Kyo pushed himself into a standing position, facing Yagami. "Doesn't change a thing. You were born Yagami, you still have that damned demon, the fire, you're still my enemy." Orange flames gathered in his hand, he watched Yagami cross the room to face him. He took the hand that was calling the flames and pushed it down rough. He knew the fire burned, the only person it wouldn't hurt was Kyo himself, but the hand went down regardless. Yagami didn't react to the burnt hand, instead, his face came very close to Kyo's, those flame red eyes met his, he was more bemused than angry.

"I maintain that I could take you in a fight without trying right now, Kyo."

Kyo slapped Yagami's hand away from him, aggressive. "Don't fucking touch me." The flames were back, around his hands, in his eyes. He threw them at Yagami, filled the room with the orange flame that was his birthright. Yagami guarded himself, wouldn't attack, but wouldn't let himself get hurt. Kyo attacked him all that his leg would let him, backed Yagami into a corner.

"Why don't you fight back Yagami?"

He kept attacking, he had to, since he had been small it was ingrained into him that this man had to die. It didn't matter that he was beautiful, it didn't matter that he wouldn't fight back, that he denied everything was, that he took care of Kyo with a gentle grace that his appearance, the demeanor he put on for the tournaments denied. It didn't matter that he still thought about that one night stand. He had to kill this man. Maybe then, this would be over, maybe then he wouldn't feel it when he looked at him.

"Fight me!"

The electricity in the room burned, pulsated like something alive. Yagami threw Kyo away from him, careful to cause the man no harm. No harm save for the shudder that went through him at the touch. Kyo staggered back, charged at him again, Yagami caught him. One arm wrapped around Kyo's waist, Yagami's breath was harsh from the fighting, from defending himself against his attacker. He held Kyo there, too strong for the smaller man to resist. Not to say at all that he didn't try, he pushed back against Yagami's chest, he tried to push himself away, but to no avail. Yagami had, he hated to admit, been right. Kyo couldn't fight him like this. They had always been equals, in the tournaments they would fight for hours until one gave in. Wounded, Kyo would lose. He assumed Yagami didn't want to fight someone who wouldn't give him a challenge.

Yagami released him, sensing resignation. Kyo sulked to the couch, making no attempt to clean the mess he made in his misguided attempt to start a fight. Yagami trailed behind him, picking his precious bass guitar off the floor, and holding it out. Kyo looked up.

"Heavens. I broke a string." Not that he cared in the least.

"Yeah. You did." Yagami was pissed. Kyo had finally found something that annoyed the passive man.

"Care more about that fucker than you do your life, huh?"

"Sometimes." Yagami cradled the instrument in his lap, gingerly removing the broken string. He slid it into a case, and swung the case over his shoulder, bruised, black-eyed, beaten with dignity. "I'll be back in an hour. I gotta' get strings."

And he left.

Kyo watched the door for a long time after he left. He didn't know why, but he regretted breaking the thing that seemed to matter to Yagami the most. He scratched Dickface the cat's head, let the animal jump up onto the couch to keep him company. He had hurt Yagami, he knew, had found something that actually bothered him. That fucking guitar. He hadn't even been looking for it, he hadn't worried about that guitar. He had thought he might actually do it, kill him, or at least make him fight. It felt strange to have this kind of companionship with someone he was supposed to kill. Felt even stranger to think about having sex with him. And it was all he could think about. Hot breath in his ear, the arm around his waist, and the angry dejection of that door shutting on him. He knew Yagami would be back, but he knew he would still be angry.

Iori knew he couldn't blame Kyo. It was the family, the Kusanagi clan, that told him Iori had to die. He couldn't bring himself to think that it was Kyo's deepest desire to see him suffer. But he might be judging him too lightly. It might have become his need as well as the family's. It simply didn't work that way, someone didn't like you just because you wanted to have sex with them. He sat in the back room of the music supply store he worked at five days a week and balanced his bass between his knees to pull the new strings taut. The beast had needed to be restrung for some time anyway, he just found excuses not to do it. New strings were expensive, even with the employee discount. Supervisor Watanabe had given him the raised angry eyebrow when he came in disheveled as he was from the fight and gone straight to the backroom, but he could do Watanabe's job better than he did, so the man didn't argue much. Iori had done stranger things in his tenure at the shop anyway. If he didn't do such a damned good job refurbishing instruments and selling shit, he would have been gone a long time ago. He grabbed a tuning instrument and worked away at the new strings, calming from the fight, from the floodgate of emotions that his houseguest evoked. He would have to return, and he would have to face Kyo, but not then. He couldn't make his way back yet.

He ended up with the band, sitting on a couch with his bass splayed across his lap, letting someone's girlfriend play with his hair, making it into spikes. They didn't care who Iori was, what he was capable of, just that he was a good bassist, and he fit their music. They listened to him whine and bitch and moan about Kyo and his residence in Iori's apartment. They didn't care that he liked men, wasn't their problem. They were the closest things Iori had to friends in this world.

"You need to go back talk to him, right?" The girlfriend said from her seat behind him.

The rest nodded in agreement. "If you wanna' fuck him, you gotta' make him like you some first."

"Didn't have to last time."

"Then get 'im drunk again."

"He'll catch on."

"Stop fucking yourself over, Iori."

"Give the kid a chance."

"Whadd'you want me to do, burst in there and confess my undying love?"

The rest laughed. "Might work."

"You know what? Get the fuck outta' here. Go talk to your little man crush, and don't come back until practice or you get laid, whichever comes first."

"You kicking me out?"

"What does it sound like, Yagami?"