Disclaimer: you really don't know? Well, I don't either. It's not me, that's for sure. (Last time writing this, I'm sure you get the point ).

Author's note: Second chapter at your service. If you liked the first, then all the more reason to read its sequel. I hope you enjoy my version of Hikaru/Akira. They are too cute to be left alone, don't you think? Well, dig in, and thank you for the reviews!

The Mirage

"It was a misunderstanding." Touya whispered into the white puffy breath.

I didn't mean it! I didn't mean that! I didn't! Touya rushed outside into the coldness of the world. He shivered when the icy flakes kissed him on his cheeks. Hikaru's kiss was always warm. He thought sadly.

Dragging a pair of heavy boots and a shattered heart with him, Touya headed for the station.

How did I let the situation get so complicated? How come I was so careless about the words I chose? That wasn't my style. He thought as he walked senselessly in the cold and empty winter street.

I thought he would understand, that was why I just said what was there on my mind. I trusted him to understand… didn't everyone say that we were so in tune? So why doesn't he underst— It seemed like half an hour have passed, and maybe it did. Yet the snow was like ten heavy blankets folded twice and glued together. Even Touya's expensive boots were no match for the icy cold blocks. He found himself drained; he was suddenly so tired, physically and emotionally.

That was when he looked up at his surrounding and noticed he was just outside the park near Hikaru's neighborhood. He stopped and stared longingly inside. It looked like the gardens in the Christmas globe his mother gave him when he was five.

So white… so different from the time Shindou brought him here and introduced him to his friends, namely Fujisaki, Mitani, Kaga and Tsutsui. So deserted… so different from the time Hikaru had said that Touya should take some time relaxing after intensive games and dragged him here. So cold… so different from the time they confessed their love and kissed for the first time.

How did it happen again?

Flashback

"Waya, have you seen Shindou Today?" Touya walked from his board to the back of the cramped room where a brown haired boy sat clearing his Goban with a satisfied expression.

"Touya?" The boy turned.

"No! Shindou!" Touya rolled his eyes.

"Wow, you know how to joke, but nope, haven't seen him. Why?" Waya resumed to clearing his white stones.

"Just want to talk to him. Well, I guess good bye then." Touya shifted.

"Oh, wait; yesterday when we were eating dinner, he said something about a gathering." Waya frowned. "I remember something along the line of 'we would have met in school but since tomorrow is Saturday, we decided to go to the park in my neighborhood', something like that."

We? Touya thought. Oh most likely his high school friends, from the club probably. He turned to the boy and bowed his head slightly and murmured thanks. Then he headed for the door.

"You are going..." He heard half of Waya's sentence but didn't bother waiting for the rest.

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He wasn't going to go really; after all, he wasn't invited to the gathering. For some reason though, he had really wanted to see that rival of his recently. But they were always too busy to bump into each other. It's a beautiful Saturday and there was not much to be done so he might as well go for a walk...

He saw Shindou by the entrance, facing the other direction. His friends haven't arrived yet? Then I will go and say hi. He quickened his pace and headed towards the boy in the yellow T-shirt.

Ten meters away from the entrance, a silvery BMW breezed pass Touya, creating an unnatural wind strong enough to LIFT any skirt. Maybe it's some drunker looking for trouble? Touya thought as he stopped to even out his hair. Just as he looked up, the same crazy car gave an ear-numbing screech and smashed into a wide alleyway before it disappeared.

There was silence for a minute as everyone turned around to see what the commotion was. Touya took the opportunity to look for Shindou, but he noticed with a start that the boy was nowhere in sight. Then murmurs came from everywhere as people started to pile in to the spot where a lump was lying lifelessly on the ground. Touya caught a glimpse of the yellow T-shirt before a wall of people consumed it. A few seconds later, a panicked voice shouted from inside the crowd, "Call an ambulance! 911!"

What's going on? suspicion dawn on him; Touya felt all the blood rushing out of his face, the icy chill started to spread into his fingertips. He swallowed. His ears were filled with nothing but his own heartbeat. The chaos before him was like a muted movie playing out a part of reality. Through the rhythmic beating, a woman's shrilled voice managed to reach him and he heard, "It's a young boy, a good looking young man!"

It was almost like something in his head exploded. A gush of hot air pushed at his lung. He gasped twice. Then he heard yet another voice, a terrible scream filled with agony and was all too familiar...

"Shindou!!!!"

A few pairs of curious eyes landed on him, studying the pale boy. Most people though, were still fussing over the body on the ground.

He felt dizzy and on the brink of collapsing. His knees wobbled and he wished to run to a bathroom because his stomach wasn't settling too well. He took a step forward and slide. Before his knees hit the ground, a hand grabbed his left elbow and another landed on his right shoulder. What nice people, I will thank them later. But what do I do now? It was obviously Shindou, I saw him right there before the car came, and the shirt...What do I do? Do I go identify the body now? Call his parents? Hold a conference for the late pro? Pretend he never existed? No! No!

"Hikaru..." His voice was shaky and hoarse as he called out his rival's first name.

"Hikaru! Hikaru! I...I wa…I want to..." He choked on his sobs, but he had to let it out, the yearning in his heart, the proof of Shindou's existence, the evidence of his own sanity, and what else can do that besides... "I...I want to play a game with you! I want to play..."

"Now?" Shindou's voice sounded bewildered, hesitating and amused.

Touya's head shoot up from his chest where he had sunk it. His tears flew out of his eyelashes as he almost glared at the crowd in front of him, as if he could see through all those bodies. Did...did Shindou just talked to me? Did the dead...Or did his spirit left his body and...and talked to me? His head swung from left to right as his eyes searched the air for a ghost of his rival and friend.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed him lightly to indicate that the person or ghost he was looking for was right there behind him. Touya jumped and did a 180 degrees turn. His eyes widened in confusion and almost fear. Then he looked at the crowd and then at the boy in front of him, then the crowd, then the boy... Seconds later, he flung himself at Shindou and sighed deeply. He hugged him tightly and let his tears flow out along with his relief. And boy was he glad that the body before him was solid.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Shindou guided Touya into the empty park by his arms and led him to the bench under a big green maple tree. They sat and waited for Touya to calm down. Soon enough, he did, and he turned his gaze to the street. By then, the police had already come and was clearing the area crowded with people, putting up yellow emergency tapes and the sort. The boy-not-Shindou was probably in serious danger by the look of the amount of blood on the pavement, Touya shivered.

"Although I kinda caught up with what's going on and all, but do you mind telling me why you look so...crestfallen- to put it gently- for a guy you don't even know?" Shindou looked at him with concerned eyes. "Oh, I'm not saying that you have no feelings and all, and I mean maybe you do know the dude from somewh..."

"I thought he was you, okay?" Touya said impatiently.

"Huh? A Shindou Wannabe? The bleached ha..."

"His back was facing me; I didn't see the bleached hair. But the height, posture, clothing style and everything was the same, so I..." Touya felt more than irritated, Shindou can joke after that?

"I see..."

"This is embarrassing." Touya said in a tone of self-hatred.

Silence fell between the two as Shindou studied Touya thoughtfully.

"To tell you the truth, if I was the one standing where you were, and saw you or supposedly you getting hit by a car and die...My reaction would be far worse." Shindou smile sheepishly.

"Really..." Touya quirk an eyebrow, "Tell me, what would you have done? I was totally lost..."

"Well, first I would make a scene kicking and screaming in front of you corpse. I'm sure you would be so angry that you would revive to kill me." Touya rolled his eyes and Shindou laughed.

"Then, I would catch the hit-and-run bastard and rip him in half." Shindou's expression turned a little serious. "And when I'm in jail, I would play go and think of you everyday."

Touya blushed, that sounded...sweet, well not the killing part or the jail thing, but sweet nevertheless. "Well, at least I know now that my rival also takes me very seriously."

Shindou frowned at that, then he took a big breath and turned to face Touya, "I...I have something to tell you. Forget the rival thing okay? I, you know, I don't know ever since when I start to see you as...important, then very important, and now the most important person in my life, and I don't know why either...When I realized a few weeks ago, I felt so afraid to be around you. I was afraid you would notice my gaze, my urge, or my… I should probably wait to say this to my wife huh. Heh."

Shindou searched Touya's face for any trace of distaste before continuing. "It's just that when I'm playing Go, I would think about how you would respond to my moves, and when I eat ramen, I would think about what you would say when you see me eating it all three meals a day. I would laugh at how you panic when yet another fan girl confesses to you, or how you get angry over the stupidest things and…. what I'm trying to say is..."

Touya blinked, what's Shindou saying?

"I know this kind of thing would be unacceptable to you, and the heck, it would never happen to me either if it had not been for...him, Go and of course you." Shindou smiled weakly.

Shindou meant Sai, Touya mused.

"The truth is, when I realized that you were crying over that guy because you thought he was me, I was happy. I was extremely pleased, Touya. I saw that you at least give a little damn about me, and I was encouraged because even if you don't see me the way I see you, you probably won't kill me for seeing you that way... Uh, so, before I chicken out, I...I think I'm in love."

Touya blinked again and Shindou quickly added, "With you I mean, Of course with you! Heheh. I...I'm sorry but..."

Five, then ten minutes passed in silence, and it was clear that it was Touya's turn to talk now. He lowered his head. "It would be lying if I say I don't care about you... I missed you these few weeks. Besides, I'm not the kind of person to cry over losing a rival. It would be extremely unfortunate but I wouldn't feel the pain I just did when I thought you were..." He shivered again.

He finally looked up, "Do you get it?"

Shindou smiled and nodded, "Close enough." Then he captured Touya's lips into a soft, slow but passionate kiss.

After they broke off, Touya glared at him, bright red. "Shindou! Don't take advantage of me! At least think of the locat..."

Shindou grabbed him and held him close, He grinned into Touya's shoulder as he said, "but you don't call it taking advantage when you just tearfully confessed to me!"

"What! You did!" Touya blushed, Okay, we both did but... "Oh, by the way, where are your friends, what about the gathering?"

"Huh? Oh, it ended some time ago, before I found you weeping for your beloved...at least you thought he was your belov... Ow!" Shindou ducked the second blow.

"Humph!" Touya crossed his arms over his chest.

"And anyway, how did you know about our secret gathering? You had been stalking me for how long now?" Shindou smirked slyly.

"Oh that's it! We are breaking up!"

"Wha...Hey!"

That fateful day happened a year ago… Touya wiped the icy droplets from his face and smiled sadly. And then, maybe he had imagined it, but he saw two teenagers engulfed in each other's arms standing exactly where they were sitting. One of the boy's olive green hair swayed in the autumn wind. Behind them, the orange sun was setting, leaving behind fragments of colors from the rainbow. Under them, their shadows intertwined together and stretched into eternity. Above them and all around them, the amber leaves were twirling, twirling, twirling…

And that was a perfect resemblance of happiness.

To Be Continued…

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Previews for the next chapter:

-"Nothing… well, do you think maybe we could go for lunch together, tomorrow? If you are not too busy hanging with those serious adult people." She asked.

-"Mother?" Strange, is this mother? She doesn't sound like my mother, she sounded like Shindou's mother, yelling at Shindou.

-"Hello, I'm Shindou. I'm outside your house… Yes. Just to make sure if Touya came home…is that so… yes… oh… okay…no, that's fine.

-He is not my concern now. We are finished!

oXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXo

Author's note: Oh, I hope you like it. Seriously though, if you have any comments or opinions, I would like to hear them. I can say I'm pretty conceited, so unless people tell me where it could be better, I probably think it is all good. Anyhow, wait for the next chapter, it won't be long until I post it, read the preview and you would see that I finished it with flying colour! Hope to see you!