The next morning...

At Kagetoras' house...

When he woke up the next morning the first thing he did was call Haruie, telling her to inform the others of a meeting at his place in an hour. She thought this was a bit odd since he had never done that before but did as she was ordered. He then went to his sisters' room to tell her that a few of his friends were coming over and asked her if she could make breakfast for them. She agreed cheerfully without a complaint because her brother had hardly ever asked her to do anything for him. After everything that he had done for her she was grateful to have a chance to do even such a small thing for him.

He went to his room and took a shower. For some reason today he felt like wearing a yukata and proceeded to put one on. By the time he had finished and ventured downstairs, his sister was already finished cooking and was getting ready to go to a friends house where she had planned to spend the night. When she finally left it was five minutes before they others were set to arrive.

A few minutes later Haruie arrived still looking a bit sleepy. She greeted him and went to slump on his sofa to wait for the others to arrive. She noticed his unusual choice of clothing but decided not to say anything about it. Kagetora or Takaya, as he now preferred to be called joined her on the opposite sofa and they talked for a few minutes about her search for her lost lover and he encouraged her to keep looking. The doorbell rang and Haruie went to let Yuzuru and Chiaki in. Yuzuru was with Chiaki because Kagetora had ordered Chiaki to protect him, he was after all the key to realms of the six beings. Takaya greeted them and Chiaki took in his choice of clothing but wisely said nothing. He invited them all to breakfast and they all walked to the table and took a seat. They others silently agreed to leave the seat next to Takaya empty for when Naoe arrived. Takaya then proceeded to perform a perfect tea ceremony for them, mush to Yuzurus' surprise. When he inquired to Takaya about it , Takaya merrily shrugged and said somehow he just knew how, to which Chiaki and Haruie informed them both that Kagetora was always very good at it and that in the old days he often performed them when they ate together. They began to eat and talk about school and recent exorcisms and still Naoe hadn't shown up. It was now thirty five minutes pass the appointed hour and the others silently wondered where he was.

Finally Takaya asked the question that had been on his mind all morning, " hey guys," he said, " did Kagetora... did I ever have any prophetic visions or dreams?" he asked. The others looked up at him and he continued, "or did I ever know of something that you had done before you told me or...," he broke off and reconstructed his thoughts before finishing, " or experience something you did without being there?"

The others looked at each other in surprise before Chiaki answered," well not that we know of," he said, he paused and weighed his words before continuing, "you weren't the type to tell us if you could," he finished. He drank a bit of tea from his cup and Haruie picked up where he left off, " we could always tell when you reincarnated, was hurt or in danger though." She stopped and thought for a minute before continuing, "well except for that time with the mirror but you should ask Naoe about this he was always the closest to you," she said. Takaya nodded and thought about this for a minute before Yuzuru said, "speaking of Naoe where is he , didn't you call him as well Haruie?" he felt the tension thicken in the room and immediately wished he had kept his mouth shut. " I did call him," said Haruie , "but he didn't pick up, so I left a message on his voicemail." They all looked at Takaya to see his response and saw the violent yellow glow appear in his eyes before it disappeared again. " This is going to be bad," they all thought and silently prayed that Naoe had a good excuse for his tardiness. The doorbell rang and the door opened and Naoe walked in .

Earlier that morning...

Half and hour after Haruies' call at Yahiros' house...

Naoe woke up slowly. For a moment he wondered where he was before it all came back to him. He looked over at Masashi sleeping peacefully with a smile on his face and guilt flooded him. For a moment he thought of how Kagetora would react if he found out about this especially since he was giving Naoe a chance to regain his trust and accept his love. Something that in their for hundred years together he had never done before. He got up from the bed and walked naked down the hall to get his phone from his pants pocket. His clothes was a still wet but fortunately it hadn't ruined his phoneHe silently thank god for this fact and thought that he would have to borrow some clothes from Masashi to wear home. He looked at his phone and realized that he had missed a call from Haruie and noticed that she had left a message. He played the message and cursed, he looked down at his watch and realized that he had only had half twenty minutes to get there and ran back to Masashis' room and into the bathroom. Masashi, who had been awakened to the sound of Naoes' unusual cursing watched as he ran passed him into the bathroom. "Masashi I need to borrow some clothes, im running late for an important appointment," yelled Naoe from the shower. Masashi quickly got up and yelled, "sure no problem," as he walked over to his closet. He chose of his loosest pair of black designer stretch jeans and chose a pair of expensive silk black shirt to go with it. He then added a pair of Italian black loafers and a brand new underwear to the rest of the outfit. It was natural for Masashi to have nice taste in clothes, he was a professional model after all. All this was disregarded by Naoe in mad rush to get dressed and run through the door. He placed a quick kiss on Masashi lips murmured his thanks and dashed out the door to his car. He quickly got in and drove off. " until next time," said Masashi sadly and wet back to bed.

When Naoe finally got to Takayas' house he was almost forty-five minutes late. He knocked on the door then opened it and walked in. The others were almost finished breakfast when he entered and they all looked up at him with apprehension and returned his greeting, all that is except Takaya. He just stared, taking in Naoes' snug fit designer jeans that looked as if it was painted on him, on up to his sexy silk shirt that had on, with the top two buttons left opened. He silently conceded that Naoe looked like a wet dream brought to life when he saw it, the deep dark lovebite at the base of his neck. He inhaled sharply but still didn't speak. "So my dream was a vision after all," he thought angrily.

The others who were busy taking in Naoes' new look, heard Takayas' sharp breath and looked over at him, they noticed that his full attention was on a spot on Naoes neck and the all turned to see what he was staring so intently at. Haruie looked at his neck , saw the lovebite and gasped before she could stop herself. She looked at Kagetora and saw an expression of pain flit across his face before he looked down, picked up his tea and continued drinking it. By now Chiaki had also noticed it as well , he only blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn't seeing things then calmly turned back to his tea. "Naoe is an idiot ," he thought, " Kagetora will never forgive him for this," and sighed. Yuzuru who had quickly grasped the situation calmly said to Naoe, " we thought your weren't going to make it for a minute there Naoe, come have a seat," he invited.

By now Naoe was aware of what they were all looking at and silently wished with all his heart for the ability to turn back time. He looked at Kagetora who by now had calmly returned to drinking tea. At Yuzurus' invitation he sat in the only seat available, the one next to Kagetora. The others went back to eating, or at least they pretended to, and so he quickly followed their lead. He shared a plate and calmly sat eating, not really aware of what he ate or even how it tasted as he waited for Kagetora to speak. He knew Kagetora was boiling with rage and for once he knew that he deserved it. He could almost feel the heat of his anger radiating off him. He deeply regret his moment of weakness and he knew that in Kagetoras' mind he would see this as Naoe throwing his goodwill back in his face. Yuzuru and Haruie fidgeted nervously, Chiaki just kept fumbling with his glasses. Finally Kagetora looked up and the others looked at him and gasped. His eyes, the tigers eyes, yellow indicating his boiling inner rage and yet here he sat drinking tea for almost ten minutes now. That had never happened before he would be laying down judgement on the unfortunate soul by now. For the first time even Chiaki felt fear, this had never happened before as he was almost as powerful as Kagetora, but this time even he was terrified. For Kagetora to be so inhumanly anger when he was seething with rage inside was unnerving. Finally Kagetora spoke, "Your late Nabutsuna Naoe,"he said in a voice that sounded like three voices layered on each other, it vibrated with power. The others were shaking uncontrollably, they had never heard him sound this way before. He turned to Naoe and in that eerie voice said, "why?" Naoe was trembling with fear but he knew there was no turning back now, "I overslept and didn't here the phone when it rag because I had left it in the other room. Forgive me," he begged. "Hhhmm," was all Kagetora said, then he spoke again, "tell me Naoe, have you ever had a vision of me before?"he asked. Naoe answered immediately, "no Kagetora-sama, I can only tell when your reincarnated, hurt or in danger. With the exception of the incident with the sutsuga mirror, no." he finished.

Kagetora paused for a moment then replied, "isn't that interesting." Naoe looked at the others, they only looked at him with pity and sympathy but remained silent, afraid of drawing Kagetoras' attention to them. Then he noticed something else, he had called him Kagetora and for the first time Takaya hadn't corrected him.

Kagetora looked at Naoe and continued, " I had a vision of you last night Naoe. At first I thought I was a dream but now I'm certain it was real. You were standing outside a door that opened to reveal a man with light brown hair and blue eyes," he said. Naoe gasped and looked at him with a mixture of fear and shock, his trembling visibly increased. The others gasped as well, chiaki was the first to recover. "You mean you saw him with this person?" he asked in genuine horror. Kagetora looked at him and smiled a bitter smile, "in full and complete detail," he answered. The others gasped collectively. Kagetora spoke again, " I even know his name," he looked at Naoe again, "Yahiro Masashi, am I correct Naoe?" he asked calmly.

Naoe felt as though he couldn't breathe, so great was his feeling of shock and guilt that he could only nod in response. Kagetora merely turned away from him and resumed drinking his tea.

TBC

How will Kagetora handle this?