NOTES::

Anne: I'm not sure where exactly you posted your review…oh, there it is. And I didn't even watch the Oscars; I may have watched part of them, but I'm not too big on award shows. And I'm working on sending you the play—I'll start next week, okay? Okay.

Fujipuri: WOAH I THOUGHT I LOST YOU! You can't say a few chapters back when we're onto a new fic. And don't worry, I'd totally rescue my CDs/iPod before my clothes and such. SEE? ISN'T SHO IN THE HAPPY PIZZA UNIFORM FUNNY? I thought of that during math class one day and nearly lost it. XD I didn't feel like I was punched, but it feels like they glued my jaw so I can't open my mouth more than an inch and a half…

Shari: Oh man, I love Sho in that uniform so much. He's so hilariously adorable in it! Oh, there are only a few annoying girls. But they won't pop up for a few more chapters, don't worry. And I survived without my music (and catching up on LJ was hard when I got back) because they had songs playing before and after the speeches. It was amazing!

Kenneth Li: Well, if you liked Kei calling him before his delivery, you'll like a lot of other adorable things, too. This fic is just really cute in a ton of different ways.

Daggergal: The gunpoint couple is just hilariously amusing. And you can just imagine Sho going into his crazy-and-pissed-off face that makes me laugh.

ShinyaxDie: They didn't hurt too bad; I still can't open my jaw the entire way, but it gets better every day! YOU ATE DINNER WITH THEM? That's so freaking amazing! I'm envious!

Hoshino Haruka: I think your review was cut off! But Kei had a good reason to laugh at Sho—that uniform on him is too hilarious. It was pretty funny on Toshi anyway…

Camui-Alexa: Oh man, I know what you mean. School gets extremely stressful, especially Junior year with all of these stupid standardized tests and teachers cramming in schoolwork and everything else. But I'm glad my fic helps!

Minako Sayaka: No, Kei isn't sad. But he'll be more like he was at the end of the chapter later, but only at certain times. You'll see soon enough!

Keeper of the Jeep: Aha, I would not want to be a delivery boy in Mallepa—especially one that's as delicious as Sho.

Celestial Nomad: As long as none of your wisdom teeth are going straight into the roots of your teeth, I think you'll be good (my bottom ones were like that…) And I really liked writing the delivery with the couple; it was amusing.

Marionette Kadaj: To your comment about Sho getting back late: Read the chapter! (winks)

Chapter Four: Return

The next few weeks went by in a blur; nothing out of the ordinary happened while Sho was working, although after the first week the vampires decided to try to drug a few of the pizzas to make a little extra cash on the side. However, much to their displeasure, many people still remembered what everyone else deemed the "pizza man" fiasco from years before.

On one extremely busy night, Sho found himself walking down his own street with a medium pepperoni pizza in his pizza bag. He had yet to look at the address—the cook had simply said, "It was some guy claiming that you live on his street." So Sho could only assume that it was either one of their nonexistent neighbors (they never spoke to their neighbors anymore) or Kei.

Finally, Sho decided to take a look at the address. Rummaging around for it in the red bag, he pulled it out and couldn't help but smirk. Turning down the next driveway, he headed towards the front door and rang the doorbell. Several anticipated moments later, it open and Sho was face-to-face with a customer that was clad only in a white towel wrapped around his waist.

"Okay, now this is blatant sexual assault," Sho said loudly as the customer pulled him inside and slammed the front door.

"Mmm, but I'm sure you'll like it," the blonde replied.

"Kei-chan, you don't even like pizza that much, so why did you order it?" he asked as he walked away from the smirking vampire and set the bag on the kitchen table.

"To give you a break," Kei answered, walking over to where Sho stood and wrapping his wet arms around the brunette. "I'm sure you'll appreciate it…" he murmured, leaning upwards and sucking longingly at the sensitive part of Sho's neck.

"K-Kei," Sho breathed, fingers automatically curling in the wet blonde strands of Kei's hair.

"It's my turn to seduce the delivery boy," he mumbled against Sho's skin while his hands found the edge of Sho's shirt and began to caress the skin underneath tenderly.

"Because that's your life goal," Sho gasped as the blonde's fingernails dug into his back slightly.

"Only the sexy ones," Kei replied as he looked up at his lover and pointedly licked his lips.

"Angel," he breathed before Kei leaned upwards and licked at Sho's parted lips, rocking his hips against Sho's wantonly.

"Baby," Kei said, snaking his arms around Sho's neck. "Let me take you away from the world for a little while…" A rather violent shudder of passion went down Sho's spine.

"I have no objection to the bedroom," Sho suddenly said, eyeing the darkened hallway.

"Of course," Kei purred, arms wrapping around Sho's waist and pulling the younger vampire towards the bedroom as he crashed their mouths together…

Now its years since your body went flat and even memories of that
Are all think and dull, all gravel and glass. But who needs them now

"Wow," Sho managed to say through his heavy breathing as he curled up against Kei. "That…was…amazing."

"Mmm," Kei purred, chuckling as he let a hand stroke through his lover's hair. "You need to go back to work, love." Sho looked up at Kei with saddened cerulean eyes.

"But I don't feel like it," he protested, arms wrapping more securely around Kei's neck.

"Sho-chan," the blonde said in a soft, but dangerous tone as he leaned down and gave Sho a tender kiss. "When you get home we can do this all over again…" Sho let out a strangled noise and hung his head low.

"Okay," Sho replied, rolling over to grab his cell phone from the bedside table. Immediately glancing at the screen, he started to laugh. "I have eight missed calls from Happy Pizza…"

"You must have been screaming too loud so we didn't hear them," Kei said in a sensual tone, brown eyes alight with joy.

"Oh shut up," he shot jokingly at the blonde, blushing slightly.

Displaced they're easily more safe
The worst of it now: I can't remember your face
Return…

But their calm times soon ended when Sho's job started becoming rather hectic and his and Kei's time together slowly dwindled. The older vampire had to content himself with things to do around the house or prowl around Mallepa since the house was rather boring without his energetic lover and his enigmatic presence filling every room. Plus there was never a chance where he could simply order pizza and have Sho deliver it to take the vampire away from his job for an hour or two.

However, his sudden boredom was not the worst of his worries; he was always worrying about Sho, despite how calm and collected the brunette tried to act. He continually was called into work for many hours of overtime that he didn't even want to work, going in grudgingly, but going in nonetheless. Sho always returned home in a foul mood, but the vampire always cheered him up in no time.

Although these things were tearing at them, they still managed to spend quite a bit of time together. Every once in a while, Sho would drug an order of pizzas and Kei would meet him at the house or business to help in searching the limp bodies for money.

"How long did it take for them to finally eat?" Kei asked in a whisper one late evening as he entered the deathly silent building, not surprised to see Sho sitting on a nearby bench waiting for him.

"Not very. But the secretary was suspicious when I kept dawdling out here," Sho answered, walking over to meet Kei at the front desk. "I had to pretend that I had forgotten something; I also tied my shoes and "answered" my phone and she finally at and, well…" The brunette trailed off and motioned to the slumped-over woman behind the desk. Kei smiled at Sho and walked around to the secretary, extracting her purse from inside a drawer.

"Well, at least it wasn't as bad as some of the other times with Toshi," he commented as he took the secretary's wallet and pulled out all of the bills, pocketing them.

"Yeah," Sho said in a sigh as he watched his lover, a mixed expression on his face that, for once, the elder vampire couldn't read.

"Well, are we going to start or not?" Kei asked, forcing a smile despite the fact that he was worried about the younger vampire.

For a while, with the vertigo cured, we were alive we were pure.
The void took the shape of all that you were, but years take their toll

"Let's start before they wake up," Sho replied, returning the other's smile. The couple made their way into the elevator, where Sho pushed the button for the fifth floor. After what seemed like an extremely long awkward pause, Kei finally spoke up.

"Is something wrong, Sho?"

"Hm?" Sho said, turning to look at the shorter vampire. "Oh—I mean, no." Kei gave him a stern glare, making him sigh. "I'm just preoccupied with my thoughts."

"And what thoughts are these?" Kei probed.

"Just memories," he replied. "Like how we used to do this with Toshi and it used to be a little more lighthearted than this…"

"This isn't as lighthearted?" the blonde asked, confused, as they stepped out of the elevator and moved down the hallway.

"Well…before, a lot of the time it would just be for fun. But now, we need the money, so it's a bit more serious," Sho answered, blushing slightly.

"Sho-chan, we don't need the money that badly," Kei pointed out. "And I think you're just missing Toshi's insane presence on these missions and that's what made them all the more fun. Now it's just us and we're so comfortable together that…"

"I'm not saying it's boring!" he said quickly, knowing that Kei was about to say it. "I don't mean that at all! It's just—"

"Different," Kei finished for him, offering a soft smile. "I understand. Don't feel bad—" he added quickly as he saw Sho's saddened face. "—I was just curious as to what was bothering you. Now let's get down to business." His lover's face brightened at these words and he grinned at Kei as he opened the door to the adjacent room where dozens of limp bodies littered the floor.

And things get bent into shape...
Antiseptic and tired, I can't remember your face.
Return

"I'm sorry."

The two tender words rang through the open room, meeting the blonde's ears and startling him out of his daze. Chocolate-brown eyes trailed over to the front door where Sho stood in his usual outfit of leather pants and a tank top, something completely out of the ordinary when the brunette was supposed to be working. The older vampire noticed small tears in the cerulean eyes he loved and he motioned for the younger to move to the couch.

"What are you talking about?" Kei asked as Sho took a seat at the opposite end of the couch.

"I couldn't do it anymore," the brunette whispered, staring fixedly at the folded hands in his lap. "All of the emotions, the feelings that kept overtaking me. I…" Kei caught the glitter of a tear sliding down Sho's cheek and the vampire moved to wrap his arms around his lover's shoulders.

"Sho," Kei said softly, yet a tone of seriousness etched his words as he turned Sho so the vampire had to look at him.

"I quit," the brunette breathed, eyes filled with shame boring into Kei's, an oncoming wave of tears beginning to surface. Knowing Sho was distraught, Kei pulled him into a hug, letting the weeping vampire bury his face in his shoulder.

"Why?" the blonde asked quietly, loving fingers stroking through Sho's hair. He heard Sho sniff before sitting up straight and wiping his eyes.

"Anytime I walked through those doors, I always expected to see Toshi come bounding out from the back room. He never does and it breaks my heart a little bit every time," Sho began to answer. "And always seeing my reflection and seeing myself in Toshi's old clothes gives me chills that I can't explain. I have his old job and I can't stand that. I can't bear to think that all of those pizzas we used to drug, all of those robberies and heists we pulled all led up to his death and all he was trying to do was his job, but we pressured him into it and we could have stopped all of that and maybe saved him.

"And all of these thoughts keep going through my head on each delivery I make and every time I look out the kitchen window and see his grave…" Sho trailed off and tried to look away from Kei, but the elder vampire caught Sho's chin with his hand and turned him back.

You were supposed to grow old. Reckless, unfrightened, and old,
you were supposed to grow old.

"If you've been feeling like this the whole time, then why didn't you say something?" he questioned, not really expecting an answer. "Love, I never wanted you to suffer. You could have told me earlier and I would have understood. Oh, Sho-chan…" Kei pulled Sho into another hug, unsure of what else to do or say. But the brunette was pleased with Kei's assurance and curled up against the loving vampire, a little less sorrow-filled than before.

"Thank you," Sho breathed against Kei's neck, feeling Kei's love for him warming him wherever the elder was touching the younger.

"You're welcome," Kei replied, taking a deep breath, his lungs filling with the sweet scent of Sho's hair.

"Do I need to start looking for a job again right away?" the brunette asked several minutes later as he sat up and looked into Kei's eyes.

"No, I don't think so," Kei answered, brushing Sho's bangs out of his eyes tenderly. "We made a lot from your job, actually."

"You mean the extras?"

"Yes, I mean the extras," he said with a chuckle. "You're going to be okay, right?" Sho smiled and nodded furiously before he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Kei's.

"I love you," Sho said quietly as the blonde vampire kissing his tears away.

"I love you, too," Kei replied, lips trailing to the corner of his lover's mouth. "Should I make some popcorn?" he murmured.

"Why?" the brunette asked, confused.

"I rented a movie for us to watch when you got home," he answered, smiling.

"Is it romantic?"

"Of course."

Return…You were supposed to return…

Lyrics are Return by Ok Go. I'm on a random new American music fix.

I wrote the last scene during Kairos. Oh man. If any of you have the chance to go on the Kairos retreat, I urge you to take that chance. It was amazing. I don't even know what to say about it. I can't explain how it made me feel, how I'm still feeling even now; you just need to go and experience it for yourself. And no, it's not a cult like people keep trying to claim at school.

I'll try to update a bit faster now, but I won't be able to write until Wednesday—I'm taking the ACT on Tuesday! And a few other tests on Wednesday and Thursday, but I'm not worried about them. I'm not really worried about the ACT, either, but whatever. I'll just have to see what it's like.

Glad to have some of you old fans back, since I thought I had lost you forever, and I'm glad I have so many regular reviewers! I love you all! Reviews are appreciated! Oh, and remember how I accidentally said Sho's jobs a few chapters ago? Yeah, well, now you know there's going to be more than one!

PS – Because of things at lunchtime during school, there are going to be very delicious scenes in this fic. You won't be disappointed. ;D