Well, fuck. That was great. Just great.

Rock dropped the candle and the coat as he dashed towards Geese's goons like a bullet train, causing everyone to stare at him like he was insane. The front guard prepared to fight him, but he just slid past them until he reached Kane. It was a brief battle if one could even call it that, and it had happened so quickly that no one was injured.

Rock shoved him out of the way and marched up the hill like a charging bull by the time Yamazaki managed to follow behind him. And at the top where Marie Heinlein was buried, stood Geese Howard, looking with confusion at the young man standing a few feet in front of him. Clearly not taking the kid seriously if his arms were folded.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get away from her! You monster, how dare you come here!" Rock snarled with such ferocity it was like some demonic entity of loathing had taken over his body. He looked ready to jump Geese if it hadn't been for the lady who stepped in between them with her fan unfolded.

Instantly, Yamazaki recognized her and so did Rock.

"…Mai?! What are you doing here?"

"Ah, Rock. I had hoped I wouldn't have to see you again like this. Maybe you could have known under better circumstances, but the gist of the matter is that I'm protecting my husband."

The big titty ninja girl who used to run around with the Bogards, Mai Shiranui. She looked like herself, like nothing had changed about her (aside from a ring on her finger) and yet something had obviously morphed within if she was here, running around with Geese Howard of all people. Suppose that would explain the air of danger that surrounded her now.

It wasn't there before.

"Your…do you know what he is?" Rock asked in utter disbelief.

"I do," she answered without hesitation. "I know more than you could ever imagine. I also know that I will fight you if you try to harm him. So please, don't force my hand."

"What would Andy say?"

"Andy has nothing to say because he's dead."

It was surreal to watch them interact, knowing how close the South Town heroism Fanclub used to be. It was a little uncomfortable, Yamazaki would reckon and that said a lot because he wasn't unnerved by other people's interpersonal squabbles – usually. He recognized a good handful of the guards that had all gathered at the foot of the hill too; courteous as they were to let him pass and ascend until he stood right next to Rock – and caught Geese's attention immediately.

Of course, the arrogant asshole continued to stand there with his arms folded over his chest. "Quite the coincidence meeting you here with him of all people. Perhaps this too is fate."

"Nice to see you too, old man. It's just like you, Geese. Always one to spit out such Apocrypha," Yamazaki greeted the man cooly and tapped Rock on the shoulder to knock him out of the trance he was in. "Hey, stop bluescreening."

No, he wasn't flopping this time around and the shock passed quickly for leveled disgust aimed at the ninja girl. He glared at her like she was the embodiment of everything wrong in the world. "You're a moron, Mai. You know what he did to my mom and you married him anyway. I knew you were a bit airheaded but are you actually braindead too? How could you be so selfish and awful? How do you live with yourself?"

That he was so calm when he said it probably meant that he was serious with every word coming out of his mouth, and he wanted to hurt her for the betrayal. Yamazaki could see the wounds inflicted by the way she flinched, and then bristled.

"This is not about you, Rock," she said, frigid like the snow around them. "You do not know a single thing of what has occurred or what I've endured so spare me your ad hominem, please. This is a graveyard. Have some respect."

"Respect? Oh yeah, sing me the song of your people, tramp. You're no better than he is if you're willing to spread your legs for him," Rock looked away from her with scorn and disappointment and it hurt her further. Enough for Geese to step in. He moved closer and Yamazaki clasped a hand around Rock's arm to make sure there wouldn't be a graveyard brawl.

"It would upset Mai and your mother greatly if I retaliated by slapping the daylights out of you for your foul spite. It's a place of rest, not a boxing arena. Go elsewhere and have a hissy fit."

"Fuck you," Rock snorted. His body stiffened under the grip on his arm like he was fighting the urge to go for the throat. "Go die in a fire and take your call girl with you. I'll see you both in hell, assholes."

It all happened in a heartbeat. A blink between familiar darkness spreading across Geese's face and him now standing in front of Rock, grabbing him by the jaw with such force that caused his entire body to rattle. When time moved at normal speeds again, Yamazaki had to stabilize Rock against his body before the kid began to thrash violently at the hand clasped over his mouth.

"Mind your tongue, boy. I don't take kindly to you insulting my wife. This will be your only warning," coming from Geese Howard, that was a warning to be heeded. Not that Yamazaki was afraid of the fucker but there was a reason why his tower could be seen from all around South Town. "Yamazaki, how come you infect him with your crudeness?"

"You tell me. I'm not the one he hates," Yamazaki shrugged, catching a glimpse of Rock moving his jaw to bite the palm over his mouth. "Now let 'im go before he eats your entire hand."

Mai came creeping into the scene, putting her hand on her apparent husband's arm. "Geese, please."

Guess even the head of South Town wasn't immune to the charms of a pretty woman for it was what he needed to pull his arm away. With her by his side, he descended the hill with his entire entourage circling him. Typical Geese Howard. Once the black garb brigade had left the graveyard, Rock picked the candle up, turned it alit put it by his mother's headstone.

He stared long and hard at the flowers there. Those were not hydrangeas. They were…Tartarian asters. Something familiar formed in Yamazaki's mind. One of Sorimachi's accountants was a gardener by hobby. He had spoken at length about flowers and their meanings. A whole language for it. The Hanakotoba. The Tartarian aster was this guy's favorite. What the fuck did they mean again?

"Let's get outta here," Rock uttered as he descended the hill and snatched the coat from the ground. While he dusted it clean of snow, Yamazaki wrapped an arm around him, feeling him sag in the embrace.

It was a quiet ride back to Kim's crib. Filled with silence, contemplation, and hunger. At a red light, Yamazaki took a second to glance to the side and broke the silence with something lighthearted.

"Fucking hungry too?"

Rock didn't answer right away. He had been sitting there, unmoving like a statue so it was almost a shock when he slowly turned his head. "…I have to get used to the fact that you and that man are friends."

"Stopping you right there. He and I are not friends. He just has a deep wallet and I have the tools to dip into said wallet," Yamazaki answered.

Still disgruntled, Rock sighed and rubbed his hand all over his face. "I care about you, shockingly. But…it just feels wrong to me. I mean, I can accept who and what you are but the thing with Geese, that stings."

Not one for reading people, Yamazaki attempted to parse that regardless. "Are you pissed at me because of it?"

"No," Rock leaned against the door, just a notch annoyed. "You didn't marry him after your boyfriend died at least. You're just using him for cash, right?"

Yamazaki glanced at him again and said; "Look, Rock. I'm on your team here. Every fuckin' time, okay? So don't take me doing jobs for Geese as some kind of betrayal or attack or somethin'. I've just done it for such a long time that I got to know him and his tics after a while for better and for worse. Doesn't mean I'm willing to bend over and call him Daddy though."

There came a faint chuckle from Rock which filled the atmosphere with the slightest hints of relief. The red light flashed green, just as his hand reached across the console of the car and brushed against Yamazaki's cheek. The feeling it left him with was one of those unspeakable things, the types of which that left him fulfilled in a different unfamiliar way than money and chaos.

It took the lust part of what he'd been feeling and morphed it into something more vulnerable. It occurred to him that he had been close to losing it all after having a bad nightmare because it was always far easier to push everything and everyone away than being all mushy and talking about feelings and shit. His right hand twitched with the urge to touch the hand resting on his cheek.

"I guess I can tolerate that," Rock said as he leaned for a kiss on the cheek, brief and charged, and Yamazaki smirked despite himself. Being a sparring partner was the best move he had ever done for himself.

It took an hour or so before they were back at the Kim residence with the night patrol scouring the area. Rock had to identify himself at the gate but got intercepted by a face, Yamazaki hadn't hoped to see again.

"Holy macaroni, it's you!" Hon-Fu exclaimed, swinging his nunchakus around as if he prepared for battle. It was a miracle that he didn't hit himself in the face with how much of a clumsy dipshit he could be.

"It's fine," Rock interjected. "It's alright. It's community service. Just ask Kim."

As if someone had summoned him, the justice fetishist came trudging out from the dojang, dressed far too lightly for the dead of goddamn winter. "Yes, he has renounced his evil and is doing good by helping others. A stellar example of new methods I could use for-"

"I'm not gonna be your fuckin' mascot for your mad experiments, asshole," Yamazaki stopped Kim before he'd get another spiel about good and evil or whatever.

"Just you wait and see," Kim exclaimed. "Sooner or later, you will learn to love justice like I do."

"Is that a promise or a threat?"

"Yes."

"Alright, fuck, whatever. I'm too tired for this shit anyway," Yamazaki rolled his eyes, grabbed Roch by the wrist, and dragged him away from Dumb and Dumber before someone would develop permanent brain damage.

With the police detail outside, it didn't feel so quiet outside. Or maybe it was Yamazaki's natural aversion to law enforcement. Either way, he wasn't quite able to sleep right away, sitting upright and staring at the curtains and the bars covering the window. It felt like a prison, which he had seen plenty of in his lifetime. Not a trigger but still mildly uncomfortable. He was quiet but somehow Rock reanimated next to him, shifting for a bit.

"You okay?" he yawned. "The bed just feels weird when you're not laying down here."

"Right," Yamazaki answered. "This place fuckin' sucks with all the blue boys around though."

"I know," Rock said like he was tired of it too. "But they'll leave you alone now."

As if to punctuate this, he went to play with Yamazaki's hair to pull a smile out of him, then settled close to him. Ever since earlier today, he had been a lot more handsy. It was as if he believed that physical comfort at this level was what he deserved, and he'd take that wholesale. At this stage, affectionate safe-for-work touches were all he was comfortable with. That was okay – even if all this touching without sex was something Yamazaki had to get used to.

He never got physical comfort anywhere. He hadn't gotten it in years so consistently. He got it sparsely from Sorimachi. The man wasn't exactly the prime example of intimacy either. A handshake here or a hand on the shoulder there when someone did really well. That was just how it was.

Rock however was willing to shower Yamazaki in all of it and more, like a therapy pet. But he was also needy on top of it, hands cupping Yamazaki's face and kissing him tenderly like they were lovers. The warmth, the passion, and the pure romantic feel of it startled the older to the point where he pulled back.

The silence, heavy, uncertain, and awkward stretched between them as some of the earlier desolation came over Rock and he pulled his hands back. "Sorry. Sparring. You're not my…"

Yamazaki sat motionless, stiff as a board. For the first time in a while, he didn't know what to say, what to do, what to answer. No, they were not lovers. But today had been a day of melodramatic proportions so more issues to work over and ponder on until the end of time were not needed. Pretty sure heads would explode if any more shit was added. So Yamazaki shut off his brain, drew his hand over the back of Rock's neck, and pulled him closer, kissing him the only way he knew how. Pinned down against the mattress and partly on the road to devour him.

He had to stop at the involuntary moan that came from Rock because it made him shudder when that old fear came again. As the terror passed, he reached up and pulled Yamazaki down again to kiss him again. Long and tender but always kept in the safety zone.

It felt like it was a balancing act of the fundamentals between love and lust. A delicate balance that Yamazaki couldn't muster up the brainpower to really think over right now so he flopped onto his side with a quiet sigh as Rock pressed a kiss against his temple. He shouldn't close his eyes from it, but he sure did.

Almost, it shut out the world around them. It shouldn't. This was not love, he had to remind himself as he felt a body snuggling up against his and he tucked himself against Rock's neck, falling quiet to a weirdly fulfilling stillness until all he could feel were two hands resting on his head, a pulse beside his ear and his own humanity taking over full throttle.

Too powerful for him to stop it. So he didn't.

The police had no idea of how to be quiet as Yamazaki woke up to a lot of noise. The body still snuggled up against his distracted him from that. A ball of a human being but mercifully still. He gingerly moved out of bed and got dressed, making sure to make as little noise as possible when he left the room. Not that it would matter with the cops fucking around outside but it was the thought that counted. As soon as he closed the door, the burner phone on the kitchen counter began to vibrate. His body stirred with something akin to life at the sound as he answered.

"I suppose since you're back in my town, it'd be rude of me to not have a welcoming gift for you. It's on short notice so do yourself a favor and decide quickly," said a voice flatly yet undoubtably confidently, familiar and slightly irritating.

"Uh-huh," Yamazaki acknowledged, dead and indifferent like usual when he dealt with the king dick of South Town. "This better the fun. The last asshole I worked for put me in a humdrum of garbage."

He was tempted to drop hints about Kain but thinking of the drought of quality work still hurt. It was in the past anyway and he couldn't afford to feel like this. There was nothing to be done. Nothing to reverse the damage. All he could was let time repair the shards scattered all over. Thankfully the person it all came down to was coming along just fine in his completion, still peacefully asleep once Yamazaki checked up on him.

No, this was not love.

Yamazaki was pretty sure he couldn't feel love at all anymore. But he'd be a fool if he didn't acknowledge that he felt something with Rock around and that went beyond wanting to fuck him silly.

Geese, Rock's absentee father, scoffed down the phone line. "You don't bore easily, I'd reckon."

"It's called standards, Howard."

"Mm-hm," the older man deadpanned. "Anyway, you know where to find the intel. Bug extermination. That should get your blood warm."

And the call ended just like that.

"Asshole," Yamazaki growled under his breath. He headed for the bathroom next and returned minutes later to Rock pacing about, still drunk with sleep.

"Good morning," he rubbed his eyes. "What's up?"

"Got a job. Considering it's on short notice, it'll be over quickly."

It took a moment for the news to register and Rock to come alive by it. He nodded and headed for the bathroom, brushing his teeth with the door open. Barely done, he sauntered to the fridge for eggs and toast.

"So how does it work?" he asked in the midst of making sunny side-ups. "You just get a call?"

It showed a shocking amount of acceptance that he actually broached the subject like that.

"Unless it's a bigger task, yeah. It's a burner phone I use so people just call me directly. If I don't have one at the moment, I go to a certain place to get a number and use a payphone. Hell sometimes, that place is where my intel is. If it's promising, I'll bite," Yamazaki explained, momentarily floored at the fact that he was explaining this shit to someone willingly.

"Place?"

"Mac's Bar. A dump in the Central City."

Rock hummed as he nodded and loaded plates with eggs and toasted bread. Opening the fridge for juice, he turned around and asked; "How do you know when it's promising? I mean, it's not all jobs you take, right?"

Good question. Never one Yamazaki had actually thought about. He never considered the answer. How would he know? He looked at Rock again who finished the cooking with some sausages and tomatoes.

"Think about the eggs. How do you know one is bad without cracking it open?"

"The float test."

Damn. Well, that was pretty black and white. Suppose some things in life just were like that. Especially cooking. Certainly aspects of Yamazaki's field too. Just not this.

"And good vehicles from bad? You don't need to split 'em open to know, right? You can get a feel of it when it rolls into the garage, whether or not it has enough life in it to save it from the scrapyard."

Coming over to the dinner table with two plates, Rock nodded. "Sometimes you just know."

"Exactly."

"So, intuition. Got it," he moved around again for juice. "Or fate."

Sure. That made sense since they were sitting here on account of Yamazaki's intuition regarding work being wrong. And he didn't believe in fate but maybe it was destined that things would turn out this way. Which was bit of a horrible thought considering what Rock had been through.

"What type of job is it?" he asked as he poured some apple juice for them both. When once suggested that he should try orange juice, he grimaced.

Yamazaki shook the silly memory away and stabbed at his egg yolk. "Assassination."

"…Of who?"

"Considering it was Geese Howard who called, it's one hundred percent going to be a rival of his who pissed in his cereal. A crook with a vindictive streak taking out his fellow crook."

Rock soured a bit into his glass. "…You need help?"

It wasn't like him to offer his assistance like that. Maybe it was due to the involvement of his father by blood that he wanted to make sure the man hired would come back in one piece.

"Heh, don't underestimate me, wolfy. You stay on the good side of the law."

By the way, Rock slumped his shoulders, he was relieved to hear that. For all the things he had experienced, witnessed, endured, for the blood in his veins, he was by all accounts, not a criminal.

Oh, he'd shot a man dead in self-defense but that didn't count. He was not a killer either, but he was a fighter. Yamazaki had no doubts that if there ever came a time when they had to brawl each other, they'd be evenly matched. It had to be like that if Rock was trained by Terry fucking Bogard for a good portion of his life with a side order of Raging Storm. If he could stop hurting when fighting, he'd be a force to be reckoned with. Assuming he already wasn't.

No, Rock could stay here in his wolf den and live life on the straight and narrow.

"When will you be back?" he asked like he was seeing someone off to work. Although that was exactly what he was doing – just more morbid.

"Afternoon, evening."

"I see. How do you feel about enchiladas tonight? Or tamales? Maybe I could make tortillas instead..." life sparked in Rock's eyes as he, as usual, went off to nerd out about something or another. If it wasn't a book, the inner engineering of a steamroller, or music theory, it was whatever he could pull from his mind and onto a plate. Around the world in eighty dishes and counting.

Amused, Yamazaki half-listened and half-watched him, noting how not bad it felt to be submerged in such homely surroundings. To have what others might consider a home. Some place to come back to, people waiting for him. How odd, it was.

"It's decided," Rock announced, all poised like a politician. "Quesadillas, it'll be."

Geese Tower, pretentious name included, sucked. Simple as.

It was a blight on the city skyline and felt like a giant middle finger to anyone coming into South Town. One couldn't help but wonder if it was a case of penis insecurity too. Albeit for different reasons, Yamazaki shared Rock's distaste for the structure. Thankfully he seldom had to go there as Geese would hand out jobs via his goons or a third-party location.

That he didn't today lent credence to the fact that whatever this job would be, it was a fresh problem that had to be fixed quickly. A newly hatched maggot to kill before it infested someone's wound. Still, when Yamazaki stood in Geese's office, the man was sharply dressed as always so maybe the problem wasn't the biggest in the world if he had time for that.

"I'll make this quick," Geese said, leaning forward in his chair. "White is a business associate of yours, yes?"

Yamazaki blinked at him and nodded. "Although not anymore, I think. Had an altercation. Yeah, sounds about right."

The way he was being stared at demanded an explanation and so he relented, running through a version that left out anything hinting at Rock and Kim. The unfortunate victim of White's brainwashing became the rebellious daughter of a minor crime lord. It was much easier to dress the whole truth up as a conflict of interest and not…affection.

"I see," Geese uttered but he didn't actually care. He just might if he knew the whole truth but that wouldn't be fair to the son he abandoned. "And I suppose this has no bearing on your efficiency to kill him?"

"I would've murdered his ass then but I was also dealing with someone coked out to the moon and back," Yamazaki explained with a shrug.

"You're not one for protection jobs."

"I used to be a bodyguard."

For a moment, there was a hint of something in Geese's eyes like he considered opening his big fat mouth on that detail because he was the type of person to background check everyone who as much as even looked at him.

Mercifully, he did not.

He lifted his eyebrows and sat back in his chair, changing the subject swiftly; "Anyway. As you found out, I'm a married man now. Had to delay the honeymoon because White has been a pain in my ass and I need him gone as quickly as possible. Thought he'd be dead in a shootout, but it was a puppet he used."

Yamazaki simply nodded. No congratulations. Both of them knew damn well that this was not some sort of friendship or alliance or anything even remotely close to trust. Yamazaki could care less about who Geese dragged into his bed.

"It's a rush job in broad daylight," he pointed out, yet his blood stirred alive. "You owe me more for this than just the money."

Geese gave him a long and hard stare, shrewd and scrutinizing as usual. Usually the look of acceptance. Good for him as the moment that he mentioned White, Yamazaki was already interested. It'd be nice to put a bullet in the skull of the slimy fuck, to watch him bleed and make sure that he'd be dead as the life drained from his eyes. It'd be a little odd to then go back by evening to Rock's quesadillas and his project of fixing up the old motorcycle from the auto shop.

"Always so hungry for money," Geese shook his head.

"Says the one swimming in it."

"I like the power that comes with it."

Yamazaki was very close to rolling his eyes. But begrudgingly, he would have to agree with Geese on that one. Having a lot of money meant having a lot of power. So, the payment that the old geezer made was like pocket change even if it came in a hefty brown paper bag.

White held out on South Town's adjacent island in a mansion on the cliffside. Yamazaki only happened to know this because firstly; Billy told him. Secondly; he once tailed one of White's dolls to the location as insurance. With the promise of ending the man's life, it was easy to get overly excited, but he meant to keep the promise to Rock; no innocent bystanders and unfortunate stragglers trying to survive only to be left bloodied in his wake.

So he drove responsibly all the way to White's mansion, hopped out, and headed for the entrance. Never one for precaution, Yamazaki kicked at the massive wooden double doors until they were flung open. White lived isolated so he didn't expect anyone to come out here. In case they did, he could brainwash them. What was a slimy asshole to do when someone impervious to his mind control came for a visit?

The answer revealed itself quickly thereafter.

Several dolls stood in the lobby, all the size of a regular human. All moving at once. Heads twisting, eyes glowing, artificial smiles static. Yamazaki tore through them all like a chainsaw through flesh. As they were all dolls with no mind or sentience, he ripped them all apart, ripped them limb from limb.

He grabbed the leg of one and used it to bash another one's porcelain face in. He plowed, kicked, and tackled his way through the lot of them before he ascended the staircase. It was early afternoon judging from the position of the sun that threw its light throw a massive window over the top of the stairs.

He quickly moved on.

Next came the locating of White's whereabouts. Which happened to be in the mansion's east wing, behind a door to an observatory. It was here he controlled the dolls. It was here where he summoned an energy shield of what looked like one of their faces. Goddamn, Yamazaki hated the Hakkesshu and all it stood for but it was useful when he tapped into it, breaking the shield from White, taking parts of his composure in the process.

The twisted displease on White's face was so fucking satisfying. His shields and remaining dolls were ineffective against Yamazaki's sacrificed sanity. That sense of floating in a black haze, the blood rushing in his ears, the distant howl of his crazed laughter. His body felt like strikes of lighting flashing across the sky, quick and ephemeral as the first jab of his knife that was plunged into White's leg, tipping him over before diving into his arm.

"Damn you! Damn you to hell!" the slimy fuck shouted, spittle flying out of his mouth. He quieted down immediately at the hand that grabbed him by the jaw and turned his head, eyes staring at the blade inches away.

His mouth opened again with inhuman muffled screams as Yamazaki dug the knife into his eyeball, scooping and twisting at the tissue. Blood ran over White's temple and the bridge of his nose while his iris and the lens inside were carefully extracted. By the end, his eye looked like a sludge of bloody bits. He was violently thrashing but helpless against the weight of the man straddling him.

"And that's for Rock, you son of a bitch," Yamazaki tittered, his bloodlust not being close to fulfilled. He wanted White to forget the image of coked-up crying blondes and remember the face of the man who killed him.

"That little degenerate? Disgusting!" White sneered, his voice shrill with adrenaline and agony. "Fighting for a whore who slept with his uncle. Do you like used goods? Do you find his suffering delicious? Can you taste Kain's semen on his skin?"

The words were like a splash of water.

All of a sudden, the Hakkesshu, the other dragon, bloodlust, everything, it all faded away into nothing. It was like sobering up without a hangover. Yamazaki simply sat and stared at White, blank-faced and shocked. And White fucking noticed with the way his face twisted into a demented grin.

"…You never knew. You didn't know. Aww, poor dragon. You didn't know that your boy toy was an incestophile, jumping into bed with his own flesh and blood. I bet he did it because Geese wouldn't be a good daddy and molest him so he had to whore himself out. Do you pimp him out? Watch while they all take turns? Does it give you a little tingle between your legs when he screams for it to stop? Or does he actually really like being a little harlot? Maybe you raped-"

In the blink of an eye, without the Hakkesshu, without his other half, without anything that made violent jobs like this satisfying, Yamazaki's vision turned satanic and red. He tightened his grip around the handle of the knife, forced White's head upwards, and forced the blade against his throat.

Slowly, he drove it deeper and deeper through muscle, flesh, and tissue. Like a slow droning march indifferent to the way White's mouth filled with blood or how he gurgled. All Yamazaki could see was Kain's face and his eyes rolling to the back of his head with threads of life quickly snapping.

Some semblance of composure came over Yamazaki then but he felt all around dour in a way he hadn't experienced before. He remained where he was with warm blood coating his fingers and the heat of a body under his slowly turning cool to the touch. It should feel good. It should be satisfying.

It was not.

Standing up, Yamazaki dragged White's body to a nearby balcony overlooking the ocean and tipped it over the railing. Before falling into the water below, it collided with some cliffs below, cracking its skull wide open like Rock when he wanted to make smoothies with honeydew melons. But instead of sweet fruity flesh inside, there was blood and brain matter splattered all over. Yamazaki turned around and headed for the bathroom to wash his hands, trying to decide how to feel better to not worry Rock when he got back home.

Home, he thought again, doubling back in surprise at the realization. He was heading home.

First, he'd need to place a call.

It was evening when Yamazaki got back to Kim's abode and found it livelier than usual. Aside from the police detail wandering around, there was now the ape of Muay Thai. That tramp always running around with the Bogards. He was in the courtyard building a snowman with Hon-Fu and Kim's two brats.

From the main building, came Rock with a large pot of hot cocoa to serve everyone and their plastic cups. He spotted Yamazaki by the entrance, handed the pot to Hon-Fu, and came jogging through the snow. He wasn't wearing much aside from regular clothes and an apron. Already he was shivering with his arms hugging his body.

"Welcome back," he smiled just faintly and gestured to the snowman. "I changed my mind because Joe came over, and I made fried crocodile meat. And then Myeng Swuk and I decided to make hot chocolate for everyone. Let me get you a cup."

Before he could leave again, Yamazaki grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the dojang until they stood at a blind angle, hidden from everyone. Here he clenched their bodies together. Just for a moment while the words from White hung like a dark cloud in the back of his mind, while he couldn't stop himself from thinking about whatever crimes against fucking nature Kain had done. It fucking ached like nothing had ached before.

But why?

It felt a little better when Rock's arms slowly wrapped around Yamazaki's torso.

This was not love but…

Okay so;

1, Yamazaki is just hardcore denial about that sweet, sweet love. Don't worry, he'll get over it. What he won't get over is his urge to murder Kain now.

2, The conclusion to the White subplot. Mofo is dead for real now.

3. And most importantly, if you didn't read Black Velvet, you'd have no idea why Mai is hanging out with Geese or why they are married.

4, Oh, and next time: SHIT GETS REAL!