Gene winced when he heard his brother's uneven breathing. Oliver sounded absolutely horrible. And it made his gut twist with guilt, even though he knew that it wasn't his fault it still felt like it was. Taking a deep breath of his own he put a smile on his face that must've looked like a grimace given the look that Ava was regarding him with.

"Noll, it's me. I'm okay Noll, I'm... I'm fine." Gene reassured his brother quickly.

"What happened? I mean I saw... and then I couldn't..." Oliver was babbling, and if it wasn't such a tense situation he would have laughed. As it was, it only seemed to make his guilt grow.

"I know Noll, I know." Gene tried to soothe his brother but it seemed that Oliver had gotten too worked up as the phone was passed to someone else.

"Whoever this is, you better stop now or you will regret it."

Gene blinked at the phone in his hand a little taken aback at how threatening Lin's voice sounded. Honestly, he was rather unnerved. "Hey...Lin."

"E-Eugene?" Lin's voice shook slightly and within a moment he felt the tell-tale chill of Lin's shiki enter the room.

"What the hell?" Ava squeaked, flinching backwards in surprise. She gave a frantic look to Gene. "Gene what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! And calm down, it's just Lin's shiki." Gene replied soothingly. It didn't work, in fact Ava looked even more alarmed.

"You have a friend who's an omnyoji?" Ava's voice rose higher in her panic.

"Gene what's going on? Who is there with you?" Lin's voice was sharp and Gene flinched back in surprise.

"Ah it's just my friend Ava-" Gene blinked at Ava's dramatic gesturing but continued despite it. "She's the one who saved my life."

Ava's palm slapped her forehead with a loud sound and Gene winced sympathetically. That looked like it had hurt. But before he could ask her if she was okay the voice of his mother sounded on the phone.

"Gene? Is that really you?"

Gene's throat got tight at the pain held in that question. His mother sounded like she had been crying for a very long time. And he hated to make his mother cry.

"Yes mom, it's me." His own voice shook and he felt his heart break as her breathing hitched and she started crying again. "Shh mom, it's okay. I'm okay. You haven't lost me. I'm still here, and I'm not going anywhere."

"Oh, thank god." His mother sobbed into the phone. "Oliver said he saw you die but I knew you weren't dead! I just knew it."

Gene winced at that. "Um...actually...about that."

"Gene what is it you're not telling me?"

"See the thing is... I kinda actually did die." Gene said sheepishly, his hand automatically reaching up to scratch at his still damp hair.

"What are you saying?" His mother demanded her voice growing worried.

"What I mean is that Noll's vision was true. I did actually get hit by a car and then dumped into a lake." He winced again, his thoughts flashing back to that horrible time filled with pain and fear.

"How did you come back, son?" His father's voice brought him back into the present. And he realized that he had been put on speaker phone. "Did someone perform a ritual or something?"

"Definitely or something," Gene snorted lightly, giving Ava a teasing look.

She didn't rise to the bait. Instead, she was staring at a stretch of air next to him warily. She looked both intrigued and nervous as she stared at whatever it was that caught her interest.

"What do you mean?" That was Lin's voice.

"I was getting to that," Gene chided, his focus still on the necromancer in front of him. He watched as Ava slowly held out her hand, palm up, and started to mumble under her breath. "Ava what're you doing?"

Ava ignored his question, remaining focused on something Gene couldn't see. Suddenly a haze, the kind one would see on a hot day, appeared over her hand. It hovered there, bobbing lightly in the air.

"Beautiful." Ava whispered her face awed.

"Eugene who is with you? My Shiki are sensing someone powerful within the same room as you." Lin's question drew Gene's attention away from his copper-haired friend.

"It's okay Lin," Gene assured the omnyoji quickly, not wanting him to panic and attack his new friend. "They are sensing my friend Ava. She's the one who brought me back. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be alive right now."

"And how did this Ava do such a thing?" His father's voice seemed intrigued if a tad wary.

"She er... she's a necromancer and might've well... slapped me back to life?" Gene explained hesitantly, knowing just how strange it sounded.

"I'm sorry, did you just say she slapped you back to life?" Oliver's voice was incredulous.

"Yes, she did. Apparently, it was 'an accident' and she hadn't meant to do it." Gene explained with a grin. "She hadn't realized that I was dead, you see, and had only wanted to wake me up."

"You don't have to keep bringing it up." Ava grumbled under her breath as she gave him a quick glare before looking back to the glowing Shiki.

"Well in any case," His mother said after a brief pause. "Please give her our gratitude. She brought you back, that's all that matters."

Gene could see Ava's face flush at the thanks and he felt his lips twitch. 'Cute' he thought before he had to fight off a blush himself as his thought registered. Then it dawned on him that he himself hadn't thanked her for bringing him back, and he felt like a prat. "Yes, thank you Ava, for bringing me back."

Ava gave him an impish look. "Oh, so now I get thanked? Only after your mother tells you to?"

Gene rolled his eyes at the teasing. Only to wince as his name was called sharply from over the phone.

"Eugene Davis, did I hear that right? You never thanked Miss Lionheart until now?" His mother's voice was unimpressed.

"Yes ma'am." Gene gave a sheepish grin even though he knew his mother couldn't see him. He ignored Ava's mutter of 'ooh busted' too focused on his mother's ire.

"That was very rude of you, young man," His father spoke up and Gene ducked his head. "I'm disappointed in your lack of manners."

"Sorry father," Gene mumbled, his hand coming up to scratch at the back of his neck. "In my defense I was a little preoccupied with the fact that I had just come back to life."

"Fair enough," Ava snickered. She kept looking at the shimmering forms of Lin's Shiki, and Gene wondered what exactly she was seeing, as he had never seen them before.

"Well, you will have to introduce us to your friend when we get to Japan." His mother spoke, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"You're coming here?" Gene asked in surprise.

"Of course, Eugene," His mother's tone was dry and he felt his lips twitch in amusement. "You didn't think we were just going to stay in England after all of this did you?"

"No?" Gene said but his tone made it sound more of a question.

Oliver snorted. "Idiot."

JG:Okay first I'd like to say sorry for not updating in...a while. I've been busy with other things and other fandoms, and also had writers block. So sorry for that. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Warnings for this chapter: uh... talk of death and of bringing people back to life. let me know if there's anything else. :)