I'd usually write more in a chapter, but I'm posting what I have seeing as I haven't updated in like two months DX gomen ne, minna-san!!

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"Are you going to get that?"

Horo blinked, having drifted off slightly.

"Huh?"
"The phone. It's ringing. Are you going to get it?" Ren repeated, irritation clear in his voice.

Horo rolled his eyes in a Ren-like fashion and picked the phone from the receiver.

Ren, having nothing better to do, listened in on the conversation.

"Hey! …Problem? What kind of--… you can't be serious… you are? Oh, Kamui…"

Ren looked at Horo, who was pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Okay. Thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, we will… Bye." Horo hung up, and let out a long breath.

"A 'Problem'?" Ren asked, an eyebrow raised, watching Horo walk back into the living room.

"Yeah." Horo flopped next to Ren on the couch, "Yoh doesn't believe that we're 'dating', so Manta managed to sneak away and warn us that Yoh's coming over after school." he explained, making full use of air-quotes.

Ren grimaced. It was enough that he was ill, let alone having to keep up that stupidly pointless charade.

"Don't act completely frigid like you did on Wednesday. It's no wonder that Yoh doesn't believe us if you're going to act like that." he snapped.

Horo rolled his eyes and muttered 'yes master', fully aware that Ren was just letting his frustration at being brought down by a cold out on him.

"…Horo?" Ren asked, his voice strangely quiet, "My throat's hurting again…"

Horo glanced over and noticed that Ren was looking at his empty glass. Horo grinned and scruffed Ren's hair playfully, before dodging a badly-aimed punch and taking the used glass back into the kitchen.

Horo chuckled, making a mental note for future teasing that Ren was having mood swings.

In the kitchen, Bason came through the wall and floated over to Horo.

"Bocchama says that if you don't hurry up with his drink, he'll put you in limbo."

Horo grimaced and nodded.

…

"Aren't you gonna go back in with 'Bocchama'?" Horo asked, noticing that the warlord hadn't moved.

"Err…" Bason started intelligently, "He will be fine on his own for a few minutes."

Horo gave a very Yoh-like laugh and agreed.

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After Ren was drugged up on honey and lemon, Horo started making preparations for Yoh, who would no doubt be there any minute now.

"Okay, so when Yoh is at the door, I'm gonna be acting all surprised and shit and you can call out something clingy and sappy after a while."

Ren, obviously not even trying to focus, nodded dazedly.

"Awesome!" Horo grinned and gave Ren a thumbs-up.

After a few minutes, the doorbell went and Horo got up to answer it. He was about to call out 'I wonder who that is!',

"Don't act like a complete tit, Horo."

But, Ren obviously noticed the cunning smirk of his.

Ren rolled his sleepy eyes at Horo's withering glare and told him to hurry up and answer the damned door, as the insistent ringing was adding to his migraine.

Horo complied and Ren was left to snuggle further into the comfy, thick blankets that Horo still had him wrapped in, pretty sure that Kiyay had also entangled herself in them somewhere. The purring was a fair signal that this was true and that she didn't mind.

After a while, in the whiniest tone he could accomplish in his current state, Ren called out Horo's name.

Soon enough, Horo's head appeared in the doorframe, he smiled and said 'Yes Renny?' in a very housewife-like tone.

Ren mumbled something that he was sure included the words 'sofa' and 'cold' but Horo (and now Yoh) just stared at him blankly.

"Err… Bocchama said that the sofa was getting cold."

It was Ren's turn to blink, and somewhere inside Bason's 'vapour brain' (as Anna would put it) it clicked.

"It also seems like Bocchama is too tired to translate for himself." The warlord finished, Ren slowly nodding off.

Horo smiled sweetly and seated himself beside Ren, whom he let lean against him, and Yoh took the armchair that Horo himself had passed out on two nights before.

Ren unconsciously attached himself to Horo, who acted like he didn't mind it.

Yoh raised an eyebrow, and Horo remembered that his laid-back friend was amazing at observation, and realised that he himself probably looked tense. He relaxed and stated that Ren didn't usually do that, and that he was caught off guard to throw Yoh from the trail. Luckily, Yoh seemed to buy it.

Yoh stayed for a few hours, and Ren woke up at some point and apologised for his previous actions, and lied rather smoothly that Horo had simply worn him out. Yoh and Horo both laughed, though Horo's was more of a sheepish laugh and Yoh's was an 'I really didn't need to know that much' laugh. Horo shot a pleading look at Ren, who merely sent a devilish smirk back at Horo. Luckily, Yoh was distracted by a puffed, disorientated Kiyay emerging from the blanket arrangement.

The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon lazily watching reruns of Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist, with Horo getting up once or twice to mix Ren some more honey and lemon.

Later in the evening, Ren was once again sleeping, but this time his head was in Horo's lap, and Yoh still occupied the armchair, with the addition of Kiyay on his knee.

Ren was sleeping more frequently, Horo explained, because of not only the toll of the illness on his body, but also because he was brought up only sleeping half the amount of time than what he should be each night. Add that to the intense training he does and all of the schoolwork, and Horo was surprised Ren had even lasted this long.

"Sasu ga, Bocchama. (1)" Yoh murmured, trying to lighten the suddenly depressing mood.

Yoh left shortly after, and Horo sat in the quiet, darkening room, lazily running his fingers through Ren's surprisingly soft hair. Ren had given up on his tongari the first day he was there, and simply had it tied at the base of his neck instead. Horo didn't hate the look, but he would always prefer the spiky, irritable shaman that had become his friend so long ago.

To be honest, the sleepy, vulnerable Ren was a first for anyone, and Horo was quickly embracing his role, knowing that Ren would prefer for everyone's perceptions of him to not be changed in any way, which was why Horo fed Yoh that bull crap.

Horo was also curious. He wanted to know why Ren had locked those emotions away, and why was he only now showing them, and why to Horo?

Had they all known the wrong Ren this whole time?

x - - - x

-is shot- I know, I'm the worst updater EVER!!! BUT! I was distracted by the wonder that is Naruto Shippuuden, and people who author alert me will know that I've been writing that fic instead of this one ; sa, gomen ne!! If you read my profile bio thingy, you'll know that I'm trying to be better!

Maybe, if you reviewed me more, I'd update more, ne? xP

Anyway, seeing as Horo's thoughts weren't all that clear, I shall explain:

Renny is sick, so he cant hold up his emotional barriers any more, which is why he didnt want to be around horo at first, but now he doesnt seem to mind much, which piked Horo's curiosity. Yarr.

(1) In epsiode 30, japanese version, Yoh is marvelling over the size of America and Ren says that there are places in China where cars won't pass by for 33 days at a time, to which Bason replies "Sasu ga, Bocchama!" (subbed as "thats my young master! amazing!", but I think it's more along the lines of 'amazing, Bocchama!') and Horo replies 'whats so amazing?'. Later in the same ep, Ren says there are 33 places in China without people or animals, same reactions from Bason and Horo. A bit later (same ep), Horo makes a bad joke, to which Ren says 'thats not funny', so Horo takes the piss outta Bason and says 'sasu ga, bocchama' like Bason did. At the end of the episode, ren makes another 33 of this in China to which everyone says 'sasu ga, bocchama!!' seriously, go youtube the ep 3

You can all figure out the Japanese words with an online dictionary or something, as I'm lazy and tired.

Please Review.