Mika was a light sleeper.

He woke the second he heard Guren Ichinose open and close the front door downstairs, and he was surprised.

He thought Yuu had told him the noble had no plans of coming home that night.

Yuu must have thought much the same thing, because Mika felt him stir.

Mika didn't know why he did it. Maybe it was just curiosity, but when he felt Yuu move he kept his eyes closed and pretended like he was still asleep.

Yuu must have bought it because he was very careful when he slipped himself out of the bed, pulled on some clothes, and tipped toed across the room. Closing the door behind him almost soundlessly when he left.

As soon as the door was closed Mika opened his eyes.

A bad feeling was twisted up in his stomach, and he rolled carefully out of the bed to follow Yuu. Wrapping himself in a robe he found and creeping silently after him down the hall.

When Mika reached the top of the stairs he could hear Yuu and Guren below him. They were talking, and Guren wasn't being particularly quiet about it.

"What happened?" Yuu was asking him.

"Shinya threw me out."

"Why?" Yuu sounded concerned.

Guren huffed and must have flopped down on some furniture.

"Something about being distracted by work and never paying attention. But I mean, I was sitting there talking to him, so how little attention could I be giving."

Yuu sighed. "Did you forget something again?"

"Don't hassle me, kid." It sounded like Guren kicked his feet up.

"So I heard you left the party with a good-looking blonde boy." Guren commented. "I didn't realize you and me shared similar interests in that department."

"Yeah…" Furnature squeaked as Yuu shifted. "I um… he's upstairs."

"You slept with him?" Guren laughed. "I didn't think you had it in you to hook up with someone on the first night."

Yuu shifted again.

"Guren… can I talk to you about something?"

"Do you need bedroom advice?" there was sloshing, like Guren was drinking from a bottle. "Because it seems a little late to ask now."

"No, no," Yuu's voice picked up, clearly embarrassed. "It's not that-,"

"Well just don't let the relationship get out." Guren talked over Yuu, before he finished. "Shinya and I work because we keep things private. But as a noble you can't get caught doing things that society doesn't approve of, do you understand?"

Yuu was quiet for a moment.

"Guren," He said finally. "Why did you adopt me?"

"Huh?" Guren's voice was loud. "You know why."

"We've never talked about it." Yuu pressed. "I mean… you have expectations…"

"Of course I do." Guren's voice was hard. "I've taken care of you. Hell, I take care of an entire orphanage, FOR YOU. So I expect you to keep your end of the deal."

"Deal?" Yuu repeated. "What do you mean?"

Guren scoffed.

"I expect you to be my heir," He said, his chair creaking as he leaned forward. "I expect you to keep up good appearances as a nobel. I expect you to learn what I tell you to learn, and I expect you to take over for me, when I retire."

"Take over?" Yuu repeated. "You mean the company? You're giving it to me?"

"Of course!" Guren snorted. "What do you think? I adopted you to create a legacy. The entire point was so that you could take over and run my holdings for me someday."

"So that was the reason…" Yuu's voice dropped, and Mika's heart hurt for him. Because he could tell he was disappointed.

"And… what if… for some reason… I couldn't do that?"

Silence fell over the room.

Mika could hear his own heartbeat.

"That wouldn't happen." Guren replied finally. His voice low, and angry and hard.

"But-,"

"You owe me kid." Guren snapped, cutting Yuu off. "I don't know what's gotten into you. But you will fulfill your side of our bargain. After everything I've done to set you up for it, there is no excuse."

Yuu was silent.

"But I didn't chose to-," Yuu started to argue.

Something glass shattered loudly on the floor.

"Didn't chose? Are you kidding me? You've taken everything I've given you. Insisted I keep funding the hold in the wall I rescued you from. You live in my house, you survive on my dime, and you're saying you didn't choose this?"

Yuu was silent again.

"You're right." He said eventually. "I don't know what came over me."

"Well don't let it come over you again." Guren snapped. "Or else I might start feeling a lot less generous towards you and your orphanage friends."

Mika swallowed.

He crept quickly back down the hall. Slipping into the room and closing the door.

He put the robe back and climbed back into the bed, pretending to be asleep incase Yuu came back. But his heart was beating hard in his chest.

Yuu was right before. If he left with Mika he was sacrificing more than just his own lifestyle. He was sacrificing for everyone he had ever gotten Guren to give money too. And there was also something else…

Guren didn't strike Mika as the type of man to let things go. He already knew the nobel was after him for the things he stole. If Yuu disappeared, and Guren found out by any means that Mika's crew was behind it, then he would never stop chasing them until he brought them down.

And then Yuu would probably be strung up along side the rest of them.

Mika cringed in horror.

No.

The door opened a few moments later, and then quietly closed again as Yuu came back. Mika pushed all of his thoughts aside and played perfectly asleep as the boy climbed in next to him in the bed.

Mika felt Yuu roll over and kiss him on the back of the neck.

Mika felt something hot and bitter rise up in his throat.

Yuu settled into the bed. Pulling the sheets over himself and shuffling until he was comfortable.

Mika waited. Listening to Yuu's breathing until he could hear the boy drift off to sleep.

It took longer than it should have.

When the room was silent, and Mika was certain the boy beside him had fallen asleep, he opened his eyes.

He could hear the house falling asleep. The footsteps of servants disappearing, the glow of lamps darkening from underneath the door. The sound of Guren's loud shuffling moving upstairs and then shutting inside his room and eventually going silent.

Mika listened to all of this, and he was certain hours were passing. But for him it felt like minutes as time rushed by with his troubling thoughts.

Mika never should have come back.

The thought hurt, in a way that was almost crippling even as Mika thought it. But he couldn't tell himself anymore that it wasn't true.

Yuu had a life before Mika came back. Maybe he missed him then, but it wasn't like this. Back then, the two of them were just echos left of a past life. Memories and regrets that Yuu would think about but ultimately move on from as he continued to live his life, but now…

It wouldn't be a clean break. It couldn't, anymore. Not now that they knew what it felt like to be together. Not after they thought they could have it, even for just one night.

But clean or not it was about to be broken.

Mika closed his eyes against a hot stinging that traveled all the way down to his throat.

I'm sorry, Yuu-chan.

Mika was silent. More silent than he thought he knew how to be. Because if this hurt now, it would only hurt more if Mika woke him.

Mika found his clothes, slipping them on in the dark and then pausing for only a moment to look back at the sleeping boy in the bed.

I'm so very sorry.

Then Mika snuck soundlessly through the door.

Mika was quick. His feet almost weightless as he rushed down the stairs. Grabbing his coat and jacket from the peg before sneaking carefully to one of the first floor windows.

Mika stepped through the window and down behind some bushes on the side of the house. Closing the window meticulously behind him before keeping a crouch as he ran across the lawn and off the property of Guren Ichinose.

Never to see it again.

~.~.~.~.~.~

"Captain?"

Mika strode onto his ship at a clipped pace. His face drawn and a darkness hanging over eyes.

His first mate, Akane, sat up from where she was lounging on some boxes.

"What happened?" She asked, at the look on Mika's face.

He just shook his head. "Is everyone back here?"

"They are…" Akane said slowly. "Most of them are drunk-,"

"Then we're setting sail."

"What?" Akane demanded. "Right now?"

"Now." Mika said firmly. "Are you questioning me?"

"No…" Akane's expression tightened. "Mika… did you find Yuu?"

Mika flinched.

"Gather everyone. I want us out in deep water in forty minutes."

Akane pressed her lips together.

"Yes captain."

The crew was not pleased at being roused that night. But there wasn't a member among them who couldn't sense the somberness in the air. The cold feeling of something ending.

They complained, but quietly, and it didn't stop them from rushing to their stations and pushing off as quickly as they could manage. All under the silent watch of their captain who stood at the helm. Looking out at the black water before him with the look of someone suffering from a death.

No one asked a word about it.

The dock hands at the port would later comment that they saw the shadow of white sails in the moonlight that night. Like a phantom ship drifting on the waves. If anyone asked them to describe it, they would say they couldn't. The night was too dark, and the fog had already rolled in early.

And the ship disappeared over the horizon before morning.

~.~.~.~.~.~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One Year and Seven Months Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mika? Mika?" Yuu rolled over to an empty bed. His arm shifting through cold sheets.

He sat up.

"Mika?"

Yuu looked around the room wildly, his eyes dropping to the the floor to see the missing clothes.

Yuu jumped out of bed.

He left the room, pounding down the stairs to cast searching eyes around the first floor, getting confused looks from the servants.

Then his eyes fell on the coat rack, where Mika's coat no longer was.

Yuu swallowed.

"Emily." He grabbed the maid's arm as she passed by. "Have you seen my friend from last night?"

The girl blinked. "No sir. I haven't seen anyone all morning."

"Was the door unlocked?" Yuu demanded.

"No." The girl replied but her lips pursed. "There was an unlocked window though. I thought it was odd… I know I locked it last night…"

Yuu dropped her arm like it burned.

He swallowed again. Compulsively. Like he was forcing something down.

"Thank you."

Yuu stood for a few moments. The household moving around him with the morning routine, like a river flowing around a heavy stone. Then Yuu grabbed his coat from the peg.

"I'm going out."

And he was out the door.

"Yeah, one of the ships that was here last night was gone when I got here this morning." The dock attendant told him when Yuu stood on the port, feeling the spray of a stormy sea kick up around him. "It was odd. Some of my guys think they saw it just take off in the middle of the night. Must have been pirates. Their paperwork seemed a little off to me, and it would explain why they didn't want anyone to know where they were going."

Yuu's hands clenched into fists.

"Yeah," He said turning his eyes to look out over the stormy horizon. "Must have been pirates."

Mika opened his eyes.

It was that same dream again. The dream he didn't totally understand.

It was like he was watching Yuu, the morning after he left- over a year ago. And it had repeated over and over again in his mind almost every night.

Sometimes he drank, hoping that would make it quiet.

It only worked about half of the time.

Mika slowly sat up in his bed.

"Good morning Captain," the crew greeted him when Mika climbed onto the deck. Akane looked up from her post and came over to him.

"Captain, we should make land by this afternoon."

"Good," Mika looked down at her. "We should meet with the seller as soon as possible. We'll spend the night at port but we need to leave before tomorrow. It's been a long time but the Ichinose merchandise is still hot and our last sale could have the authorities on our tail."

"Of course." Akane nodded. "I'll be sure to keep the others in check while we're on land.

"I'm counting on you." Mika replied.

He was about to turn around when Akane spoke.

"Mika…?"

Mika stiffened and turned around, raising a challenging eyebrow.

Akane ducked her head. "Sorry… It's just… How long is this going to go on for?"

"What?" Mika demanded.

Akane sighed. "You haven't been the same since… Since that night. The crew feels like you're barely around anymore. Always drinking alone and staying in your cabin. We've been patient but… how long do you expect us to wait?"

Mika scoffed.

"Mind your own business, Akane." Mika replied, and tried to turn away again.

"We miss him too." Akane said suddenly and Mika stopped again with his back to her. She sighed.

"I know how close you two were, before when we were all kids." She said, her voice gentle. "And even though you never talk about it… we're all really sorry about whatever happened between you two. But how long are you going to use it as an excuse to shut us out?"

Mika shoulders tightened.

He stood there for a while, like he might say something. Then… after a long heavy silence, he started walking again. Once again disappearing into his cabin.

~.~.~.~.~.~

"I can't believe that fence tried to short us." one of the crew members was complaining as the crew all walked together through the crowded port town. Trying to dodge drunken stumbling men and shouting spanish merchants as the bright amber sunlight bled out of the streets. "What are we supposed to be, amateurs?"

"To be fair, Ichinose and the yard have been making those pieces tough to move." another member replied. "Lots of fences won't even touch them, so I guess we should count our blessings."

"Don't say that out loud! Do you want to draw attention?"

Mika sighed.

"So where are we headed, captain?" one of them asked. "To the bars?"

"If you like." Mika replied. "I'm headed back to the ship, and all of us are leaving at dawn so I expect you all to be sharp."

The crew groaned.

"We can still hit it light tonight, and sleep it off before morning. What do you say?"

The rest of the crew cheered.

Akane looked at Mika. "Captain?"

"Keep an eye on them." He replied, still walking as the crew started to disperse in search of the nearest bar. "I don't want trouble tonight."

Akane sighed but nodded. "Yes sir," she said, and diverged from his side in the direction of the others.

~.~.~.~.~.~

The sun was low on the horizon when Mika made it back to the ship alone. The sound of the town a distant ruckus and the lap of the waves musical on the air.

Mika boarded his ship with slow heavy steps. Crossing the deck to lean his arms on the side and stare out of over dark water as the sky slowly died from bright orange to violet. Taking the blue of the water away with the light.

Mika sighed.

He used to like this view. The whole ocean in front of him, the vast sky, the long horizon, and the smell of fresh air like freedom in the air. But at that moment it just made him feel like a small, very lost thing in a great big world.

"One year," he said, his voice heavy as he watched the sun disappear at the end of another day. "Seven months, two weeks, and five days."

CREAK.

Mika sucked in a breath. About to whirl around at the noise when suddenly a sword came up to catch him around the throat.

"Five days?" A voice said low in his ear. "I think you might be a little premature there, Captain. The day's not over yet."

Mika heart jumped in his chest.

It couldn't be…

"You know… it was very difficult to find you." The voice continued casually. The sword at Mika's throat drawing cooly over his skin. "If you hadn't started selling the Ichinose pieces, I probably wouldn't have caught up to you for years. But I guess having an inventory of the items made things easier."

Mika swallowed. "Is that…" he cleared his throat. "Is it really you?"

"Hmm…" The voice hummed. "Not technically. Not according to government records. After all… if you were to ask Scotland Yard…"

A hand reached up to grab Mika's shoulder. Turning him around to look into bright green eyes.

Tan lips smiled.

"Yuuichiro Ichinose died at sea 16 months ago."

Mika's breath hissed through his teeth.

"Yuu…" he whispered his eyes wide with shock.

Mika stared for a moment, slowly taking in the boy before him.

He looked different. His body looked harder, his skin tanner, and his clothes were loose, revealing cuts of his collarbone and neck. Hinting at the muscles that had grown under the thin linen.

He looked like a pirate.

Mika blinked. "Wait, died?"

Yuu smirked. "The story isn't widespread yet. Quite the tragedy though. Mr. Ichinose set his son on a voyage to retrieve some stolen property that was recently recovered over seas. But before they made it, the ship went through a mutiny and the boy was cast overboard in the chaos. It's a shame, really." Yuu's eyes met Mika's. "No one will ever be able to find a body in the middle of the ocean."

Mika raised his eyes back to Yuu's, slowly searching them as he took in what the boy was saying.

And then he smiled.

"You found me." He said, feeling a rush of emotion crash over him that he hadn't felt for a very long time.

It made his throat tight.

Yuu smiled in response and his lips spread over his teeth.

"Yeah well," he shrugged. "I didn't really peg you as the type for a one night stand, so I thought I had better check."

Mika tensed.

"Yuu-chan…" He murmured, ducking his head. "I'm so sorry… I was trying-,"

"I know." Yuu cut him off, looking sideways and shaking his head.. "You heard what Guren was saying to me that night didn't you?"

Mika closed his eyes. .

"I thought I heard something when we were talking." Yuu confessed. "But I thought, if it was you then you would have just said something. But then I guess then you wouldn't have been able to sneak away."

Mika flinched. "I'm sorry."

Yuu sighed.

"You've always been so protective." he said, running a hand through his wild black hair. "I should have seen it coming. I did sort of. But…" Yuu shook his head again. "I know what you were trying to do."

Mika nodded, letting an uneasy silence fill the air.

Then Mika spoke again.

"You faked your death to come after me." Mika said slowly. "So you think Guren…"

"I don't know." Yuu stared off into the horizon, cool winds blowing through his clothes, making them flutter. "But I've done everything I can. Yuu Ichinose is dead. One way or another. So that's the end of it."

Mika looked at him. "So who are you now, then?"

Yuu finally met Mika's eyes. His lips curved.

"Yuuichiro Hyakuya."

Mika's eyes widened.

"How did you…" He started to say and Yuu laughed.

"I remembered your last name from before." Yuu said. "Mikaela Shindo. But when I was looking for you though I found out that Mikaela Shindo was recorded as dying in a fire. That's what gave me my idea for an escape plan."

Yuu tilted his head. "The Matron at the orphanage…. she told us once her maiden name was Hyakuya. It's far enough off the beaten path that no one would connect it. It was a good choice."

Mika smiled. "I thought so at the time."

Yuu took a step forward. "So does that mean you don't mind sharing?"

Mika smiled. "You have a right to it as much as I do. Besides…" he looked down, red spreading over his cheeks.

Yuu's hand reached out and twined with Mika's.

"You didn't say goodbye…" he whispered, his voice suddenly serious, and low. His hand squeezed Mika's.

"I didn't know how to say goodbye to you." Mika whispered back. "I don't think I ever have."

"Then don't ever do it again, idiot." Yuu grumbled, raising his eyes to look up into Mika's.

Mika squeezed Yuu's hand tightly.. "Never again."

Yuu's lips pulled up and he stepped forward again, this time tipping his head up so that when he took his last step his lips connected with Mika's, and the blonde sucked in a breath.

His hands came up to hold Yuu's face, pulling him closer as their lips melded and moved lazily against each other in the cool sea air.

Yuu wrapped his arms around Mika's neck.

"I missed you," Mika breathed when they pulled away to catch their breath. Yuu pulled back and smiled at him with red lips.

"I'm not taking my eyes off you ever again, just so you know," he said, reaching up to run his fingers through Mika's wild blonde hair.

Mika chuckled.

"I think I can live with that," he replied, rubbing his hand against the side of Yuu's neck.

Yuu turned his head to kiss his palm. "Me too."

Mika closed his eyes and leaned their foreheads together.

"Where is your crew?" Yuu whispered, tightening his grip around Mika's neck.

"Out." Mika replied. "They're supposed to be back by morning."

Yuu grinned. "Then it sounds like we have some time." He leaned up and kissed the side of Mika's jaw. "And I think you owe me another secret holiday."

Mika glided his nose along the side of Yuu's, tracing it up and down. "I'm all yours."

Yuu kissed him again. "Until morning?"

Mika pulled him back in, making the kiss last longer. He spoke against his lips.

"Forever, Yuu-chan."

~ The End ~