~ Epilogue ~

There is no evil in this world. All things are shades of gray.

A/N: Just a bit more to clean things up ~

"You don't have to do this," Tezuka said again. His anger was obvious, but Fuji merely smiled and squeezed his hand.

"It's my fault - my family's fault that this happened." He looked ahead at the hospital entrance, waiting for the glass doors to slide open before pulling Tezuka through.

"They hurt you," Tezuka charged. "No matter what spell they were under, they should have had more self control."

Chuckling lightly, Fuji replied, "That's something only you can do. And this is far worse than what the kankikujyunjou did. Even if their feelings were being manipulated, Mizuki and Atobe were still the ones to caste the curse.

"A failed curse has terrible consequences... its power is reflected back at the caster. My grandfather will have to clean up things with Atobe, as his family's onmyouji, but ... Yuuta told me that no one at St. Rudolph knew what to do, so they brought Mizuki to the hospital."

They stopped outside the hospital room, the one the nurses had told them belonged to Mizuki Hajime.

"Give me a moment, okay? His consciousness won't be right, anyway - he's harmless." Fuji gave his lover one last reassuring smile, before entering the room by himself. He grimaced at what he felt - the dark energies seeping into the walls made him feel sick - but after several minutes of chanting, and planting shikigami to serve as scapegoats, he left. Mizuki was unconscious the entire time. It would be a few more days, Fuji knew, before the curly haired manager awoke - without any memories of what he'd tried to do, and perhaps without any memories of Fuji Syuusuke at all.

Back in the hallway, he nodded to his slightly distressed lover, and they left the place hand in hand. It was the best part of this whole ordeal, Fuji felt, that Tezuka no longer had any qualms about them showing affection in public, and he wondered how long it would be before he started to get annoyed by the "I love you" he heard every day they parted ways.

"Have you spoken to your grandfather?" Tezuka asked. They'd decided to focus on one problem at a time - and now that Mizuki was recovering, and the clubhouse was more or less back to normal - it seemed Fuji's disappearance had translated into an extended cold that had kept him at home for few weeks - the bespectacled brunette could not help but worry about what he saw as the villain still at large.

"No," sighed Fuji, "But I spoke to my family. I still don't know if I'll truly be able to get out of inheriting his work, but... they support me in staying where I am." He turned to give the stone faced brunette a warming smile. "I'm not quitting school, or tennis, or any other silly thing like that. And I've decided..." He breathed deeply, reveling in his new found determination. "I'm not performing any jobs I don't want to. I talked to Yuuta, and told him the... truth, I guess, about our family. He's old enough to make choices on his own."

Well, he'd told Yuuta enough of the truth - just enough that Yuuta would chose wisely to stay out of things, and maybe have a few shuddering nightmares, which Fuji could happily film while his adorable little brother slept, tossing and turning with crinkled eyebrows.

"I'm strong, I know that, and I'm not afraid of my grandfather. He won't try this test again. He can't understand why I wouldn't want to follow him - he probably thinks this is some childish phase, and that I'll realize on my own that I want to inherit his work."

"Whatever you chose, Syuusuke," Tezuka laid his arm around the tensai's shoulder, pulling him close. "I'll be there with you."

Chuckling, Fuji leased into the embrace. "I should say the same to you, upcoming international tennis star."

They already knew what they wanted from each other. An eternity, together. Fuji even knew, from a little innocent spying with a shikigami, that Tezuka had bought a ring, and was just waiting for the dust from this latest storm to settle before creating the perfect setting to ask.

And of course, Fuji knew what his answer would be.

Yes.

Author's Ramble: This will be my last post under the penname Lemon&Chai2b. I have a second account, Lemon&Chai. However, I won't be posting much there either. For all of my fics, both new writings and some secret ones not posted here, go see my account on archive of our own, also under the penname lemon_and_chai ~