Author's Note: In case you haven't gotten the message, this is pt 2 of the double update. Please read the previous chapter.
Okay, guys... confession. I feel really bad for being so slow with the plot here, but they keep goofing off and I can't do a flipping thing about it. I do, however, honestly believe that as you read these, you'll be able to get a solid sense of their relationship and what it means to both of them. I hope you guys are picking up on a few things about Kariya. Yes, I'm leading up to something, and yes yes yes all your questions will be answered.

For now, enjoy! I've already written the beginning of the next chapter, so the update should come quickly. Love you all.

Chapter 7
Day 3- End

"You didn't ask him," Uzuki reminded Kariya, tossing her bag at the end of the couch. He was rubbing his fingers through his hair, having pulled it out of its ponytail.

"No, I didn't. You're right." He sat down with his head tilted back, emotionally exhausted and perfectly fine admitting it. He didn't like getting angry-not that he had been exactly reluctant. The rest of the day, however, he had let Uzuki do the pulling. She had tested nearly every team as he had sat back and watched, mainly because... Well, how was she ever going to get a promotion if he goofed off with her all the time? It ended up working nicely, overall. One pair didn't cut it, and it looked like one group solved the mission in time for another to just slide by. Tomorrow would be interesting.

"So..."

Kariya angled his head toward her and immediately recognized her position. He groaned. "Uzuki," he said pathetically. She had that face-the one where she wanted answers, but was trying to be coercive in a gentle way. The worst.

"Just one answer a day, Kariya! That's all," she said, coming over to sit on the footstool. Her foot nudged his. "Please."

He sniffed, practically staring her down.

"You can even ask me one!" She flashed him a smile that breathed a plea that she could convince him. Corner him and win.

"That's okay," he said mildly, and she wasn't sure if he was playing her or if he really just made her take a step back. She didn't want to lose her footing.

"I'll start."

"Uzuki, I'm really tired right n-"

"What," she said deliberately, "was your entry fee?"

He sighed. "Not that one."

Her groan was long and pathetically dramatic, but she recovered quickly enough. She had, after all, basically just gotten him to consent to at least one. Naturally, she would try for more.

For a moment, she tried to choose one that she really wanted to know. If she took too long, though- "Where did you live when you died?"

He took a long breath, looking almost relieved, and yet about to wince as well. "Here. In this city."

"Oh." She felt like the room had swallowed her whole. He had answered a question as soon as she had asked it. Her heartbeat was unusually loud in her head. "Where?"

"West Shibuya," he told her, then looked down at his wrist. He began to play with his hair tie.

"Was it nice there?"

His head tilted just a little to the right. "I think so." The spell broke when he looked into her eyes. "My turn."

They were such a deep brown. Like tunnels and deep ponds. "Okay."

In the pause that it took him to think up a question, she tried to imagine Kariya growing up... Here. In Shibuya. It was difficult to imagine him younger, like twelve, and going shopping with his mom. Little strawberry-blond Kariya and his deep brown eyes.

"How big was your family?"

She grinned just thinking about them. "I had both my parents, three brothers and three sisters not including me. Little Aimi was just four. Then I had my little brother and other sister. After that I had just one and two above me. Chouko and Isamu and Ryou. Then we had a puppy, Shin. I fed him, so he followed me everywhere." Her smile was bright and happy until she saw Kariya's expression. It was like... Well. She wasn't sure. "Kariya?"

He blinked and swallowed. "Hm?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes." He wiped his expression clean, just like that, then smiled. "They sound fun."

Her response was slow. "Yes, they were." He didn't look like he was going to ask any more questions. "Move."

"What?"

She shimmied up beside him between the arm rest and his body and grabbed at his shoulders. He was forcefully turned so that his back was facing her with his legs awkwardly set. "I'm giving you a back rub even if your bony shoulders kill me."

A shudder of a laugh ran through his body. "Okay."

It shouldn't have came as a surprise that he was all knots up there. It was obvious that he carried stress in his shoulders, but it was like kneading stone.

She tried to keep her thoughts up in the nothing zone-not how she could feel his muscles and skin and was he always this warm? She supposed so. Her hands worked in circles and with a firm gentleness. He didn't say a word and she concluded that she could deal with just one question a day. She'd cut him some slack.

Slowly, his muscles began to feel a bit more like how they should have instead of bone. He had shifted his legs into a more bearable position and was relaxed forward, forever patient. When she decided her hands were done, she tickled the nape of his neck, receiving a responding shiver. Goosebumps. He stretched forward, groaning.

"I'd pay for that, Uzuki," he murmured, crawling forward a bit and turning around on the other side of the couch. His eyes were distant and in a haze. She rubbed at her hands.

"Naw. You've needed it for who knows how long. I wasn't really joking when I said we should get massages a few days ago," she said, tucking her legs in. It was darker in her apartment, washed in a pretty orange and peach glow. She envied Kariya his big windows, but she supposed she had it better. At least she could see out of hers.

"You hungry?"

She looked up at him, the corners of her mouth turning down. "Are you?"

He reached for his bag, fumbling for his phone with a muffled, "We didn't have dinner. Yes, I'm hungry."

She considered her levels of hunger and how much she had eaten. She probably was starving and had just forgotten. "Pizza?"

"Don't have the energy to make something else right now."

"We could go out for ramen," she suggested, then almost regretted it. She actually wanted pizza.

He flipped through his phone for the number he wanted. "Not feeling it. I'll pay for this. What do you want?"

"Whichever one has the most meat."

He laughed. "God, you carnivo-Yes! Hello! I'd like a delivery please."

Uzuki leaned back, stretching as far as she could go until her toes touched his legs. Skinny jeans. She covered her face with her arm, picturing his legs and butt and couldn't help but smile. She didn't bother with a blush-he couldn't see her expression anyway-when she imagined her hands elsewhere. Not on his back. His sides, his arms, his hair. What would he look like with his natural hair? She lifted her arm, trying to see if she could spot lighter colors at his hairline. How often did he die it, anyway? It looked strange, all haphazard and not spiking up out of his head like a cannon off a ship. It was longer than it used to be, so that ponytail-ugh that ponytail-it was adorable. He had taken it out, of course, but she was skilled at keeping images in her head.

And you know? She didn't feel too much like a stalker. The only thing that kept her from kissing those lips was her own respect for him. It killed, but stepping into that relationship area was as dark and unknown as her childhood closet at night.

He lowered his phone and met her eyes with something like a smile. "What're you lookin' at?"

"You," she said, quite serious.

His smile grew bigger. "Well then. Don't stare too long."

This time, she blushed, feeling a little hot at his response. "No promises," she muttered.

He ducked her head with a playful push as he got up, then ran his hands through his hair. He pulled it back again, twisting his tie around it as he crouched down over his bag.

"I think we need music, don't you?"

Uzuki gave an affirmative noise, slipping off her sandals and draping herself over the space he had left on the couch. It was warm where he had been sitting.

She watched him circle through his songs quickly before picking one-another of his orchestrated, very calm songs. "Tryin' to put me asleep?" she asked.

"No. Want a different song?" He immediately tapped the skip button to a song with a mellow acoustic start.

He disappeared into the bathroom, leaving her to the lyrics.

We'll do it all, everything, on our own. We don't need anything or anyone.

If I lay here-If I just lay here-would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know how to say how I feel.

Those three words are said to much. They're not enough.

She sighed and curled into herself, for once feeling absolutely terrible about being alone-feeling openly the hurt that had settled within her since he had first kissed her. She could pretend they were a couple. She could. But she didn't want to hurt like she did. She didn't want to suppress that. If she could tell him, she could bear it. Sharing wouldn't make it so terrible.

The couch creaked when he leaned into the back, and she could almost see his eyes in her mind. Calm, steady, constant. She groaned.

"What?" he asked, tugging her arm away from her face. She didn't feel like resisting. "Hey there, puppy girl," he muttered.

"What did you call me?"

"You're like a sick puppy all the sudden," he informed her, just the very corners of his mouth twitching. "That's no good."

"What are you gonna do about it, buster?" she said, with not nearly as much vehemence as she imagined in her mind.

He dropped her arm over her stomach thoughtfully, then smiled. It was the small one that gave her those little butterflies in her stomach. "I'm not sure. What do you want me to do?"

Just then, the doorbell rang and Uzuki managed a gruff, "Pay for the damn pizza."

He laughed all the way to the door as she fought a frustrated blush out of her system. She wished he wouldn't smile all the time. Obnoxious punk.

She listened to him thank the delivery man and tip him before closing the door. "They're fast." He gave a little whistle.

Next thing, he was crouching by her side, eyes narrowed. "Do you still have periods when you're dead?"

She stiffened, going completely red. "Oh my God, Kariya! Get out of my face!" She shoved at his head with a growl. Somehow and suddenly, she was picked up Kariya-style with every sense of her own equilibrium lost.

Her squeal was almost panicked, as hanging upside-down was rather threatening, until he grappled for a better hold. It was like being tossed around by a playful little boy, who also happened to be laughing until his ears turned red.

"Let me down!" she gasped, finally settled over his shoulder. Apparently he was a graceful walker, as he didn't jostle her much. He did let her down with a sort of giggle-well that was cute-on the cold countertop.

"There. No more lolling about on the couch," he said pleasantly, nudging the pizza box in her direction.

She wasn't sure whether to shoot him a dark look or pout, so she settled with both. It would've been fine-absolutely-if only what happened next hadn't.

She farted.

He froze, staring at her like she had hit him with a frying pan, and Uzuki, frankly, looked terrified.

"Did you just-"

"Don't say it!" she yelped, redder than crimson and wanting to dissolve into thin air.

A great, wheezing laughter ripped out of his throat, body doubled over and crying, "Oh God. Holy crap. U-Uzuki, why?" He practically burst into tears, gasping through breathless giggles, head thrown back and looking almost in pain.

She watched, barely breathing, and yet laughter was constricting her chest because man. His laughter was priceless.

"Uzuki!" he whimpered, hanging onto the counter.

"Sh-shut up, you idiot!" she shouted, voice strung up at a pathetic pitch.

He knocked his forehead against the counter gently a few times in what's he wished she could call gross sobbing. Even if it was uncontrolled and enthusiastic in a sad way, it was something that made her insides bubbly and light and she had fallen so far.

"Seriously," she whined, "stop laughing! It's embarrassing!" There was no way she could wipe that smile off her face.

"Okay, okay," he gasped, so lightheaded he might pass out. He wiped at his eyes with his wrists, still shuddering. "Ugh," he groaned, a sloppy smile twitching at he face. "That came out of nowhere. He burst into another fit of giggles.

"Kariya."

Author's Note: Still can't tell if what I did was out of line... but I'm laughing, so... yeah.

sorrynotsorry

BTW, the song playing is Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. Good song.