Disclaimer: I do not own PMK or SIPM or anything created by Chrono Nanae. End of story.

Mahono: This is a boy x boy story, blah blah blah; it's primarily Tetsu x Suzu blah blah blah, you know the rest. If you don't like I have no idea why you've read this far. Oh, and don't forget to Review when you're done reading!

Love Kills Thousands:

Different View

Chapter III:

Pet Reunions

Pulling the covers over his head Tetsunosuke Ichimura tried desperately to drown out the noise of that incessant ringing. He pulled his comforter over his head pressing the edges of his pillow to his ears. He tried hard to ignore the world and return to his land of dreams and sweets, but no matter how hard he clutched his eyes shut and plugged his ears the bell kept ringing in his head. It was giving him a headache!

"Graahh!" The small redhead screamed into his pillow. He threw back his blankets as the door bell rang for what seemed like the thousandth time. He instantly regretted that action missing the warmth of his comforter. Stripped down to nothing but his boxers the pale young teen held his arms close to himself, shivering, as he glared over at the clock.

"Who the hell makes a house call at nine in the morning? On a Saturday no less!" Tetsu whined, rubbing his arms with his hands.

When his bare feet hit the cold wooden floor Tetsu cursed whoever was at his door to the deepest part of the Antarctic Ocean. "Maybe then you'll learn not to wake people up at such ungodly hours of the day." He muttered.

Tetsu bypassed the piles of dirty socks, pants, and shirts that were strewn across his room and headed straight out the door. Forget courtesy, if this guy deserved that than he wouldn't have woken him up!

The doorbell continued to ring as Tetsu stormed through the emptiness of his house. He stomped past the bathroom and through the kitchen grumbling all the way. Tatsu had long since left for work that morning leaving only his customary note on the refrigerator door telling his younger brother when he would be home, and how long to heat last nights leftovers. Tatsu never got weekends off anymore, so Tetsu was quiet used to the sound of his lone footsteps echoing off the walls.

Clambering over the back of the living room couch Tetsu reached the front door and swung it open wide. "It's nine in the morning!" he whined his eyes still half shut from sleep, "What the hell do you want!"

A small cough caused Tetsu to take a serious look at his 'guest's' true presence. "Well…good morning to you too." The voice said hinting at an amused smile.

Tetsu's eyes grew wide as his mind registered what was going on around him. The boy standing before him…Lean, tan, silver hair, piercing eyes…he was so familiar.

Too familiar. Tetsu's mind began spinning in ten different directions at once. Memories of laughs, screams, tears, blood, hatred, flitted past his eyes. One word begged to fall from his lips, one name.

"Suzu…"

Then it all came to a screeching halt. His eyes shot to his companion's face and he realized that the other boy was staring. Tetsu looked down at himself and immediately began to blush.

"Tetsu, I--" Before the boy at the door could utter another word Tetsunosuke slammed the door shut and spun around on his heals pressing his back to the door.

"Not happening…" He breathed eyes wide in horror. It had to be a trick. A sort of deranged prank. That was it! It was a prank; an illusion at best. There was no way he would ever see…him again.

Placing his head to his chest Tetsu forced a slow breath out of his body as he stared vaguely off at the sparsely furnished room in front of him. He tried to calm himself with his own voice. "It…he's not real. It's only a trick. Just go back to bed. Back to bed…" He murmured.

Staring at the closed door in front of him Suzu bit back a fuming scowl. Well that didn't go exactly as planned. He rolled his eyes at his own sarcasm. True he hadn't expected to be greeted with open arms…ok well maybe he did a little, but he still knew that there would be a little rough water. Even still…how could Tetsu just slam the door in his face?! He could have at least given him the chance to say something. Although he had to admit, seeing the boy in his boxers was a rather…interesting experience in exchange.

Suzu let out a frustrated sigh running his fingers through his tussled silver hair in contemplation. The direct approach obviously didn't work. So what now? Go back to the crazy dreadlock wearing gunman's place and try again tomorrow? No, he'd seen that sweet sweet face and now he just knew he had to say something to it; just one chance to plead his case. Just one…god how he'd missed that face. He let out another sigh, this one holding more longing in it than anything else. It was decided. Time to move on to plan B.

Tetsu pushed himself off the door and stumbled back through the kitchen. It was just another mirage he tried to convince himself. He'd imagined them before, it was just a relapse; there was no Suzu here. Nope, there was no such being standing right outside his door. In the cold. At nine o'clock in the morning. Damn his hallucinations had and odd sense of time. Anyways, there was no way that that specific boy was standing right outside his house. It couldn't be true. Not now, when he was just starting to master the art of denial. Hell he didn't even know a boy who looked even remotely like the one he'd just seen. Nope, never seen him in his life. Right? Right. Tetsu nodded his spiky head silently to himself glad to have that settled.

Pushing himself off of the door he forced his legs to follow his orders to walk. His soft footsteps created pattering noises against the cold floor. He tried to close his mind off to the memories as he walked. He didn't want them to come flooding back now. He just couldn't handle them, not now. It had been too long for him to go back now. He turned into the kitchen and back down the hall that led to his room closing his eyes to try and keep out the images. Stopping outside his bedroom he let out a shaky breath. Tetsu knew just closing his eyes just wasn't going to be enough to block out all of those images. Those painful, painful memories. The blood….Hijikata, Okita, Susumu…Saya, everyone. Their faces kept flashing in his mind one right after the other.

"Stop…" Tetsu murmured through as he grated his teeth together. "Just stop…" he begged.

Shaking his head violently Tetsu swung his bedroom door wide open. Tatsu kept telling him that he had to forget the past. He had to move on. He wanted to follow his brother's advice, at least most of him did, but it was just so hard. "How does someone just forget that they were in love?" He wondered to himself. Could you really ever forget nearly witnessing the one you love commit a mass murder, or how close they had come to killing you and themselves as well? "The one I loved." Tetsu corrected himself. "He's long gone now. I can't keep harboring these feelings, not with all that's happened."

Sometimes he wondered if he'd just listened to Saya's pleas if he wouldn't be in this situation. Tetsu let out a bitter chuckle as he stumbled to his bed. Flopping face down onto his mattress Tetsu continued to wonder. Would it really have been all that bad? Falling in love with a girl like any other normal boy may not have turned out so bad. Hell 90 of the world was straight, and all those fairy tales did end with a happy heterosexual couple.

He could have lived the rest of his life happily with Saya, he knew. After all, on some level, he really did love her. So why had he given that up for some boy he had hardly known at the time? Folding his arms over his eyes Tetsu let his mind wander down that well traveled path of would have, could have, maybe should have thoughts. They always led him to the same answer though. He may have been in love with Saya, may have thought the world of that pretty little brunet mute, but he had felt something more the other boy.

A shiver ran down his spine at the thought. Somehow that silver haired boy had been able to send adrenaline rushing through his veins each time he had seen him. The way they had fought, the way they had competed, everything had felt like an adventure around the other teen. Maybe it had been his know-it-all manner, or the strength that shone in those cool blue eyes, that had got him going. Whatever it had been, Tetsu had to admit, he sure had loved that feeling he had gotten whenever he was around that tan skinned teen. Why did it have to end? It could have been great.

Reaching around his bed Tetsu pulled the covers back onto himself and nestled his body back between the mattress and his warm comforter. He just needed more sleep he decided. A little sleep and everything would be a-ok and back to normal. No more visions, no more relapses, just another boring Saturday of being cooped up in an empty one floor house.

Just as he had buried his face back into his pillow and closed his eyes a tap-tap-tapping noise sounded against his window pain. Groaning Tetsu rolled over onto his back and stared groggily up at his window. If that was one of those bratty little neighbor kids throwing rocks at his window again, he was so not in the mood.

Straining to see what it was that was making such a racket Tetsu tried to focus his eyes on his window, but at first all he could see was a fuzzy blur. As his vision cleared the figure at the window became more defined. Then, when he was finally able to recognize what it was, his eyes snapped open wide in shock and horror.

"Oh, God. Not again."

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" Screaming at the top of his lungs Tetsu flung back his sheets, tumbled out of his bed, and down onto the hardwood floor. As he tried to gather his wits about him he quickly scrambled away from the window until his back hit the wall.

Wasn't one scare a morning enough?! Tetsu thought bitterly to himself.

Apparently not; for standing outside his window was a rather peeved looking Suzu. Who, one might add, was currently fiddling with the lock after rather cleverly deducing that the small redhead wasn't about to willingly help him in. At the time all Tetsu could do was stare at the boy wide-eyed and unblinking. This. Was. Fucking. Nuts.

Finally after several rough jerks Suzu was able to unclasp the lock and slide open the window. Grabbing onto the windows edge with both hands he pushed off on his feet and hoisted himself up within the window's frame.

For a moment the two boys just stared at each other in silence, one in pure confusion and shock the other just patiently awaiting a more physical reaction from the other.

Finally getting fed up with the uncomfortable silence Suzu spoke. "It's pretty rude to slam the door in someone's face you know." The older boy stated in a rather peeved tone. Fidgeting a bit he positioned himself so that one of his legs in hung comfortably over the window's sill into the room while his opposite knee was cocked and bent to the side so it rested against the window's edge. Normally Suzu was rather patient, however to him it wasn't just a matter of a few minutes, but an addition to all those months spent roaming, searching, and begging that he'd soon get to this point. Now that what he had worked so hard for was right in front of him, he couldn't wait a moment longer.

"Are you going to say something?" Suzu snapped a little too harshly.

"How…how can you be here?" Tetsu muttered under his breath.

Suzu just stared down at the younger boy with cool eyes a small frown forming to his features. "Do you believe in fate?" He asked softly.

Swallowing to hydrate his dry throat Tetsu shook his head softly "No…not really." The small redhead replied a bit breathily.

"Then I haven't the faintest idea." The older boy stated with a small shrug of his shoulders.

It was then that Tetsu broke into a smile. His heart began to swell in his chest and he could feel heat rising to his cheeks. A laugh broke from his lips. "You're back." He grinned happily pushing himself up off the floor and walking over to his sorely missed companion. "You're really back!" He shouted his eyes shimmering brightly.

Suzu straightened up a bit then turned his head the other way, adverting his eyes. "No need to act that way. We just haven't seen each other in a while." The older boy stated evenly.

At first Tetsu was a little taken aback. He blinked a little confused, but when he looked closer he saw the hint of a smile pulling up on his friend's lips. Then he scoffed. "You jerk!" He yelped playfully punching the older boy in the shoulder. Suzu then let his full sheepish grin form on his face.

Then Tetsu took a step back, trying to get a really good look at his friend. He had aged during the past year. He was a little taller, his silver hair was a little longer, but mostly his eyes seemed a little deeper. Like he had spent a lot of time thinking, learning, and growing. Tetsu had to wonder just what kind of obstacles the older boy had gone through this past year.

"I had thought…I'd never see you again." Tetsu whispered sadly.

"You said…" Tetsu breathed. "Last time you said you never wanted to see me again. That I…betrayed you." With his eyes closed to his surroundings the memory of their last encounter sped through his mind. All that screaming, the pain, the worry. So many things had gone wrong. A sad smile tugged at his lips. Tetsu had been so certain…he had thought that he would never see the other boy again. Gritting his teeth he tried not the let tears enter his eyes as the images filled his memories.

"After all that…now you're here. What brought you back?" Tetsu asked opening his eyes to stare straight into Suzu's ice blue ones. Then his breath caught in his throat. "You're not here for…revenge are you?" A soft begging plea could be heard in his voice, he prayed for any other answer than an affirmation of his fears.

"No." Suzu murmured jumping down from his perch on the windowsill. "I'm here to ask for a second chance." He stated with a solemn face.

"But last time—" Tetsu insisted but was cut off with a wave of the other boy's hand.

"Someone convinced me other wise." Suzu admitted, recalling that long since past encounter. He had been so angry with Tetsu and with himself for not going through with his plan at the time. He had been certain that by going through with his plan he would be able to avenge his brother's death. It hadn't occurred to him then that the only thing he would accomplish through the act was hurt the both of them unnecessarily. He had never even thought that there could possibly be any other way.

"Although I have to admit, I was hoping for a bit warmer of a welcome than a door in my face." Suzu stated with a slight twitch of his eye.

"What?" Tetsu yelped jumping back a bit embarrassed. "Well, what would you have done in my situation!? I thought you were just a mirage!"

"A mirage?" Suzu looked at the younger boy as if he was crazy. Not that he was in a place to really judge. Then he shook his head. "Even still, you didn't have to react like that did you?"

"You showed up out of nowhere, I didn't know what to think! You're not even supposed to know I'm living here, and then broke in through my window!" Tetsu whined sadly looking over at the busted lock. Then the reality of the situation really hit him.

"Aww man Tatsu's going to have my hide if he finds out you were here!" Tetsu groaned. "Do you realize how many times we moved before we settled here just because of Tatsu and his paranoia!?"

Rubbing his temples Tetsu tried to will away his impending headache brought on by the thought of his older brother's reaction of knowing that the other boy was back in his life. "He doesn't want me to see you ever again. If he finds out I let you in, I am so dead!"

Resting back against the wall Suzu never let his eyes wander from the other boy. "Tetsu," He began. "I don't expect you to forgive me right away for what I've done, but I… Just so you know I'll do whatever it takes to--"

Tetsu just shook his head with a smile silencing the other boy. "Forget it. You don't need to apologize. You weren't exactly in the right mind at the time. I'm just happy you're back." He said sincerely.

Suzu let for a moment of silence, breaking his eyes away from his friend to look down at his own shoes. Taking in a slow breath he shook his head closing his eyes. "How can you do that? How can you forgive someone just like that?" He wondered aloud.

"Simple!" Tetsu grinned sheepishly. "You're my friend. Besides, I…I don't like holding grudges anyways." The younger boy admitted.

Tetsu's eyes then darted to the clock and he winced. It was still early in the morning, but since it was Saturday he really had no idea what time his brother would be getting home. His hours had become slightly sporadic lately. "Tatsu…will be angry if he finds you here." Tetsu informed solemnly, looking over at his companion.

Suzu tore his eyes away from his shoes to look up at Tetsu. He just nodded in understanding before turning around to pull himself back out through the window. Then he paused. Turning slightly to look back at the small redhead Suzu wanted to ask one last question.

"If I come back tomorrow…." He began.

"I'll leave the window unlocked if Tatsu's not home." Tetsu replied.

Suzu nodded and turned back around hoisting himself back out the window. When he jumped the other side Tetsu ran over to the window and looked down at his friend.

"I missed you." Tetsu said sheepishly rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand.

Suzu just looked up with a smirk. "I could tell." He grinned slyly. "Next time you might want to put some pants on before you answer your door."

As the silver haired boy began to run he bit back his laugh when Tetsu yelled out his objectives. He could just imagine the slight hue of red that over took his friend's face, but he never looked back to check. Today his objective had been achieved. His reunion with his ex, though not as smooth as he had hoped, was secure.

As he ran all the way home, Suzu an infectious smile plastered to his face.

A time later Suzu slipped into the gun shop through the back entrance. In one hand was a paper bag full of food stuffs including bread, a head of lettuce, and some jerky sticks along with a pack of double A batteries. Luckily he had remembered to pick them up at the town's local mini-shop before returning. Lord knew that Ryoma would have given him hell, trying to guess what Suzu had really been up to all that time, if he came back empty handed. Suzu shut the door behind him silently and crept up the stairs dropping the requested groceries on the table softly.

Thinking back on the day's events, all in all, it had turned out ok. His and Tetsu's first reunion had been a little shaky Suzu noted, but their spark was still there. Their childish banter had proven that. Suzu grinned, so long as that was still in tact he could safely assume that Tetsu wanted to be friends once more. Any farther than that and well…he'd just have to wait and see. However, if the young redhead really had forgiven him, Suzu still had doubt that one could heal their scars so quickly, than there was hope that he could get Tetsu on his side once more. It would take some time for certain, but with their reunion Suzu felt his patience return full scale.

"Hey Little Bell Tree you're back!" Ryoma's voice boomed merrily as he spotted the putting the groceries away while making his way up the stairs. "How was your 'walk'" The older man grinned. "Meet anyone interesting?"

Shutting the refrigerator door after placing the head of lettuce inside Suzu hid his grin by having his back turned to his host.

"Guess you could say that." He mused. "This town's got quiet the characters."

Ryoma just let out a hearty chuckle. "Well, glad to see you're getting along with the locals." He grinned. "It'll do you some good to come out of that shell of yours."

Suzu just shrugged and turned back around, his smile now successfully hidden. "If you say so." He muttered. "I'm going to go to my room and study a bit, if you don't mind." He informed before turning away from his host and walking down the empty hallway to his right.

"So close, so close…" Ryoma muttered stroking his chin thoughtfully watching his protégé disappear behind closed doors.

The ring of several small bells caused Ryoma's ears to perk. A gleeful smile adorned his face quickly. "Dragon Boy!" He exclaimed merrily.

"Sakamoto?" A voice called from the shop's front. "Sakamoto are you in?"

Quickly rushing to the stairs Ryoma slung his leg over the rail and slid down to the bottom floor. "Coming, coming Dragon Boy!" He replied merrily making his way to the swinging bar doors that separated the stores front from the shooting range in the back.

Soon, Ryoma vowed silently in his mind. Soon he would get that boy to open his heart back up to the rest of the world. Just as soon as he got the man out front to open up to him.

Mahono: O.k. wow, I haven't worked on this in a looong while. I have an explanation really! Well besides not having the inspiration for it, I was also trying to create my own PMK Doujin webpage. Then! Yes then, when I did get around to working on it we had a huge windstorm and the power went out while I was writing! That made me not a happy monkey, not at all. Unfortunately the webpage was a flop. However I will not give up! I am now planning on taking web design/computer classes at my college! Yay! After that and some more drawing practice hopefully I can restart on that. Oh, and before I forget, to all those who reviewed on the last chapter thank you and sorry I took so damned long to put up this one! I will always appreciate those who take the time to read and review my stories, so please do so again! Thank you!

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