::Three Reasons::

A Yukimi POV

I got three reasons for treating the kid the way I always did…

When I think about it, I like to say we had a buttload in common. But the similarities were outweighed big-time by the differences.

The both of us wanted to be loved. No doubt about that. And neither of us would let it show. Thing is, the kid was /afraid/ of being loved. That's why I couldn't let it happen. Why I pretended like he didn't matter to me; like it didn't make a difference if he came home at the end of the day wheezing and twice as dead as the day before…

I dunno why the hell I was so protective of a walking-deathwish like him that came to me without even so much as a name. Or why I named him what I did: A gust of wind: "Yoite". Like that cat I had that one time, that randomly left one day, just disappeared out of thin air. The more I learned about him, the more I realized it was fitting…

There was this one time though, that I was stupid enough to try to plant one on the kid… Didn't go over well.

His lips were cold, and he stiffened and wouldn't move, but he was shiverin' like a naked Eskimo or something, and I felt like an idiot.. So instead of makin' myself look like even more of an idiot by apologizing, I just asked him why he wasn't kissing back.

After a long awkward silence, he admitted that he didn't know how. He said it in this voice that sounded shaky and quiet, like he was about to burst into tears and it made me guilty.

So I scratched the back of my head and shrugged casually, tryin' to come up with some way to comfort the poor guy without overwhelming him any more than I already did...

"…Just…however feels right…" I told him.

So all this shit builds up and every time I'm supposed to hurt him I can't bring myself to do it, and it seems like he stops every time he threatens me too, and I want to know why the hell we're in the same organization but different sides of the playing board, and I just got fed up. Fed up with all of it. Fed up with that Shinra-Bansho kid he was always with and fed up with the way he'd randomly show up at my doorstep half dead.

But it turned out in the end… I dunno how… the kid sealed the Shinra Bansho or something, and apparently even after years and years and years of knowing Yoite, I didn't really know him at all… 'Cos now, all the sudden, he doesn't want to disappear anymore. He doesn't want to stop existing. He wants to just die. Just give in to everything he's been fighting against his whole life. Just…lay down and die. And I wonder what kind of magic spell that Shinra-Bansho kid put on my Yoite…what he did to make him something he's not…

They asked me if I wanted to see him one last time… One last time before he died…

And I said no.

I didn't wanna see him.

It was the old Yoite I wanted to see.

Not this guy… This 'new, changed-heart' person in the kid's body. I was too late to see the old Yoite… I didn't wanna see whatever was left…

…I didn't wanna see him.

I wonder if that damned cat had fallen for a cat-friend before he left, too.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

three reasons:

1: Despite his looks, he was still just a kid…

2: Self-explanatory— 'HE'.

3:

The kid was a Kira-user…

It wasn't like he'd be around forever.