My Liege!" There was a small gasp at the sight of Duke Ashtarothe. "My Lady!! Had I known—!"

"Spare me, vermin. I have other pressing matters to attend to." As she passed, she kicked the metal ball absently against the granite wall and it shrieked in pain as crashed it into the wall. "Hidouzaki, a week from now will be the annual gathering of my court. Do not miss it."

"Yes, my Lady." He bowed as she exited, and the ball whimpered. He turned to the hovering metal creature curiously.

"My Liege, my Liege!!" The ball bounced excitedly once the fallen angel had vacated. "I am your most trusted servant bound by Duke Ashtarothe's will!"

"Are you a gremlin?"

"No, my name is Erond. Please don't hesitate to ask for assistance! I have been connected to the Complex." The ball said excitedly.

"Please run a search for Muraki Kazutaka's soul in the human realm and lock onto it. I have six months to discover his weakness and wear him down through my servants, before I recover him myself."

"Yes, my Liege!"

He could remember the endless years of being trapped in Kazutaka's doll, and would send proper retribution in return.

"My Liege, target locked!" As Erond's shiny surface began to glow, it showed a clear image, fuzzy around the edges, of a doctor humbly making his rounds through a hospital whose soul had the unmistakable sign of Enma floating above his head like the blade of a guillotine.

"I will offer you the best torment that Hell has, brother."

Pausing in his work, the doctor turned around and looked straight at them. "As I suspected…" He murmured to himself and turned back to his work, picking a file from his drawer in the desk he had sat down, and suddenly the picture went out leaving a blank surface.

"Image lost! Target has placed an easily traceable barrier to prevent the Complex from peeking."

Laughing lightly, Hidouzaki walked towards the door, feeling pangs of hunger. "Keep me posted on his whereabouts once a day, Erond."

"Yes, my Liege!"

He knew this game of cat-and-mouse would bring equal enjoyment and frustration, but was confident that Muraki could not escape Hell's grasp. As he walked down the fire-lit hallway towards the feasting area, it cleared itself of minions terrified of the new Right Hand's might.

A new week in Tatsumi's office began with Sachiya turning in the true report detailing Muraki's fight against the demon. Even though the rookie had been unconscious through the first part of it, its specifics brought a puzzled expression of concern to the secretary's face as he read. He had been aware of Tsuzuki's inability to use magical focuses, which deliberately contradicted Kato's report on Muraki's fight.

There were only two ways that Muraki could summon such a powerful holy creature against Rashaverek. One was completely usurping the traditional Buddhist/Shinto rituals by using an entirely different magical base. The other way had to do with raw power.

Muraki's odd cache of spells seemed to incorporate many symbols of Western-style magic, so it wouldn't be a great leap of faith to imagine the doctor being able to solely use that style base for a short time. However, it was hard to ignore the possibility that the good doctor had some innate inhuman abilities of his own that was left unfettered by the spell. Whichever it was, Tatsumi had to trust Konoe's ominous words that he would not be troubling them any longer. Conjecture had fallen flat as to why that would occur, but with Kato's report Tatsumi felt that it just might have to do with Hell's new interest in Muraki.

"Oi! Brat, stop taking pictures of us!!"

"I only said 24 exposures, Kato-san."

"Meet the digital revolution, old-timers! No exposures need be involved!!"

A cackle could be heard from down the hall and Tatsumi sighed removing his fingers from his forehead. Watari's new partner had consistently stalked Kyushu district's Shinigami whenever they were in the office, mainly because the easily distracted scientist would find something new but very useless to invent and forget about his charge.

To simply put it, Kato had become a nuisance. Tatsumi stood up and stepped out of his office just as Kato was making his way backwards down the hall without paying attention to whoever was behind him.

"Kato-kun. Your paycheck will been fined again for your idling disruptions."

Laughing lightly, the shorter gray-eyed man turned, camera in hand, lips pulled into a big grin. "Say 'Cheese', Tatsumi!"

Adjusting his glasses right before a camera flash hit him, Tatsumi glared shadows summoning around him. "Desist your actions at once."

"But I'm making a Tsuzuki and Hisoka love-love scrapbook!" The short man's voice was heated, and the two Hokkaido girls overheard, dropping in like hyperactive bees attracted to the sweet nectar of love.

"We overheard something about love-love moments?"

"We aren't love-love or anything like it." Hisoka's hands were balled at his sides angry at how his coworkers were acting.

Tatsumi could see the wince in Tsuzuki who stood behind him.

After Kurosaki had been released from Watari's care, his habitual yelling had been absent and the office environment tense. Much to Tatsumi's relief, it was only a day before Kurosaki threw a paperback at Tsuzuki and started yelling at him over some inane thing.

His annoyance had been colored with a kind of affection most would assume lovers had, but their awkwardness with each other made it plain that they were not. Tatsumi could only hope that Kurosaki's newfound ability would help alleviate his often irrational, bipolar reactions to Tsuzuki.

Realizing whose love the rookie was supposedly capturing the girls squealed. "Ohh! We'll take one, we'll take one Kato-chan!" Yuma thrust her hands up excitedly as Saya calmly asked, "When will you be distributing their love-love moments?"

"I said we weren't a couple!"

Answering her phone suddenly and dismissively waving towards the wheat-blonde, Yuma's face fell into a pout when she hung up without a word to the caller. "We've got a case, Saya."

"Oh, dear me. Well, Hisoka-kun, we thank you for all your hospitality when we stayed over at your quaint home. Please take this."

A thin, light pink polka-dotted, wrapped, square package was shoved into his hands without further preamble, and he stared at it momentarily distracted.

The bright-eyed Yuma grinned over her partner's shoulder, hands akimbo and her right elbow brushing Saya's back. "Kato-chan, we'll wire the money once you've sent previews."

"Certainly."

Head jerking up, green eyes were alight in anger. "WE ARE NOT—"

"Bye, bye, everyone!!" The girls cut him off and hopped their way down the hallway, hand in hand.

Taking in a sigh, Kato muttered. "You're a terrible liar."

"What was that?" Threatening eyes glared at him, furious.

"Did I not speak loud enough for the empath? I said you're lying."

Kurosaki had gone scarlet at the insinuation of suspected 'love-love' with his partner, either in shame or embarrassment. "I have never done anything with him!"

Like Kato, it was obvious to Tatsumi that their honey-blonde coworker had become enamored with his partner, though too stubborn to admit it to anyone else. If the two had been comfortable in each other's presence before the convoluted Hidouzaki case, they were nearly impossible to separate now, despite Kurosaki's adamant denials.

Tatsumi suspected it was not a stubbornness borne from naiveté or innocence. To have lasted nearly three years without progress spoke of deeper, dark truths about Kurosaki's past that hadn't been exposed, yet Tsuzuki had to have been privy to them or he would have already made a move.

He was also aware that Kurosaki bore a new scar from the past case on his arm only because Watari had shown him as he had redressed the slowly healing gash, while the young man had slept on oblivious, for once, like his partner who had slept soundlessly in a chair not two feet away. Despite the terror he must have felt from his discovery, Kurosaki had defended Tsuzuki, or so Watari had told him.

"Perhaps this will be the catalyst that finally binds them together."

"Or have the opposite outcome."

"Tsk. Tsk. So pessimistic Tatsumi! Have some faith in them. Give it a week before you write Bon's obituary."

"So says the scientist who explodes his lab on a frequent basis."

Snapping out of his reverie, Tatsumi searched for an opening he could use to deviate the topic. He was concerned that Kurosaki-kun would try to transfer to another sector or retire prematurely to remove himself from this situation. He had threatened to before when things were getting messy between Tsuzuki and himself, but Watari had told the secretary that it was probably because of the confusion the young man felt from his empathy expanding and naturally resonating with his partner.

But it was Tsuzuki that caught his attention as Kurosaki floundered for harsher denials. He stood very still, almost as if an anxious, heavy atmosphere had settled on his shoulders like a mantel. His eyes were directly on Kurosaki's back masking innumerable emotions, but made no move to deny or affirm the rookie's accusations. His reaction was enough to let both secretary and rookie know that Kurosaki was certainly lying about something.

With a wry grin Kato snapped pictures of the young man's obvious discomfort, until his camera fell apart in clean sections. He let out a startled noise. "My camera! Why? No, no!!"

Blinking at the broken machine, Kurosaki looked to the smug secretary blankly, while Tsuzuki dared a hesitant smile towards his ex-partner.

Chuckling, Tatsumi adjusted his glasses with the smile of a dangerous man as the room darkened a tad more. "Kato-kun. I suggest you find someone else to pester before I slice anything else apart."

"Ah-Yes sir!" Bowing lightly he balled a hand on one part of the camera dropping the remaining fragments into a trash bin, before rushing out in the direction of Watari's lab.

"Kurosaki-san." He was surprised at the vulnerable expression on the young man's face as if he were expecting a scolding. "Don't pay attention to day-to-day nuisances. What you do with your life is your own business." Tsuzuki's hesitant smile broadened into a grin at his practical advice, and with a light smile to the both of them, Tatsumi shut the door to his office.

He truly hoped that their tangled relationship resolved into Watari's prediction.

Despite everything that had occurred between Hisoka and his partner, he did his best to act as if nothing were out of the ordinary. It was an understatement to say that he was failing horribly. If it was just Tsuzuki mentally prodding him for an emotional equivalent of 'I love you' like a needy five year old every day since their talk, he would have been able to go about his business, but his closest coworkers were aware of the farce he was desperately trying to keep together. Having Tsuzuki know his inner feelings was one thing, but to have everyone else know was disconcerting.

Because everyone carried their upgraded anti-empathy charms religiously, he was vaguely edgy because he could barely sense what his coworkers thought about him. He was used to the gullies and swirls of emotions around him constantly and for it not to be present made him feel like something was persistently wrong.

And yet, because of the charms he had become aware of the nuances in Tsuzuki's moods, which became a small reprieve to the stress of not knowing others' emotions or thoughts. He had discovered that the man could easily brush off the hurt or pain he felt whenever Hisoka would snipe at something about him. It was why Hisoka, once he left the infirmary, had been timid to say anything at all to reject Tsuzuki's expectations of a pissy partner through action alone, but it all boiled out a day later. He had been angry at himself, but mortified when his understanding partner had given him a hug in front of whoever else was in the office after he had stopped yelling.

"My feelings are never too hurt for you to hold your own back."

"You damn hypocrite! If you would stop taking me so seriously…"

"Have you been teasing me all this time?"

"…" Finally released from the hug, Hisoka had sat back down.

"I love you."

He hadn't an answer to that quiet detour as he had blushed, going back to a new book.

Ever since, he tried to be a little more sensitive to Tsuzuki's needs. It was irritating that the man would dote on him constantly, but sickening that he expected a kick or punch in return. Hisoka had to exert a self-restraint he hadn't known he needed to avoid taking part in the abusive role on the stage Tsuzuki had set for him.

To make matters worse, that damn Kato would not leave them alone. Day after day he would snap pictures at them, following them around everywhere they went in the Judgment Bureau. It was only after a couple days of this in the hallway that Hisoka had denied that anything was amiss between them. Tsuzuki's mind always the helpful one had thought of the erotic dream that had bound them, and Hisoka had blushed in embarrassed horror and denied anything intimate even more than he already had. It was the deep hurt coming from Tsuzuki that scrambled his brain from saying anything more.

Did they really act like a couple? Hisoka didn't think so.

After Tatsumi had scared Kato off, their remaining work day was relatively boring. Tsuzuki had asked him for help on balancing his checkbook and in return for his help Tsuzuki had offered to help him make a shield fuda that he swore would block other people's thoughts and emotions, and remove the need for everyone to be carrying their exhausted charms.

"Is it working?"

Hisoka looked at the group of workers in the Information Control Center and nodded. It was a really weird feeling to look at them and just see bodies, not personalities. "You said you wanted sushi tonight right?"

Smiling, his partner stretched a little, his fondness of eating out together quite clear even with the shielding fuda, not that it bothered Hisoka. "Yeah. I know this place that's pretty popular."

"Mm."

He thought it was going to be a mediocre sushi joint like the others, but it was a lot nicer to the point that Hisoka felt under-dressed. As usual Tsuzuki felt at ease giving an effortless grin to the hostess that seated them.

"I've got it covered." Tsuzuki said when Hisoka balked at the prices on the menu.

Frowning, he knew better than to argue the point. If his partner wanted to spend money that badly, he wouldn't stop him. Hisoka decided on an order of yellowtail sushi roll and put the menu down, just then noticing that the majority of people being served were either families or couples.

A plain-looking woman in a uniform appeared, standing a whole head shorter than Hisoka did standing. "I'm sorry for the wait! I'm you're waitress, Naomi. What would you like to drink?"

Before Hisoka opened his mouth, Tsuzuki answered her cheerfully. "I'd like whatever tea that you can make extra-sweet and three orders of salmon sashimi and rice, and he'd like some oolong tea and two orders of yellowtail sushi rolls."

Hisoka tried to keep the shocked look off his face, and masked it by leaning his head against his fist and looking out the window at the early sunset. His partner must have lifted the thought from him through their bond because he hadn't ordered it before.

Her smile became radiant and she nodded collecting their menus. "It shouldn't take longer than fifteen minutes for your meals to be out. I'll be right back with your drinks, ok?"

"Thanks." Tsuzuki gave her a grateful smile as she left.

"I won't be able to eat it all." He growled out, giving Tsuzuki a sharp look.

"That's ok. They have take-out containers."

Their waitress was back with a tray and two cups. "Alright, oolong for you, and I added a lot of honey to this peach blossom tea. I hope that's alright?"

Taking a sip, Tsuzuki's eyes were exaggerating the joy he felt. "Thank you, it's perfect!"

Trying to keep his disgust at the horrendously sweet things his partner would ingest off of his face, he sipped at the tea that he could tell was much more expensive than what he was used to drinking by the strength of its bitterness. There was something else subtly flavorful in it. He loved it.

This was not lost on Tsuzuki who then asked their waitress what brand of oolong tea they used, and after a puzzled look towards Hisoka, who didn't look like he was enjoying it in the least, she answered. She looked even more lost when Tsuzuki thanked her again, but she seemed to shake it off and politely excused herself to wait on her other tables.

"Weren't you trying to save money, not spend it?"

"Well I have a lot of it now, so why not?"

Instead of traveling down that topic to an inevitable argument, Hisoka changed subjects without warning. "Tsuzuki, are you free this Sunday?"

He felt his partner's emotions spike, but he answered hesitantly. "Yes?"

"We're going shopping then. There's a huge stock of groceries on sale, and your 'fridge is empty isn't it?" He was very matter-of-fact.

"Hisoka, are you worried I don't eat well since you can't watch me eat breakfast too?"

Turning away slightly under the heat of a blush, he shook his head fighting the irrational urge to lash out. "No, I thought you didn't know how to save money."

"I used to shop for groceries for my sister's household when I was younger. She was a penny-pincher."

"What happened then?" He didn't intend for it to sound as sharp as it did.

"She died."

"Ruka!!!!" The sadness and regret lanced into Hisoka for a brief moment.

Face tense, Tsuzuki smothered bad memories down before he reminisced into them. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me about something like that." Idiot. He was breathing a little too hard, but it didn't take much to calm himself as he took another sip of tea.

I love you. He heard his partner whisper mentally, but Hisoka didn't respond opting to pretend he didn't hear it, when the waitress was back with a large tray and placed their orders down with a confident flair. His partner flirted a little more and the waitress giggled at the attention waving him off to attend to her other customers.

"Tsuzuki. We aren't… a couple are we?" He wasn't aware that he had actually said it until he felt the stab of pain from Tsuzuki. He looked up and found his face unreadable, though his emotions were in turmoil.

"No. We aren't." It was Tsuzuki's turn to look off distantly.

"You want to be." He had felt the yearning for awhile.

His partner managed a weak smile. "Yes, but I have little chance of that don't I?"

Looking down he lost his appetite when he realized something about Tsuzuki that he never thought would be an issue. Hisoka set his chopsticks on his plate. "You haven't even tried asking."

"If we started anything it'd be obvious the next time we set foot in the office. You don't like the thought of it, and you haven't since the rumor started. You always get this disgusted look on your face whenever someone mentions it or you talk about it."

Hisoka took in a calming breath and looked at him with a darkly serious expression, hearing Tsuzuki's insecurities. "So it's my fault that we've been stuck on dating this past week?"

"D-dating? I didn't say that."

"You've just proved my point. I don't want people at the office knowing, but I can eventually learn to deal with it, like I've learned to deal with everything else. You won't even admit to wanting a commitment."

"But you cringe at the thought, like you're doing now." Tsuzuki stated quietly. "You're scared of me."

Not knowing how to respond, Hisoka fell silent and their conversation was essentially dead. The majority of their food was boxed up, and their waitress could sense that something had happened by the tight smile she had been given by the man with purple eyes, getting their bill without having to be asked. As they left after paying, Tsuzuki cheerfully talked about something unimportant, while Hisoka remained silent. Styrofoam boxes in hand, they parted ways back to their individual houses, exchanging uncomfortable goodbyes.

Stepping into his warm house, he was glad he had left the heater on. He slipped out of his shoes and padded over to his couch sitting down. It was the first night that he'd spend alone since Saya and Yuma had temporarily commandeered his house. To be honest, he was glad they had been called back to a case. Their presence had chafed on his peace-and-quiet sensibilities.

In the sterile comfort of his home, Hisoka reached into the deep pocket of his coat and opened their departing gift. He read the nonsensical English on the CD case. "Ben… Folds Five?" He decided that whatever those two left him would probably be best listened to in the comfort of company and left it on his coffee table. He'd thank them properly when they showed up again regardless. He picked up the worn book he had started reading at their suggestion, and leaned back into his couch.

After nights of the alien sounds of other people moving around in his house, complete and utter silence was difficult. The silence was thrown into sharp focus after reading disturbing paragraphs in 'Kinkakuji' about viewing people as roses, indifferent to where the outside ended and the inside began. Closing his hands, he set the book down, sighing heavily.

He wondered why they suggested the reading, when the main character Mizoguchi was a sadist. Usually he would leave a book like that unfinished at the first sign of sinister intent because the imagery struck a particular chord of helplessness in him.

Maybe they thought it was therapeutic.

Sighing again, he set it next to the cheerful cover of the CD, and was a bit amused at the contrast. Either way, it was only a book, and its ending was preordained by its author and by history. The schizoid psychopath, a stammering priest, would burn the 14th century Zen temple of the Golden Pavilion down in scorn and envy of its tired beauty.

He wondered if Saya and Yuma had any idea of how unbalanced his murderer was, or if it was pure coincidence. Thinking of Muraki, made his mouth dry, but didn't elicit the strong hate it was supposed to. In its place was a painful murkiness that hovered over his head in a sickening manner.

The clock's ticking only punctuated the emptiness of his dwelling. He went to his kitchen washing the few dishes left from breakfast in the sink, and then swept the stone foyer and took the trash out. After several moments of uneasy silence, his mind wandered carefully to the more comforting topic of his partner. Hope that idiot remembers to re-balance his checkbook after all that money he spent.

Now that Tsuzuki had revealed that he knew how to take care of money, Hisoka's closeness in his brief lesson seemed like a convenient excuse for Tsuzuki to be in his personal space at the office. Then again Hisoka already had figured he knew how by the emotional response he was getting, but pretended he didn't.

He wondered why they were more comfortable in a lie than the truth. If he was honest, he'd have admitted to the urge to be within an arm's length from his partner nearly all the time, but forethought warned him that Tsuzuki would be more honest about his feelings too. Hisoka knew he wasn't ready for more as he stopped in the darkness looking up to the stars.

Returning to his house, he sat down at the table and flipped the day-old newspaper open, running his eyes over the grocery sales page absently. Hisoka scowled pressing his knuckles to his head as if he could physically stop his train of thoughts.

Failing at that, he tried to distract himself by brewing some tea, but that didn't work either when the thought that Tsuzuki would probably like some of the fruit teas on sale popped into mind. He shut off the stove, leaving the water to cool.

To think about someone so much was ridiculous, but after he had cleaned himself up to go to bed he had had at least a dozen similar thoughts. So he grabbed his pillow and jacket with his keys and landed himself on Tsuzuki's doorstep. Hesitating to knock, he worried at his lower lip in the darkness of a half-moon. He couldn't stop thinking about his partner. It was almost compulsive.

Feeling his sleepy partner only seconds before the door swung open, Hisoka stepped back in surprise, his fist still ready to knock.

Tsuzuki yawned. "Couldn't sleep?"

Shaking his head, he walked mechanically inside when his partner moved aside. "No, I just—" He stopped knowing it sounded childish, removing his jacket and placing it on the rack as he removed his shoes.

"Hmmm…?" His partner, still half-asleep, pulled an extra futon from the cupboard in his living room and unfolded it. "It's okay if you just wanted to see me. I'll make some tea for you."

Their earlier conversation had been set aside for the time being for which Hisoka was glad as he sat down on the low-standing couch, looking down at the futon. Pillow in lap, he wondered when their connection had gotten so frighteningly efficient in communication. It completely defused any of Hisoka's unconscious misdirected anger before he had a chance to unleash it.

"The water's on the stove." Reappearing, Tsuzuki sat next to him. Hisoka didn't look at him.

"Thanks."

Soft music had begun to play in the background that Tsuzuki must have turned on when he left the couch. They sat in companionable silence, feeling each other out. Hisoka jumped when a shrill whistling came from the kitchen breaking his daze.

"Oolong, right?"

He nodded, watching a far more alert Tsuzuki hurry to the kitchen and quickly come back with handle-less cups in hand. His left hand bore an orangey, sugar-saturated fluid and his right held a steaming, strong black tea.

His partner could handle tea and coffee. Hisoka was assured in this as he took the cup gingerly from him, while Tsuzuki sipped from his own after he sat down, skin flashing where he normally wore his watch.

Looking down and away feeling strange because he never took that thing off his wrist, Hisoka stared into the depths of it for a moment. "I'm…" He hesitated, but his partner continued giving his supportive silence with his full attention without the unnerving staring he normally gave. "I'm afraid I'll dream about it when I'm alone." He was proud that he had said it as evenly as he did, though feeling numb helped that.

When his partner didn't say anything as he radiated a calm, non-judgmental mood tinged with concern, Hisoka felt relieved. It was utterly pathetic to be scared of something so stupid, but he knew that he was sensitive to what Tsuzuki thought, and was afraid he'd think it was stupid too.

"It's like I can feel his trace on me but I…" Hisoka's fingers tightened on the cup. "I don't feel angry at the sick bastard anymore." Closing his eyes, he took a calming breath. "If it was all some side effect of the bond, I don't know how to feel. I hate him, but all I feel is..." Resentment. Loneliness. Pain.

Slamming his cup down on the table, it shattered at the force of impact. "I hate him! I don't want to feel anything else because of him!!" Shoulders taut, he clenched his fists balling them up in his lap. The sympathetic compassion on Tsuzuki's face made him wince as he looked away, but he didn't pull back when his partner took his hands up and wiped them clean of tea and blood with a hankerchief, ignoring the tea coating the table and dripping off to pool on the floor. When Tsuzuki stayed reverentially quiet, Hisoka almost lost his nerve to talk, but continued feeling that he had to say it.

"Before I remembered who killed me, it was like this. Feeling miserable for no reason."

Perhaps sensing that he needed a change in topic, Tsuzuki's tone was gentle and understanding. "I have the space."

Ripping his hands out of his partner's grasp, Hisoka's uncertainty boiled over as he stood up. "I wasn't asking to move in with you!"

"No, I was. You don't seem attached to your place, and I have plenty of room." He smiled.

Instead of answering, Hisoka picked at his clothes tenderly, hands still tingling as they healed from the minor burns caused by the hot tea.

"I don't have a guest room, so I won't mind if we convert this one into yours, if that's ok with you, I mean."

He hadn't realized how tense he was until relief swamped him. Hisoka thought that sharing a place shouldn't leave someone as equally relieved and twisted up. "If I don't like it, I'm moving out."

"It's a home, not a prison, Hisoka." His partner admonished him quietly, feeling a little hurt.

He couldn't meet his kind eyes, and his body language closed off. "Thanks for letting me stay."

"You're always welcome here. Would you like more tea?"

Hisoka nodded, and, when Tsuzuki left to brew more, he collected the shards of the broken cup from the wooden floor and table, ashamed of his outburst. Tsuzuki reappeared with two kitchen towels over his arm, a fresh cup of tea in hand and a damp rag in the other.

Pulling the large, damp rag out of his grip, Hisoka wiped up the majority of the mess.

Tsuzuki pulled a small trashcan from the corner after he set the tea on a clean portion of the short table and put the towels on the couch, and pushed the wet, broken pieces his partner had collected off the table into it.

After everything was cleaned up and towels were put away, Tsuzuki grinned energetically as though he hadn't been woken late at night. "You did a good job."

"I was the guest who made the mess."

It was his partner's turn to sigh. "If you're living here, you aren't a guest, are you?"

Sitting back down, Hisoka didn't answer as he sipped at his tea.

It was awkward again. Then Tsuzuki stood up heading towards his laundry room. "You are right, though. I'm afraid to ask you out… because I think I'll do worse than Muraki."

Hisoka's cup clapped the tabletop, and he was across the room faster than Tsuzuki could blink. His temper had flared with a vicious vengeance and his voice was brittle "Don'tever compare yourself to him."

"I can't. He's just like me."

A hard upper-cut connected with his jaw and Tsuzuki stepped back to regain his balance, touching his jaw gingerly. Blinking down at his partner, his lip swelled and healed, and yet he worried over Hisoka whose arms kept spasming as he clenched and unclenched his fists, one with fading, but bruised knuckles.

"He wouldn't have let me hit him. He doesn't just take the pain he receives, like you." Glaring up at his partner, Hisoka's voice had the high pitch of hysteria as he tried to knock sense into him with words without the fists he wanted to. He hadn't meant to hit him the first time, but he had been overcome with rage at Tsuzuki's blatant disregard for his opinion that it completely wiped out his self-control. He would not let it happen again though. "Even without being hit, he would have returned the intention ten-fold taking his sweet time! The man enjoys hurting others!! And guess what!? You aren't like that." Hisoka laughed a little hysterically, body locked in place expecting a retaliation that Tsuzuki would never give.

Dropping his hand Tsuzuki looked at him feeling the dizzying array of emotions Hisoka was feeling. "You're wrong. There's… a part of me that enjoys it."

Restraining himself, Hisoka held his elbows, backing up and sitting down as he took a deep breath. "It's normal to have some sadistic tendencies, but not for it to consume your entire personality. If you look at people objectively, everyone has a little bit of Muraki in them. Even me." Right hand brushing the scar on his left arm, he glared at Tsuzuki. "But that is no basis for you to think you are him, idiot. You're the least sadistic person I know."

"You're wrong because you don't understand." Tsuzuki managed to say and went to do his laundry. Hisoka let him.

They didn't say much to each other after that, sitting apart on the couch they shared when the restless Tsuzuki found nothing else to do and would fidget, until the laundry needed to be changed and folded.

Apparently the night had moved on long enough because Hisoka had started to list to the side, sitting up. His partner walked in just in time to catch him from falling off the side of the armless couch and removed the mostly empty cup from his limp fingers.

His voice was tender at his relaxed features. "Hey. You should go to bed."

His partner sluggishly looked at him and lifted his arms up, reaching. Tsuzuki couldn't not oblige such a stark nonverbal command despite the argument they had just hours ago, and scooped him up laying him down on the futon and drawing the covers up. "Sleep well."

Hisoka was already gone by then, but he wouldn't sleep well. The red moon was full in his mind and hot breath was on his exposed skin.

Having insomnia, Tsuzuki had checked on Hisoka every so often. By the third time he saw Hisoka thrashing and panting caught in the throes of a nightmare.

"tsuzuki!!!" His lips managed to articulate through choked breathing. "Tsuzuki!!!"

Quickly sitting by him, he grabbed his shoulders tightly, and was unexpectedly drawn into a surreal landscape of rolling bedcovers instead of grassy hills.

A familiar laugh met his ears and chilled his mood, he turned to see Muraki naked and pinning his equally naked partner down. "Scream for him however you like—"

Not caring what else was being said, he ran towards them. Tsuzuki pulled his foot back and kicked, intent on hurting him more than he had ever wanted to hurt someone before. His partner needed him, and so he focused on kicking Muraki as far away from his partner as he could imagine and the stunned pale man was flung away propelled more by his ardent wish than the contact he had made.

Satisfied that the perpetrator was gone, Tsuzuki felt and saw the terror in Hisoka's struggle with his own unresponsive limbs and quickly knelt to gather his wide-eyed, utterly paralyzed partner into his arms, pulling his shirt back over his head.

"I'll protect you from that pervert."

He held him tightly in his arms, relieved when the panic and fear subsided.

TBC.