Apologies for both the lack of updates and the fact that Kiyay's eye colour changes -.- the first I cant help, the second I am to lazy to pick through every chapter to find where they miraculously turned blue.

With that in mind, enjoy!

X – x - X

Horo had been faced with a dilemma. And a tricky one, at that.

"I know about this ridiculous plan of yours, Ainu." Hao growled threateningly, "And I assure you, if you and your little boytoy try and get between me and my otouto," his grip increased significantly, "I'll kill you. Both of you."

Horo glared at the Hao in one of their group photos that he'd lazily tacked to the wall months previously. It wasn't Horo's fault that Manta and Anna had to teach Yoh a lesson. It wasn't Horo's fault that Manta and Anna couldn't just confront Yoh about it. And it damn well wasn't Horo's fault that he'd been dragged into it, let alone shared spit with the last person on earth he'd ever want to because of it!

Horo had three possible options and four possible consequences. Seeing as Horo had no doubt about Hao being able to kill them both, this was swiftly decreased to two possible consequences.

Scenario One: Horo doesn't tell Ren and they continue with the plan.

Consequence One: They both die.

Scenario Two: Horo tells Ren and they still continue with the plan.

Consequence Two: see Consequence One.

Scenario Three: Horo tells Ren and they drop the plan.

Consequence Three: They live.

Even a complete idiot, like Horo, could see that the most appealing course of action was the third choice.

Horo however, being not only a complete idiot but also amazingly stubborn, would not follow the unwritten rule of 'you tell your boyfriend everything,' and would instead try and resolve the situation on his own.

You see, Horo was MALE like that.

Horo was not going to back down, and decided to show the world this the very next morning by grabbing Ren by the shoulders and crashing their mouths together, in plain sight of Hao and his following of cheerleaders.

The only thing he had to show for it was a bruising shoulder and Hao's furious glare.

Horo blinked a few times. Kissing Ren had left his head a bit fuzzy, but he ignored it and muttered 'too early in the morning' as an excuse.

It's not like he was starting to like Ren or anything.

…Right?

X – x – X

Ren poked unenthusiastically at his onigiri and sighed.

What he wouldn't give for just ONE baozi.

-

Horo slammed his fist on the table with a snarl.

"Every day it's Chinese, Chinese and even more Chinese!!" he yelled over at Ren, who was calmly munching on a baozi, "Enough already!!"

Ren 'hmph'ed. "Whatever. It's your fault for being unlucky in addition of being weak."

Horo ripped up the line game they'd played to decide who chose lunch with an almighty screech of "IT WAS RIGGED!"

"Idiot. It was you who drew those lines, wasn't it?" Ren argued, still without even looking up.

Horo faltered.

"Er, well let's not go into details," he mumbled, before screaming "The point is that you are always too damn selfish!"

-

'Maybe I was being a bit selfish back then…' Ren pondered, settling for chewing on his chopsticks. He finally understood why Horo and Choco had been so annoyed at always having to eat the same thing.

'Oh well,' he sighed, 'It isn't my fault that the lazy bastards didn't want to pay for their own meals.'

Ren glared at Yoh, who had spent the last twenty seconds waving a hand in Ren's face.

"What?" he snapped.

"Just wanted to point out that you are allowed to eat at your food, you don't have to just stare at it with a hungry look." Yoh grinned and dodged Ren's fist.

"If you hate it that much, don't eat it." Manta advised.

Yoh nodded seriously. "Feed those of us that forgot our money!"

Ren scowled and pushed his tray over to Yoh, who gave a girly squeak and started to gobble the nearly untouched meal.

"Where are Horo and Hao?" Manta wondered aloud, purposefully ignoring Yoh, who was making noises and spraying rice around not unlike a food processor without a lid.

"Horo's been acting weird around Hao all day," Yoh commented after a loud swallow, "Do you think they're up to something?"

Manta shrugged and glanced at Ren, who had his eyes shut and his arms folded, and would have looked like he was asleep to anyone who didn't know him.

"Oh well. Hao's a big boy; he can take care of himself." Yoh sighed, clapping his hands together and chirping 'gochisousama'.

"Here he is!" Manta grinned. "We were wondering what you were up to and whether Horo was in on it."

Hao smiled serenely. "I was running an… errand. As for Horo, I have no idea where he could be."

Ren suppressed a shudder and left the table.

Hao was getting creepier and creepier by the day, and the way he had just said 'Horo' reminded Ren of the days when he said 'chiccheana', and he had a bad feeling about it.

To his relief, he found Horo lying unharmed under one of the sakura trees that were dotted over the school field.

The Ainu had his head resting on his upturned palms and his legs were bent at the knee. His eyes were closed and he was smiling softly.

Ren resisted the urge to smile too and turned to leave, drawing his coat tighter around himself.

"Where're you going?"

Ren looked down to see that Horo was not sat up and patting the space beside him.

Ren raised an eyebrow.

"You can see the moon today. And if you look hard enough, you can see the stars already too."

Ren stared at Horo before sighing in exasperation and sitting down on the offered patch of grass, muttering 'you really are a fanciful bastard,' before staring boredly at the sky.

'How about that,' he thought with slight disbelief, 'You really can see the stars.'

His thoughts were broken by a giggle from Horo's general direction.

"What?" he snapped for the second time that day.

"You got some sakura in your hair." Horo chuckled, reaching up and brushing it away.

Then, it happened. Their gazes interlocked and time froze around them.

Ren's stare flicked to Horo's mouth when the other's tongue darted out to wet his lips.

Ren swallowed and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to them before leaning back, shock evident on his usually set expression.

"Horo, I—"

"Don't," Horo murmured, drawing nearer, "Don't apologise."

Ren nodded once, slow and controlled enough to have been missed easily.

Horo licked his lips again and reached up with his free hand, using it to dip Ren's head down enough for another soft kiss, their eyes sliding shut in unison.

Ren released a breath he didn't know he was holding and relaxed slightly, increasing his pressure against Horo, a shiver running down his spine as the other's fingers lost themselves in his hair.

They parted for oxygen and Horo flopped back onto the grass.

"That was niiiice." He sighed.

Ren touched his still tingling lips and stayed silent for a few seconds, before humming in agreement.

They both looked over at the school building when they heard the bell ringing. Then they looked back at each other.

Horo smiled and winked.

"I say we get outta here."

Ren blinked slowly before returning the smile and giving another soft nod.

X – x – X

Horo fell into his apartment, giggling madly.

"Their faces!!" Horo was gushing, "And when you told him to--, and then he looked at us like," Horo was having trouble holding himself up, "I can't believe they threw us out!"

Ren rolled his eyes. "It wasn't that funny, Ainu-baka." He insisted, though a spark of amusement played across his golden irises and a smirk tugged at his features.

"I can't believe you tried to use your kwan-dao for a whack-a-mole game!" Horo continued as if the other had not been heard.

"Tsk. That mallet couldn't have swatted a fly."

"But you used your kwan-dao!"

"There was no rule saying I couldn't."

"But you—mmfph!" Horo tried to retaliate before Ren covered Horo's mouth with his own.

They parted with a soft 'smack' sound and Ren murmured a quiet 'let it go', and Horo nodded giddily.

"Now let's eat something before your stomach makes itself known."

Horo nodded vigorously and bounced into his kitchen as Ren leaned against the door frame idly.

"Right, I have ramen, pocky and some really old packs of wotsits." Horo said, before shuddering and pulling out two cups of ramen, "Up for ramen?"

Ren hesitated, but shrugged.

Three minutes and thirty seconds (Horo had trouble getting the lids off) later, they were both sat on Horo's sofa, steaming cups of miso ramen in their hands.

Ren stared distastefully at Horo, who was shovelling the noodley treat into his mouth before they had even sat down.

In a way that mirrored what he did at lunch, he merely poked at the ramen with his chopsticks, yearning for something other than Japanese food for a change. He sighed inwardly and started eating the cheap, plastic-tasting dinner however, because he knew Horo'd whinge about slaving over a hot kettle to bring him his food and all he did was turn his nose up at it.

Horo finished in less time than it took him to cook the ramen and bored quickly, too lazy to reach for the remote and flick the TV on.

This meant that Horo was just going to sit and fidget with anything he could find.

Unfortunately for Ren, he was the closest thing at hand.

"Why is your school shirt all the way up?" Horo asked 'innocently', reaching towards Ren to unbutton said shirt a bit.

"Because I want it to be." Ren snapped, waving Horo's hand away with his chopsticks.

"Why do you want it to be? You wanna look like a geek, Renny?"

"I thought you said I looked hot in my glasses?" he replied, smirking.

Horo paused, before grinning.

"You'd look hotter with that shirt unbuttoned!" Horo argued gleefully, finally having one-upped Ren.

"That was a little forward, even for you." Ren muttered icily, his eyebrow twitching slightly.

"Ren, Ren, Ren." Horo sighed, "You haven't seen forward. Seriously, my dad flirts with me more than that!"

Ren had a horrible vision of En trying to rip his shirt off and shuddered.

"Aheh," Horo chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, "You didn't just think of Hige doing what I think you were thinking of him doing, were you?"

Ren glared at him. Horo cringed. Ren slammed his nearly full ramen cup on the table.

"I'm leaving. That ramen tastes like paper." he announced haughtily, "And I hope you haven't given the rest of my family ridiculous nicknames."

Horo rolled his eyes.

"Yes Ren, we have the moustache, the necrophiliac, the philosopher, the wife and the cone-head. Are there any more relations of yours that I can insult as a—JESUS!" Horo screeched, clutching a hand to his face, "Dude! It was a joke! Y'know, funny? Or do they not have that over in Kishuu?" Horo snapped, his patience worn.

"At least Kishuu isn't so frozen that people can't be born with brains anymore!" was shouted from the front door where Ren was pulling his coat and boots back on, "Humour is a form of entertainment, not a form of insult!"

"Oh yeah? This coming from the person who found it fun and entertaining to kill people!"

Ren's eyes widened, along with Horo's.

"Shit, Ren I didn't mean--"

"Save it." Ren spat, slamming the door on his way out.

X – x – X

Yaaay I updated n.n

I also managed to get Ren and Horo properly together and split them up again in under 2,000 words XD go me!

Hige – Short for Kuchihige, which means moustache. In episodes 23 and 24, Horo calls En 'hige' (you can all guess why), saying things like;

Yoh: He (En) kind of looks normal!

Horo: But, moustache. ("Demo, hige")

Also on one instance, I caught Horo flipping him off, which I found quite hilarious, though it might have just been my overactive brain.

The quote with them choosing what to eat for lunch was ……… between 41 and 51, I know that much n.n; I can't remember which one, but it's the one where Ryu meets that Arabian woman and her 'deer'

The 'fanciful bastard' is a quote from another episode, I think 22 or 23, when Yoh gets Ren out of the dungeon (again, I think its that one n.n;;;;)

Baozi – pork bun! (or something like it ... a meat-filled dumpling, i think it was described)

Review?