A/N: This is something I started last summer but I never got around to finish it properly. The ending isn't something I'm satisfied in, but this was a new project for me, anyway. Excuse the overused concept, though.

Created Illusions, Shattered

His life was boring, maybe even monotonous, to such an extent that he was almost glad instead of being annoyed when he first met the pale-haired (and almost equally pale-skinned) young man who was only a little older than him.

That day had begun normally enough for Shouichi, whose life seemed only to consist of the same routines day after day, with a loud cry from his alarm clock and a loud smack when he fell down from the chair and table he had been sleeping on. (Apparently he slept everywhere but in his bed.)

He would blink a few times, still sleepy, and try to figure out just where he was before remembering that he had been up late programming a certain program the company he worked for needed and that he had somehow fallen asleep during that time.

Shouichi would groan in annoyance at himself before getting up from the littered floor (he really ought to clean his apartment one of these days) and stretching himself while ignoring the cracks he heard coming from his spine.

Then he proceeded to silently wonder about whether he should get an appointment to a doctor to get his back checked – certainly all these sickening noises coming from his spine weren't a good sign – before disregarding the thought as he winced at the still ringing alarm clock.

He had never been a morning person – not even when he had to rise early for school all those years ago.

None too gently he turned the alarm off, running a hand through his thick bush of red hair afterwards in order to soothe the pointy curls down to their rightful places, more or less successfully.

Next in his morning routine came taking a shower and brushing his teeth – he took good care of them especially after seeing his grandfather's teeth falling off (quite literally) – and those activities were done swiftly, in mere fifteen minutes. (He wasn't prone to wasting time to unnecessary things.)

Changing his clothes took only about five minutes – clean underwear, socks, and the other pieces of clothing his usual attire for work consisted of had already been taken out from his drawers the previous night before he had accidentally dozed off on his laptop.

And as usual, he barely had any time left for breakfast before he'd have to take off for work – he silently berated himself for that; hadn't his mother always called it the most important meal of the day? - but he did manage to eat a slice of bread and gulp down a glass of milk while straightening his tie and trying to avoid getting crumbs on his shirt.

All this was done in a comfortable silence since Irie Shouichi lived alone – a fact which his neighbours liked to gossip about behind his back, and that confused him a little bit although he did nothing to stop it either – and soon enough, with clumsy hastiness, the redhead was closing his front door while pulling on one of his cleanest jackets on.

(His employers might not care much about how the employees dress, it was still important to appear somewhat representable, right?)

He rode a bike to his workplace after climbing down the stairs of his apartment building from the third floor; it took four and a half minutes of him to get to the bottom floor and about two minutes to his bike and about twenty-two minutes to his workplace – he had once taken count of the time when he had felt the superficial need to know just so that he could rearrange his morning schedule (which he never did, though).

He was a programmer for a well-known company that was trying to become a world-wide one – an ambitious goal, Shouichi thought, and very unlikely to come true – and one of the 'irreplaceable' pieces in the machinery that was the company's business.

Or so his employers had told him.

Shouichi himself had worked there for six years already – having graduated from both high school and university very early – and his twenty-fifth birthday was approaching. Not that he counted his birthdays anymore; it was just a day like any other – he'd wake up, eat, go to work, get back home and sleep. There was nothing spectacular about December 3rd.

(Although seeing Spanner and Tsunayoshi-kun always brought some joy in his life since they always came to visit him on that particular day and his dull dull life would become vibrant with colour again-)

Shouichi's working hours were mostly the same – from 6 am til 6 pm – but sometimes he'd have to stay overtime because of some crisis, usually a computer virus (mostly the Trojan kind), that occurred.

Lately, there had been lots of crises – and Shouichi was both physically and mentally drained. Although, if he was completely honest with himself, he had been drained for some time now. He had never been an energetic person, though, so it was harder to notice.

(And since Spanner and Tsunayoshi-kun saw him on rare occasions – they hadn't noticed it either.)

Perhaps his mental strain was the reason why it was so easy for someone like Byakuran to snake into his life – or, rather, stalk him for weeks before their first official meeting – without the redhead making a huge fuss about it.

Anyhow, on that (faithful, ominous, yet so normal) day Shouichi had worked until 8 pm – two hours overtime, of which he would receive a nice bonus (which he would never use on himself), and he was having a hard time not crashing into lampposts while he rode his bike towards the familiar apartment building and it actually took thirty-six minutes of him to finally get to his apartment's door and unlock it with his keys – which took a couple of minutes because of his apparent exhaustion and the lack of motor skills that followed his tiredness.

It had become already dark outside, and Shouichi flicked the lights on from the switch that was next to the front door and started to take off his jacket – now wet with coffee because of the coffee from the cup which had accidentally been pushed down from his desk. Poor jacket would have to be washed, an activity which Shouichi wasn't too fond of but which he did anyway because asking for help seemed a little embarrassing. Or maybe he should take it to dry-cleaner's...

(He could also try buying a washing machine, like his mother had told him to.)

He shrugged at these ordinary thoughts of his life and moved on with the usual schedule he had mentally formed in his mind – meaning that having a snack was up next.

Or rather, it would have been if Shouichi hadn't heard something. A noise, sounding eerily like footsteps, coming from his bedroom.

That was definitely something that wasn't part of his normal life or day.

At first, the redhead figured it was just his imagination playing tricks with him; he was, after all, very tired after a fourteen-hour workday.

But then he heard the steps again when he had paused his own steps which had been headed towards the kitchen of his small but cosy apartment – they weren't even quiet steps at this point, much to Shouichi's amazement.

Burglar? Most likely. A confident burglar? Even more likely, since they were being so loud. Careless? That too, since they hadn't noticed the redhead returning.

What disturbed him the most was the fact that the burglar had somehow managed to get into his apartment, his home, without having to break his lock. Maybe the burglar had picked the lock? Possibly, or maybe-

-that person had a key.

Shouichi froze on the spot at that thought, feeling suddenly quite awake despite his long day and panic making his stomach clench quite painfully.

Call the police, the less afraid part of his brain said almost impatiently. Call them now.

How many times had he read about burglaries gone wrong where the house owner had returned unexpectedly? How many times had that unlucky owner been killed by the burglar? Shouichi didn't know the exact number of such cases but he certainly didn't want to end up being one of those unlucky persons.

Breathing as calmly (and quietly) as possible, Shouichi drew his phone out of his pants' pocket while his heart continued pounding harshly against his chest. His hands were shaking quite badly, though – calm down, Shouichi, you have to stay calm – and he nearly dropped the cellphone twice before he managed to grab a good hold of it and -

"Ah, Shou-chan is finally home!"

He had not heard the burglar coming out from his bedroom, and the oddly cheery voice almost gave him a heart attack. (Although he was quite healthy at the moment so heart attacks were not expected to occur even if he was scared witless.)

This time, he did drop the cellphone from his hands and a loud thump followed as the phone hit the floor with speed Shouichi could solve in his mind.

That went unnoticed by the redhead as he was too busy to stare at the stranger in his home in barely concealed fear.

"Is something wrong, Shou-chan?" the stranger tilted his head slightly in a questioning manner, a bit of his pure, white hair covering his eyes so that only his nose and that strangely happy smile could be seen.

"...Excuse me for not knowing what to say when I meet a stranger in my own apartment", Shouichi all but hissed, the fear still apparent on his facial expression and in his tone of voice.

His green eyes inspected the white-haired male in front of them, his stomach growing a little sicker by the minute.

What he first noticed was the fact that the other man didn't fit the image of burglar he had in mind. He was too... innocent-looking, although the word 'innocent' didn't really fit the man standing there that well either.

He was lean, well-built from what Shouichi could see, and a little taller than Shouichi was – which would have been more than enough to intimidate him when he was still in junior high and when he had been noticeably shorter – and the redhead got the feeling the pale-haired man had a lot more strength than the first impression told him.

"Oh?" the man's lips formed a slight pout and Shouichi took a few steps back, carefully analyzing the possibility of the stranger having a gun on him. "But Shou-chan, we're not strangers."

Shouichi gave him a long, scrutinizing look. "I'm sure I'd remember you if I saw you before", he said cautiously, racking his brain for an explanation for why the other would claim to know him when he had no recollection of seeing him before.

The pout got even more noticeable and the stranger finally lifted his head up so that his brilliantly purple eyes could be seen. "Ah, Shou-chan doesn't remember me? I'm disappointed." There was actual disappointment apparent in his eyes, Shouichi noticed, but at the same time the purple orbs seemed to hold happiness and... nostalgia? "We met in university, you know."

Maybe they had met before, Shouichi thought to himself and furrowed his brow in confusion before reminding himself that this was probably this thief's way of befuddling people he had robbed.

"I highly doubt any of my university classmates would end up robbing my apartment", he said icily as he carefully bent down to get his phone, waiting for a sharp command to halt his movements.

Such demand never came.

The violet-eyed man blinked at his words, clearly mystified by them, before chuckling in amusement. "Oh, Shou-chan, I'm not here to rob you!"

Then there was that name – Shou-chan – which made the redhead feel slightly more ill than he already felt. That nickname was something only his mother used – it was sacred like that, that name – but for some reason this... this robber was using it as though they had known each other for a long time.

"Then what are you doing here?" Shouichi demanded to know, his voice losing its fearful tone as he glared at the other man, and the cellphone back in his hands. "I should call the police right now."

The pale lips rose up into another blinding smile but Shouichi wasn't impressed – although now he did take note of the paleness of the robber's skin. "I didn't break in, Shou-chan, your neighbour was nice enough to let me in."

Shouichi felt his own facial expression fall into an incredulous one. "Oh", he ended up muttering when he remembered just who his next-door neighbour was. Tsunayoshi-kun's mother was a kind person, maybe even too kind and certainly a bit oblivious.

Although, the redhead thought sullenly to himself as he stared at the expression on the intruder's face, I suppose anyone would fall for this person's explanations.

Especially Tsunayoshi-kun's mother, he added in his mind, thought not meanly, and briefly wondered why he had given the older woman the spare key to his apartment a few years ago. Maybe because there hadn't been anyone else he had trusted as much?

"What did you tell her to make her let you in, anyway?" Shouichi mumbled weakly, clutching at his stomach with his other hand with a little more force than necessary as he tried to ease the queasiness he felt.

"I just told her that I'm Shou-chan's best and most trusted friend he hasn't seen in a while~!" the stranger said with a strangely chirpy lilt to his voice, and Shouichi sighed in frustration at the words.

"Just who on Earth do you think you are, lying to my neighbour like that and then casually making yourself at home and going around inspecting my bedroom-" Shouichi started, not angrily but tiredly, before pausing in startled realization. "Just what were you doing in my bedroom, anyway?"

"Me? I'm Byakuran, and I just came here to see how the prodigy student who graduated a year or two earlier than what was usual from my university was doing~!" the now identified white-haired male said and, if possible, his smile widened a little more as the purple eyes inspected Shouichi's reaction.

That name sounded familiar, Shouichi realized, but- "You graduated from university after my second year", Shouichi blinked as the memory flickered in his mind, the memory of seeing the man in front of him saying goodbye to the professors in the midst of other graduation students.

Byakuran smiled, his purple eyes showing just how pleased he was by the fact that the redhead did remember him.

"That's right, Shou-chan~!" he said in a sing-song tone and almost skipped to Shouichi who in return froze as Byakuran was way too close to him, effectively intruding his personal space. Somehow, the redhead knew that the purple-eyed man didn't know the concept of such thing as personal space.

"But I never even talked with you!" Shouichi felt the need to comment, in an exasperated way, as his stomach churned painfully as his nervousness became more apparent.

Byakuran's smile was sweet – too sweet – and the redhead almost blushed because it had been a long time somebody had grinned at him like that.

"Well, we're talking right now, aren't we?" Byakuran questioned, his eyes gleaming with mischief and something else Shouichi failed to recognize. "I'd like to get to know Shou-chan, after all, and I figured abruptly appearing at his workplace would be rude-"

"Barging in someone's home unannounced is even ruder!" Shouichi interjected indignantly, his palms sweating and the phone once more slipping from his hold.

Byakuran hummed thoughtfully at that, the look of wonder being almost endearing. "Is that so?" he pouted and looked at Shouichi with his unnaturally coloured eyes. "But at least now Shou-chan's attention is solely on me~."

Well, those words certainly managed to make Shouichi's usually passive and indifferent face brighten with red colour – a fact which Byakuran noticed much to the redhead's displeasure.

"Shou-chan is embarrassed", Byakuran observed with a humorously amazed expression on his own face and he took a step or two towards the redhead who in response backed off.

"S-stay there", Shouichi stammered as he felt his back meeting the wall and the nauseating twist in his stomach brought a small wince to his visage. "I..." Byakuran, even if his neighbour had let him in, was trespassing and could potentially be that serial burglar Shouichi had read from newspapers lately.

He shouldn't get too familiar with this person, that's what his common sense told him.

Byakuran's purple eyes gleamed again, the smile still on his lips, as he stopped walking. He was already too close for comfort, though, and Shouichi shifted awkwardly as he tried to move away from the man.

"Are you scared of me, Shou-chan?"

Of course I am! Shouichi thought to himself, rubbing his aching stomach with hands as inconspicuously as possible. Who wouldn't be? You just barge in as though you've known me for your whole life!

"A-ah", Shouichi stammered and broke the eye contact with Byakuran, his embarrassment still visible on his cheeks. "N-no, but Byakuran-san, if you wanted to meet me, couldn't you have called me beforehand?"

That's what sane people would do at least and from what he had seen during these past ten or twenty minutes, Byakuran-san was everything but sane.

Byakuran gave him a long, contemplative look, his lips still curled up in a friendly grin. "But this is far more interesting first meeting than what it would have been if I had done that, Shou-chan."

"I wouldn't call this interesting", Shouichi muttered as he felt a little more at ease with the white-haired male who didn't seem to have any ill intentions with him right now. Maybe he was really telling the truth, no matter how absurd it sounded. "I would call this 'scaring the hell out of people who are utterly exhausted after a long day at work'."

Shouichi sighed and relaxed slightly against the wall as the adrenaline which had rushed into his veins because of the assumed burglary was now wearing off, leaving him just as (if not more) tired than he had already been.

Byakuran seemed to notice the change in his posture, and took the last few steps to close the distance between them.

Well, tried to, but Shouichi was a bit quicker at moving away from the spot. "So, what did you want with me, Byakuran-san?" he questioned uneasily and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his own nose – that was what he did when he was tired – and gave an even glance to Byakuran's direction.

Byakuran blinked, the bemused expression on his face almost appearing amusing to Shouichi, and tilted his head to right slightly. "I just came to visit Shou-chan because I wanted to. There's no other reason."

This person is very selfish, Shouichi thought to himself, his eyebrows twitching in tired kind of annoyance. (That was a thought that would keep returning to him many times in the future, as well.)

"And now you have visited me; you have seen me", Shouichi said almost monotonously, too tired to care if he was being rude – but then again, why should he be polite to someone who hadn't even bothered to inform him about this surprise visit? "So could you please leave now, Byakuran-san? Also, my name is Irie Shouichi, not Shou-chan."

"Nope", Byakuran replied cheerfully as he took hold of Shouichi's arm – effectively causing the redhead to stiffen and hold his breath as he wasn't used to somebody touching him in such a familiar way – and brought his face closer to Shouichi's own. "I like talking with Shou-chan so I'm not leaving~."

Correction, this man is the most selfish person I have ever met, Shouichi thought to himself as he let out a strained sigh, feeling like he was some sort of babysitter for a naughty child that didn't want to go to sleep because there was still an interesting TV show coming a bit later.

"I don't have the time to entertain you today, Byakuran-san", Shouichi said patiently, his green eyes twitching slightly as he tried to control his temper. "Nor any time soon", he continued when Byakuran's eyes twinkled with interest in the words he had said.

Glancing down at his arm Byakuran was still holding onto, Shouichi wrinkled his nose in distaste and tried to pry his arm away from the firm grasp, failing at it rather spectacularly and Byakuran only tightened the grasp on the redhead's arm.

"But Shou-chan has already entertained me", the man practically purred with his sickly sweet voice and it threw Shouichi off just the slightest bit. "Shou-chan makes funny faces", Byakuran commented as he lightly pulled Shouichi closer to him from the captured arm.

Shouichi blinked, heat spreading to his cheeks at the sudden closeness, as he nearly stumbled onto the other man's chest. Luckily for the redhead, he regained his balance and was able to avoid such a mortifying situation.

Byakuran-san's words were kind of childish – something that a 7-year-old would say – but they were said with such happiness that Shouichi felt his stomach turning somersaults which resulted in a harsh wave of nausea.

"Byakuran-san", he groaned exasperatedly, ignoring the fact that he could feel the other's breath fanning at his cheek. "We do not know each other, please refrain from i-invading my personal space so casually."

The slight stutter didn't go unnoticed by Byakuran.

"Oh, Shou-chan stuttered", he said in wonder, tilting his head again as though that was the most mind-blowing sound he had ever heard in his entire life – even Byakuran's dark violet eyes were almost comically wide as he continued to stare at Shouichi.

"That is so adorable, I just might have to hug Shou-chan for that."

If Shouichi wasn't already blushing like a young virgin maiden, he certainly was now. "S-stop saying such things!" he huffed and none too gently wriggled away from Byakuran's grasp, his eyes wide open and staring at Byakuran as though the white-haired male had suddenly turned into an alien.

The said alien pouted in disappointment but whether it was genuine or not was a different question. "But Shou-chan", he drawled with a kicked-puppy expression on his face, "you're just too cute for me not to do that."

Shouichi sighed as he got a little farther away from Byakuran, aka the creepiest burglar he had ever had the displeasure of meeting. "Leave", he said with a little less friendly tone this time, the headache that was caused by Byakuran slowly becoming more noticeable. "I don't appreciate being harassed like this."

"Well, if that's what Shou-chan wants..." Byakuran sighed melodramatically, the same kicked-puppy expression on his face if not even sadder than before.

Had Shouichi been less tired and cranky, it might have worked on him.

"Yes, that is what I want, Byakuran-san", the redhead said and emphasized the honorific following Byakuran's name. "Next time, I advise you to call me before suddenly appearing here", he also added as an afterthought as he gestured the man to move towards the front door.

"But I don't have your cell number, Shou-chan~!" Byakuran said with that sickeningly sweet tone of his and his purple eyes looked amused as they watched Shouichi.

"Exactly my point", Shouichi muttered as he nonchalantly opened the door before pushing the pale-haired man out and closing it so quickly that Byakuran didn't even have the time to start forming a sentence.

Leaning against the door, Shouichi allowed his green eyes to slid down for a moment as he tried to process what just had occurred in his apartment, in the small hallway.

His heart felt heavy in his chest, its beats pounding almost painfully hard, as the rest of his body slowly relaxed and the fear-induced sweat to disappear from his skin.

His face soon enough took on his usual indifferent expression as he pushed himself up and went on with his evening routine – although now he'd lose some of his precious sleep – and ignored the flood of thoughts his mind was producing about the man named Byakuran.

He never even realized that he still had no idea what Byakuran had been doing in his bedroom.

Their first official meeting had apparently sparked something irrevocable, which caused Shouichi's daily routines to be continuously messed up by his new and unwanted acquaintance; almost colliding with one another at shops or conveniently meeting each other when Shouichi was either going to or leaving from work.

All of these seemingly coincidental meetings always consisted of Byakuran teasing Shouichi and the said redhead trying to ignore the other male as well as he could – which was getting a lot harder to do and that confused Shouichi.

Oh, and of course Shouichi got a lot more stomach pains when these short, passing meetings began occurring – he grew used to that sickening flip in his stomach whenever Byakuran was just a little too affectionate with him, to that apparently permanent heat on his cheeks when the other teased him shamelessly.

And, of course, he grew accustomed to Byakuran's company and much to his own shock, he started to even enjoy the other's company during those short meetings that only lasted for fifteen minutes at most since Shouichi was usually in a hurry.

(He might even have hoped to befriend Byakuran-san at some point, before shrugging the thought off. He was content with his life – surely becoming friends with someone as unpredictable as the pale-haired man would only cause unnecessary chaos in his organized daily routines.)

He learned quite a lot about Byakuran, whether he liked it or not, since the male seemed adamant on 'becoming Shou-chan's best friend'. Apparently becoming that included ranting about different marshmallow types to Shouichi until the redhead reached that point where he couldn't even stop himself from wincing when he heard the word marshmallow.

Shouichi wasn't going to become Byakuran's friend, though. While he was a lot more amiable and patient now that he had a good grasp of the energetic male's character, Shouichi was still keen on keeping Byakuran away from him at any cost.

Even though he might have become slightly more accepting towards Byakuran's affectionate gestures, which included invading Shouichi's personal space bubble and intentionally brushing their hands together, hands staying on his shoulders a bit too long to be natural and – of course – the occasional surprise hugs which always scared the hell out of the redhead.

Sometimes he wondered if Byakuran-san was trying to scare him to death and then completely search his apartment for valuables – although the only truly valuable thing there was his rather expensive laptop that contained business secrets worth hundreds of thousands of yens – before dismissing that idea. Even Byakuran-san couldn't be that evil, despite Shouichi's first impression of him.

Besides, Byakuran-san would surely have a lot more cunning plan for that, Shouichi was sure of it. The man seemed to be quite smart from what Shouichi had seen and heard anyway.

Anyhow, despite the occasional disturbance in his life's routines, Shouichi's life continued to move on like usual... even despite the occasional messes that seemed to follow Byakuran-san everywhere.

"Where have you been, Byakuran-sama? You know it's dangerous for you to be outside-"

"Aw, Kikyo-kun is concerned about me." A low, amused chuckle. "I was just having a little fun."

"..."

"Oh, Kikyo-kun, you worry too much!"

As Shouichi was returning to his apartment (located in the third floor of the building), he felt almost relieved that he hadn't seen Byakuran for almost three days. His life was moving on in its usual pace – slowly but surely – and he was starting to get the usual birthday anxiety feelings concerning the possibility of his sister and mother visiting him after many years. Occasional phone calls just weren't the same thing as face-to-face meetings.

As for his father... Shouichi sighed at the thought and shook his head sadly at the memory of that man.

On this particular day, Shouichi had been allowed to leave early and it was almost 6 pm – which was when he usually stopped working and left – when he was standing behind his front door and slowly reaching for his keys in his blue denim jacket's pocket.

Ah, I wonder how Tsunayoshi-kun is doing in Italy? Shouichi wondered to himself as he unlocked the door with a sharp movement of his wrist before putting the key back to his pocket and entering the apartment.

The brunet had moved to Italy about a year before this day, a few days after Shouichi's birthday – taking Spanner with him, as well, for some reason.

Shouichi naturally kept in contact with them but Skype calls weren't really the same thing and sometimes he felt the nagging feeling of loneliness claw at his heart.

Well, work certainly made him forget those kinds of emotions quickly enough, and for that he was almost grateful for the long and sweaty days he spent in a rather dull room with no air conditioning.

Sighing out loud as he kicked the shoes off from he feet, Shouichi took a moment to appreciate the silence that reigned over his apartment if that annoying tapping noise that resembled footsteps a bit too much for comfort wasn't taken into account...

Wait, what?

It was coming from kitchen, this time, and Shouichi felt slightly relieved. There was a chance that it wasn't the person he thought it was – maybe his mother had come to visit him after all-

Shouichi's frail hope shattered into tiny pieces when he stepped into the kitchen and saw what he would later describe as 'the most disturbing scene ever'.

Byakuran was in his small kitchen, cooking something that smelled like... something from Italy, to be honest. Maybe some sort of pasta? Pizza? Meatballs? Shouichi wasn't sure which one but that wasn't the thing he was paying attention to at the moment.

Byakuran-san was wearing an apron.

A dark green apron with some red frills on its edges.

But, thank goodness, Byakuran-san had his usual jeans and tattered shirt on as well. Shouichi would have been absolutely horrified if he had found a half-naked Byakuran in the kitchen, cooking something for him and sweat glistening his already pale skin-

There's NO need for such mental images, Shouichi, he scolded himself as he felt his face lose all of the colour it had had on before entering the kitchen.

"Byakuran-san?" he questioned wearily. fear shining through as well, as he felt his stomach churning as his stress levels grew – they always did when Byakuran-san was nearby, after all. "What... Just what are you doing in my kitchen?"

The memories from their first meeting flickered in his mind, and Shouichi grimaced and clutched at his stomach. He was already nervous enough because of the pressure his employers were giving him – which always happened when Christmas was starting to loom in front of them - but this was just driving him over the edge.

Byakuran turned around, his facial expression lighting up the moment his eyes met Shouichi's. For some reason, that made his stomachache even more painful...

"Shou-chan is home~!" he practically chirped with his honey-coated voice that could make everyone swoon and faint – except maybe Shouichi but, well, he wasn't the type of person to swoon over anything anyway. Besides maybe some computers and computer programs and Spanner's inventions.

Shouichi merely stared at the man incredulously, his stomach groaning for him.

Byakuran quickly took the necessary steps towards Shouichi and wrapped his arms around the programmer's waist, pulling him into a tight embrace while he continued showing his affections by nuzzling at Shouichi's neck and breathing against the sensitive skin, which gave Shouichi shivers-

Instantly, the redhead tried to push the man away from him as though the other was some sort of hideous thing he didn't want to touch or even be near it.

Sadly, his physical strength was no match against Byakuran's tight grip and only made matters worse as they both promptly toppled over onto the floor...

...and next thing Shouichi knew was that Byakuran was on top of him, and while he wasn't nuzzling at the redhead's neck anymore, Shouichi was sure he could feel something wet and soft pressed against his throat.

"Byakuran-san!" he groaned out loud, blinking his eyes as he now registered the pain on his back and his head and ignored the strange feeling on his throat. "G-get off of me, right now!" he demanded weakly as he tried to move around.

Sadly, Byakuran seemed to be quite heavy and had Shouichi pinned down on the floor, so there was only minimal hope for getting away from there unless Byakuran wanted him to.

Which was highly unlikely, considering the fact that Byakuran was humming happily against Shouichi's throat, the lips now moving against the skin, which was the reason to Shouichi's accelerated heartbeats and crimson red cheeks.

"B-byakuran-s-san!" Shouichi stammered weakly and his face felt as thought it had been set on fire.

"Shou-chan..." Byakuran murmured against the skin, sounding oddly hoarse all of a sudden as his breath lightly tingled Shouichi's sensitive skin. "Shou-chan..." Byakuran repeated quietly, sounding suddenly more serious than before – which was more than enough to give Shouichi a panic attack since Byakuran had never been serious around him.

His body betrayed him at this critical moment, too. His legs and arms felt like jelly and refused to move when Shouichi tried to make them do something, anything to get away from this humiliating position he was in.

"Shou-chan smells so delicious", Byakuran murmured again and sounded almost wistful, if not even longing.

Shouichi blinked rapidly for a few moments as he tried to breathe correctly and somehow straighten his train of thoughts. "Byakuran-san", he managed to whisper sternly. "Stop this. Get off."

"I don't want to." Byakuran-san still didn't sound like his usual self, and that worried Shouichi. A lot. The white-haired male's voice wasn't usually this... deep, hoarse and...

He didn't let himself finish that thought.

"D-don't be an idiot", Shouichi warned and squirmed around feebly. "Whatever you're cooking is going to be ruined."

Well, that certainly made the man on top of him get up quicker than Shouichi had dared to hope.

"Oh no, Shou-chan's dinner!"

...and with speed that would have impressed even professional athletes, Byakuran moved away from the redhead who was now left panting on the floor, speechless and completely clueless about what just had happened.

Needless to say, his stomach felt as though it would resign from its duty soon if Byakuran-san didn't stop... acting like a hormonal teenager. (No, he was in fact far worse than a hormonal teenager, Shouichi corrected in his mind.)

"So, what are you doing in my apartment... again?" Shouichi questioned icily as Byakuran set down the plates filled with some sort of pasta – Shouichi hadn't dared to ask, he only hoped that there wasn't any sedating drugs in the food – and gave the redhead another one of his dazzling smiles (although the redhead noticed that this time it was a little strained, for some reason).

"I was cooking for you", Byakuran said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, and maybe it was – to him.

"I can cook for myself perfectly well", Shouichi muttered and raised his eyebrow at the pale male across him as he ignored the delicious scent coming from the plate under his nose. "There was no need for you to do that." Shouichi idly fiddled with his utensils, keeping his wary eyes on Byakuran the whole time, as though expecting the other to molest him while he wasn't looking.

"Shou-chan came home earlier than I expected him to, though", Byakuran continued, his lips now forming a pout while his violet eyes glimmered with mirth, which betrayed his apparent disappointment. "I was planning to prepare a candle-lit dinner for us two, you know."

Either Byakuran-san was the kind of man to do anything to get into his pants or he was just crazily obsessed with him.

...Shouichi wasn't sure which scenario he preferred over the other.

Both options were almost equally disturbing.

"Byakuran-san..." Or maybe he should call him Gesso-san instead, to put some distance between them, since the man had told him his family name after Shouichi had asked on their second official meeting.

Then again, Shouichi had tried to do that – which had resulted in endless whining from Byakuran who apparently loved to 'hear Shou-chan say his name'.

Shouichi furrowed his brow slightly at the memory, realizing the creepiness of the whole situation.

"Byakuran-san", he repeated and sighed out loud. "Saying such things... coming into my apartment... you're giving me many reasons to call the police."

He really should call the police, shouldn't he? Although he doubted this case would earn much interest from the officers – after all, Shouichi had let Byakuran do things without resisting too much if at all.

Shouichi finally glanced down at his plate, not very hungry since his stomach was still upset over the whole incident where Byakuran had been on top of him and doing something that should be illegal to his exposed neck.

Shouichi's cheeks became adorned with one of the darkest shades of red again when he thought about it.

"Shou-chan won't call the police", Byakuran said and he sounded so confident that the redhead had to look up into the amethyst-like eyes in slight confusion. How had he known?

"Shou-chan won't call them because he likes me", Byakuran practically purred as he leaned towards the redhead over the table, bringing his face close to Shouichi's.

"I do not-" the redhead spluttered indignantly, appalled by the idea that he would like the other man like that. "Byakuran-san, stop saying such random things!"

Byakuran's eyes narrowed slightly at Shouichi's words but the flirtatious smile stayed on his face. It might have even widened a little bit.

"Shou-chan is so mean to me", Byakuran sighed out dramatically, not leaning back to where he had previously been as he was content with keeping his face close to the redhead's. "Saying things he doesn't mean, ignoring this wonderful dinner I made for us..." he trailed off as his eyes moved to stare at Shouichi's thin lips. "Then again, if there's something Shou-chan would rather do, I'd be more than happy to oblige..."

Shouichi glared at the man with all of the anger he could muster at the moment. It wasn't a lot, but... "Byakuran-san, I don't understand what you want from me", he said icily as he stood up from the chair and took a few steps away from the small wooden table.

Byakuran merely stared at him, the earlier iciness that had clouded them completely gone. "I just want you to like me, Shou-chan." The smile was gone and the lilac eyes were now staring at Shouichi somewhat pleadingly.

For a moment, Shouichi just stared at those unnaturally coloured eyes, his stomach churning slightly because of those words. Byakuran-san... wanted him to like him?

How stupid, the sceptical part of him scoffed in his mind. He definitely has some suspicious motives, this Byakuran-san.

"B-but Byakuran-san, we haven't even known each other for that long, so..." Shouichi managed to say as calmly as possibly while his eyes seemed to be captured by the pale-haired (and -skinned now that he thought about it) man. "I-it's not like I hate you or anything but I..."

Byakuran's lips rose into a smile and his eyes regained their usual teasing glimmer. "I was just teasing Shou-chan."

"Byakuran-san!" Shouichi huffed out, annoyance now apparent on his face as his eyebrows twitched and mouth turned down into a scowl. "You really should stop doing that..." He didn't like being teased this way, not at all.

"Sit down, Shou-chan~", Byakuran promptly ignored his words and gestured towards the chair the redhead had been sitting on before. "Your pasta is getting cold."

Letting out an exasperated exhale of air, Shouichi did as he was told and started, slowly, to eat the pasta while giving Byakuran a few suspicious glances, to which the man responded by smiling in a dazzling way.

Somebody might have considered it charming.

Shouichi found it annoying...

...and maybe just slightly charming.

(Alright, maybe a lot more than just slightly, considering the fact that he always got some kind of butterflies to his stomach when that happened.)

"Happy birthday, Shou-chan."

"I'm sorry, Shouichi-kun! I really am!" Tsunayoshi's apologizing voice from the other end of the line caused Shouichi to sigh out loud, though it wasn't an irritated sigh.

"Don't worry about it, Tsunayoshi-kun", he calmed his friend, holding the cellphone against his ear since the brunet had, usually, a rather soft and quiet voice, which sometimes made it hard for the redhead to hear him. "It's no big deal, after all."

"But it's your birthday, Shouichi-kun!" Tsunayoshi said, sounding deeply disappointed in himself. "I shouldn't have forgotten it, I'm your friend..."

"Things like this happen", Shouichi continued to reassure Tsunayoshi, smiling softly. "Besides, you're busy in Italy with... whatever it was you are doing."

Now that he thought about it, Tsunayoshi-kun had never told him exactly what the brunet did for a living – but knowing Tsunayoshi, it couldn't be anything shady. He was too kind for that.

The silence that followed his words was almost deafening, and Shouichi had to wonder if he had said something wrong. Maybe Tsunayoshi-kun had taken his words as prying...

"Well, things have been pretty hectic around here", Tsunayoshi eventually answered, sounding a little wary for some reason. "But I'm coming back to Japan in a few months, I promise."

Shouichi's smile widened at the promise. He hadn't seen Tsunayoshi-kun face-to-face in a year so it would be more than nice to meet his friend again after such a long time.

"That would be nice", Shouichi admitted quietly as he glanced around his bedroom – he had come to this room to talk with Tsunayoshi-kun while Byakuran had stayed in the kitchen (Shouichi was almost surprised that the white-haired male had enough tact not to eavesdrop on this call) – which was surprisingly tidy for someone as messy as him.

(He ought to pay a little extra to his cleaner.)

"Oh, and Shouichi-kun", Tsunayoshi's voice suddenly got sharper with worry, which made Shouichi tilt his head questioningly even though the brunet couldn't see it. "Please be careful there, alright? I have heard about the... incidents that have been going on there."

Oh, Shouichi blinked slowly. The news about such things had even travelled to Italy?

By incidents, Tsunayoshi-kun was referring to the strange murder cases in Japan, particularly in Namimori, which had started a few weeks earlier.

Shouichi thought back to the newspaper stories he had read of them – victims were all apparently picked randomly, ages varying from 14 to 57, and nothing seemed to connect them to one another. There had already been six victims in the past... four weeks, if Shouichi remembered correctly, and the slaughtering seemed to only be accelerating.

Although maybe the word slaughter wasn't right there... After all, the corpses had not many signs of being attacked besides the gaping gash on their necks and, on some occasions, arms and legs.

The most remarkable thing, according to the newspapers at least, were the horrified expressions on the victims' faces; some of them had their mouths hanging open and eyes even comically wide while some looked as though they had tried to hold in their screams.

The oddest thing about the case was the lack of blood on the scene, despite the cruel way of killing.

Shouichi shook his head slightly, feeling a shiver run through his spine. "

"Tsunayoshi-kun, I hardly think I'm in any real danger", he said softly although he felt the fear gnawing at the back of his mind. "I work all day and rarely go outside from my apartment. Besides my neighbours, employers, you and Spanner, no one probably even realizes that I exist."

And besides Byakuran-san, Shouichi added quietly in his mind, but he wasn't going to add that. For some reason he felt reluctant to tell his first true friends about the vermillion-haired male.

He wanted to keep Byakuran-san a secret only he knew about – a precious, dear and kind of annoying secret.

Yes, he was fond of Byakuran-san even though he had known him for a few weeks at most; then again, it'd be a wonder if he wasn't considering the way Byakuran was shamelessly pushing himself more deeply into the redhead's life.

Even despite Shouichi's brave attempts on ignoring him...

Not that he actually bothered to try resisting anymore unless Byakuran was harassing him more inappropriately than usual.

Which the white-haired man had been doing more as of late.

Huh. Maybe he should get a restraining order.

Ah, how had he ended up thinking of him again?

"Shouichi-kun, you would be surprised by the amount of creeps there are", Tsunayoshi sighed into the redhead's ear, sounding inexplicably exhausted all of a sudden, as thought the fate of the world was resting on his shoulders. "Some of... the people I have met... they could be classified as monsters."

"Are you alright, Tsunayoshi-kun?" Shouichi furrowed his brow in worry at the tired tone Tsunayoshi had used – it was so unlike the brunet that it made the redhead feel dreadful.

"Ah, sorry about that", Tsunayoshi sounded a little embarrassed and Shouichi could imagine the teen version of Tsunayoshi scratching at the back of his own head while trying to cover up his "You didn't need to hear such a gloomy thing."

"You didn't answer my question", Shouichi commented softly, glancing out from the sole window in his bedroom. It was snowing; fluffy snowflakes falling down from the grayish sky; another sign that Christmas was slowly creeping closer.

I wonder if it's snowing in Italy, too.

"I'm alright, Shouichi-kun", Tsunayoshi assured him with a small sigh of his own. "But I'll feel better if you promised me that you'll try to be careful there in Japan. Also, Spanner says hi."

Shouichi perked up at the mention of the blond mechanic to whom he was closest. "Say hi to Spanner from me too, Tsunayoshi-kun", he said with a happy smile stretching his lips upwards. "And if that makes you feel at ease, then yes, I promise I'll be careful."

Although he seriously doubted that any monster, be it human or not, would be interested in him. He was practically the epitome of all humanity's awkwardness and boring qualities put together... or so he thought about himself.

He was too ordinary to attract any kind of attention to himself. Well, besides his masterful programming skills and his rather envied position in the company but that wasn't a reason for anyone to kill him, or so Shouichi told himself after having rather one-sided quarrels at work. (One-sided because the other one would be the aggressive person and Shouichi would just try to ignore it and move on with his work.)

Tsunayoshi's sigh of relief got Shouichi's attention. "Thank you, Shouichi-kun", his friend since teenage years said with gentleness that almost made the redhead uncomfortable. "Oh, and Spanner also sends his belated birthday wishes." A guilty laughter. "It seems nobody remembered your birthday this year, Shouichi-kun."

Ah, back to the original topic of their discussion. Shouichi's lips rose into a small smile as he remembered his birthday and the dinner Byakuran had prepared just for the two of them. It had been a delicious meal and Byakuran had been, dare he say it, very good company for him that evening and night.

Even despite the whole... accidentally kissing his neck thing, which had freaked the redhead out quite a bit even later when he thought back to it.

(And, well, he wasn't buying Byakuran's explanation of it being an accident either, he still remembered that husky voice and tight grip on his waist...)

At this point, he could tell Tsunayoshi all about it, all about Byakuran and his antics and the way his stomach seemed to make a full flip whenever the male was around or did something inexplicably stupid...

His cheeks heated up as he glanced at his bedroom's plain white door, wondering what Byakuran was doing in the kitchen; he wasn't known for his patience, after all.

"Well, it's not like I expected much", Shouichi sighed, still a bit lost in his own thoughts and what now seemed like sugarcoated memories. "My mother did call me, though, and so did my sister."

...and Byakuran-san made me dinner could have been the natural end to that sentence but Shouichi never said it. Maybe because even the thought of saying it made him somewhat embarrassed and self-conscious for reasons beyond his understanding.

Yes, he wasn't good at dealing with emotions such as these.

Whatever these emotions were.

"Who did you talk to, Shou-chan?" Byakuran had, in fact, been waiting for Shouichi's return in the kitchen, sitting at the same table they had had dinner on a few days ago.

Those mesmerizing eyes were staring at the redhead, who had learned to ignore the unnerving feeling he got from it, and lips were curled up into a small but tight smile, which was slightly strained... but Shouichi didn't notice that.

"Just an old friend of mine", Shouichi replied with a small and relaxed smile on his own pair of lips.

When Shouichi didn't elaborate, Byakuran's eyebrows moved slightly lower on the good-looking face (even Shouichi was ready to admit that much). "What did this... friend of yours want, Shou-chan~?"

Was he just imagining things, or did Byakuran-san's voice just get lower and more... edgy? "Eh? He just gave me belated birthday wishes since he forgot my birthday this year."

Byakuran's facial expression relaxed almost noticeably, the violet eyes regaining the teasing glow that usually resided in them. "I didn't forget Shou-chan's birthday", he said and was clearly pleased with the fact that he was one of the only ones to remember the significance of December 3rd. "I remembered and I made Shou-chan dinner."

There was something in that cheery, almost flirtatious tone of voice that made Shouichi's face heat up all over. "Yes, you did", he agreed in his own quiet voice as he tried to sit down on the chair but before that could happen, stronger arms were already pulling him towards certain someone's lap.

"A-ah!" Shouichi gasped as he clumsily tried to get away from the hands, his face now somewhat equivalent to a tomato when it came to the colour aspect. "Byakuran-san!" he hissed through his gritted teeth as he was forced to sit on the other's lap, those surprisingly strong arms wrapped around his abdomen.

"I didn't forget Shou-chan's birthday", Byakuran repeated in his too soft, too tender voice as he rubbed his cheek against Shouichi's. "Unlike those friends of yours." Shouichi could hear the meaner, crueler undertone of Byakuran's voice, and he felt his insides freeze.

"W-well, that's only natural, isn't it?" Shouichi snapped, although even he noticed the slight tremor in his voice. "Tsunayoshi-kun and Spanner are busy with their work and it's not like that day is spectacular or special in any way!"

Byakuran's movements ceased, his cheek still attached to Shouichi's, in response to the redhead's words. The hands wrapped around his abdomen tightened their hold ever so slightly.

"Shou-chan is wrong", the man murmured quietly – too quietly and too seriously – and the red-haired programmer felt his cheeks growing warmer. "It's the most special day in the world, Shou-chan."

Shouichi's heartbeats quickened at the words, the flush on his face bright and warm enough for Byakuran to notice.

His cheek... feels cold, Shouichi idly thought to himself as his feeble struggles came to an end. It was useless to fight against Byakuran-san's affections, after all. Then again, my cheeks are practically on fire, he thought to himself as he awkwardly continued sitting on the other man's lap.

"It's special because that's when Shou-chan was brought to this world", Byakuran continued quietly, "and to my world." And then the nuzzling continued, cheeks rubbing against each other – hot and cold, pale and red – and Shouichi squeaking out indignant protests.

"S-stop saying such preposterous things, Byakuran-san!" he shifted his position slightly on the lap, trying to pull his cheek away from the other's. Why, oh why, was Byakuran-san so... so infuriatingly affectionate with him?

"If Shou-chan didn't exist, I would be miserable", Byakuran sighed out and kept his cheek pressed tightly against Shouichi's. "So, so miserable~." Something changed in Byakuran's tone again, Shouichi noticed. This time it sounded... longing. Maybe even sad.

Shouichi didn't want Byakuran to be sad.

"Byakuran-san", Shouichi murmured softly, hesitantly placing one of his hand on top of Byakuran's cold ones. "You flatter me too much", he ended up saying flatly, ignoring the fact that he had meant to say something about Byakuran lighting up his world the moment he met him all those weeks ago. It was just too...

Byakuran laughed; the noise made Shouichi smile just a little bit.

"But it's not flattery if it's true, Shou-chan~", Byakuran sighed contentedly and moved one of his hands to a better place so that he could entwine his and Shouichi's fingers. "Shou-chan is such a dear friend to me, I'd be lost without him." The way Byakuran emphasized the word 'friend' sounded strange to the redhead's ears but he was distracted more by their entwined fingers.

"Byakuran-san, you're a good friend as well", Shouichi returned to compliment in his usual, slightly awkward manner as he felt slight shiver go up his spine as he felt the almost unnatural coldness of Byakuran's body on his back. How had he not noticed it before?

"Oh~? Shou-chan really thinks that?" Byakuran practically purred as he finally broke the contact between their cheeks, leaving a stranger hot-and-cold sensation linger on Shouichi's flushed skin. "Does he like me more than those no-good friends who didn't even remember his birthday?"

Shouichi's body stiffened at that question, a frown now appearing on his face. "Don't call my friends that, Byakuran-san", he said quietly, silent anger apparent behind his words and voice. "They have been my friends since years ago." Unlike you was the hidden continuation to that sentence and the purple-eyed male seemed to sense this as the pressure around their entwined fingers grew.

"Oh?" Byakuran's voice was almost deceivingly sweet; Shouichi was sure it was all false sweetness. "So Shou-chan doesn't like me as much as he likes them?" Was it just his imagination or did Byakuran-san's voice turn slightly harder and icier?

"I d-didn't mean it like that", Shouichi said quietly, feeling his anxiety cause his stomach to twist in a nasty way. One of these days he was going to get an ulcer, he was sure of it. "Byakuran-san is, um, a special case so, uh..." He wasn't even sure what he was trying to say; he just knew he needed to calm Byakuran down – the silent anger was practically oozing off of the male.

"Shou-chan called me special~!" And suddenly the over-the-top cheery voice was back, along with the incessant nuzzling and hand-squeezing. "I knew Shou-chan liked me the best!"

"I didn't say anything like that!" Shouichi scoffed and tried once more to pry the hands off of him – to no avail. "I... Byakuran-san is an intrusive person who doesn't know when to back off so o-of course he has gotten close to me in such a short amount of time!"

A chiming laughter so melodic that all the world's choirs would have been envious escaped from Byakuran's lips. "But Shou-chan doesn't mind that at all~", he added teasingly as his free hand's fingers tapped at Shouichi's thighs.

"Stop that", Shouichi hissed automatically as he tried to slap the hand away. Tried, and failed. "Byakuran-san", he added and turned his head slightly to glare at the man from the corner of his eyes. "You really should stop harassing me before I regain my common sense and call the police."

Purple eye, the one he could see, twinkled with mischief, as per usual, which frustrated Shouichi to no end. "But Shou-chan wouldn't have anyone to play with if he did that."

"Tsunayoshi-kun is coming to Japan soon enough", Shouichi pointed out, almost smugly. "He'd play CHOICE with me if I specifically asked him to."

Byakuran's eye narrowed in displeasure, and something darker flashed in the purple orbs. "Your dear Tsunayoshi-kun is coming to Japan~? I'm happy for Shou-chan~!"

The discussion was left at that, Byakuran still holding Shouichi on his lap while the redhead ignored the dreadful feeling in his stomach.

"It seems like the Vongola head will be coming to Japan~."

"...That's going to be troublesome, Byakuran-sama."

"Eh, not really~." A small, joyful chuckle. "I know Sawada Tsunayoshi-kun's weakness, after all."

"Weakness, Byakuran-sama?"

Purple eyes were practically sparkling with ill intentions. "His friends, Kikyo-kun~."

Kikyo nodded slowly at his master's words, now understanding the reasons behind Byakuran's recent behaviour.

"So that's why you-"

That day, his apartment was as messy as it had been when he had left to work in the morning.

Which shouldn't have been possible, since it was Wednesday: the day his cleaner usually came in to tidy the apartment since Shouichi was almost pathetically messy and unable to clean after himself.

Sure, it was only a few days until Christmas, but Shouichi was sure his cleaner had promised to come by even during Christmas week – and in return Shouichi would pay some extra, but he had enough money as it was so that was no problem for him.

But she hadn't been there on that day, that much Shouichi could deduce from the state of his apartment – a messy pile of newspapers in the corner of the kitchen, his bedroom floor filled with clothes and some important papers he needed to fill soon and empty Coke cans.

"Miura-san?" Shouichi called weakly even though he knew the brunette couldn't possibly be there – she had never once been there when Shouichi returned home – and his stomach clenched sickeningly at the deafening silence he got in response.

Even Byakuran-san wasn't there, Shouichi noticed with a slight frown. Usually, the man would be waiting for him in the kitchen, eating marshmallows the man had taken a strange liking to, and raising his head slightly when Shouichi entered to offer the redhead one of his most dazzling and head-spinning smiles.

There was no smiling Byakuran waiting for him this time, and Shouichi found both absences to be very disturbing.

Could it be that Byakuran-san had-

No, Shouichi immediately assured himself. He might be a little... possessive, but he's not a bad person. Definitely not someone who would kill in cold blood... and besides, why would Byakuran-san even kill Miura-san? She was just his cleaner and even if he did date here, it wasn't any of his business, was it?

(Maybe he was being a bit ignorant, but honestly, Byakuran-san was one of his only really good friends – the only who lived this close to him – so he couldn't help but cling to the man's infuriating but comforting presence.)

This was the first time Shouichi didn't like being alone in his apartment, and that feeling made his stomach grumble anxiously.

In the end, he didn't eat anything and spent the rest of the evening on his laptop, checking over the game he had been programming in his spare time. It wasn't anything like Choice, but it kept the redhead's mind from wandering to dangerous and uncomfortable areas during the times when he was alone and had the time to start thinking about the relationship between him and...

Focus, Shouichi mentally slapped himself and scowled visibly. This isn't something you can do half-heartedly.

So he pushed away the distracting thoughts and worked on his game until the exhaustion became too severe – which meant that he practically collapsed onto his laptop's keyboard and fell asleep.

"Oh, Shou-chan, you should take better care of yourself."

"Was that really necessary?"

Ah, Kikyo-kun was being a nuisance again. How adorable. (Though not as adorable as certain someone.)

"Of course it was." His smile widened ever so slightly, and the atmosphere in the room got just a tad bit colder.

"Byakuran-sama, you should-"

"Hm, trying to boss me around, Kikyo-kun?" It was cute when his underlings tried to offer their advice as though he needed any of it.

"Of course not, but-"

The lilac eyes slid open half-way, a threatening glint in them. "I am aware of how Kikyo-kun feels, but he shouldn't stick his nose into things that are mine, yes?"

"I wasn't-"

"He's mine, you know?" A smile. "Has been since a long time ago."

It was Christmas Eve, and Shouichi was anxiously waiting for Byakuran to appear – for some mysterious reason he had gotten a rather lengthy vacation (two whole weeks, what was that about?) and he was a bit unsure just how he should spend the time.

He had obviously sent Spanner and Tsunayoshi's presents to Italy weeks ago – maybe at the end of November, he couldn't remember exactly – and he had received their presents for him, as well, and they were currently hidden underneath his bed, wrapped up neatly in the Italian wrapping paper.

Shouichi briefly glanced at the lonely package on his kitchen table, wrapped up in colourful paper and tied with white ribbons, and he smiled a little bit. Maybe Byakuran-san would like his present for him. He certainly hoped so.

He had grown so used to seeing Byakuran-san in his apartment, waiting for him, that now that it was his turn to wait for the other to turn up, it felt kind of strange. Scratch that, it felt very strange.

Speaking of which, he hadn't actually seen Byakuran-san for a few days. At all. Not since the day before his cleaner had gone missing.

(She was yet to be found, and Shouichi had his own dreadful speculations about her condition.)

That had obviously meant less stomachaches for him, but he couldn't help but worry about the man whom he had grown to like quite a lot.

Sudden knocking sound coming from his door shook Shouichi away from his thoughts, and his lips rose into a small, expectant smile. Maybe it was Byakuran-san.

When he opened the door, he wasn't surprised in the least when he was practically tackled by a white blur. As he was struggling to breathe in the tight embrace, Shouichi couldn't help but notice the warm feeling in his chest he got now that Byakuran was finally there with him.

"Byakuran-san", he managed to gasp out while the other's cold hands were (accidentally?) brushing against his clothed rear, if not even groping a little bit. "It's, ah, nice to see you, too." Now the hands were definitely groping his ass, and Shouichi half-heartedly tried to squirm away from the embrace.

The plastic bag Byakuran had been carrying swayed slightly as it hung from the male's arm, hitting Shouichi's side from time to time while the white-haired male was too occupied by, well, the other's rear end.

"I missed Shou-chan~", Byakuran crooned into his hear, pressing their cheeks together in an affectionate way.

"Is that so?" Shouichi murmured, ignoring the pleased feeling tingling inside him upon hearing those words. "Please, let me close the door before clinging to me like this, at least", he then sighed and pried the other's limbs off of him before proceeding to close the door before any of his neighbours could catch the odd sight which would definitely have been misinterpreted.

Byakuran kindly waited for the door to be closed before he was all over the redhead again, although leaving his ass alone this time, much to Shouichi's relief.

"I brought Shou-chan a gift~!" Byakuran gestured towards the plastic bag and Shouichi's eyes widened slightly, not having expected that.

"You didn't have to-" he started but Byakuran quickly cut him off with a wave of his hand that denied all arguments against his decision to buy something for his Shou-chan.

"Nonsense, of course I would buy a gift for Shou-chan", he said with a tone that clearly said 'only an idiot wouldn't realize this'.

Shouichi merely sighed at this, rubbing at his temples soothingly. "That's kind of you, Byakuran-san." He paused, hesitating whether he should mention that he had a present for Byakuran-san as well. "I... have something for you, too."

The way Byakuran's eyes lit up at those words made Shouichi blush and glance away in embarrassment, knowing that the other would now tease him mercilessly and perhaps imply something Shouichi would rather not think.

"Shou-chan has a gift for me~?" Byakuran's voice practically sang, the musical note clearly audible and it made Shouichi's heart beat just a little faster.

Alright, he might... have feelings for him – a miniscule amount of l... adoration.

"I knew you liked me, Shou-chan!" Byakuran was now tugging childishly at Shouichi's sleeve, trying to get the other's attention. "Shou-chan?"

Willing his embarrassment to go away, Shouichi turned his gaze back to Byakuran's purple eyes, which were gleaming with delight.

"Byakuran-san..." he cautiously said as Byakuran put the bag down, a few inches away from their feet before turning his full attention back to Shouichi, almost wicked kind of smile on his lips and the violet orbs that were his eyes shining with odd light.

"Ne, Shou-chan knows what he has to do when he's under a mistletoe with someone, right?"

He didn't even get the chance to reply to those ominous words before Byakuran's lips were already on his, pulling both of them into a rather passionate kiss involving gentle nipping and tongues dancing and something more that later on evaded Shouichi's mind when he thought back to his first kiss with Byakuran.

Shouichi's first words after the kiss were not a confession.

"How did a mistletoe end up on my ceiling, anyway?"

A mysterious smile was the only response he got. That, and a few teasing words.

"Shou-chan's scent is really maddening", Byakuran muttered quietly while nuzzling at Shouichi's neck whose owner had no idea how this had happened. Less than thirty minutes ago he had been focusing on programming that game he had promised for Spanner – who wasn't into computer games and the request had honestly surprised the redhead – and now he was sitting on the edge of his bed, straddled by Byakuran.

Well, 'straddled, nuzzled, kissed and bitten' would be the more accurate description.

"Then don't smell me", Shouichi huffed – but his words were betrayed by the slightly glazed-over look in his eyes, the bright flush on his cheeks and the way he was trembling whenever he felt Byakuran's tongue travelling on the sensitive skin on his neck.

A soft giggle was Byakuran's reply to Shouichi's words. "It's impossible not to smell you, Shou-chan", he breathed against the neck he was so keen on giving his attention to.

"So basically you're telling me that I smell", Shouichi said dryly – or attempted to. His breath hitched at the middle of the sentence when he felt Byakuran's teeth scrape at his skin and some masochistic sort of pleasure made the redhead shiver again.

"It's not a bad smell", Byakuran said, sounding as though he was pouting. "Shou-chan could never smell bad even if he tried to." A small and strangely humourless laughter at his own words. "It makes things so hard, sometimes. Shou-chan's scent, that is."

Shouichi furrowed his brow slightly, breathing heavily as he tried to not fall down on his back because of the whole melting feeling Byakuran's actions were giving him and to figure out what he had meant by those words.

"What's that supposed to... ah..." Shouichi gasped slightly in the middle of the sentence as he felt the teeth sinking into his flesh just a bit too hard, leaving him blinking in slight pain. Soon enough a tongue was licking at the broken skin, apologetically but also undeniably teasingly.

And when Byakuran finally pushed him onto the bed, Shouichi had no strength nor will to resist and merely gave a look that was meant to be annoyed but was probably more lust-filled than anything else.

Byakuran, who had momentarily raised his head away from the redhead's delectable neck, smirked at the look, unnatural purple eyes darkening with what Shouichi only assumed to be raw desire – and that conclusion made the heat on his face grow tenfold.

"Shou-chan", Byakuran's voice was low as his eyes stayed on Shouichi's bespectacled face. "Does Shou-chan... want me?" The teasing tone was back, dark purple glinting in slight amusement as they waited for Shouichi's reaction to the question.

The clouded green eyes fluttered a few times, the answer painfully apparent in them. But Byakuran wanted to hear Shouichi say it, out loud.

"Ah..." Shouichi gulped nervously, the fluttering feeling in his stomach growing stronger – but no, stomachache wouldn't ruin this, not this time. "I... Yes." He closed his eyes to avoid the other's gaze as he spoke. "I... want Byakuran-san this way."

His whole face felt hot enough to start melting away right then, and Shouichi bit down on his lip nervously as he waited for Byakuran to say something. Anything to ease this mortified feeling.

"I'm glad", Byakuran's voice came closer to the redhead's face. "I'm really happy Shou-chan said that." Cold hands moved away from his waist to the hem of his T-shirt and eventually snaked underneath it, rubbing at the bare skin. "I really want Shou-chan, too", Byakuran hummed and Shouichi could feel the breath fanning at his own lips.

Shouichi eventually couldn't take it anymore and leaned up towards the lips that teased him in every way possible – which was frustrating and annoying to Shouichi – and was surprised when the lips did meet, since he still had his eyes closed tightly.

It was a slow, tongue-less kiss where they both seemed almost desperate to keep them connected to one another, as though trying to glue them together forever.

When the kiss was over – much to Shouichi's disappointment – he finally dared to open his eyes to look at Byakuran directly.

The other man had already opened his own eyes, staring intently at Shouichi with a smile that could only be described as dangerous in any situation.

"Shou-chan is so cute", he cooed gently, his voice still uncharacteristically low and rough around the edges. It was enough to make Shouichi shiver again, in anticipation to what was to come. "I almost want to eat you up right now~."

"B-b-byakuran-san", Shouichi stammered slightly, blinking rapidly as he tried to think through the haze that now prohibited him from using his brain's full capacity to think. He stared at the face above his, green eyes taking in the almost marble-like skin even models would envy Byakuran for and the white locks which fell slightly to his face but didn't quite manage to cover the amethyst-like eyes which held more intensity than any other pair Shouichi had ever seen, and the strange tattoo under one of the mentioned eyes.

"Hmmm?" Byakuran hummed questioningly when Shouichi didn't continue talking. "Is something the matter, Shou-chan~?"

The redhead shook his head, quickly, trying to figure out just how to express his... frustration with the situation. "I, uh..."

The grin on the other's face grew. "I wonder if Shou-chan is frustrated", he nearly purred out, the sweetly sugary tone causing yet another twist in the redhead's stomach. "Does Shou-chan want me to keep touching him like this?"

The hands underneath the shirt moved up on Shouichi's abdomen, massaging at the skin they travelled on and the slim fingers pinched from some places, causing the redhead to wriggle around in discomfort a little bit.

Before Shouichi got the chance to respond, Byakuran was already asking another question. "Does Shou-chan want me to mark him like this?" Byakuran's head dipped back down towards the neck – which was already going to have many mortifying marks on it (thank goodness for turtlenecks, he supposed) – and took a piece of skin in between his lips before sucking on it.

Shouichi gasped out loud at the feeling of those lips on his neck (yet again) and moved his own hand to grasp the other from the head in order to pull him away from his already abused body part, but to no avail. He merely ended up grasping at the snow-like locks tightly, not pulling the head towards himself nor pushing it away.

"Byakuran-sa... an..." he murmured softly, trying to keep his breathing even and calm as Byakuran did something indescribable to him... yet again.

The moment could have gone on and on for who knows how long until their frustrations would have been too strong to ignore, but it didn't as it was interrupted by a loud, cheerful ring tone that could only belong to Byakuran's cellphone.

Shouichi took notice of the flash of anger on Byakuran's face as he forcibly pulled himself away from Shouichi's abused neck and Shouichi himself.

"Excuse me, Shou-chan~", Byakuran murmured and flashed almost embarrassed grin in his direction, standing up and taking a few steps away from the bed before hurriedly dashing out from the room.

Needless to say, a very dishevelled and confused Shouichi was left behind.

"I'm sorry, Shou-chan! I truly am!"

"D-don't be. I understand", Shouichi sighed and flashed an awkward smile at the other male, while ignoring his own problem located inside his pants. "Work is work, after all, and you should do it, Byakuran-san."

Byakuran pouted, his purple eyes still dark with desire. "But I wanted to finally make Shou-chan mine..."

"Don't... say such things", Shouichi managed to breathe out, his flustered expression growing even more noticeable and he broke the eye contact between them. "Aren't I already yours, though?" he murmured quietly.

Silently, he blamed his current predicament for such words leaving his mouth.

"Shou-chan", Byakuran sounded amazed by the redhead's words. "You..."

Suddenly Shouichi's head was grasped from both sides and he was looking into the pair of amethyst eyes once again, his breath hitching when he noticed how intense Byakuran's eyes looked right then.

"Say those words again, Shou-chan", Byakuran breathed out, a smile that was way too smug for his own good tugging at the pale lips upwards.

"E-eh?" Shouichi spluttered out, his nervousness suddenly taking a firm grip from his stomach and turning it upside down and leaving the redhead feel as though he could vomit all his insides out from his mouth.

"Say it again, Shou-chan", Byakuran said again, his voice suddenly lightly demanding like kid's whenever he wants something from his parents whom aren't very keen on letting him have it.

"Don't you have work to do?" Shouichi huffed almost childishly, trying to tear his green eyes away from Byakuran's violet ones.

"Work can wait a little while", Byakuran murmured, his eyes following Shouichi's wandering ones. "It's worth it if I get to hear Shou-chan saying those wonderful words again."

"Ah..." Shouichi wondered if saying those words would really get Byakuran to leave his apartment.

Then again, he didn't really want Byakuran to leave, did he now?

The ache in his heart was a clear answer to that question.

But still...

"A... aren't I yours already, Byakuran-san?" he repeated the words softly, staring at Byakuran's face with wide, almost scared eyes. Love confessions weren't exactly something he excelled at and this probably wouldn't be considered one, but...

Byakuran's nearly blinding, self-content smile was more than enough for Shouichi.

"Of course you are, Shou-chan~", those lips said as they approached Shouichi's face, the amethyst-coloured eyes gleaming.

"You have been mine since the very beginning."

"Ahhhhh, Kikyo-kun! You interrupted me while I was making Shou-chan mine!" The look on his face was almost heartbreaking, but the teal-haired male knew better than to fall for that.

Even if he did like to indulge his God every now and then.

"Byakuran-sama", he spoke patiently. "You could have killed him." Not that he wouldn't have minded that – Irie Shouichi was just another one of those insignificant beings with no worth to him whatsoever.

Byakuran's facial expression remained the same. "You don't think I have any self-constraint, do you, Kikyo-kun?"

Kikyo's stoic expression fell slightly. "That is not what I meant, Byakuran-sama."

Byakuran's eyes hardened. "I would never ever hurt Shou-chan on purpose... unless it's for his own good."

And obviously Byakuran knew the best what was good for his lovable Shou-chan.

The next morning following that faithful confession was a rather nasty for the redhead – waking up at five am to a sickening feeling in his stomach (well, more than sickening, it was far worse than those light aches he suffered from on daily basis) and then rushing to the bathroom, only barely making it to the toilet when he was already vomiting everything that hadn't been digested by his stomach acids yet.

At seven am, Shouichi was still clutching at his stomach in the bathroom, momentarily done with vomiting but still feeling as though his stomach wanted to throw everything out from it, as though giving a verdict.

The organ was almost like a strict renter, Shouichi mused humorlessly as he sank onto his knees and eventually onto the floor with his stomach facing the ceiling and his sweat-covered back on the cool surface.

He felt horrid. Absolutely horrid.

And that was an understatement.

For the great part of the day, Shouichi spent in the bathroom, unable to hold anything inside his stomach for longer than fifteen minutes at maximum.

It was only when he had nearly fallen asleep on the cold floor that he realized something.

Byakuran hadn't come that day.

"Say, when is Tsunayoshi-kun scheduled to fly here?"

"From what our source told me, he should be coming to Japan next week."

"Hm, he's certainly in a hurry, that Tsunayoshi-kun."

"We've already started the preparations, Byakuran-sama."

"Ah, Kikyo-kun is so productive! Whatever would I do without him, I wonder?"

"...You're not going to Irie Shouichi today?"

"Even my self-constraint has its limits." A mournful sigh. "Seeing Shou-chan's pale and flushed face would just... push me over the edge."

He couldn't understand why Byakuran wasn't there with him, he really couldn't, and it hurt. Had he done or said something wrong?

Shouichi wasn't the one to panic over relationships, not usually, but he was known for being a bit clingy of those important to him.

Inwardly, at least.

His own inward clingy feelings annoyed him the most; it wasn't like him to be this attached to someone he hadn't known for even half a year.

And yet here he was, sulking in his bed and thinking about the person he had once labelled as a burglar.

"Ugh", he groaned out loud and stuffed his head into his pillow again, trying to fall asleep again. He had already been sick these past two days and it wasn't something he enjoyed.

He felt weak.

It wasn't just because of his sickness.

His heart ached.

"Byakuran-san..." he murmured, half-asleep and his green eyes dark and cloudy.

I wonder if I did something wrong...

Luckily for him, his sickness started to grow milder after three days and he was actually able to go to work when his Christmas holiday ended.

It was painful, but he was going to move on with his life. If Byakuran-san had only intended to play with him and then not even bother to call him afterwards...

(Although Byakuran-san hadn't gotten what he had wanted, Shouichi thought and felt weirdly satisfied by that fact.)

Another part of him cursed him for acting like a melodramatic teenage girl. Maybe Byakuran-san was caught up in his work; he seemed to work for some big international company, after all.

Those thoughts made him feel a bit calmer about the situation even though he felt the alarm bells of his subconsciousness ringing in alarm at the sudden absence of his – darehesayit – lover.

Ever since his birthday, Byakuran had been there, in his apartment, constantly waiting for the redhead to come back from work. Some would call that sweet, maybe.

Shouichi himself had called it 'being a leech' at first. Now he would call it... 'being Byakuran-san', he supposed.

It wasn't a compliment, really, because Byakuran-san was-

Shouichi sighed as he arrived at the tall building that was his workplace and got off from his bike with a few swift movements.

Twenty-two minutes, huh? Shouichi thought absentmindedly and pursed his lips in a displeased manner. His routines were starting to catch him again, it seemed...

Closing his dark green eyes for a moment, he allowed small huff of breath escape from his mouth and felt the winter coldness wrap itself around him more tightly.

Ironically enough, all he could think of was the cool touch of Byakuran's fingers on his skin, of their cheeks rubbing against each other and of their noses bumping against each other awkwardly.

"You've been mine since the very beginning."

Now that he had the time, Shouichi began to think about those words and their meaning even though he had wanted to avoid that. (He had ruined his chances with his first relationship by over-thinking things and he certainly didn't want it to happen again.)

What did those words mean? What beginning was Byakuran-san talking about?

As far as he was concerned, there was no history between them before that one evening in November when Shouichi had come back home only to find Byakuran there.

Even thinking about it made his already weak stomach even more queasy and he felt an ominous feeling circling in his mind like a vulture.

Something felt odd about this – and it wasn't all about Byakuran's absence. Now that the other had apparently left him alone, it was easy to notice just how peculiar Byakuran and, in fact, the relationship between them truly were.

True, they met often even outside – but it clearly wasn't 'accidental', like Byakuran claimed it to be. How many times had that happened? Way too many times to be just a lucky coincidence.

The redhead clutched at the blanket on him tightly, his nails clawing into the fabric, and closed his eyes while concentrating on breathing to alleviate his tenseness.

Yes, Byakuran was definitely aware of his daily routines. Shouichi had realized that a long time ago. But how...?

Why...?

Was he in a horror movie or something? Usually these kinds of things did happen in the films: an illegally attractive guy appears out of nowhere, disturbs the heroine's life and makes her fall in love with him... and then – BAM! - he turns out to be the bad guy who killed fourteen people and she's his next victim.

Shouichi's eyes snapped open at the thought, fear being the most apparent emotion in them.

If Byakuran-san was really the person behind the attacks, there was a chance he'd be the next target.

That thought was enough to make him sat up and crawl to the bathroom to get some medicine for his stomach, which had started to throw its own twisted fit.

Again.

It wasn't until his vacation was finally done and he had fully recovered from his sickness that he finally met Byakuran again.

It happened during morning when he was on his way to his workplace. This time he had to walk, though, since it was too cold and the road was too icy for him to ride a bike – after all, he didn't particularly want to die even though his life had no particular worth in the world.

He supposed it didn't matter that he was a nobody, though. He was content, and that was more than enough for him.

He had left earlier from his apartment, too, so he'd arrive in time. He was proud of never being late, be it school or work. He was impeccable when it came to those kinds of things, he supposed.

Anyhow, he was just walking in a steady pace, admiring the falling snowflakes quietly, when he felt somebody grabbing his mitten-covered hands.

Needless to say, his first reaction was to pull away, in light panic, but the insisted hand on his only grasped his harder.

"It's just me, Shou-chan, no need to be scared~", the familiar, all-too-happy voice said, squeezing the bespectacled man's hand slightly.

"B-byakuran-san!" Shouichi protested a bit too loudly, earning the very few people's disapproving glances. He once more tried to pull his hand away, failing at freeing it.

"What are you doing here?" he muttered, finally submitting to the fact that Byakuran's hold was too strong to get away from. The light chuckle coming from his side told him that the other male was all too amused by his little show of resistance.

"I was just around here, going back home from work when I saw Shou-chan and decided to say hi~," Byakuran explained and leaned even closer to the other until their shoulders were slightly brushing against one another.

"Well, now you did", Shouichi muttered almost rudely as he inconspicuously tried to put some distance between them. "So you can just go home now."

"Nope, I can't~", Byakuran insisted and closed the distance between them, and for a moment Shouichi was sure he'd trip and fall down onto the street but somehow he was able to keep walking even with Byakuran practically glued to him.

"I can only go back after I finish making Shou-chan mine, after all~!" And with that, Shouichi was pulled into an abandoned valley, away from people's eyes.

Shouichi felt the same panicked feeling as back then when he had lain on his bed, thinking about everything thoroughly. "Release me!" he insisted fearfully as he was being dragged from his hand and he feebly tried to resist.

"Shou-chan sounds like he's scared of me," Byakuran commented and the redhead felt his stomach turn around at the almost steely edge the usual chirpy tone held.

"He really shouldn't be, though. You shouldn't be scared of the one you love, isn't that right, Shou-chan?" The word 'love' came out as a low, satisfied drawl and Shouichi would have blushed at those words under any other circumstances.

Now, he felt horrified.

Is this how he was going to die? Right here in the alley, with no witnesses?

And then the dragging came to an abrupt pause.

Shouichi's heart nearly jumped out of his chest when the violet eyes came into view, a dangerously gentle sparkle in them.

"Shou-chan should always have his eyes set only on me," he commented offhandedly, the smile curling his lips up into an indulging smile. The grip on Shouichi's hand was getting even stronger, if that was even possible.

"What are you talking about-"

Shouichi's mind was now filled with the stories about stalkers who had killed their objection of affections – for having too many friends or ignoring them or for another reason.

No, no, this couldn't be happening to him.

"Shhh," Byakuran put a finger on the redhead's lips, his eyes teasing and hard at the same time. "Don't talk, Shou-chan."

Suddenly he was pushed up against a dirty and hard wall a little too strongly but the momentary pain was quickly forgotten when Byakyan's mouth descended on his, capturing their lips in a passionate and rough kiss, which would leave him breathless if it was anything like the usual kisses they had shared in the past.

"Ungh..." Shouichi made a disgruntled voice, breaking away from the kiss before they had really even started. "S-stop this... What's wrong with you?" he retorted a little breathlessly and opened his eyes to glare at the man. "I have to get to work."

Byakuran was practically pinning him against the wall, so struggling was practically useless, he noticed with great displeasure.

"Ah, Shou-chan is so cranky in the mornings," Byakuran commented calmly but his eyes narrowed slightly, the cold and possessive emotions flickering in them. "I just want to shower him with my affections." Until you drown and can't get back to the surface, was what Shouichi could imagine the man continuing.

"And I want to be with Shou-chan forever and evermore," the violet-eyed man spoke again, the eye contact with Shouichi never breaking even once. "Doesn't Shou-chan want that too?"

How could this man say such things? They hadn't known each other before November – their first kiss had happened on Christmas Eve – and now it was early January and Byakuran-san was saying such ridiculous things that made his head spin and heart beat so much quicker that it felt like it was going to burst soon.

Byakuran didn't wait for an answer, pulling the redhead into another kiss and forcefully opening the redhead's mouth before invading it with his tongue.

It was maddening, that kiss. The way it was demanding, claiming and yet it held so much genuine adoration, even if it was the darker kind of that emotion.

It was suffocating him, this kiss and these swirling feelings inside him.

His tongue was forced into a battle with Byakuran's, to slide against it and to rub at it.

A low moan escaped from his mouth even despite his attempts on keeping it in. A wave of shame washed over him the instant he made that sound; here he was, in danger of getting killed, and he was enjoying this harassment-?

"I knew Shou-chan would like it~," a content sigh escaped from Byakuran's mouth when he broke the kiss, leaving the redhead breathless and flushed. "After all, Shou-chan loves me." The words were spoken with such confidence that the redhead wondered if the other was somehow able to read his mind.

He did love Byakuran-san. To what extent, he wasn't completely sure, but did that matter?

"Now," Byakuran's eyes gazed into Shouichi's half-opened ones, "don't you think it's time you'll come back to my side, Shou-chan?"

"Eh?" Shouichi blinked, trying to get rid the haze that was currently clouding his mind. "What's that supposed to mean-"

A sharp pain in his neck cut his question off, turning it into a pained scream.

When he opened his green eyes, the first thing he noticed was Sawada Tsunayoshi's worried face and the gaze that was set on him.

"Tsuna...yoshi-kun?" he managed to croak out even despite the rough feeling in his throat. It felt as thought somebody had placed sandpaper in there, he thought to himself in slight dismay.

He blinked, suddenly noticing the harsh light coming from the lamps hanging from the ceiling, and winced as he felt tingling feeling in his eyes.

"Shouichi-kun." Tsunayoshi's eyes were filled with worry – but they were also glum and serious and Shouichi felt a dreadful feeling at the back of his mind when he noticed that.

"You're awake," Shouichi's friend from years ago said softly, his face not retreating further away from the redhead's. "Do you feel... any pain?"

Pain? Shouichi blinked again, wincing slightly when his mind registered that yes, blinking hurt and his eyes were way too sensitive to light and there's a throbbing pain on my neck and his body feels like it's sleeping for the next hundred years.

The kiss-

What kiss? Shouichi furrowed his brow, trying to remember what had happened before he had somehow lost consciousness.

"Shouichi-kun?" the worried tone of his old friend snapped the redhead away from his hazed reverie and made him turn his eyes back to Tsunayoshi again.

"Ah... my neck..." he murmured, ignoring the muscle aches all over his body. They weren't as important as the scorching feeling on the crook of his neck, anyway.

The brunet, whose face still hovered above Shouichi's, nodded seriously and momentarily turned his eyes away from the redhead.

"Mukuro, it's been twenty-four hours since the bite, do you think...?"

A new voice, which Shouichi didn't recognize, answered to Tsunayoshi, "I highly doubt that, although he does reek absolutely horrifying."

Reek? Shouichi resisted the urge to sniff himself. He was pretty sure he had had a shower recently so he shouldn't smell bad.

"But that's only because Byakuran has basically been his only human contact lately... although that's not quite correct, either," Tsunayoshi sighed out loud and Shouichi could see him wiping his forehead in a worried manner. Even though he was older, he still worried over things a lot, it seemed.

Shouichi nearly smiled at his observation, but then he froze when he realized what this 'Mukuro' and Tsunayoshi had said.

"What are you... talking about?" Shouichi managed to rasp out, his throat feeling like sandpaper for reasons unknown to him.

Immediately Tsunayoshi's warm eyes turned their attention back to his childhood friend, and the brunet's lips rose into a sad smile.

"I'm afraid there's a lot you don't know about me, Shouichi-kun. And about Byakuran either, of course."

"...and that's basically all of it."

When Tsunayoshi-kun and Rokudo-san – whose full name was Rokudo Mukuro, apparently – had finished their long and detailed explanation, which they both exclaimed to be 'the summary of everything', the red-haired computer programmer couldn't even begin to wonder what to think of it.

His mind was a mess, very much like his body was.

"Shouichi-kun?" Tsunayoshi's warm, brown eyes watched his reactions very carefully, deep concern painfully evident in them. Clearly this had never been what the young Vongola boss had desired to happen.

Oh, and now he knew for whom and what purpose Tsunayoshi worked.

He wished he didn't.

If he didn't know all of this, he would...

He would be what, exactly? He would either be dead or the same as Byakuran-san was, apparently.

The green eyes behind the crooked frames twitched almost invisibly at the memory of the harsh bite to his neck which still ached as though it had met a stack of needles recently.

His slender fingers curled until nails were digging hard into his palm.

Byakuran-san was a vampire... and Tsunayoshi-kun and the Vongola were hunters.

And Shouichi was merely a prey for the vampire.

It made sense, though... Byakuran's odd behaviour. That almost predatory smile. Those hungry kisses to his neck.

Shouichi's sudden sickness after that night when Byakuran had apparently gotten overexcited.

Byakuran's pale and cold skin which never seemed to heat up even during the most intimate moments.

All of these things which he had silently wondered about came together to form this conclusion that Tsunayoshi-kun and Rokudo-san were right.

He accepted the truth rather easily, but he couldn't help but feel slightly conflicted about his own role. Was he truly just a mere prey to Byakuran-san like most people were?

"He most likely intended to have you all to himself, Irie Shouichi," Rokudo Mukuro decided to add his own thought, interfering with Shouichi's own pondering process. "I can barely smell your own scent under all that... rotten smell that belongs to that idiotic excuse of a vampire."

Shouichi blinked, warily looking at the taller man leaning against the teal-coloured wall beside the door. The differently coloured eyes stared back at him without flinching away from his gaze, and Shouichi had to glance away first, unable to keep the eye contact with the male who somehow bore an aura a little similar to Byakuran's.

"Ah, perhaps I should mention this, as well," Tsunayoshi chuckled a little nervously before giving a somewhat annoyed glance to Mukuro's direction to which the other male only gave an amused smirk. "Mukuro is a vampire, too."

"Eh?" Shouichi hadn't meant to make such an undignified sound, but he couldn't help it. His eyes stared at the brunet, clouded with confusion with hints of fear.

Sensing the question, the brunet's face softened slightly and a smile tugged at his lips. "While Vongola is a vampire hunting organization, it doesn't mean we necessarily have to... kill." Tsunayoshi's expression faltered only slightly at the word. "You could say that Mukuro is... on a diet as an arranged compromise between Vongola and him."

Shouichi blinked, looking back and forth between the two of them, trying to comprehend what this 'diet' consisted of...

Oh, now he got it.

Clearly his head was working slower than usually, thanks to the odd haze separating his mind and the harsh reality.

"Animals?" he questioned meekly, trying to push himself up into a sitting position with his arms but falling down as soon as he had tried to put pressure on them. Tsunayoshi protectively put his hand on Shouichi's other hand.

"Don't push yourself, Shouichi-kun," he gently chastised the redhead. "And yes, that's correct."

Rokudo Mukuro let out a soft hum, only now walking closer to the bed located across the room from the door.

"Mukuro," Tsunayoshi said cautiously, turning his attention back to the vampire, brown eyes flashing with warning which Shouichi couldn't see but could easily hear from his tone of voice.

"Worry not," Mukuro nearly snorted in a condescending way, "as if I would ever taint my throat with something that smells so eerily like Byakuran."

Shouichi's eyes twitched at the words, as though he himself had been somehow offended by them. Byakuran-san...

When he had reached the bed, Mukuro sat down on the edge of it on Shouichi's right side and took one of the redhead's hands in his and brought it up to his face, taking a long sniff.

Needless to say, both Tsunayoshi and Shouichi were flabbergasted by the action. The redhead a lot more than the brunet, though.

"I must admit, though," Mukuro's words were slightly muffled against Shouichi's skin, "your own scent is absolutely... tempting."

The 25-year-old programmer felt the heat climbing up his face. Whether it was out of anger or embarrassment, he wasn't sure. Perhaps a little bit of both were mixed in the flush.

He pulled his hand away from Mukuro as though the other's lips burnt him and brought it over his eyes to check if the vampire had actually bitten him.

"Mukuro," Tsunayoshi's voice sounded strained, causing Shouichi to look up at his face again and this time he noticed the bags under his eyes. Clearly the Vongola boss hadn't slept well lately, Shouichi thought to himself and felt a wave of concern wash over his body. "Perhaps it's better if you leave now."

Mukuro's face kept its supposedly friendly expression on despite the hungry look in his eyes. "Whatever you say, Sawada Tsunayoshi," the vampire chuckled with low voice before turning away, giving the redhead one last glance.

When the door was closed and the vampire was surely gone, the brunet's eyes flickered back to the redhead. "Now, about your own condition, Shouichi-kun..."

"My condition?" he repeated slowly, blinking in order to make the haze evaporate from his mind. His face paled notably when the meaning of the words finally struck him. "You don't mean, I..." But that was impossible, he could feel his own heart beating steadily in his chest and there was not that insatiable thirst for blood he assumed vampires would have.

Tsunayoshi shook his head, laughing humorlessly. "Don't worry, you're not a vampire." He paused, hesitance and reluctance visible in his features. "Though the poison Byakuran injected into your body has affected you in a way... but we've given you medicine which has stopped the process of dying."

"Dying?" Shouichi repeated, rising into a sitting position on his bed. "You mean that..." He tried to remember what kind of legends there were about vampires. "He didn't have the chance to make me drink his blood?"

His fingers moved to touch at the right side of his neck, at the spot where he felt pain the most. When he brought his hand back, he noticed that his fingers had a smidgeon of blood on them. Byakuran-san had really bitten him, it seemed...

"Ah, it seems like you do know something about vampires, after all," Tsunayoshi said and smiled, although it looked more like a pained grimace than an actual smile. "Yes, that's right. In order for one to become a vampire, the turner and the turned on have to exchange blood with one another. Preferably by drinking it."

Shouichi felt the rest of the colour being drained away from his face. Luckily or not, it had been some time since he had last eaten so there was absolutely nothing to throw up.

He did dry-heave a few times, though, and what was so embarrassing about it were Tsunayoshi's calming hands on his back, rubbing soothing circles in order to help him to get rid of the sudden nausea.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Shouichi-kun," his friend murmured softly, almost sheepishly. "I've forgotten what it's like for someone who has only recently found out about the vampires." The brown eyes glimmered with unhidden sadness, which gave a painful twist to Shouichi's heart.

They were the same age... and yet Tsunayoshi seemed to be so much older than him at the moment.

Shouichi felt a dull stab in his own heart; he had always considered himself to be the more mature one out of the two and yet... now it seemed like he was the unknowing one, the one in need for guidance.

"How long... have you known?" Shouichi asked quietly, forgetting his own predicament for the moment.

His mind was still puzzling over the... information he had just received.

He didn't want to believe it.

...but the teeth marks on his neck spoke for themselves, didn't they?

Tsunayoshi's expression changed yet again, this time into a more... serious and professional. "For years, now. I moved to Italy because of it. My knowledge would have endangered the people I hold precious."

The programmer didn't doubt his words, an understanding flickering in his green hues, which the brunet also took notice of.

"Shouichi-kun?" he questioned gently, the look in his warm brown eyes almost forcing Shouichi to glance away.

"I... What should I do now, Tsunayoshi-kun?" he questioned softly, glancing up at his friend with a despaired look, fear gripping his stomach tightly. Byakuran was dangerous, wasn't he? What if he came looking for Shouichi?

Tsunayoshi's expression turned slightly harder and more serious once he heard the question as he stood up from his chair. "You'll be safe here," he said softly, a hand running through the spiky mess of brown hair. "It's best if you stay here until... Byakuran is taken care of." The tight smile around Tsunayoshi's lips told the redhead that it might take a surprisingly long time until they'd manage to do that.

Shouichi lowered his gaze, eyes trailing over the sheets tangled around his legs and abdomen, and thought. He had a steady job, a good apartment with nice neighbors. All in all, he had a good, routine life. Nothing above average.

So why had Byakuran taken an interest in such an ordinary person?

The words from earlier echoed in his mind.

Isn't it time you come back to my side, Shou-chan? Or something close to that. His memories were a bit hazy around that confrontation, after all.

Shouichi felt his heart hurt a little bit in spite of the dubious circumstances under which he first had met Byakuran.

Trusting that sort of person had been a big mistake.

Byakuran smiled in spite of dark liquid trailing down his pale, marble-like skin.

"That Tsunayoshi-kun.." he murmured, his eyes narrowed and lips frozen in an amiable smile as he tugged harshly at the hair of Sawada's subordinate who had been unlucky enough to get caught.

"How absolutely irritating," he breathed, his lilting and musical tone still intact, against the trembling boy's face, the fearful green eyes looking up at him like he's something from a gore-filled nightmare.

Oh, how right he is.

"Your boss is a fool," Byakuran told the boy – a talented vampire hunter despite his casual appearance – and his chilly fingers traveled across the closed eyelid, gingerly pressing down harder as seconds ticked by.

The boy, a teen really, managed a shaky but doubtlessly defiant look despite his own fear. "Tsuna won't let you do as you please, Gesso," the teen spat, his pale and sweaty face twisting in pain.

More blood.

"Now, now, do feel free to call me 'Byakuran-sama'," Byakuran cooed, the violet of his eyes intensifying as his lips curved up into a horrid smile as his teeth sink into the flesh of the youngling, the satisfying cry for help reverbating in the deathly silence of the cave-like space.

"You should have submitted, Lambo-kun." A tongue flicked off the fresh crimson off from the pale, thin lips. "Fools don't live long, after all..."

Spanner was there too.

It was inexplicable how the sight of the familiar, lighter than light blue eyes and intentionally tousled up blong hair and a size too big overalls made Shouichi feel like he was back in control over his turbulent emotions.

It might also be due to the sleep he got and the time he used to figure things out for himself.

Spanner's eyes didn't exactly lit up when he saw the redhead, more like the opposite; they dimmed, darkened, with barely concealed worry.

Having known Spanner for some time, Shouichi saw it; the small flicker of concern, the way those eyes went to Shouichi's neck.

The programmer instinctively touched at the twin marks on his neck, dull pain going through him at the simplest of touches but disappearing soon after he withdrew his hand.

"Spanner."

"Shouichi."

The greetings were as simple as ever between them, and Shouichi forced a small smile onto his lips at the tentative exchange he hadn't experienced in a while.

What surprised him was how Spanner trudged over him, lollipop in his mouth, and stopped for a moment, blue eyes inspecting Shouichi from under goggles, before the blond wrapped an arm around the programmer in a half-attempt to hug him.

"Sorry," Spanner muttered against his ear, the silence around them otherwise unbroken. "He wasn't supposed to come to Japan, you know."

Shouichi knew who Spanner meant, but he didn't understand the apology.

"Not your fault," Shouichi said quietly, careful not to let see how Byakuran had affected him. Though the first few days he had spent here had probably shown Spanner everything he needed to know; the nightmares, the haunted look on his face, the silence.

"We knew he had gone to Japan to search for someone," Spanner continued, shrugging Shouichi's words off like that. "But to think..." the blond trailed off, quickly quieting himself as though he had let something important slip past his lips.

"I highly doubt he came to Japan just to find a toy to mess with," Shouichi said with doubt in his voice, raising an eyebrow at Spanner, though he realized how contradicting his words were.

Byakuran was, no matter what, seeking release for his infinite boredom. Byakuran had said that himself, during one of their not-dates.

Spanner pulled away from the hug, shrugging his shoulders again as he twirled the lollipop in his mouth.

"Anyway," the blond uttered, backing off towards the clean corner of his workshop they were in. "Want to help me with something? Been trying to finish this guy's programming, but it's been so slow..." There was a spark of irritation in those bluer than blue eyes, and Shouichi felt an honest burst of amusement hit him.

Spanner was asking for his help.

A grin, though not as bright as it might have been under normal circumstances, made its way up Shouichi's lips. "Alright."

The effects of the poison from Byakuran's fangs were slowly dissipating during the next few days, and it was easy to see.

For one, he no longer slept over twelve hours straight without waking up. He was not as prone to headaches or light-headedness or fainting at an inconvenient time.

Secondly, the marks – or bruises – around his neck were fading, slowly but surely, and that made things more bearable for him.

More, but not completely.

It was four in the morning when Shouichi finally managed to stop tinkering with Spanner's tools and fixing the intricate programming system he had made for the blond's soon-to-be Mosca. He had rewired it as well after a small discussion with the blond, who had went to sleep before midnight.

It was an incredible feeling to get to work on something like this after such a long time; the last few years he had wasted on computer programming, and his skills on mechanics and vast knowledge on physics and whatnot had gone to waste.

Shouichi withdrew his hands from the Mosca's well-built body, his eyes raking over Spanner's creation in approving manner as he stood up from the cool floor, stumbling slightly as his blood circulation had been nearly cut off by his sitting position.

Stretching himself, Shouichi let out a loud yawn as the exhaustion crept upon him, and he attempted to crawl over to the makeshift bed Spanner had set up for him earlier that night.

Perhaps it was due to his exhaustion that his mind started to wander back to those evenings with Byakuran. Their coversations. The way Byakuran looked at him. They way Byakuran's fingers inched closer to Shouichi's until they were entwined. That playful sparkle in Byakuran's curiously violet eyes.

Shouichi tugged his button-up shirt and pants off before going to turn the lights off from the workshop or, rather, his haven, and then he settled himself down on the makeshift bed consisting mainly of a mattress and a pair of pillows.

Then his thoughts returned to Byakuran, again.

A mystery that had been solved but not gotten rid of.

He had let his feeling go astray even despite the apparent shadiness of Byakuran's persona, and that was one thing he was immensely ashamed of now. To let someone like him so close to him...!

But... at the same time, it was understandable.

Shouichi had been living a mediocre routine life; wasting away, so to speak, in the midst of grayness.

And then Byakuran had come with all of his flamboyant vibrance, painting Shouichi's life with the colors of the rainbow.

(He could hear Gokudera-kun's snort of how gay is that in his mind.)

No matter how outrageous or how short-lived the relationship between them had been, Shouichi couldn't extinguish the painful throb inside him when he thought about the things Tsunayoshi had claimed that Byakuran had done.

Shouichi shifted on the mattress, moving to his right side as he tried to escape those thoughts. The darkness around him made it all too easy to give in to the sweet, enticing memories, though he had to admit that there was a black edge apparent even in the kindest of those memories.

Maybe that was why he could believe Tsunayoshi's words about Byakuran so easily.

"But Kyou-kun, I think we have established the fact that I do, in fact, eat meat~!"

Shouichi's ears twitched at the familiar voice – Rokudo Mukuro's, to be exact – and he paused at the door. He was supposed to go to Tsunayoshi's office for a small discussion concerning his situation – he couldn't stay here in their Japan headquarters for long, could he?

Although the brunet had already guaranteed him that he could stay as long as he needed to... no, subtly advised him to stay.

"Herbivores are herbivores, no matter what they eat," a distinctly irritated voice uttered, and Shouichi nearly blinked at the choice of words the other replied with. How strange... and amusing? For Mukuro at least, considering the airy chuckle he let out.

"Kyou-kun is as unreasonable as always, mmm?" A light hint of mock was present, and the following grunt from Mukuro's conversation partner indicated that he had realized it as well.

"Your presence is unreasonable." The coldness of that voice would be enough to freeze an entire ocean, Shouichi thought to himself as he pushed the door open with the intention of slipping away as quietly as possible.

"Ah, Irie Shouichi-kun." Ah, Mukuro had noticed him, Shouichi thought as he reluctantly halted his steps and turned to look at the peculiar duo on their way to the exact opposite direction as him.

"Rokudo-san," he replied, nodding – well, giving a tiny bow – in acknowledgement. As for Mukuro's companion, he gave a deeper bow – at which the raven-haired stranger gave a curt nod, the steely gray eyes flashing momentarily with something Shouichi couldn't interpret.

"This is the one the little animal spoke of?" the steel-eyed man questioned Mukuro, one fine eyebrow arching as those eyes inspected Shouichi's appearance critically.

"Little animal?" Shouichi questioned, blinking.

"Sawada," the stranger specified, eyes narrowing at the redhead before turning back to the indigo-haired male. "So, Byakuran's plaything is staying here?" The question was anything but a happy one, and Shouichi frowned at the way the other referred to him.

Byakuran's plaything.

"I'm not his plaything," Shouichi said, irritation getting the better of him before Mukuro could say anything to the raven-haired man – clearly he was human, with his healthily tanned skin and soft-looking skin. "Excuse me, but I need to get to Tsunayoshi-kun."

What Shouichi didn't see was an almost amused quirk of the raven's lips, followed by his trademark glare.

In the end, Shouichi ended up as a leading engineer and project manager for Vongola, much to the dismay of some of the upcoming inventors and engineers that had been in the organizations for much longer time and been more prolific than Shouichi in regards to mechanics and hi-tech.

Nonetheless, the decision came from the Boss – a.k.a. Sawada Tsunayoshi, who had once been titled as "The One Most Likely to Get Stomped on in School Hallways" - and therefore no one raised any complaints about the matter.

And, as the brunet had predicted, the mechanics soon noticed the remarkable skill Shouichi's brain and hands held, and became more tolerable, even friendly, of the redhead.

But the atmosphere of death was omnipresent.

Impatience was present in the violent, stormy pools of violet as they glanced down at the man kneeling before them.

"Kikyo-kun..." Byakuran's soft, treacherous voice purred. "Still nothing~?"

Kikyo nodded, his eyes fixated on Byakuran's knees.

"I'm afraid Sawada Tsunayoshi has done quite a good job in concealing his Japan headquarters." Kikyo's voice held a miniscule amount of dismay in it, the lingering question that didn't need to be asked apparent in his eyes.

The violet eyes closed.

"Tsunayoshi-kun's probably using some underhanded, precautious methods again," the soft voice murmured, softening more as the sentence proceeded. "Poor boy is scared witless."

It was not too long after Shouichi had become the project manager that the news of one Lambo Bovino's death arrived, sending most people in a state of glumness.

Shouichi learned that Lambo had been the youngest hunter out of everyone, but despite this he had managed to climb up all the way to the status of a Guardian, and he had been graced with one of the famous Vongola Rings that held anti-vampire venom in them along with other secrets that Shouichi had only heard rumors of.

He had been quite the asset for Vongola, and now he was gone.

Not to mention the unique presence Lambo had carried with him, a strange mixture of bravado and cowardice and flirtatiousness.

It was a big loss, not only because of the Ring.

Many things changed – the amount of nicotine consumed by one Gokudera Hayato being one of those.

Tsunayoshi's kind, caramel eyes became burdened with something Shouichi couldn't quite reach, and the boss of the vampire hunters withdrew into himself.

It was the beginning of the end.

Whether the end would be what they hoped for...

Only time would tell.

"Hibari's down!"

Shouichi was startled away from his newest project of wireless communication by those words, his green eyes widening behind his large glasses and jaw falling slightly at the shout echoing in the hallways.

Hibari Kyouya? Even that monster-like hunter?

"Somebody, get him to the surgery room!"

Shouichi fiddled with the wrench in his hand, his teeth pressed together hard enough for snarling sounds to leave his mouth, as he contemplated the situation.

"Spanner, what exactly does Byakuran-san want?" Shouichi questioned from his friend, his colleague, as he kept his eyes on the fragile telecommunicator. How should he go about it...? what else should be added to its functions...? Those were the questions he should be focusing on...

...but his mind wandered to Hibari, to unstable relationships, to vampires. To Byakuran-san.

It had been months since he had been bitten to his neck – and not once had he caught even a glimpse of the vampire afterwards.

Being locked up in Vongola's base ensured that.

But the dreams would not stop.

Spanner didn't raise his head from his newest Mosca-related project.

"You," he said simply, hands diligently working on the robot and its insides. "The bird came across his subordinates earlier and managed to get some info out of them, apparently."

Shouichi nodded, acknowledging that Spanner called Hibari 'bird'.

Well, with the way Hibari's name was written, it was inevitable...

"..." So, Byakuran was really after him?

...But why?

Shouichi's movements halted for a moment as this thought bloomed in his mind for the first time.

Why did Byakuran want him so badly?

His blood wasn't any sweeter than any normal human's, Mukuro had said so after an awkward scent inspection.

So why...?

Shouichi hated how his heart fluttered at the unexpressed flicker of hope.

Mistakes happen at the worst of times, and this one was definitely one that no one had expected.

Somehow, one of the people with a lesser rank had been manipulated – coaxed, tricked, turned, there were so many words for it – to give information on Vongola's headquarters in Japan.

Hence the panic that now filled the headquarters' hallways; the mechanics and civilian workers were all rushing to evacuate themselves after the information leak had been revealed.

Shouichi, on the other hand, was kept inside one sturdy room. For safety precautions, Tsunayoshi had explained with an exhausted, tense expression lingering on his face. As if Shouichi hadn't understood the logic behind it...

It wasn't like the rest of the Guardians could leave the inevitable battle; the buildings, first of all, would not be evacuated fast enough, and for that reason they needed to slow down Byakuran and his coven of vampires that were with him.

Shouichi was sitting in the corner of the empty, white room, his teeth grit together. There was nothing he could do. Nothing... Except hope that the inventions he had helped to prepare, the strategies he had come up with against lesser vampier covens would be of use. That Tsunayoshi-kun and others would be able to...

Shouichi stared at the bare, white walls until his eyes hurt. The simplicity of the room, the whiteness of it, was enough of a reminder of Byakuran, and not for the first time, it hurt.

Those sweetly spoken words, those hands that gently roamed around his body, had all been a carefully fabricated lie. Lie. And for reasons he still didn't know, Byakuran wanted him- was after him.

Shouichi pressed his back against the wall behind him until he felt pain in his spine, his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to listen to the sounds of the battle coming from behind the door.

It was to no avail, of course. The walls were thick, the door was made of iron, therefore no sounds came in, and Shouichi was alone in the silence.

It was enough to drive a person mad.

Unexpectedly, the door creaked open. (No one had oiled those hinges since God knows when. Shouichi thought it was mostly Giannini's sometimes forgetful nature that was at fault for that.)

The first thing that entered Shouichi's sense was the overwhelming scent of human blood, and he all but vomited on the spot. He had never, ever been in a situation where this much blood would be present; nor had he ever wanted to be – he had avoided those situations to the best of his ability.

His stomach complained; in response, Shouichi covered his mouth and nostrils – but the hand soon fell back to his side limply when he noticed just who it was that had opened the door forcibly.

Byakuran-san.

Byakuran.

The vampire that had all but massacred the whole of Rome in Italy and had been feasting on Tokyo's citizens as well, among with a few minor cities and towns.

The violet eyes leered at him with unhidden glee, and Shouichi swallowed, the horrifying truth blooming in his mind as he saw the human head Byakuran's hand was gripping onto none too gently from the hair.

Tsunayoshi-kun...

The lips that had once thoroughly savaged Shouichi's own pair of plump skin now curved up into a menacing, demanding smile that also screamed of absolute victory.

Shouichi couldn't help the shudder that ran through him.

"Found you," those lips said, the words perfectly articulated, and the smooth, lilting voice filled the silence; echoing in the redhead's ears even despite all the other background noises that now spilled into the room. "Shou-chan."

Shouichi's jaw clenches, and he wished he could do something – anything – to avoid his fate. Desperation tangled with the rest of his turbulent emotions: fear, anger, worry, neck-gripping anxiety.

Byakuran tilted his head, his blood-soaked clothes rustling slightly as he silently approached the programmer and strategist, and his eyes opened halfway as he lowered himself to get to the same eye-level with Shouichi, Sawada Tsunayoshi's head still hanging from his long, spidery fingers.

Shouichi stared at the head, and a choked noise left his lips at the sight of his beheaded friend whose face had turned into a scratched, wounded, bloody rendering of its former self. A gory rendering.

He wanted to scream, but all noise died within him as his cheek was cupped by a blood-stained hand. He wished to run, to scram away, but his limbs refused. His stomach tumbled, bile rising up his throat.

Why...

"If he had not interfered with us, he wouldn't have died," Byakuran murmured, as though he was scolding the brunet for protecting the redhead. For hiding him from the white-haired vampire. "It's a pity, isn't it, Shou-chan?"

If there had been any doubt about it, this confirmed it. Byakuran was not human. To be able to speak like that while holding a human head in his hand... Shouichi swiftly, clumsily moved and vomited the dinner he had eaten a few hours prior to this moment.

Byakuran hummed, as cheerful as he always was. "See, they even gave you my poor Shou-chan a food poisoning! How badly they have been treating you..." he uttered to himself before casually – much to Shouichi's horror – throwing Sawada Tsunayoshi's head away like one would do to a basketball or any other ball.

"You..." Shouichi uttered, angrily, through his teeth, his unblinking eyes staring at Byakuran's perfectly sculpted face as he shook, with fear and anger and something he did not know what to name.

"Oh, no need to look like that, Shou-chan..." A hand trailed down to Shouichi's chin, smearing blood on Shouichi's unblemished skin. "I came to pick you up, after all. Like a good Prince Charming, right~?"

Shouichi could see Byakuran's fangs extending as the other spoke, the formerly human-like teeth turning into sharper, longer ones that could puncture one's skin just like a needle.

"I'm not your princess," Shouichi choked out, defiantly, but his voice trembled. How could he have... loved this person? How was that possible?

How was his heart still selfishly drawn to Byakuran-san?

Byakuran's eyes laughed at him, mockingly.

"But you are."

Fangs sank into the skin of his neck.

"Or, at least, I'm going to make you mine."

Byakuran Gesso smiled; it was not a rare thing, but there was something about this particular smile that confused even his most loyal followers. Mainly Bluebell, since she had never seen Byakuran smile like that in her short vampire life.

"I'm going down; don't disturb me now~," Byakuran chirped at Daisy, one particularly scrawny and scarred vampire who nodded quietly in response.

The last of Vongola (such as the ever-so-brave Sasagawa Ryohei and the withdrawn Chrome Dokuro along with one Yamamoto Takeshi) were still struggling out there somewhere, Byakuran knew, but that didn't change his mood at all as he practically skipped down to the chamber located in the deeper ground.

His Shou-chan's coffin was there.

Shou-chan's coffin was filled with beautfil, white anemones, and they made a good mattress for his beloved redhead to rest on until the moment he would awaken as a vampire and turn a new leaf in his life – or start a new life altogether.

Byakuran hummed as he sat himself on his own coffin. (Not like he needed it since sunlight did nothing to him at this point; but he loved those silly traditions of vampires~!)

"You should wake up, Shou-chan," he told the unmoving body settled atop the white-petaled flower. "My perfect world is about to be formed, after all." A violent mirth danced in his violet eyes at the thought.

"Wake up soon, my stubborn bride."

There was not much he could recall from his life as a human, but there was this one image that had stayed with him throughout the centuries he had lived as a vampire.

That beautiful mental picture of a medieval city during one of its windy days; red hair swept by the breeze, the head turning towards Byakuran and green eyes peeking at him with uncertainty.

Pink lips had parted to form a word that would be forever lost from his ears.

This person, Byakuran had known, was Shou-chan.

His Shou-chan.

Byakuran moved over to Shouichi's coffin, his fingers flicking at the insects that kept insistently creeping over to Shouichi's deathly pale face. No matter how many times he did so, those stubborn insects would crawl back – if not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, then the day after...

Foolish insects; did they not realize that Shou-chan would awaken from his slumber soon?

"Hey, Shou-chan..." Byakuran's fingers danced on the slowly rotting skin of his beloved. The one he had been waiting on for the last centuries.

"Would you wake up for me, soon?" Byakuran questioned, playfully, his eyelids covering the violet pools from view. "It's so lonely without you here..." he breathed over the skin before capturing the still lips with his own.

A white petal of an anemone fell from the coffin, and somewhere in the past, Byakuran could hear Shouichi's indignant comment turning into a quiet laughter as he'd tug off the flower Byakuran had placed behind his ear.

Fading hope.