A/N: Nope, don't own it. Checked them out of the library, can play with them for two whole weeks. Higher rating than the first two for later chapters to come and a few bad words. Based on the anime, not manga.

F Major Diminished Fifth Trilogy

III. Unity

Chapter One

From Ayumu's Point of View:

Two weeks of quiet. Quiet, of course, was a relative term. I mean, the roof was no longer quiet, as Kousuke had pretended to throw Rio off the roof, Ryoko usually kicked Kousuke around for one offense or another while loudly yelling, and an argument had broken out when Rio had beat Hiyono to my locker and stolen my lunch first. One day, I really would carry out on my threats to start investing in decoy lunches filled with something slimy and disgusting, just for a laugh.

No, I've missed my solitary naptime, but I can't say that the rambunctious energy spiraling from the lack of threats over the past weeks is unwelcome. Even the Blade Children seem happy, in a mild, tentative sort of manner. I'm not sure if they've actually changed; perhaps it's just because I'm much more comfortable in my own skin, and as a result, more comfortable with others.

Two weeks of quiet has meant that I haven't seen Eyes Rutherford for a full fourteen days. I had decided that a cooling off period of at least a few days would be good. A few days stretched into a week, then two, as my dreams about Eyes grew more vivid and troublesome instead of vanishing. I wanted to pretend I wasn't attracted to the mysterious, quiet man, but my subconscious had other ideas. Unfortunately, the more detailed my dreams got, the more nervous I got about facing Eyes. While I knew he had been with Kanone, I was fairly sure he didn't look at the younger brother of the great Kiyotaka Narumi as someone worthy of his affection.

"...since Eyes just got back from L.A.," I dimly heard Rio saying to Hiyono.

"Huh?" I said, lifting my head slightly. "I didn't know he left."

"Benefit concert," Kousuke sneered, while trying to steal a bit of bread from Ryoko. "Before that was a sold out show in Chicago. He was only gone for five days though."

"Hmm," was all I said, settling back down and trying very hard not to picture Eyes in my mind as I drifted off slightly, trying to think up some reason for stopping by to see Eyes beyond beginning with, 'I had to see you because...'

My daydreaming in class later earned me a chalkboard eraser to the head, and I headed home, still shaking white dust from my messy mop of hair. Perhaps I would shower and then... I stopped short, staring at the apartment door, which either Madoka had left ajar or had admitted a thief. I approached slowly, shifting my grip on my backpack, prepared to swing it at anyone on the other side of the door, instantly feeling foolish as I saw Eyes sitting on the couch facing the door.

"Ever heard of knocking?" I quipped, tossing down my bag in disgust.

"I tried," he replied dryly. "No one answered."

I stared for a moment, realizing that he had just made a joke. "Yeah, well, I'm sure you know what time Kousuke and Rio come back from school. I get out at the same time, so you could have waited till then." I had a sudden, terrible thought. "Unless something bad has happened. You're all right, aren't you?"

"I'm fine," Eyes replied, looking at me closely. "Jet lagged, but fine. Not tangling with an errant chalkboard like you have been, I see. I was simply checking in to make sure everything had remained quiet in my absence."

"Amazingly quiet," I told him, sitting in a chair opposite the couch, trying not to blush as I tried vainly once more to shake loose all the white dust from my hair. "Unless you count Kousuke pretending to throw Rio off the roof and disturbing my nap."

Eyes gave me a look, apparently as put off by my joke as I had been by his. "It seems... odd," he announced at last. "Two weeks and no sign of any hunters or any problems."

"Agreed," I replied instantly. "I've been a bit concerned about that as well."

"Kanone has left, and with Kanzaka dead, perhaps they simply have no choice other than to lie low." Eyes sounded like he was thinking out loud.

"Kanone is definitely gone?" I couldn't help asking, and regretted the slight bitterness in my voice, which Eyes had clearly heard as well.

"I saw personally saw to his departure," Eyes said, his voice, if it were possible, had become even quieter. "He will not bother you again, I will make sure of it."

"He's not your responsibility." I couldn't help saying. "Especially not since..." I trailed off, not wanting to reveal how much I had pieced together about Kanone and Eyes' past.

Eyes glared at me. "So you've put it together then, or did Rio open her mouth? You've found a piece of information the press would have a field day with, haven't you?"

I laughed, shrugging. "I think they'd be more interested in your secret life as one of the Blade Children, honestly," I told him. "And if you're worried, I haven't even told Hiyono."

"Keeping secrets from the girlfriend already?" Eyes replied. His tone was lighter, like he was joking, but there was something dark and serious behind his eyes.

"Hiyono's not my girlfriend, and I think the news about you might devastate her," I joked. "She was quite a big fan of yours... well, until she met you, anyway."

"I do tend to have that effect on people," Eyes admitted unabashedly. He stood suddenly, the usual façade he wore to block me out snapping firmly into place suddenly. "Your sister is on her way up," he informed me quietly.

"You should go, then," I replied, standing as well. "She's already gotten suspicious enough about my involvement with the Blade Children. She's afraid I'll leave the way Kiyotaka did."

"You won't, will you?" Eyes asked, his voice suddenly a bit odd and muffled sounding. "You wouldn't leave?"

I stared at him, waiting for him to look up, meet my gaze. "Not unless I absolutely have to."

Eyes shifted, his lips parting as though he were going to say something, then closing, then he opened his mouth again and closed it. "It's just that you already mean more to us than Kiyotaka did," he admitted at last. "We wouldn't be able to handle loosing you as well."

I realized suddenly that I was holding my breath and let it out shakily. Eyes had said we, not I, I reprimanded myself angrily. The Blade Children need you. Not him personally. "Thank you, I think," I said, a bit awkwardly.

"I didn't mean it as a compliment," Eyes informed me, his aloofness safely back in place. "Merely a statement of fact. Stop by my hotel and see me later this week." The last was a command, not a request. He swept past me and out the front door, closing it with a final click.

From Eyes' Point of View:

I had gone absolutely mad, I told myself as I played fiercely. What had started as a simple checking in with Ayumu upon my return had become something odd, akin to friendship. He had taken me at my word, stopped by, talked of nothing for nearly an hour, then left, telling me to stop by again any time I needed.

It had become routine. I met Ayumu at his house after school on Tuesdays, and he came to visit me on Fridays. Last Friday, somehow, we'd ended up sprawled across my bed watching horrible monster movies that it had turned out we both enjoyed. Hiyono had called; apparently Ayumu had forgotten she was coming to meet him that night. My heart had done funny flip flops at the thought that Ayumu ended up putting her off for me, but nothing had happened for the rest of the evening.

He can't come here anymore, I decided fiercely. I'll end up doing something stupid, saying something about how I feel or kissing him or... I banged on the piano with more force than was necessary. I was staying put, right here, no matter how close to school letting out it was. I threw myself into playing, not noticing anything around me until a hand snaked over my eyes and sent me quickly into a panic where I flipped the person to the ground, straddling them and pinning them to the floor.

"Ow, I'll warn you next time, I swear," Ayumu protested, and I suddenly went very still. I hadn't moved, and he was still lying underneath me, pinned by my grip. "I cut the last of my classes, I had a bad feeling about you," he confided, and I let go of his wrists, remaining seated on top of him.

"Warning me would be a good course of action in the future," I replied, settling my fists on either side of his head threateningly and glaring down at him. "I could have hurt you badly, you little idiot."

"I'm not that easily bruised," he shot back, but he wasn't looking at me. His hands were firmly clasped together, and he was looking over my shoulder, though his eyes kept drifting back to my face.

"What?" I snapped, sitting back and swinging my leg off him. He sat up warily, shrugging.

"Can you teach me to do that?" he asked, and I blinked, surprised.

"I'm sure you know how to fight," I began and he shook his head.

"Never really learned, cut gym class for years," Ayumu said easily. "I can hit people, I guess, but nothing formal, nothing really useful."

I was quiet for a long moment. "I can teach you," I said slowly. "I'm not certain how good of a teacher I will be though."

I walked Ayumu through a few simple throws, which he picked up with surprising ease. It was getting late, I noticed, and in the moment I shifted my attention, Ayumu managed to drop me to the floor, pinning me as I had pinned him originally. "And here we are again," he observed, his hands holding mine to the floor.

"Not quite," I gave him a moment's notice before I used my body to roll him quickly, pinning him again, a little breathless. "Now we're back to the beginning."

He smiled, struggling for a moment, trying to recreate the move I had used, but I held him pinned. "How'd you do it?" he asked, sighing and relaxing once more.

"I'm stronger than you," I replied, loosening my grasp, and Ayumu rolled me over, pinning me again.

"No, you just waited for the advantage over me," he returned easily, stopping me from tossing him off. "Now I know how to keep you in one place."

I forced myself to relax, and Ayumu collapsed against me, feigning exhaustion. "That was fun," he told me, and I shrugged.

"Now you're crushing me," I complained, trying to keep myself from reaching out to pull him closer. "You have a funny way of showing gratitude, Little Narumi."

He raised his head, giving me an odd look before sliding away and sitting up, not looking at me. "You've been playing with me, wrestling, teaching me to fight. But you've used this before, and killed."

"No," I said softly, pulling my knees up to my chest. "Not this way, except in self defense against Hunters. When I killed the first time, I was just a kid and it was…"

Ayumu was watching me now, his eyes a bit wary, but I plowed on, needing to know if he could accept me. "My mother," I whispered. "I didn't mean to hurt her, but I couldn't save her. I should have fallen down the stairs, not held on and let her take the blow. I had a couple of broken bones, but because she broke my fall, her neck had snapped. My fault. I was playing where she told me not to. I was pushing her, because I wondered if I wouldn't be better off dead, and I thought she couldn't save me anyway."

Ayumu's arm was suddenly around my shoulders, and he was pulling me into a hug. "You shouldn't," I warned him, not leaning into the hug. "I destroy anything that touches me."

"I'll take that chance," he told me, and I let myself fall into his embrace. My eyes were mercifully dry, but I needed the support. It seemed like hours before we moved again, and the room had gotten dark. "We should get something to eat," Ayumu told me gently, and I nodded. "I'll cook, if you'd like," he offered.

"Are you as good as Rio claims?" I asked. "Kiyotaka could burn water."

"I'm good," he assured me and offered me a hand to help me off the ground.

"Then I'd be foolish to refuse," I said. I watched him in my kitchen, the silence easy and comforting, and suddenly realized that somewhere during the course of the afternoon, I had fallen in love with Ayumu Narumi.

Shit. This was trouble. "You okay?" I looked up quickly at Ayumu's question, and nodded.

"I'll be fine," I managed to say, grateful that he turned away. I'd loose his friendship if he ever found out how I felt, and I needed his friendship more than I would ever have dreamed.