A/N- So, after this, there's only one chapter left, guys~! And thanks you to Tsukibana-Yamai for editing :)

I had something I was going to say here, but my mom's making me get off the computer and I can't remember what it was... eh, maybe I'll remember next time.

Enjoy~

The following two weeks passed, for the most part, uneventfully. Misaki had talked to Usami on the phone a few more times, but none of these conversations lasted for more that a half-hour. The majority of these were filled with Usami complaining about how much he hated being where he was, and how much he missed Misaki. (Misaki suspected it really wasn't all that bad, and that the author was simply complaining as a matter of principle).

Misaki had long since caught up on his work from when he was in the hospital, and had managed to get through and entire period of Professor Kamijou's class without being hit in the head with an eraser.

The young college student's mood had improved considerably, until his brother decided to stop by for an unexpected visit- at Usami's notably empty apartment. Misaki had been sitting in Nowaki's living room, working on his homework, when his phone rang.

"Um... hey, Niichan." Misaki wondered absently why his brother was calling him.

"Misaki- I'm at Akihiko's apartment. I ended up in the area for business, and I was planning to surprise you, but I guess you're not here... Are you close by?" Misaki knew he owed it to his brother to tell him where he was really staying, but couldn't bring himself to do so.

"Um... Well, Usagi-san had to go on a trip for work, and I'm staying with a friend, so..." Misaki couldn't remember what exactly he had said to his brother, and prayed that his newest excuse would fit in with the rest of his lies.

"Oh- well, while I'm here, I figured we could go out for dinner or something. It's been a while since I've seen you, and..." Misaki couldn't believe that, as smart and successful as his brother was, he couldn't hear the lie in his little brother's voice.

"Sure, I know a place that's pretty good that's not too far from there, if you want?"

The two quickly finished making plans to meet at a restaurant a few blocks away from Nowaki's apartment, and Misaki cleared up his pile of homework before walking to the restaurant, as it was too close to need to ride the bus or catch a taxi. About fifteen minutes later, Misaki walked up to the small restaurant to see his brother already there.

His brother greeted him with a wide smile and a hug, as though it had been years instead of months since they had seen each other.

"How've you been?" Misaki asked, smiling.

"Oh, you know, same-old, same-old. But how about you- how's school been going?" Misaki was glad he wouldn't have to lie, answering,

"It's been good! Classes have been hard, but not too bad." Takahiro nodded in approval.

"And Akihiko's been fine, too?" Misaki looked away, frantically trying to calm himself down so that his voice wouldn't completely give him away.

"Y-yeah, he's been alright. Busy as ever." Misaki gave a nervous doubt that he knew would give him away, but apparently his brother was just as blissfully oblivious as he had always been, and didn't pick up on it.

"That's about what I expected..." Takahiro then put his hand on on of his brother's shoulders and looked him up and down. "Misaki, have you lost weight?" Misaki shrugged.

"I guess... It's probably just from when I was in the hospital, though, don't worry!" Actually, Misaki had noticed that as well; even before he had been in the hospital, he had still been losing weight due to normal college stress, as well as his faltering 'relationship' with Usami.

"Probably... you have been getting enough to eat, right?" Misaki nodded.

"I do most of the cooking for Usagi-san, anyway, so it's not like he's starving me or something- I'm fine, niichan." Takahiro already knew Misaki's agreement of doing cooking and housework for Usami, and wasn't concerned with it as Nowaki had been.

The two brothers went inside to sit down, and had ordered their drinks by the time the conversation picked up again.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming to visit earlier? I could have-" Misaki wasn't sure how to finish the sentence; even if he had known his brother was coming, he still would have been in the same situation, staying with Nowaki instead of in Usami's apartment.

"I just got a call earlier this week from my company that I would have to come, so I figured it could be a surprise."

"Oh, so you have a meeting or something?"

"A business conference, technically- but yeah, close enough." The rest of the meal went smoothly, with the two catching up on little things they had missed in each other's lives since they had last seen each other. It was nearly nine PM when they finally left, and Misaki's short walk back to Nowaki's apartment was uneventful.

He knocked on the door, only to receive no answer. I thought he said his hours would be getting better...?Misaki pulled his phone out of his pocket, thumb hovering over Nowaki's number. However, he changed his mind and decided to text him, in case he was busy at work.

'Hey- I went out for dinner, and it doesn't look like you're home so is there a spare key or something I could use?' Misaki hit send, then sat against the wall behind him. Even though he knew his phone would make noise when Nowaki replied, he checked it every few minutes anyways.

It was almost ten by the time Misaki finally saw Nowaki emerge from the elevator at the far end of the hallway.

"Misaki, why're you...?" Misaki stood up and stretched, his joints popping after having sat in the same place for so long.

"Um... my brother called to say he was in town so we went out for dinner- I figured you'd be back before I was, so..." Nowaki opened the door to let them into the apartment. "I texted you, but I guess you didn't see it, so I waited..." Nowaki sighed.

"I'm sorry- we got an emergency case just as I was about to leave, so I didn't see your text. How long were you sitting there?"

"Only about an hour or so-"

"You sat there for an hour? Geez... sorry about that." Nowaki ran a hand through his hair, which was already so messy that it didn't make much difference.

"It's fine, really..." Again, Misaki's habit of suffering in silence was coming to the surface.

"No, it's not- how about I just give you a key, so this doesn't happen again?" Misaki had actually considered asking this himself, but had refrained from doing so, since Nowaki was doing so much for him already.

"Yeah, that would probably be best." After rummaging through a few drawers, Nowaki found a spare key. Once that was taken care of, Misaki made his way to his room to go to bed as it was getting late, and he had a class early the next morning.

Before he fell asleep, however, he put the key Nowaki had given him onto a small, rabbit-shaped keychain with his key to Usami's apartment. He held out the keychain, looking at how the two keys hung there together. It felt to him like having a key to Nowaki's apartment had some significance beyond just the ability to come and go as he pleased; It was as though now they were officially living together, whereas before it had seemed more like Misaki would just be staying for a short while, as a casual guest.

That night was the first since Misaki started staying with Nowaki that he fell asleep easily, a light smile on his lips.

Takahiro stayed in Tokyo for a couple of days for his conference, and saw Misaki every day. By the time he left, Misaki was immensely relieved that Takahiro hadn't found out what his best friend had done to his little brother.

Since Misaki's week had been rather draining (he'd had an unusual amount of schoolwork as well as his brother's visit), Nowaki proposed they watch a movie. Although Misaki was fairly sure there must be some kind of ulterior motive behind it, or at least there would have been if it was Usami suggesting it, he agreed.

The two settled onto the couch with a bowl of popcorn between them, and picked a movie at random that seemed more like a low budget chick-flick than something either of them would really be interested in watching.

However, it actually wasn't as bad as Misaki had thought it would be- the beginning was a bit slow and the acting could have been a bit better, but by the heroine's dramatic sacrifice to save her boyfriend in the end, Misaki was embarrassed to feel empathetic tears prickling at his own eyes.

The popcorn bowl had been emptied and placed on the floor at some point, so there was nothing between them to keep Misaki from slowly scooting closer and closer to Nowaki throughout the movie. He was surprised to find that he hadn't even noticed Nowaki's arm around him, until the movie ended and Nowaki got up to turn off the TV.

Misaki moved to get up as well, but Nowaki returned and sat back down before he could, his arm returning to its previous place around Misaki's shoulders. Misaki pulled his knees up to his chest, and leaned subconsciously into Nowaki's touch.

"I don't think I ever said so, but... thank you, Nowaki-san." Misaki's sudden seriousness took Nowaki by surprise, and he turned to look at the younger man.

"For what? Letting you stay? I already said it's no big deal." Misaki shook his head, light brown hair moving slightly with the gesture.

"Yeah, for letting me stay, but also..." Misaki took a deep breath and tried to put his thoughts together in a way that wouldn't sound completely stupid. "For... being so nice to me. I mean, you didn't have to let me stay, but you did, and..."

"It's fine, it's really not a problem at all- and besides, I guess I didn't notice just how empty it was around here before." Misaki was taken slightly aback by this, his eyebrows drawing together. Usami had said he loved him, or was glad that he had come to stay, but never said that his house had seemed empty before Misaki's arrival.

"Really?" Misaki looked doubtful, as though at any moment Nowaki would burst out laughing or call out 'April fools!'- But he didn't, and instead, leaned even closer to Misaki so that he was resting his cheek against the top of Misaki's head.

"Yes, really." Misaki stared at the turned-off TV, trying to think about what that meant. If Nowaki really appreciated his arrival that much, then couldn't that mean the man had feelings for him as well? He had kissed Misaki -twice- so that had to mean something, right?

Misaki pushed his thoughts away, deciding that regardless of romantic feelings, he wanted to just sit there and enjoy this current moment of peace with Nowaki.

He really is working himself too hard... Nowaki thought as he looked down at the young man leaning on his shoulder, asleep. It was the second time Misaki had fallen asleep there- and although Nowaki knew the first time had been from sheer exhaustion, this time Nowaki got the genuine comfort of knowing that Misaki was comfortable enough around him to fall asleep so close to him.

No matter how much he would have wanted to stay laying there, Nowaki remembered Misaki's reaction the first time a situation similar to this one had occurred.

He resolved to get up and move to his own bed, but couldn't actually bring himself to do so. He felt himself starting to drift off to sleep, and his last coherent thought before drifting off to sleep was that he didn't particularly care how Misaki reacted, he was too warm and comfortable to move from that moment.

When Misaki awoke, there wasn't even the split-second confusion of thinking he might possibly be with Usami. Nowaki's embrace was so much warmer, and although it was only the second time he had woken up there he drowsily thought that he wouldn't mind waking up there more often.

... No. Misaki tried to push the thought away as he rolled over, momentarily forgetting that he was laying on a couch until he fell off of it and hit the ground with a dull thud.

Groaning, he got up and made his way to the kitchen. He was just getting out the ingredients to make omelets when Nowaki stumbled in.

"Y'know, you don't really have to make a huge breakfast. I have cereal and toast..." Misaki didn't particularly care what they had to eat, and to be perfectly honest, cereal sounded just fine with him.

In what was rapidly becoming a daily routine for the two of them, they ate breakfast and got ready for the day- Nowaki's new work hours went into effect that day, and he assured Misaki that he would try to be home by early evening.

Misaki didn't have classes until later that morning, so he checked his phone to see three missed calls from Usami. Although at any other time Misaki might have called him back right away, Misaki put his phone down and made a vague mental note to call the man later. He had probably just called because he was bored again, anyway, and wanted to bother Misaki. However, he wasn't particularly in the mood to deal with the author's unnecessary complaining.

Maybe in the grand scheme of things it wasn't very significant, but somehow, Misaki felt there was some kind of importance behind denying a chance to talk to his lover (ex-lover?) - or maybe, there was no real reasoning behind it at all and he was just over-thinking it. Either way, Misaki chose not to call Usami back, and in fact forgot about it entirely until later that evening, when he got home from school.

After having to deal with constant staring and questions for another whole day, he was pretty much at his wit's end (If he had been female, he probably could've been PMS-ing). He had become increasingly so, throughout the day until he returned home, only to see five more missed calls. He was seriously tempted to punch a wall.

When his phone rang again, Misaki didn't even check his caller ID before pressing talk and practically yelling into it,

"Listen, Usagi-san: I am not in the mood to deal with it. Just stop calling me and leave me alone! Seriously! I'm sick of it! In fact- I'm done with all of your stupid shit. Just knock it off! Actually... maybe you should just stop calling me altogether!" Misaki probably could have ranted on forever, before he heard the line go dead. It was then that he checked his recent calls, to see that the person that had called had been a telemarketer, not Usami.

He tossed his phone onto his bed, before flopping down face-first next to it. He had only been laying there in complete and utter embarrassment for a few minutes when his phone rang again. Expecting another pointless call from some telemarketer, Misaki checked the caller ID. Usami's name stared back, practically begging him to answer it. His ringtone had nearly ended when Misaki finally pressed the 'talk' button.

Despite his outburst only a few minutes earlier, Misaki didn't say anything. There was a silence before Usami said,

"... Misaki? Hello?" Finally, Misaki summoned a short, one-word answer.

"No." Neither said anything, until-

"What? It is you, isn't it?" It took all of the courage Misaki possessed to say what he did next,

"I mean... No, I don't want to talk to you. N-not now, or... or ever."

"Are you... breaking up with me?" Misaki could hear Usami's confusion, as well as a small amount of underlying amusement.

"... Yes." Misaki struggled to keep his voice even. "Or... for a while, at least." Misaki sat up, curling his knees up to his chest so that he could rest his chin on them.

"Huh." was all Usami said. Then, "- Well, I guess I don't blame you. I'm assuming this is my fault, anyways- and it was to be expected. I had just hoped you wouldn't..." Even though he was the one initiating it, Misaki still felt a part of him crumble. "But you know, if you change your mind-"

"NO!" Misaki took a deep breath to try to calm his outburst. "N-no... I won't." There was a brief moment's hesitation, before the line went dead. Usami had hung up, and even though Misaki hadn't done anything wrong, he still felt guilty. Maybe it was because of how possessive Usami had always been, but he felt like a weight had lifted from him while simultaneously feeling like he was being crushed.

He didn't try to fight it- tears started streaming down his face as he felt his heart break. He felt the same when Usami hung up the phone as he had when Usami had stabbed him- if he had been lost before, now he was lost, blind, and deaf beyond repair.

He wanted to scream, but at the same time he wanted to curl up in a corner and not do anything. His thoughts were still in a downward spiral when Nowaki, true to his word, returned home early.

"Misaki?" He didn't answer. "Are you here?" Again, nothing. Misaki could hear him walking down the hall and knocking on the door, but it seemed as though the noise was distant, and couldn't bring himself to pay it any attention.

It was only when the bedroom door opened that Misaki managed to drag himself out of his mind and back to the real world. However, he couldn't stop his pathetic sobbing for long enough to say anything, or even do more than hiccup slightly.

"Misaki... what's wrong?" Nowaki took a seat on the edge of the bed, putting a hand over Misaki's slumped- over shoulder, silently asking him to look up. Misaki slowly raised his puffy, red eyes before saying in a monotone, hoarse voice,

"We... broke up. Officially." Nowaki didn't hesitate to readjust himself so that he could hug Misaki, pulling the younger's head in towards his chest, rubbing his back in a way he could only hope Misaki would find soothing.

Misaki was shaking slightly in his arms, and Nowaki knew that the boy he had thought to be fragile before had found his breaking point.

A/N- So... you know the drill by now. Reviews are author food, don't make me starve, m'kay?

Also... you guys should ask me stuff on ! My name's Rizhae on there, so if you have a free moment, feel free to do that! (Although if you're choosing between the two, I'd choose a review ^^)