Kurosaki yawned and cuddled into the warm...blanket? No, that wasn't a blanket. Nor was it a pillow, and he didn't sleep with anything else. Was that...Tsuzuki?!

The empath made a move to sit up, but the arm around him clearly wasn't about to let him go. Why was he in Tsuzuki's bed? He could clearly remember falling asleep on the couch, so how had he gotten into Tsuzuki's room? As far as he knew, he didn't sleepwalk, so unless his partner kidnapped him in his sleep, he had no reason to be in the room at all, much less in Tsuzuki's bed, with Tsuzuki, no less.

A loud yawn came from Tsuzuki as the older Shinigami rubbed his eyes with his free hand. "Mornin', Hisoka."

"Why am I here?"

Tsuzuki looked confused. "What do you mean? Did you forget you were staying with me for now?"

Kurosaki glared, flustered. "Not that, idiot! I mean why am I not on the couch!"

"You don't remember?"

"No...what happened?"

Tsuzuki frowned. "You were having a nightmare, so I woke you up. At least, I thought you were awake, but if you don't remember, maybe you weren't. Anyway, you didn't seem to want me to go, so I asked if you wanted to sleep in my room instead. You said 'yes', so I carried you here. I was going to set up a place for me to sleep on the floor so you would be comfortable on the bed, but...you wouldn't let me go. You seemed really scared so..." He shrugged. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No...it's okay." Kurosaki said, trying to remember any of what Tsuzuki had said happening. He did remember having a nightmare- though he remembered more what he felt than what it was actually about- which had ended rather abruptly. It started out very dark, filled with a cold loneliness, but then suddenly turned warm and reassuring. There was a comforting feeling after that, he guessed that was Tsuzuki, but Kurosaki still couldn't remember waking up. Thinking back on it, it felt like part of the dream. He figured his empathy must have kicked in and had him unconsciously clinging to that protection that was Tsuzuki. That must have been some nightmare. The more he thought about it, the more he remembered what exactly he had been dreaming about. Bits and pieces flashed through his mind. Fire, desperation, loss, Tsuzuki fading away from him, burning, the all-too-real fear of being alone...

Kurosaki immediately halted those thoughts and shuddered, something Tsuzuki noticed, for he put his arm back around Kurosaki, trying to comfort him.

"Are you alright?" Tsuzuki asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kurosaki said, squirming away from Tsuzuki slightly, still unused to being comforted in such a way, but not completely wanting to deny it either.

"Do you want to talk about it? The nightmare, I mean."

Kurosaki shook his head. "No...I'd rather not."

"Alright...but if you ever need to talk about something, you can come to me." Tsuzuki said, not wanting to push the issue, but wanting to make sure Kurosaki knew that Tsuzuki was there for him.

"Okay...but that goes for you too, you know. If you are upset I mean, you can tell me."

"Deal. You sure you are okay now? You were really scared last night..."

Kurosaki nodded. "I'm fine, really. It was just a dream. I'm alright now." Truth be told, he was still a little shaken up, but Tsuzuki's presence was comforting and reminded Kurosaki that he wasn't gone. What happened in his nightmare never had to happen.

As his partner released him and he shifted, Kurosaki felt something at his back. Reaching behind him, he pulled up an old teddy bear of a decent size. It was almost two feet tall with the typical, brown teddy bear look.

"Hey, why do you sleep with a teddy bear?"

Tsuzuki gave a sheepish grin. "Ah...well, it started when I was little. Whenever I had nightmares, I'd crawl into my sister's bed and sleep with her for the rest of the night. Whenever I did so, however, it would wake her up, and I always felt bad for interrupting her sleep just because I had been scared of a dream. She always told me she didn't mind, but I still hated waking her up. One time when she took me to a fair, she won me a teddy bear. Before bed that night, she told me that if I had a nightmare, to hug it as tight as I could, and it would help me fall back asleep. Of course, she still assured me that I could go to her if I got scared, but I did as she said. I stopped crawling into her bed and instead would hug the bear, remembering that Ruka was in the other room over and that she would protect me from harm. Though that one isn't the same bear, unfortunately, I had gotten so used to hugging a teddy bear in my sleep, that I continued doing so even as a Shinigami." He laughed. "That must sound pretty silly and immature to you...but it helps me sleep if I can hug something at night. It reminds me of Ruka too."

Kurosaki shook his head. "Nah, it doesn't sound immature." That explained why he had woken up so close to Tsuzuki. Though, he did already know Tsuzuki was a cuddly type of person, so it wasn't surprising. "You really loved your sister, didn't you?"

"I did. She was the only person in my life who didn't care about the color of my eyes. She raised me, took care of me, comforted me when I was upset... She was very important to me...I loved her more than anyone."

Kurosaki looked at the teddy bear. Having an older sister sounded so nice. Would his sister have been like that if she hadn't died? He knew that he had had a sister, his father would sometimes take him to her grave, but he didn't know much else about her. His father had told him she'd died of illness. They both had the same name, which was something that would haunt his dreams occasionally. Would his life had been different if his sister had lived? Would she have cared about him like Ruka did for Tsuzuki, or would she have shunned him just like his mother had?

"Hisoka?"

Tsuzuki's voice broke Kurosaki out of his thoughts. "Hm?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just...thinking. I told you I had a sister, right? She died before I was born. I was just wondering what it would have been like to have an older sister like you did."

Tsuzuki frowned, suddenly regretting he had shared his story with Kurosaki. "Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I won't talk about Ruka anymore."

"No, it's okay, really. I'm fine. Besides, I like hearing your stories about her."

Tsuzuki looked surprised. "Really? You're actually interested?"

Kurosaki nodded. "Mhmm. You talk about her so highly and get so excited sometimes. Besides, your my partner, of course I'm interested. We can't work together if we don't know each other, right?"

The older Shinigami smiled. "Right."

"Good. Now get up, I'm going to make breakfast."

-------------------

"You're in an awful good mood this morning, Hajime." Kannuki noted as she took a seat at the kitchen table.

Terazuma shrugged. "Nothing to be upset about." Naturally, he wasn't going to tell her the real reason why he was happy. He believed he may have figured out the reason why Kuroshungei decided to transform every time Terazuma touched a female, and wanted to see Tsuzuki again to find out what he thought about it.

"You've even been holding off on smoking a lot lately too. I'd think smoking less would make you more grumpy."

"Looks like it's had the opposite effect, eh?" Terazuma said before taking a big bite of his pancakes.

Kannuki giggled. "Whatever works for you."

It was silent for a moment while the pair ate their breakfast. Terazuma eventually spoke, "Hey, Kannuki, I'm going to head over to Tsuzuki's place again later this afternoon, make sure they don't need any more help with anything."

"That's sweet of you. Want me to come with you?"

"No!" Terazuma said all too quickly, receiving a strange look from Kannuki. "Uh...I mean, you should stay home and relax a bit. It'll be moving big stuff around some more, and I don't want you to hurt yourself or anything trying."

"Oh, okay. I'll leave it to the big, strong men to take care of." She giggled again, making Terazuma smile. He swore she had the most adorable laugh anybody could possibly have. Sometimes he'd tell her jokes just to hear it. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how much he loved Kannuki. He denied it at every turn, but soon, he hoped he wouldn't have to deny it anymore. He'd be able to treat her as he should, be able to hold her hand, hug her, dance with her. He wouldn't have to be afraid of getting close, both physically and emotionally. Most importantly, he'd be able to make her happy.

Having finished his breakfast, Terazuma began cleaning up his spot. He was about to wash the dishes when Kannuki took the sponge from him.

"You go help out Tsuzuki and Kurosaki. I'll take care of the dishes."

"It's not a big deal, I can go after I'm done."

"It's fine, I got it. I appreciate the offer though." She smiled. If it wasn't for his Shikigami, Terazuma probably would have kissed her right then. He didn't want to destroy their kitchen, however, so he held off on that.

"I'll be back soon."

"Okay, I'll see you later! Make sure you be careful not to do anything that would make you transform!"

"Hey, hey, I've been doing good, haven't I? Tsuzuki's house is still in one piece, have some faith in me!"

"You're right. I'm proud of you. Bye for now!"

Terazuma couldn't hold in a smile as he walked out the door. If she was proud of him now, just wait until later. She'd be astounded.

------------

Just when Terazuma had turned onto Tsuzuki's street, the clouds overhead decided to let loose and pour on the unsuspecting Shinigami. As soon as the first couple of raindrops hit, Terazuma pulled his jacket up over his head and ran the rest of the way to Tsuzuki's house, swearing loudly. He pounded on the door, trying his best to keep Kuroshungei back, who was raging inside him. The second the door was open, he ran inside, almost knocking Kurosaki down in the process.

Kurosaki normally would have asked what was going on, but it didn't take an empath to know Terazuma was fighting desperately to hold his Shikigami in. He stood in the middle of the living room, dripping wet and shuddering violently. Kurosaki quickly shut the door and ran to the bathroom, grabbed a couple of towels, and handed them to Terazuma.

"Th-thanks." Terazuma managed to say, wiping his face first, then drying himself as best he could.

Tsuzuki, who had been washing dishes, stood in the doorway with soapy hands. "What's going on?"

Kurosaki turned to his partner. "You and Terazuma look about the same size, get him some clothes to change into, he's soaked. Unless of course you don't want a living room anymore."

He made a face, but ultimately decided that lending Terazuma pants and a shirt was far better than losing half his house, wiped his hands on a hand towel and headed to his bedroom to get the clothes. When he returned, he tossed the clothing to Terazuma.

"You can change in the bathroom. Just throw your wet clothes in the tub for now."

Terazuma nodded once and briskly walked to the bathroom. Though Kuroshungei was calming down, he certainly wouldn't stand for Terazuma sitting in cold, wet clothes. After closing the bathroom door, Terazuma began to get undressed, mumbling to himself. The weather hadn't called for rain until late in the night, but apparently, it had been wrong. To make matters worse, it was Tsuzuki he had come to visit, and was now stuck in his rival's house, borrowing his clothes. Talk about embarrassing. Well, at least the clothes fit. It was better than dealing with Kuroshungei for the remainder of the afternoon and possibly destroying another house. Though he wouldn't have minded if he had ruined Tsuzuki's to begin with instead of Kurosaki's.

Now in dry clothes, Terazuma left the bathroom and headed back down the hall to the living room. Tsuzuki had gone back to finishing the dishes (no doubt because Kurosaki made him wash them after each meal) while Kurosaki sat on the couch, waiting for Terazuma to come back.

"Sorry about that." Terazuma mumbled. "Wasn't supposed to rain today."

"What brings you here in the first place?" Kurosaki asked.

"Well..." Terazuma hesitated a moment, unsure if he really wanted Kurosaki and Tsuzuki to know the one thing he didn't tell anybody, not even Kannuki. He didn't have to tell them the details though, they didn't need to know that. After all, it was really none of their business. They had their secrets about their lives, and he had his. As long as they didn't pry, which he knew Kurosaki at least wouldn't, it should be okay. "I think I know why Kurshungei doesn't like women."

Tsuzuki walked into the room, having finished the dishes. "Oh?"

"Parasitic Shikigami come out when their master is in danger, right?"

"Yeah..."

"I think...that's why."

Tsuzuki looked a little confused. "Women are a threat to you?"

Terazuma sighed. "I...it has to do with...when I was alive. I'd rather not discuss it, but I'm almost positive that's why. It makes sense, if what you say about parasitic Shikigami is true and Kuroshungei just isn't out to torture me."

"I suppose that's possible. Whatever happened, if you view it as a threat, the Shikigami is going to know that and spring into action. Kuroshungei is protecting you from whatever happened in your past."

"Then how do I fix it? How do I make him not come out anytime I make physical contact with a female?"

Tsuzuki shrugged. "You'll have to figure that out. You know what's going on, not me. Come to terms with whatever it is. As long as you are afraid of it, even if you try to tell yourself you aren't, if it still scares you, Kuroshungei is going to come out."

"Right..." Terazuma glanced out the window. It was down pouring. There was no way he was going to be able to go back home in this. "Wonderful..."

"You'll have to stay here until it stops raining." Kurosaki said, glancing over at Tsuzuki before looking back at Terazuma.

Terazuma gave an aggravated sigh. "Do you mind if I call Kannuki?"

"The phone is on the wall, opposite the stove." Kurosaki said, pointing in the direction of the phone.

"Thanks." Terazuma walked passed Tsuzuki without looking at him and picked up the phone. It rung only once before Kannuki picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kannuki, it's me."

"Oh, Hajime! Is everything alright? Once it started raining, I was so worried you were still outside! I was getting ready to go look for you when the phone rang."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Luckily I was just down the street when it started to rain, so I made it to Tsuzuki's. Listen, I'm going to have to stay here until the rain subsides. I can't go out in this."

"Alright, I understand. Wait until the rain is done, just incase it decides to soften up but then rain hard again."

"Okay."

"Call me when you are on your way back, okay?"

"I will."

"I'll see you later then. Don't argue with Tsuzuki, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I won't."

"Bye, Hajime!"

"Bye, Kannuki."

Terazuma hung the phone up and walked back into the living room, sitting at the opposite end of the couch from Kurosaki. The rain was beating hard against the windows. This was going to be a long day.

"So...you think if I get all that stuff sorted out, Kuroshungei will stop coming out every time I touch a girl?"

Tsuzuki shrugged. "Don't know for sure, but it's worth a try. Like I said, if the idea of touching a girl scares you, he's going to come out when you do touch a girl because it's his job to protect you. Even if you don't like each other."

Easier said than done. How was he supposed to just forget the past? It left such a deep scar, he couldn't just act like it never happened, and he still couldn't forgive himself for it either. What was he going to do?

"You'll figure it out." Kurosaki said, picking up on Terazuma's aggravation.

"I hope so..." Terazuma mumbled.

Tsuzuki was looking out the window. "Well, can't work on my garden now...oh, I know! Let's play some board games!"

Kurosaki frowned. "Board games? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Think about it, Tsuzuki. You and Terazuma playing a board game. You're competitive when you aren't even playing a game, never mind when you actually have a reason to compete."

"Come on, it'll be fun! It's not like we have anything better to do."

Kurosaki sighed. He had a bad feeling about this. "Alright, fine. But if you two start arguing, I'm dragging you both into opposite rooms of the house and locking you in them until it stops raining. I don't want to have to find another place to stay."

The name of the first game Tsuzuki picked out alone almost made Kurosaki skip the board games and send the two older Shinigami to opposite sides of the house. He had decided to play Trouble, which could possibly end up in quite a lot of trouble if Tsuzuki and Terazuma landed on each other's pieces and sent each other back to Home often enough. He wouldn't listen to Kurosaki's suggestion to play a different game, however, so the three sat down for a game of Trouble. Things seemed to go well for a while, and Kurosaki started to believe that it was possible for the two to sit down for a friendly game. That started to fade, however, when one of Terazuma's pieces landed on Tsuzuki's, the latter of which was three spaces away from Home.

"You did that on purpose." Tsuzuki growled, putting his piece back in the start row.

"Well, duh. That's the purpose of the game." Terazuma said, rolling his eyes. "What did you think I was going to do, move another piece and let you get yours Home?"

After that, Tsuzuki seemed to have the intent on getting revenge, which, a few turns later, he did. From then on, it became a competition between Terazuma and Tsuzuki, with Kurosaki forgotten. Several times one of them could have overtaken one of Kurosaki's pieces, but his were left alone, the other two preferring to focus on taking each other down instead of who was actually winning the game. Thus, it didn't take long for Kurosaki to get his last piece into Home.

"There. I won, because you two were too focused on beating each other to even realize I was near the end. Game over. All done."

"Hey, Kurosaki, hold on!" Terazuma said. He almost grabbed Kurosaki's hand with the intent of pushing it away before Kurosaki could clean it up, but withdrew before they actually made contact. "Tsuzuki and I are still going, the game's not over yet!"

"Yeah, let us see who can get second place!" Tsuzuki agreed.

Kurosaki sighed in aggravation. "Whatever. But I'm staying right here, because I'm sure I'll be pulling you away in a couple minutes."

Sure enough, just a few minutes later, Tsuzuki and Terazuma had begun raising their voices at each other. Though Terazuma was trying not to get into a fight, he was still arguing back, and Tsuzuki definitely wasn't making things any better. It had gone from a discussion related to the game, to an argument that had to do with things nowhere near related. Before the two could get too deep into an argument, Kurosaki grabbed Tsuzuki by the back of his collar, yanked him back, then pulled down on his tie so they were face-to-face.

"Knock. It. Off." Kurosaki growled in a low, but threatening voice.

"Ow...but, Hisoka-"

"Tsuzuki! It's a GAME! How old are you?"

"Old enough?"

"Then stop acting like you are three!"

Tsuzuki pouted, but Kurosaki only glared in return. Terazuma snorted in the background.

"For the oldest Shinigami among us, you sure do get told off by the youngest a lot."

Tsuzuki turned his head to face Terazuma and opened his mouth to argue, but he was cut off when Kurosaki yanked him by his tie again.

"I swear, Tsuzuki, I will tie you up and throw you in a closet for the rest of the day if you don't shut up right now."

Terazuma snorted again. "I didn't know you were into that kind of thing, Tsuzuki."

Kurosaki's face quickly turned a bright red, though whether it was out of anger or embarrassment at Terazuma's comment, the other two weren't sure. Knowing Kurosaki, Tsuzuki guessed it was both.

"I'LL THROW YOU OUT INTO THE RAIN IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP!"

Terazuma immediately closed his mouth, all traces of his previous smile gone. After it got quiet, Kurosaki released Tsuzuki and stomped off to the couch to read a book. It stayed quiet after that, each person doing his own thing. Tsuzuki had gone off to clean- something he had to stay on top of with Kurosaki around. Terazuma sat in the living room, once again on the opposite side of the couch from Kurosaki, thinking about his predicament with Kuroshungei. The only sounds came from the rain outside, Tsuzuki's cleaning, and Kurosaki's turning of a page. It remained that way for about another fifteen minutes, when Kurosaki suddenly broke the silence.

"It stopped raining." He said, not looking up from his book.

Terazuma glanced out the window. The clouds were dispersing, and the sun was beginning to shine through. "Alright, I'm going to call Kannuki and tell her I'm on my way."

After calling his partner, Terazuma grabbed his coat, which had, for the most part, dried. Tsuzuki stopped him before he went out the door.

"I'll bring your clothes back cleaned tomorrow to work."

"Okay...er...thanks."

That was as far as the pleasantries went before Terazuma walked out. Tsuzuki looked over at Kurosaki, who remained reading his book, not sparing a glance. Tsuzuki sighed and, knowing it was no use to try to talk to his partner at the moment, went back to finish his cleaning.

---------------------

"Hey, Hisoka?" Tsuzuki said a little later that evening. He had finished his cleaning, and afterwards had left the house for a bit. He hadn't told Kurosaki where he was going, just that he was going out and would be back in a few minutes. Kurosaki hadn't bothered to ask questions.

"What?" Kurosaki finally answered, glancing up from the book he was still reading.

"I, um...wanted to apologize. You're right, I was acting like a little kid earlier."

Kurosaki's tone was impatient, "Is that it?"

"Oh, here." Tsuzuki held out a small, rectangular-shaped package. It was wrapped in brown paper and bound with a thin blue string, tied into a ribbon in the middle of one side

Kurosaki looked confused. "For me?"

"Mhmm. Come on, open it."

Putting his book down, Kurosaki took the package, undid the string and pulled off the paper.

"That's one of the books you wanted, right?"

Kurosaki's cheeks turned a light pink. "Ah...yeah...but why did you buy it for me?"

Tsuzuki shrugged. "No one reason in particular. A combination of still making up for destroying your house, wanting to make up for aggravating you earlier and as a thank you for putting up with me enough to stay with me until your house gets fixed."

"Oh...you didn't have to do that..."

Tsuzuki smiled. "I know I didn't, but I wanted to."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Tsuzuki turned around to walk out, but Kurosaki stopped him.

"Tsuzuki."

"Hm?"

"I was thinking we could make some apple pie for dessert after dinner. What do you say?"

The older man's grin widened. "Really?! That would be great!"

Kurosaki held up a finger. "But only on one condition: you follow exactly as I instruct. I want the pie to be edible."

"Will do!"

------------------

After everything was cleaned up from dinner, Terazuma asked Kannuki to sit on the couch with him. He was nervous, and Kannuki could tell, so she followed him into the living room and sat with him.

"What is it, Hajime?"

Terazuma stared at his hands, fidgeting. "I have something I need to talk to you about. It has to do with Kuroshungei."

Kannuki was sitting close to him as she knew was comfortable for him, watching intently. "I'm listening."

Terazuma took a deep breath. "Well...it is about when I was alive. You know how I used to be a detective and all that. One of my cases resulted in me catching a guy who was put to death. The guy had a brother who swore revenge on me and knew just how to do it. There was this girl I had a crush on at the time, and he found her and held her hostage. Long story short, it ended up breaking into a gunfight, she got caught up in it, died from a gunshot wound to her head, I shot the guy and killed him, then died before making it to the hospital from my wounds."

Kannuki was taken back. She didn't know what to say. "Hajime..."

"That's why...that's why I have such a hard time. That's why I can't be near girls. I know I should have gotten over it by now but...it left such a deep scar...I just can't..."

"Hajime." Kannuki very lightly tapped his shoulder, wanting to comfort him but knowing that touching him any more than that would make him transform. "It's okay, I understand. That's a horrible thing to have happen, and I don't expect you to just be able to get over it. Is it something that's been bothering you a lot lately?"

"Well, just thinking about wrecking Kurosaki's house got me thinking about Kuroshungei, and then I remembered that. I'd been trying to repress it, but it's been bothering me. I guess I just had to get it off my chest. If anybody deserves to know, it's you."

"I'm here for whatever you need, Hajime. You can talk to me whenever you need to, and I'll help you out whenever and however I can."

"Thank you, Kannuki..."

Kannuki smiled. "Anytime."

Terazuma gave a small grin in return. Somehow, having told Kannuki his story made him feel better. He felt content, and not quite so anxious about the whole problem with Kuroshungei anymore. He would never be able to forget that incident. Scars didn't disappear, but that didn't mean he couldn't move on. After all, he had Kannuki to help him.

While he wanted to try getting closer to Kannuki, suddenly feeling confident in controlling his Shikigami, Terazuma decided against it. He was tired, and dealing with Kuroshungei while tired wasn't the smartest thing to do. There was always tomorrow; rushing would probably only make things worse. He wanted things to turn out perfectly, and was determined to do it right. Yes, tomorrow, he would try his theory.