Yes, OMG, I'm still alive and, yes, OMG, I updated. XD

Sorry for fading into nothingness. Here's OOC goodness (hopefully) for everyone! Thanks for reading and enjoy.

-paris

Chapter Ten: Confessions

"Juubei," Kazuki stayed at the far end of the room from his protector. "I'm sorry if I don't know what to say to you." He stood there, facing the wall, staring at his own shadow on the floor.

Juubei waited for Kazuki to finish what he was saying; the other had nothing more to say. So, they were silent for a long time, not seeing each other. The tension rose between them with each second, until the oppressive stillness bore down on Juubei enough to break him down.

"Please, let me speak first this time, Kazuki," the rough voice was even rougher with emotion and shook with determination.

Startled out of his own musing, Kazuki nodded mutely, the tinkling of his bells informing the blind man of his answer. He knew he didn't need to talk. The other would understand.

"From the moment I first laid eyes on you, Kazuki, I knew my fate would be decided by you," even though he was sightless, he kept his face averted from the string master's gaze. He hid his expression and he did not want to sense Kazuki's either, so he did what he could. "That time I saw you playing the koto, I knew you would be very important to me..."

Juubei's brow furrowed and his speech was partly strangled, as if the words he were about to speak were to great to pass through his own mouth. "...My most important person."

"You're my most important person," Kazuki murmured in response, stilling the barely suppressed storm of words coming from his healer. "You're the person I cannot lose, no matter what. Why do you think it was so difficult to tell you?"

"I've always loved you, Kazuki."

"But how can I trust a love that you have been trained to feel?" Kazuki asked quietly. "What's the difference between Juubei's love and Juubei's loyalty?"

"Does it matter if you know what I feel is true?" Juubei replied.

"I've always loved you, too, Juubei."

Even if the words were said in low tones, Ban and Ginji, both standing right at the door of the room where Kazuki and Juubei were talking, heard it clearly. Ban slowly lowered his hand from his partner's mouth, where it had been put to keep his silence. "Ban-chan..." Ginji's brown eyes were full of worry for the Jagan master.

"Well, I heard what I was waiting to hear," Ban said, shrugging as he reached behind him to pull out a cigarette and his lighter from his back pocket.

"But, Ban-chan..." Ginji protested.

Ban began to walk out of the room and, most probably, out of the house. "Obaasan already warned my about smoking in here. Said I might burn the place down, seeing it's practically made of paper."

Ginji nodded, not making a move to follow his partner.

The exchange between the Get Backers were being watched closely by the curious other occupants of the room.

"What?" Hevn finally demanded, before Ban got away from them. The question opened the dam of inquiries from the concerned betters, save for Paul who seemed to have already understood what had happened.

"The Thread Spool and Needle Boy are finally where they need to be," Ban answered before closing the door behind him.

At that, Himiko's face fell and Shido nodded. Natsumi turned to Paul, mildly confused.

"They're finally together, I suppose," Paul answered shortly.

"I see," Natsumi immediately became sympathetic for the heartbroken brunet. "But, it's like he's always known."

"He probably did," Himiko affirmed, staring at the newly closed door. "All of us knew, somehow, that Juubei and Kazuki belonged with each other."

"So why did you bet on Mido, then?" Paul asked the Poison Lady, completely shifting the mood.

Himiko glared at the older man. "You bet on Mido, too!"

"This isn't the time to talk about this!" tare-Ginji protested just before arguments about payments and who truly won and bet on who began. In the mess, no one saw a redhead rise from where he sat and leave the room.

Haruki went out to look for Ban.

"You weren't the person I expected to come out here," Ban commented without even turning away from the moon he had been studying for the past few minutes.

Haruki scratched his head. "I don't know why I came out here, either."

Ban smirked, held his cigarette with his teeth and got another one out. "You smoke, chuckles?"

"Not yet," Haruki took the cigarette offered to him and Ban lit it with his lighter. When Haruki took his first drag, he immediately coughed, the smoke filling his lungs choking him. "H—how can you do this everyday?"

Ban simply laughed making Haruki whine about how insensitive the Snake Bite wielder was. He didn't instruct the Joker how to take a drag, but Haruki tried again, anyway. They didn't talk for a long time, but they were in companionable silence and there was no awkwardness between them...

...Until Haruki began to talk, anyway.

"I like Kazuki, too, you know," the Joker revealed to Ban who raised a quizzical eyebrow. The long-haired one was quick to defend himself. "It's not that I'm gay or anything!"

"You can't even smoke a cigarette," Ban pointed out, eyeing the stick that was slow to turn to a column of ash. His own cigarette gone, he grabbed Haruki's cigarette. "You've wasted a perfectly good stick!" he complained, dropping the burning stick and extinguishing it with his foot.

"I'm not!" Haruki shouted defensively. "I just appreciate beauty in every form." That said, something clicked in Ban's head and he could only stare at the joker in surprise. "It's the same for you, right, Ban? You love Kazuki only because he looks like a girl, not because Kazuki is Kazuki."

Ban shrugged. "I dunno, maybe you're right." He became less serious. "It's not like I have much to choose from. I mean, the only girls I normally run into is Natsumi. Don't get me wrong, but she's too young for me. Himiko, on the other hand, too violent and has far too many issues."

"And Hevn," Haruki frowned thoughtfully. "I mean, are those real?" he placed his arms in front of him, as if he was carrying a heavy burden. Then, he leaned in closer to Ban, conspiring. "And you know, I think they're getting bigger."

Ban snickered. "I've noticed that, too!" he said.

"And what about Sakura?"

"She's too strange. And Needle Boy's already on my back for getting it on with Itomaki."

"Madoka, then?"

"She's pretty and nice, but has bad taste in men. And she can't cook if her life depended on it."

"Bad taste in men, huh?" a voice that was neither Ban's nor Haruki's cut in.

Haruki began to sweat. "Shido!"

"Beast boy!" Ban seemed equally shocked. "Fancy seeing you out here."

Shido sighed and threw what looked like a yellow blob at Ban. "This guy was worried about you," the Beast Master said.

"You okay, Ban-chan?" tare-Ginji asked from where he had latched onto Ban.

"Yeah..." Ban replied.

Tare-Ginji flinched a bit, "Hevn and the others heard you talking..."

There are few times in recorded history when terror is clearly drawn on the Jagan Master's face. And the moment he saw the livid, red-faced Hevn that night was one of those few priceless moments.

"I'll have you know that these are very real!" the blonde informant screeched, her bounteous assets bouncing in front of her.

Haruki poked at the gravity-defying breasts that were thrust in front of him in the midst of the buxom beauty's rage. "You're not wearing a bra?" he said incredulously.

And the random acts of violence that were the consequence of that are too gory to recount. Somehow, in that ruckus, the bet was revealed to Ban and he was quick to demand a cut as compensation for his "emotional stress".

Paul smiled and Natsumi caught this.

"What is it, boss?"

"I think things'll be alright from this point."

Juubei reflexively moved his head towards the sound of his sister's voice. "What do you mean?"

Sakura glanced at her own reflection on the cold metal floor of the room, which held the one of Makubex's computers that was creating the virtual reality of the hot springs. The Kakei girl clearly saw the relief on her face. This told her that there had been tension and worry drawn there in the first place. "Kazuki-sama... he truly loved Mido-san. This whole thing was very painful for him. There is no doubt that his feelings for Mido-san were strong."

"And how does that make things alright?" Juubei asked as each word his sister had just spoken stabbed at him like daggers.

"Because, Kazuki-sama loves you even more. For him to be able to say how he felt with so much meaning, despite Mido-san..." Sakura explained further, then paused, trying to compile the meaning of her words into a coherent sentence.

"Kazuki is not one to lie. What he told you was the truth. To call you his most important person over Mido tells you that how he feels about you is real," Makubex rephrased for his companion. "But, while it hurts him to let go of feelings that he had for Mido, which were equally real, he now has your feelings to ease his pain."

Juubei nodded, but felt like an unlearned child when he found that he needed to ask again. "Should I go to him now, then?" he asked.

Sakura looked at the screen on the computer where Kazuki was shown inside the room he shared with Juubei. "I think tonight is a night you have to give to Mido-san."

"I understand," and the gravity in Juubei's voice showed that he did.

There ya go! Uhm... one more chapter left in my hard drive. I just want to end this fic cause I hate keeping fics hanging... Hope you guys liked this story.