"Anyway, let's get to busi—", Bujin glanced down at himself... while unconsciously resting his cheek on his palm in a very familiar pose, suddenly wearing an offended look. "Dammit! Have I been doing this pose for a while already?"

A very laidback Kitsune sitting nearby raised his head and hollered over towards Bujin's direction. "You've been doing that pose quite so often actually, to be honest... love. It's almost like it's becoming a nasty habit."

Bujin just rolled his eyes and turned around to make an annoyed face at Kitsune. "Then why didn't you remind me whenever I did it without thinking? Aah, I'm so annoyed now... because of that stupid frog, I can't even crouch down and do things anymore because it just reminds me of that pesky nuisance!"

Bujin just shook his head before popping himself onto the 'ground' and folding his legs together to sit in front of Ace.

"Aah, whatever..." he sighed before turning his attention back to Ace. "The important thing right now, is YOU. What the fuck are you doing running back here... and hiding from everyone when you had far more important tasks that you should be focusing on right now?"

Ace blinked at him in confusion. When the rest of Bujin's words suddenly registered completely inside his head, Ace immediately snapped at him aloud, red-faced.

"What did you mean I was runni—" Ace turned his face away from his beloved's 'demon'. "How could you possibly know or understand what must I have been feeling right now?"

Bujin just stared at Ace silently, looking as if he couldn't believe that Ace was really throwing that question at his face right now. He stared at Ace squarely without saying anything, somewhat disappointed that Ace HAD to ask him this very stupid question with a plainly obvious answer. He sighed.

Then again, this was the very same idiot who kept hovering in front of Keiwa's apartment all this while in the past... hesitating about wanting to come in and comfort his other half when Keiwa was still in mourning and so much in pain and hurting over their sister's loss. Had Ace back then gathered his courage and stepped in for Keiwa and given him the very comfort he very needed at the time, a lot of things might have ended up happening very differently. Alas, that wasn't what had happened, so all of them ended up in this situation right now.

"Aaa... I know EXACTLY what you must be feeling right now, even more than you could've imagined. Don't act as if you're the first person around here who had experienced how bad it felt after you messed things up pretty badly and had no idea how to put things back the way they should be."

And he couldn't believe the things he'd do for his other halves' sakes right now...

Bujin started to make a move as if he was about to get up and leave—and Ace was almost resigned to the fact that even Keiwa's demon was giving up on him—before Bujin suddenly grabbed Ace and pulled him into a hug. Ace let out a soft gasp, as he felt the almost familiar touch and smell and warmth enveloping his whole body. But of course, even if Bujin was not quite the same person as Keiwa... Bujin was still a part of Keiwa, as well as someone he so desperately yearned for at this very moment—

What he'd do just to feel again this warmth enveloping and caressing him so gently like this...?

.

The next moment when Ace opened his eyes, he found himself back inside Keiwa's room.

xxx

Tsumuri almost dropped the tray she was holding as she couldn't believe what she was seeing right now—!

"Sara-sama! Neon-sama! Come quick, Ace-sama has finally woken up!" she cried out as several hurried footsteps rushed towards her direction...

.

Before he know it, Ace found himself being hustled around by two overly worried older sisters and one younger sister, as he was being thoroughly checked and heavily fussed over and urged to try to swallow some medicine, food and water to restore some strength into his very weak body. As if it wasn't bad enough, the moment Win and Buffa comes along Ace had to endure the most mortifying experience of being bathed and dressed by the two most unlikely people he'd ever want such things being done to him (Michinaga: Hey! I rather not have to do this either! But between you getting even sicker and making sure you get better, I rather chose the lesser evil!).

Well, on the bright side... he still ends up being dressed in Keiwa's 'old clothes' which were more or less old on the 'technical' side of things; since they were clothes that Keiwa rarely even wear himself because they were a bit 'too big' on him. But he really didn't mind that part a bit.

But...

As much as the people around him tried their best to help him overcome his sudden unplanned high fever, Ace couldn't help finding himself succumbing back to his fatigue and lethargy. He couldn't quite explain it... but it kinda felt like the time back then when he ended up overusing his Boost Mk II power and finding himself getting overwhelmingly sleepy. It also felt like that time when he had fallen from the highest depth... as he failed to reach out towards his helpless and dying... mother—!

Anyway, before he could even say anything, Ace felt hands helping him back down... settling himself against the soft pillow that smelled now of both his and Keiwa's scents, and being tucked in like some small child by their loving parents...

xxx

Anyway...

.

"You didn't really need to go THAT far for this guy earlier... you know?"

"Geez... calm down already. I didn't only do it for Kei-chan's sake only. I did that also because of you. Don't try to deny that you weren't also worried about this idiot as well. I know you well enough by now that you DID care about this idiot as much as you act like you enjoyed seeing him suffer."

"Tch! Well, not like I can stop myself from feeling that way. We're still part of each other after all, even if I'm more of the jumbled-up pieces of him that he threw away every time he gets reborn and does not want to keep the old scraps."

"Aww... but that's what made you so endearing to me—"

"Shut it, and anyway... this idiot still popped right back up here even after what you did! You just did a very pointless thing at that!"

Ace woke up to hearing the unlikeliest stream of conversation where one of the speakers sounded precisely like him yet he wasn't the one who was involved in said conversation. He would've LOVED to sit back up and cut through the conversation and cease the discussion right away... just that his whole body felt heavy like lead right now. Which was weird, since he's practically inside his own head. But yeah... it's like he had this weird hangover and got himself stuck in-between dreams and wakefulness.

Wow... how on earth did he manage to throw out all these random streams of thoughts? And very eloquently too—!

Ace turned his eyes towards the direction of those 'voices'... to see both Kitsune and Bujin being quite chummy with each other. More than he and Keiwa had ever done together in the past... when the two of them used to be themselves. And no, it's not that he was being very envious of those two right now... even more considering those two were actually part of Keiwa and himself!

.

Bujin just shrugged at the other.

"Anyway, I was fully aware that this idiot would pop back up right here again since the guy's fever wasn't JUST any normal high fever. I mean, you should understand that best. After all, it was that same destructive power that exploded out of control when this idiot unleashed it for the first time and gave life to you. In fact, in some ways, it ended up leaking into me and gave birth to the power that made me stronger—"

Bujin sighed. "I mean, Tsumuri-san didn't just create that power out of nothing without having some kind of a point of reference. She just made it come into proper physical existence."

Kitsune just gave Bujin a side-eye as he disliked being given that kind of reminder of how Bujin Sword came into existence.

"Well, did you have to do that anyway? There's no point of you to spoil the idiot so much—!" snapped Kitsune as Bujin just sighed at him again.

"But my big sis was worried... and she already had Kei-chan to concern herself with. Even when Tsumuri-san would take care of him just fine I know big sis would still be nosing around and being extra worried. Both Kei-chan and this idiot were still out of commission after all."

Kitsune just blinked once as if he only just realized that now. "Ah, you're right. But still, as much as I do also want Kei-chan to get better soon, I'd prefer for you to not give him his answer on a silver platter when he doesn't really—!"

"What did you mean that you know of a way to save Keiwa!?"

Almost right away, both Bujin and Kitsune turned around to look at Ace.

"Aah, the idiot had finally woken up," said the two blandly together as if the two haven't been talking about him for the past... he didn't even know how long time passes in this headspace realm anyway.

A/N: Hmmhmm... and there it was, some more of my other headcanons about certain plots that I still hadn't put down in another would-be one-shot. And I'm glad that you guys like my little gremlins XD So I might as well extend their appearances a bit longer.

I could've sworn somewhere along the way I've been channeling my inner CLAMP into both Bujin and Kitsune XD