A/N: Sorry team! I was out of the country and before that I was preparing to leave the country. Hope you all enjoy the double update as an apology :)

The moment he'd walked into Golden Orchid Hostess Bar he was treated like royalty. He should be, after all he was considered a diamond client and he spent enough money here in the past. The mama-san cried out in happiness "Nishikado-san!"

"Mama-san!" He bowed lightly and respectfully though why he should he wasn't quite sure. The woman was filth compared to him. "How have you been?"

"We've missed you while you've been away. Come with me, we've hired the perfect girl for you."

"Is there a girl like that in this world? I've never been satisfied with just one you know." She smirked understanding the soft innuendo left unsaid. "Regardless, your choice is exquisite so I'd be happy to see the new talent and judge her suitability to the bar."

"You're too kind." She didn't look at all pleased that he was practically running the place but that was the benefit you got when you were a diamond client that basically kept the place operating. Hell he'd even bailed them out of some tough periods and made sure all his company men came here. "Please have a seat, I'll have Yuki join you shortly.

"Yuki." Her name rolled off his tongue rather nicely and he imagined what her voice would sound like for a second. Soft like powdered snow he imagined, pale skin and bright sparkling eyes. Sure enough his assessment proved correct. Her demeanor would no doubt be kind-hearted, and she would be a soft spoken sort of woman. The kind who'd make the perfect politician's wife.

This had become a bit of a game for him he realized. Predicting women before he met them, most of the time he was correct but if you'd slept with as many women as he had maybe that wasn't luck so much as fact that he'd come to know the tell of every woman. Unlike what Mama-san had said there was no one woman who could satisfy his urge to understand the entire encompassing gender.

Or well maybe that was the more polite way of putting what he actually wanted to do.

"Hajimemashte Matsuoka Yuki-desu." She bowed low and deep, at least she'd been taught well there. He always appreciated it when an adequate amount of respect was shown his way. Slowly, he nodded and saw her take her seat as Mama-san walked away back to the front of the bar. "May I ask what your name is?"

Maybe he'd been too presumptuous but he would have hoped she would already know it. "Hajimemashte Yuki-chan, Nishikado Soujiro-desu." He tilted his head slightly forward and he saw Yuki peer at him closely. They were silent for a minute, maybe two and Nishikado had to wonder why exactly Mama-san had thought he would enjoy the company of this mousy, surely beautiful and shy woman. She was most certainly not something he ever seeked out for himself, because in silence he was uncomfortable.

Almost as if lest he say the wrong thing, the leverage Yuki would have against him would be endless.

After a few more minutes of silence, and watching her hands wring themselves wild in the silky fabric of her dress Soujiro was about to open his mouth to kindly ask her to leave his company for someone a little more naturally sociable.

Matsuoka Yuki, however, spoke first. "Why do you come here?"

Another question he would prefer not to answer. The Mama-san was looking at him smiling brightly, he could only muster up a half fake grin, the screws on the side of his cheeks tightening with the pressure of false emotion. "I have the time, I have the money. Why not?" Hopefully that was enough to get rid of that question.

"Ah the simplicity of it, but you could spend your money on a lot of things. You're spending it on me."

Not entirely by choice he wanted to speak up but he never was rude or callous with women, and Yuki hadn't done anything to offend him so much yet that he would just be openly rude with her. Unlike some men he knew, he remarked a curly haired boy coming to mind. "I need the time to myself, to think," That was true. He did bounce a lot of ideas off the women who had worked here. Most of them failed but that was hardly their fault, they were his ideas at the end of the day. His name on the line. "To talk."

Yuki's smile only grew wider as she nodded. She was silent for a moment longer than he found comfortable. "That's funny."

"What is?" He hadn't said anything that in his mind would be considered hilarious but she did look like she was snickering to herself at some inside joke at his expense.

Mama-san had to be kidding. "It's just thinking and talking you know they're completely different, one might even say that in some ways they're opposites so I find it strange you come here to think and talk because then I wonder if-" She kept her mouth closed. "But I've said too much, sometimes Mama-san recommends me to people who I don't think can handle my brutal honesty."

Soujiro scoffed…whatever she'd been about to say he could take it! "In the spirit of brutal honesty then, if you're in the business of telling the truth, I really don't think you should be in the professional service industry."

"You're probably right but it seems like my flavour of medicine is well appreciated in this club and is quite handsomely paying my way through graduate school so who am I to complain Nishikado-san?" She stood up first and he felt his body shift towards her on the seat as she backed out of their private enclosure.

Despite himself, he couldn't keep the slight edge of desperation out of his voice. He had to know, he was a bit selfish with knowledge that way. To be honest even between the four of his closest friends he'd always considered himself the smartest. "What is it?"

"What is?" She replied back innocently tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, showing off a pair of diamond earrings he was sure another diamond sponsor had volunteered for her.

"The thing," He spat angrily. He didn't usually let his emotions get the better of him but something about this conversation was getting increasingly infuriating for him. "This thing you think I can't handle?"

Her lips stretched past her mouth, teeth carefully sealed away lest they say something inappropriate to the largest donor in their club. "You're here to talk, and you're here to think and I can't help but wonder why you wouldn't do the same with the friends you don't pay for…or indeed if you even have friends you'd really consider that close to you. When did you start paying for the opinions you wanted to hear around you?" Quickly shuffling she bowed and went back to Mama-san.

Five minutes later another bubbly girl found her way glued to his side, she recognized him and asked him to call her at the end this time. But the rest of the night, his mind was plagued with that one thought. Was he that obsessed with acceptance?

When the night came to a close he looked for Yuki but she'd already disappeared, and he couldn't pick her brain any more. At least not for free he was sure…and he hated going home alone. That should get his mind off the most destructive thought he'd had since Sara had left him.

So when he drunkenly stumbled into the love hotel with the hostess and spent the rest of the night watching the way her body danced on top of his, why was it all he could see today was the disgusting look Sara had thrown him when she'd found him cheating on her and broken up with him the next week.

He grabbed the girl on top of him and flipped her over, his hands crawling up her skin till they found their way around her neck and she gasped arching against him ever so tightly.

That's the problem Soujiro…you don't understand anyone. Not even yourself…and you'll throw yourself into the snake pit because you think your opinion is the only one that ever matters.

"You're kidding!"

"Not at all… it was insane Yuki."

"Well…that can't happen again! I refuse!" Yuki iterated on her behalf and Tsukushi couldn't help the bubbles of laughter that leaked past her lips. "I'm not kidding Tsukushi! It doesn't allow you to have a lot of leverage when you negotiate!"

"You're telling me." She yawned as she pointed her toes upwards, her eyes lingering on her ankles as the sensation of Domyouji Tsukasa's heavy hand returned to her skin. She groaned again covering her eyes. "I need a date, or I need a night out-"

"Well…" The silence that followed Yuki was one she recognized. The one which reminded her that her ex-boyfriend who she'd represented in a wrongful kidnapping case was actually the worst sort of human and it made sense that since something like that Tsukushi treaded very lightly when it came to relationships. "Do you want to hear about my day?"

"Sure thing!" Tsukushi grinned encouragingly as Yuki giggled despite herself.

"Well, first I got my research paper back, the one on the correlation of Sadomasochism in a Sexual Addiction Sample? We're expanding my trial to include more participants and trying to highlight the degree in which an overlap exists!"

"Fuck yeah!" Tsukushi yelled happy for her friend, raising her hand for a high five to which Yuki just chuckled and laughed back. "No pun intended of course. How was work? You must have been on a high."

"Well when I told my boss about the paper, she actually recommended I try to do some analysis on a customer oddly enough. It was…strange. I told her it wouldn't be right but she pushed me on it." Yuki felt an uneasiness return to her stomach when she imagined the way Nishikado Soujiro had glared at her. When she'd told the other girls about his relatively cold behaviour they were shocked, Nishikado Soujiro was all money and smiles as long as you were acquiescing and self-deprecating to a certain point. Nishikado Soujiro liked feeling better than you, more than other men who came to revere the hostesses Nishikado was of the other sort who liked to be reminded he was better than them that he could throw them away and that they should worship at his feet to be given the opportunity to satisfy his needs.

"So are you in some sort of long-term relationship with this guy now?"

"Heavens no, Tsukushi how do you think this stuff works? It isn't like the dramas." Tsukushi stuck her tongue out, giggling as she put some popcorn in her mouth. "Well, he would have to request me again but I doubt he will. He seemed a little irked by my preliminary analysis that he has no friends whatsoever."

"That really is sad, but what prompts you to think that?"

"Sad, isn't it…. And he wants something rehearsed, everyone who comes to a hostess club wants a show of a life that isn't real. It's escapism. But he's different Tsukushi, he controls literally everything at the club. He isn't a spectator he's trying to be a director and I think that's what's pissing Mama-san off." Yuki scoffed. "He even demands that he picks out the new girls, but luckily I was hired when he was in Hong Kong."

"Geez…Yuki, are you going to be able to psychoanalyze him if he's sick of it?" Yuki actually wasn't entirely sure if she would get to spend time with Soujiro again. She didn't think she would but she couldn't help but feel like he was definitely someone in need of her help, even if he didn't know it. "And do you even want to…the guy sounds like a bit of a sicko."

Once upon a time before Yuki had decided to make Psychology her calling, Yuki might have agreed with Tsukushi but all she could see now was a cry for help which she supposed didn't mean anything better because no one was more dangerous than a human not in control of their own mind. "Well, I can only help those who want my help so I guess we'll have to wait and see."