a/n: because precious yukine is precious especially when he has to deal with the father/mother dumb couple of yato and hiyori and I need to vent about being a thirdwheel. It's kind of a character analyzing bit at the beginning but I promise that (hopefully?) it gets better as you read on. please read and review!

notes: Yukine-centric, generous amount of swear words.

Yukine is miserable.

After watching Hiyori and Yato both flush deep red and loudly stammer apologies when their chopsticks touch each other's when they reached for the last piece of barbequed meat, he is hit with the sudden urge to bury his head in his arms to stifle an aggravated scream.

"S-sorry!"

"No, you're fine – er, it's my fault."

Because they're so goddamn stupid and Yukine can't do anything about it because Kofuku promised him to.

He really shouldn't have listened to Kofuku, he thinks to himself, as he peeks up to see Hiyori, who was on the verge of promptly passing out, as she stares intently at Yato's chopsticks while Yato hurriedly shovels food in his mouth to hide his flushed face, and Yukine realizes that it's because Yato still hadn't put away the chopsticks.

Yukine grimaced as the words "indirect kiss" popped into his head, and groans into his elbow.

Life sucks.

Something had happened between his two "parents", Yukine likes to think of them as that, but he doesn't tell Yato or Hiyori that because who knows how much regret he will feel when they unfailingly would do something stupid.

While Hiyori was at school, Yukine was stuck with a lounging Yato.

"So," he says, reading a textbook. "what happened two weeks ago?"

Yato for once, was silent, and Yukine looks up to – regret asking.

"W-w-well, y-you see…" Yato's face is a bright red.

Yukine felt his insides go cold. "Oh my gods, you attacked her in her sleep."

Yato paled. "N-no, it wasn't like that! It's not like I accidentally pushed her in the water when I fell from the tree and had to do CPR on her!"

"…."

Well, that's great, Yukine thinks darkly. He just broke his newest pencil

"Please tell me you didn't stick your tongue in her mouth."

"W-well…."

"Oh, shit –"

"Die, bastard!"

"Kofuku-san," he says, tapping his pencil on his workbook.

"Ne, Yuki-chan?" she hums as she lounged next to the table where Yukine was working on the school books Hiyori lent him.

"Do Yato and Hiyori…" he hesitates, his face warming. "You know, like each other?"

Kofuku snaps up from her magazine, and Yukine kind of regrets asking her because that evil glint in her eye is not a good sign and Daikoku will definitely have his head after this ordeal, or whatever the sinking ominous feeling in his stomach means.

"You think so too?" she chirps, and Yukine thinks that he's going to be in big trouble because the gears in Kofuku's head are already turning and he was to blame. He shrinks into his bookwork.

Yup, Daikoku will definitely kill him now.

But this was Yato and Hiyori they were talking about, the two closest people to him, so really, it's okay.

Sure, Yato was, or tried to be at least, a father figure to him. He lacked many ideal (to Yukine, at least) fatherly qualities like being responsible, making money, and wearing sophisticated outfits that didn't include track suits (that are worn almost every day).

And maybe if he'd be more like a dad if he fixed his sweaty hands problems; wearing gloves wouldn't be bad either, because that would make Yukine's life a whole lot more comfortable to fight the Ayakashi if he didn't have the feeling of Yato's gross hands.

Despite the many departments Yato falls short in, he has a good heart though and his intentions are clear once his really acts on it, and Yukine grimaces at the memories of the purifying because he really was a brat and still Yato quietly shouldered every sting that Yukine created because he was trying to make up for that missing gap of the father figure Yukine never had, according to Hiyori as she draped a blanket over a snoring Yato.

He rubs his shoulder as he recalls Hiyori's pained cries of "Those words were like those of a father!" and smiles bitterly because, if Hiyori wasn't there, both he and Yato would not even be here right now.

Hiyori was, how should he say it?

She was warmth. There wasn't really much Yukine needed to say about her because she was wonderful and she really made him feel at home.

She balances Yato; she was the rationality to his master's irrationality, and she was the more sane people who understood his motifs, with Kazuma-san coming in second. She really tried to see the good in everyone. She's the mom Yukine is grateful to have, and is scared to have. He's grateful because she's patient, caring, and strong and Yukine feels her warmth on cold winter days but then he glances over, mid-laugh, to see Yato's eyes when they look at her, he can't speak because he sees the same fear reflected in his eyes.

They're both scared.

They're scared of her forgetting, of the blank stares, of the genuine, puzzled "Who are you?"

From what Yukine can guess, Yato, being the moron that he was, didn't want to burden her with his feelings on top of remembering her promise to him, when she clearly doesn't mind.

In fact, Hiyori looks happy to be with the both of them, and Yukine's fine with it, but his idiot-god of a master, Yato, isn't. It'll be worth it, won't it?

He lets out a resigned sigh, and turns to look at the beaming Kofuku.

"Yeah, I do."

"Great!" she bounces to her feet. "Here's what you do…."

"So this function would go here –" Yukine circles a spot in the equation, "– and this one goes here?" he scribbles in an arrow connecting one circle to another.

"Very good, Yukine." Hiyori's praises are not without a proud smile, and Yukine can only grin widely in return.

"Hiyori!" The owner of the voice had purposely stretched out every syllable of the girl's name and Yukine feels a vein pulse dangerously on his forehead.

"Yato." she shyly greets the figure at the doorway, with a light pink dusting her pale features. "What is it?"

"Ah, nothing, really." He scratches his head before plopping down on the side of table opposite of the girl.

.Awkward silence ensues, save the sound of the scritch-scratch of Yukine's pencil.

The tension is so awkward, and he really doesn't – oh, right.

Kofuku's face appears in front of his mind, and she sings "Tell them when you don't know what to do, and it's just the three of you."

Yukine started suddenly and stood up, startling the two of them.

"I just realized that Daikoku needed me to buy more meat." Yukine flashes the two of them a smile as he grabs his jacket.

"Yukine! I just felt a sting!" Yukine quickly dodges Yato's attempt to grab his shirt, and hides behind the door.

"By the way, Hiyori, ("E-eh?")" Yukine peeks out at the two of them, and hides his growing grin.

"You should get together already."

And as he sprints away, he could hear Yato bump and hit the table in an attempt to catch him.

"Yukine!"

He laughs.

Yup, definitely worth it.

.

.

.

.

.

end.

[deleted scene]\

"Hey."

Yukine feels a pulse on his forehead as he glares at a stuffed animal, averting his gaze away from the couple.

"Quit sucking face in public!"

a/n: *sobs* I can't humor and ireally love yukine

reviews are greatly appreciated as 5-yens!