A/N: I don't even know what to say about the huge delay for this last part. Yes, it's the end! I owe everyone so many thanks and apologies if you stuck around to read this whole piece. I had a lot of fun writing it, even if by now all I can see are its flaws (hopefully you don't feel quite the same way). I've actually had the first few chapters of a sequel written for a while, but its plot is giving me trouble. Naturally, things just couldn't be all peachy for our beloved pair after this (although you can imagine they are, if I never post the sequel). I hope this end is satisfactory, regardless, and thank you again to all readers.

Epilogue

It was with a much more pronounced flurry of motion that the door to Tatsumi's office closed behind the other Kyuushuu partner, approximately one week after his odd meeting with Hisoka. The secretary's glasses were slightly askew as he stared at the wooden surface of the door, which was by all means innocent, and rather indeed a victim of the situation as much as he was. The real one to be pitied here was the manila folder that had ended up thrown on his desk, which was filled to the brim with papers, much to Tatsumi's surprise. The shinigami leaving it had been a conspiring ball of excitement, leaving with a wink and a happy skip. Very suspicious, if not as out of character as Kurosaki's behavior had been when dropping off his version of the report.

He didn't bother going through the process of reminding himself that he shouldn't technically rush to read the file. It was a lost cause; the stretch of time between his receiving the suspicious first version and now had only worsened the dire need to know just what had occurred during that fateful week of case work. He managed to push down his irritation at the fact he first noticed upon flipping the folder open: it was written in an odd assortment of pencil and green gel pen… the sparkly kind. He'd post a reminder about the 'black or blue ink' rule later. Other than that, the only immediately visible anomaly was that it was exceptionally long, especially considering that Tsuzuki normally made his reports as short as he could manage to get away with.

The report should answer his questions, Tatsumi reminded himself before setting to reading.

Case 2-137-12, Fieldwork Report

Employees deployed: Tsuzuki Asato, Kurosaki Hisoka

Date arrived on site: 3/12/99 (Evidence of a different number having been written in as the year remained despite a lazy erasing job over the mistake.)

Date returned: 3/19/99

Location: Fukuoka City, Kyuushuu region

Cause for investigation: Suspicious looking suicides happening across Fukuoka City, when the souls weren't on the record for dying any time soon

Case status: Closed

Summary of the case: Dear Tatsumi,

I'm going to write this all here because I know that Watari isn't going to last much longer, and I'd rather tell you myself, but it's too much to really tell you face to face. This way, I think you'll understand it all. I didn't know how you'd react, so I didn't want to just blurt it out suddenly, either.

Tell me once you read it though!

-Tsuzuki

Tatsumi's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline at the odd introductory note. Not only was it a complete breach of commonly understood report filing etiquette, but it also seemed to reflect a lack of understanding of just for whose sake the employees were filing reports in the first place. Regardless, he couldn't help but smile fondly for just an instant before he smoothed over the expression, reading on with renewed interest.

We set out the same morning we were briefed on, to go investigate the apartment where the last victim, Ishida Akira, had died. Something was up with Hisoka, and I could tell, not just because of that magic partner telepathy we get sometimes, but because he actually acted a little absentminded, walking right past the building we were looking for. He'd also been kind of sulky when I got distracted by muffins, but that isn't too unusual, sadly. He'd get really mad if he knew I called that being sulky (but I think I'm a little right). When we were investigating inside the room, I noticed the light was blinking on the stereo. It seemed kind of out of place, so I went to check it out and ended up hitting the play button. It was a recording of piano music, but it had an inexplicably strong effect on Hisoka, which he described as affecting his emotions… He looked to really be in pain, and I managed to remember the symbol that meant 'stop' under those circumstances, thankfully. I really wanted to reach out to him after that, since he really needed someone, you know? But I didn't let myself, like usual.

You see, I'd been talking to Watari before we got assigned this case… about me and Hisoka, because he nosed his way in and made me fess up. I mean, I'd known for a really long time how I felt about him, and I think you have too, Tatsumi. And since Hisoka seems to pick up on pretty much everything else I'm thinking, I figured he knew too, even though I tried not to make it too obvious and make him uncomfortable. But Watari told me that he was 100% certain that Hisoka didn't know, and he told me all these crazy hypotheses about what he was thinking, which amounted to both of us thinking the same thing about the other. He said everyone was sick of watching the two of us not saying anything when it was so obvious to everyone else how we both felt… And I know Watari isn't always the best source of reliable info, but I kind of wanted to believe what he said.

So he talked me into trying to say something as soon as possible, and it was kind of looming over me the whole time. But anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, I wanted to go back to the hotel so that he could rest after we took out the CD. It gave the name of the guy who played the music on it, Adrian Mann, and it seemed like enough for us to go off on to investigate some, and he really needed to lie down. He didn't agree, of course, you know how he doesn't want to let himself be weak (even when it would hardly mean actually being weak, of course). But we had to leave anyways, because the neighbor overheard the music playing and got scared. As soon as we got back, I made him lie down, and he ended up passing out right away. So cute! But I was concerned because it looked like his empathy would make this case really tough on him… Not to mention that I think it made him remember what almost happened with us, what I wanted to do, just as much as it reminded me. After all, it wasn't just me who was going to… I'm sorry, Tatsumi, I'll stop writing about this now.

So I was trying to think how to make his pain better, after I finished looking up where Adrian Mann lived, of course. When he woke up he was all flustered about falling asleep, and he insisted we go right then to check out his apartment. I knew that once he'd made up his mind like that, he wasn't going to change it, so I didn't put up a fuss, since it didn't seem like it would make things any better.

Now, this is where things got really strange. We went to his apartment, and this Adrian guy was home, so we decided to go in saying that we were friends of Tatsuya Akira, and we'd heard about him and wanted to talk to him about Tatsuya. Frankly though, this guy gave me an odd, creepy feeling from the beginning. He always sounded cool and composed, and he didn't really bother making nice about the idea that we had just lost our friend in such a way. He didn't have much human warmth, I guess. But Hisoka acted really weird when he was talking to us, giving answers when he normally wouldn't, and he showed an interest in hearing Adrian play the piano. So he did, and he played this really calm piece that left Hisoka in this bizarrely calm mood despite everything. I got us out of there, because he didn't have anything to say to help us out or really indicate properly his involvement, and because I could tell something was off.

So, when we got back, Hisoka was weirdly quiet for a while, just lying down and staring off into space. Then when he came back to himself, he acted surprised when I said that I thought Adrian Mann was suspicious. He insisted that it was just a gut feeling of mine, so we should ignore it and keep looking for other clues at the other scenes. It was kind of odd, but he seemed dead-set on it, and he did have a point. There hadn't been any hard evidence that something was wrong during our visit… But I did manage to convince him to let us go out to dinner before we went on investigating! It was this great place, too~ I think even Hisoka didn't mind it too much. But he started getting curious when I lapsed into silence. I couldn't help it, I just couldn't stop thinking about what Watari had said about his feelings! And I needed to think about it a lot before I said something and ruined our relationship beyond repair, you know? But then when I admitted I was thinking about him, he got all embarrassed… It's just impossible to win sometimes, you know? But that's okay.

Anyways, I ended up wasting a lot of time at the diner. The waitress was a tough bargainer! They usually let me get at least a little discount, but she was really resilient. Hisoka wasn't happy with me, but I think it was for the best that we didn't go out again that day after all. He really needed more rest, and pushing himself too far wasn't helping anyone. I don't mind looking like an idiot if it will be better for him.

The next day we headed to the previous victim's apartment. Hisoka was kind of grumpy about the night before, so he had me go through the boxes left behind by the guy's family, who had moved most of his stuff out already. And I found with the rest of his CDs one just like the one we'd found at the previous scene—with the obviously suspicious guy's name on it, again. When I showed it to Hisoka he still wasn't convinced, though, and he showed me this calendar that had been left, too, with a date marked on it when he attended a concert that Tetsuya Akira had gone to. I had to admit that that was suspicious, too, so we agreed to look into what could have gone on there (instead of going back and raiding Adrian Mann's apartment looking for evidence). It was a total bust, though, because the place was huge and any classical music fan in the area would have been at that performance.

Hisoka was really upset because he saw that as him wasting our time, even though it could have been a really good lead and it wasn't like I knew better, either, you know? But he was acting kind of sulky and off, like he had been for a lot of the case. And then I ended up looking at him a little too long and thinking a little too much and yet too little, because before I knew it I'd started talking and I don't even think I knew how I was planning on telling him. I backed out, of course, once he prodded me to go on, and I thought he'd just yell at me for being absent-minded or something… But he was really hurt, because I wasn't trusting him with it. I didn't know what to do with his honest admission to it. It's funny that he's more ready to trust than I am, isn't it?

He wouldn't even let me apologize, though, before he changed the subject back to the case. I know, I know, we were on the job and all, I won't complain, Tatsumi! Anyways, he said he thought there had to be some power at work manipulating people's emotions. We thought that maybe it was a demon under contract by some other musician who was jealous of these guys and wanted them dead. Of course, we were just guessing, and had nothing left to do but pour over the files. I think you know it too, that point in the case where you just get this bad feeling and know that you'll be waiting around until someone else dies. It feels awful.

And the next day, someone else had died. I guess I didn't hide how guilty I felt about it—and I know Hisoka wouldn't want me to anyways, he hates that—but what really surprised me was that he actually promised, said we wouldn't let another die. He really wasn't being like himself, but I also must have really been worrying him with my own odd behavior to get him to do that. Just because it was so uncharacteristic though, it forced me out of feeling depressed and guilty; I didn't want his caring to go to waste, after all.

Of course we stayed perfectly on task like the exemplary employees we are! So we went right to the guy's apartment, but it had a really strong impact on Hisoka through his empathy once we walked in. By then it was pretty obvious something unnatural was going on with the emotions involved in this case. But he even grabbed onto my arm when it made him stumble—he really trusts me, even if he gets embarrassed about that kind of thing afterwards. But right, the apartment, we found another one of those CDs. His continued denial of this Adrian Mann being involved was getting harder and harder to understand. He did, however, find a bigger piece of evidence (or what seemed to be at least): a letter connecting the latest victim with the previous one. They were both members of this classy music appreciation group thing, and there was going to be a meeting to go see a fancy concert later that week.

Hisoka decided that we should work our way into the group, so he looked up the contact information of a still living member mentioned in the letter (and it seemed like he had been fighting with the two deceased guys, to boot). So, in short, we were going to have a nice evening out together at just the kind of event he'd actually be able to enjoy—so lucky! I knooow, Tatsumi, I shouldn't think things like that while I'm working, but it's not like we didn't get the work done, too! But then Hisoka said I'd need to learn to talk like I knew about classical music, and gave me this scary list of foreign names I should know to answer different questions they'd have…

I was all nervous and excited about how the pseudo-date-case-work (I'm sorry don't kill me I'm sorry really) would go, and wondering if I should try and use it as an opportunity to say something. So, I decided I needed to communicate back with base operations, and I got in contact with Watari to fill him in and ask for advice. …About the case, too, yes! I wasn't slacking off. He whooped and egged me on, but we agreed I should try before we actually went out just in case it was really awkward when we had to go eat dinner with the musician people. Watari's a good friend, but some of the things he says sometimes, really… Anyways. I didn't want Hisoka to be too suspicious, either, though, which is hard with the whole empathy thing and all. I don't think he'd even thought of how much like a date it was though.

He seemed totally shocked, after all, when I tried to bring it up jokingly over dinner. It was a totally innocent comment, too! Just suggesting that instead of me memorizing his list, we just tell them I was only his date and knew nothing about music… I thought he'd just throw something at me and tell me I wasn't going to get away with being lazy at the cost of his dignity (or something to that effect). But he looked really… hurt. And what he said surprised me most of all. "No one would believe that." He sounded so… disappointed? I didn't know what to believe. I knew how I wanted to take that, but that seemed too impossible. He said he looked more like my younger brother. …I kind of felt like I was a creepy pedophile once he put it that way, but anyways…

I couldn't decide if it was a perfect opportunity to say it or not—if he was trying to say, "I know how you feel and it frankly creeps me out" then it would make things painfully awkward, but if he was saying, "I'm afraid you'll only ever see me as a child"… I could imagine that would be Watari's interpretation. I ended up not being able to decide that night. I think I just mumbled something vaguely suggesting that I didn't think it was that weird. (Which I don't, does that make me weird? Oh well.)

The next morning, after barely surviving that dinner, I got up early and called Watari to update him on what had happened. He seemed really shocked too, but he told me (like I expected) it was totally the second option and he had some horrible solutions in mind that I won't detail here, but he told me I definitely needed to make use of the evening out to make him feel like I didn't see him that way. Determined again but feeling scolded all the same for my tactless behavior there, I headed back with a pastry I was sure he'd actually like for his breakfast. He was using the shower, so I set about memorizing the answers he'd written out for me. And when he came out, he smiled at me! I thought I was seeing things. He wasn't mad! And he liked the pastry! Maybe the damage wasn't so bad after all.

Tatsumi, promise me you won't get mad about the next bit. Please! It was work-related- even required! But we went to go rent suits to wear to the meeting. We would have been so out of place and suspicious without them! The expense was needed! Really! And he looked so good in it, and I don't know how he didn't notice right then how I felt, because I don't think I did a very good job of hiding it (or if I was trying or not, in retrospect, but I don't think I was even considering it). Um. Anyways!

The show was at this really nice place, and it was filled with all these well-dressed rich people. If I had money and we were actually dating, it was totally the kind of thing we'd do! I couldn't stop thinking things like that. He seemed pretty happy about it, too. He didn't even get that mad at me when I said something I probably shouldn't have about buying him flowers… which I didn't do so don't kill me and if I did it wouldn't be with the case funding I swear! I think I was really obvious. The whole time. I mean, the performance was great, but… (There are signs of a sentence written and erased, then written on top of here.) Okay, I won't write that, on second thought. It was really great though!

And then we went right off all business-like to meet with the people we came for! The members of the group were all really nice and friendly, other than this Ishida Jun'ichirou guy, the one the two victims had been arguing with. He behaved very suspiciously whenever the deceased members came up, and even said disparaging things about them. So really, we did gain evidence towards the case by coming! Well, what we thought was at the time, at least. It seemed pretty reasonable to think that Ishida might have a contract with a demon or something that was taking out his enemies for him, and at least one of the other members approached us with his own suspicions against him. (They also asked about how Hisoka and I were related… That was kind of depressing, but I used it as a chance to slip in an implication that we were involved! Watari would have been so proud.)

When we got back we convened on what we'd learned about Ishida, decided to go interrogate him the next day, etc. The real big thing… well, I didn't want to let it go without saying anything, you know? Even though I was afraid it would make him feel awkward. I told him I'd had fun, which I figured was innocent enough. He turned a little pink I think, but he seemed almost happy when he scolded me for not thinking about work enough. I apologized for what I'd done to make everyone think we were together, too. He seemed kind of surprised, but then he ended up saying, something like, "I thought you'd be the one to be embarrassed." He really kept on saying new things to surprise me! Why would I be embarrassed about people thinking that? I was the one always making little comments at him about it. I told him as much (okay well, not in that detail) and then he just said we should get some sleep. Which, well, was true, but I liked where that conversation was going. I guessed that he wasn't as ready and waiting for me to say something as Watari thought.

The next day, we argued again, about how to approach investigating Ishida. It was a pretty typical difference in approach that comes up with us a fair amount, but we agreed to go talk to him personally in the end. When we got there, he wouldn't let us in; he said he almost had something and just closed the door on us, irritated. We could hear music from within. Hisoka seemed really intensely bothered about it, in a lot of pain, and then he passed out.

That really took me by surprise. He isn't the sturdiest, and he really needs to eat more, but he generally doesn't pass out that often (in the winter, at least). I took him back though, and he didn't even wake up until sunset. I was starting to think of taking him back to Meifu to have Watari take a look at him, but I figured he probably just needed that rest really badly. Someone acting emotionally unstable like that must have just set him off because he hadn't been taking care of himself. And when he woke up, he even apologized for holding us back. He's too serious about work, really. I was happy that he didn't protest when I said we should wait until Ishida would be asleep to go back; he really needed some food and rest.

The whole time, I was considering saying something. I couldn't make myself just jump into it on impulse, though. It must have been really obvious to him. I kept backing out before I could even try; after all, this was a really bad time to just whip out something like that: I've been in love with you for a long time now, let's go interrogate this guy about demons! He'd have hit me. Even Watari wouldn't have said that was a good idea.

When we got there, though… Music was playing again, that crazy piano music, and when we stepped in, he'd already died. It didn't take much to confirm that he had done as the others had; the blood was everywhere. By the time I managed to stop the CD and take it out, Hisoka had collapsed. I can't really blame him for that one; even without empathy it was a hard thing to bear.

He woke up the next morning, and well… Thinking back on it, it's kind of… okay, really embarrassing, what happened next. But I said we should go investigate Adrian Mann's apartment, because it was pretty damn clear by then that he was the key behind the case; after all, it was his recording of weird piano that seemed to have been playing during the suicides. But Hisoka actually protested again, saying that he "knew" that this guy wasn't involved. I was getting irritated at that point, and I guess I let it show at least to his empathy that I was… okay, jealous, after how he'd acted right upon meeting Mann, and how he refused to investigate further. I know it's silly! But he really trusted him right off the bat, and I couldn't forget how oddly he'd behaved when we met him. But Hisoka called me out for it, and got mad in turn, asking why I even thought that and why I'd even be jealous. I just… I'd been so foolish not to hide it well enough, and I couldn't express to him why. I knew he'd see it as a breach of trust, but I couldn't, and I told him as much.

Then he—well, he brought something up that was something we had a silent non-disclosure agreement on. I don't think it will be easy for you to read about it, Tatsumi, and I'm sorry. But Hisoka's actions really make no sense without understanding it. When he came to me in the basement of Shion University, actually in those moments you'd found us in, and we were both… determined, ready for… what we thought was coming, we were just together in this way that I guess can't be fully explained now that I think about it. It was kind of like when we were forced to synch back in our very first case, so I guess it has something to do with his empathy. It was like sharing a heart, and I know that neither of us could ever forget it. But we never brought it up, for our own reasons that now I guess were the same, since we'd both felt like the other had discovered something about us that we weren't ready to talk about. He asked me why I couldn't trust him even after experiencing that, though. He looked more surprised that he'd actually said it than I did, and I thought he was going to cry, and then he was gone.

I was in total disbelief after that. I really wished he had just stayed, and then maybe I could have told him right then, because that reaction really seemed… Well, things needed to be fixed, but I didn't really know what to do next. Ah, ahem, I'm not particularly proud of the next part of the story, either, but please forgive me in advance, Tatsumi. I went out and bought myself an apple pie and made a tearful, confused phone call to Watari. He encouraged me to find him, apologize, and confess, as soon as possible. I didn't have the same confidence that that would make everything wonderful again, but I did realize from how it hurt Hisoka that I was keeping something from him, that I needed to fess up, and soon.

Now, knowing Hisoka, I first made a thorough, covert search of the library. Well, I said covert but I did end up getting discovered by the Gushoushin… but they have a sympathetic side when Hisoka is involved, and they told me they'd known he had been here for a while, but he was gone by now. That wasn't altogether too surprising, and I cursed myself for delaying with the pie, but the phone call had actually been reasonably helpful. Okay, so maybe the warm, delicious pie had also been a service in its own way… Ah, anyways, I checked his house, too, but it didn't seem like he'd been in at all.

That was when I was truly stumped for a while. There were few other places he would be; he liked to avoid the blossoming cherry trees, which were my usual place for thought when I was upset. But Hisoka isn't the type to mope, and he would beat himself up for wasting time… Of course, that could only mean that either he'd gone back to the hotel while I'd been gone, or that he'd decided to go see for himself which of us had been right about Adrian Mann.

I regret to say that he hadn't taken the more reasonable route. When I got there, Adrian had discovered him (we later learned that because of his spiritual power he's naturally able to see us in spirit form, like Kazusa) and it seemed like he had the upper hand, even. Not wasting any time, I used a simple binding spell before he'd discovered me, to totally seal any movement. I got Hisoka out of the spell's range, but knocked him over in the process… he was fine though, he just seemed kind of bewildered, and explained that Adrian had known about us all along, and could manipulate emotions using sound, or something like that. It didn't really make sense, but uh… Please don't be mad, Tatsumi. But we agreed that Watari would have a lot of fun figuring out what worked behind a natural ability like that… and that shinigami might benefit from the information our scientist could gain from taking a peek at him before we sent him on for judgment. So really, it was for the good of the department! No, for all of Enmachou!

So, I teleported him back while Hisoka went to lie down back in the hotel room. Watari was shocked and delighted to see me, and promised to take good care of the unhappy guest I'd brought him. As we suspected, he was thrilled at having such a rare human to learn about. He then cornered me about what had happened with Hisoka, and gave me an encouraging slap on the back and the instructions to "go get him, tiger." I love Watari and all, but sometimes he scares me.

Ah, well, I feel like writing the next part might be a little too… um, well, I think Hisoka would kill me. I'm sure you noticed that things are different between us, right? Well, um, yeah, we talked when I went back to the hotel. And things made a lot more sense after that. So yeah! I mean things aren't perfect yet but I'm amazed and shocked and happier than I've been in a while and I really wanted to let you know but we were both kind of still floundering about the whole thing and no time seemed right. I knew Watari was going to crack any day though, so I tried to write this as quickly as I could! And, uh, yeah, looking back I had a lot to say about it.

Oh, right, after that! Watari had gotten some information he was all excited about working with from him, and the next day we sent him on to judgment. So the case is all nicely closed up, too!

Signature of employee filing report: Tsuzuki Asato

Tatsumi stared at the simple, innocent signature marking the end of the report. Different emotions battled to be expressed properly on his face at once. Decidedly, he was overjoyed at the very least from the words "happier than I've been in a while." Not to mention that he'd been expecting something of this sort for longer than he thought most had, being the one best tuned into Tsuzuki's emotions other than Hisoka (although in some ways, more so when it came to certain feelings). He smiled gently as he shut the folder, before taking out a small note from his stack and putting a pen to it in one efficient motion.

Dear Tsuzuki-san,

All casework reports are merely filed by me as the Chief's secretary. Not only does Chief Konoe read them, they also are evaluated at higher levels outside of the division. I just thought I would let you know.

Best wishes,

Tatsumi Seiichirou

P.S. Congratulations.

Fin.