Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ My Dreams aren't as Empty ❯ It comes out ( Chapter 12 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Yui talks with Keisuke about her breakup and the reincarnated souls of her seishi. When she calls in a personal day off, Naisen takes her absense as a sign of neglect and vows to stand alone without anyone again. Will he shut himself off completely to his counselor and friends? Tasuki prays for his heart's desire and is transported to Miaka's side. Priestess and warrior come to an understanding deeper than love and more complex than trust. Suzaku's will is invoked between them. Naisen is taken into custody and his parents arrested. And Yui comes to Saito with a proposition.

Anime/Manga: Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Psychological / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.14.2006 | Pages: 8 | Words: 8.4K | Visits: 191 | Status: Completed

I know nothing of the legal ramifications counselors can get into, but I am taking unknown stabs in this chapter. I am a storyteller and am attempting to help a character.

The middle scene with a certain fire seishi was inspired by and written solely for one KittyLynne! I hope you enjoy it ^_~ You have to understand that Miaka is married in my fic ^_~

But…well that's up for conjecture what happens. I leave it to the imagination ^_^ I love being cryptic. I could be a stand-in for Taitsu-kun! Ack, just kidding oh ghastly one!

Taitsu-kun: (ala Fushigi Akugi in Oni)…I'll kick your ass….

Also a note to my twin, my Boshi link. Hope you have time to read this.

Disclaimer: Penpaninu does not claim to own Fushigi Yuugi in any way shape or form, but does claim to own the character of Shuntaka, albeit briefly he appears. Also claims to see the Mysterious Play in life.

“My Dreams aren't as Empty” chapter twelve

It comes out

Yui lay on the Sukunami sofa and listened to Keisuke's theory over the phone.

“You believe something is conspiring with the Stars of Seiryuu?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Of course, Yui! What else could it mean?” Keisuke's voice came over the cell phone chipper and eager. Yui had to quirk a smile at the familiar happy tone that good research brought, reminding her of the days years ago when she had helped research the new characters the Shishin Tensho created before their eyes during the appearance of Tenkou and the advent of the False Four Gods.

Of course most of this `research' had been in the form of being able to read ancient Chinese.

“Well, it could mean the reincarnated souls are agitated….or happy…or maybe in peril,” Yui spoke, thinking of Naisen's troubled blue eyes. Keisuke made a small non-committal sound over the line.

“The reincarnated souls! Yui, have you noticed about all of the Seiryuu stars? Surely you have….” Keisuke began. Yui laughed good-naturedly.

“Keisuke-kun, I've met all of them. They've all been reborn here in Tokyo,” she offered. Keisuke gawked loudly on the other end. Yui smirked and rolled on her back, watching the living room ceiling.

“What! Why didn't you TELL me! And here I thought I noticed just from the chaotic swirls of your seishi's constellations!” Keisuke squawked on the other line. Mayo peeked into the study and silently mouthed if he was okay.

Keisuke merely gave her a pained expression that made his pregnant wife giggle. A small child called for her and she darted from the study door ackwardly to attend to his call.

“I hope I would prove I'm a bit more observant than that, Keisuke!” the guidance counselor laughed weakly, shifting under her blanket self-indulgently. Keisuke groaned through the phone.

“Fine, fine, just don't tell Tetsuya that you got the jump on me this time!”

“Ur, well about that…” Yui grimaced. Then she proceeded to tell her best friend's brother about her breakup and temporary residence.

“Why am I the last one to know these things??”

“Really, Keisuke, this happened only this morning!” Yui groaned, rubbing her eyes. Miaka's brother really could be such a melodrama queen.

* * * *

Naisen spent an agonizing rest of the school day holed up in his anger. He had even lashed out at his friends. When Toya didn't get the message, Hiroshi had to haul him bodily away from the brooding blond, and explain some tendencies of Naisen's. Sadako could only hover with Hiroshi and worry.

“He's bruised up and hurt! What happened?” Hiroshi wondered. His far sheltered mind could not fathom who could want to hurt their friend. Naisen sat alone across the asphalt, his face buried in his knees, while his long hair shielded him.

“I don't know, Hiroshi-chan! He won't talk to me,” Sadako said sadly.

“That's because you're not saying the right words,” Toya offered, flipping the ends of his light-blue hair over his shoulder. Sadako frowned at him and opened her mouth to object but Hiroshi stood between the two.

“Come on, we shouldn't be arguing!” the young boy frowned and the two reincarnated souls gaped at his show of leadership. They both remembered glimpses of a gallant tall man who wore his blue hair long in a warrior's braid. Hiroshi blushed under the awed scrutiny and crossed his thin arms.

“It wouldn't really solve anything,” he mumbled. Sadako nodded as Toya begrudgingly agreed.

“You're right, Hiroshi-chan,” Toya said in his lilting voice. “I suppose we should wait for him to come to us.”

* * * *

Yui spent her evening with her god family. She had to admit, helping Hiroshi with his homework and drinking tea with Miaka and Taka calmed her nerves like nothing else. She would call Saito later and inform him what had happened between her and Tetsuya. They could still be friends and if things progressed, then nothing would be in the way.

Yui was almost happy as she sat with her close friends during dinner, watching the neighborhood lights over the small fence of their apartment garden.

Across Tokyo, Saito paced his apartment, wanting Yui and hoping things were going well for her, no matter what had happened.

“Let things take their natural course,” Asakura spewed out wisely, sipping a beer and studying at the kitchen table.

Saito paused, and looked over his shoulder at his twin. “Thanks, ototo…”

Asakura grinned and raised an eyebrow askew. “And one can hope to achieve enlightenment when one heeds the call and….”

“Don't go fortune-cookie on me, bro!” Saito groaned. Asakura chuckled and jotted his psych notes down, missing the aide of one Hongo Yui.

* * * *

One night of more humilation and aches later, Naisen woke with a burning resolution to either stop his pain or unleash all of it onto the world. If Tadaka had stayed around to see his son get ready for school, even he may have felt hindered in laying a hand upon his boy. Naisen's aura fairly burned with a fine tempered rage that simmered easily and slowly. It anyone spoke the wrong word to him, he would rail out at them with tiny fists and battered feelings.

He was just so tired and his mask was slipping.

Naisen stumbled to school, ignoring the usual meeting spots Hiroshi, Sadako and now Toya had selected. His dull eyes promised retribution if anyone spoke the wrong way to him as anger boiled just below the dead surfaces of his cool blue eyes.

He walked in circles around the perimeters of the school, not going to class, trying to collect himself. He was in so much pain. He had to make it all stop. His rage-streaked vision took in the familiar shape of a tall blond woman he knew so well.

So Hongo-sensei decided to come to school today. Naisen's vision went purely red and he hissed as the guidance counselor strode up to him.

“Shindou-kun? Naisen?” Yui stooped to look into his sullen face. Her small gasp at seeing his fresh bruises from yesterday made his heart swell in strange triumph, that she would finally notice his agony. But he was through with her.

“I won't be coming to speak to you again, Hongo-sensei,” he spat carefully, his tongue leaden and his words insolent. Yui swallowed, seeing his eyes glaze completely over. The corners of his mouth twitched though. His mask was not complete. He was so close to sealing himself off as he had mastered in his last life. She wouldn't let him.

“Naisen-kun, what happened to you!” Yui gently touched the child's face and Naisen cringed, his face contorted in anger. Yui's eyes widened, but she gently held his shoulder, not willing him to dart away. “Your face… who did this to you?”

Her words, they were so kind. Her words, her voice…. she wanted to help him. Naisen's decision from yesterday warred with her caring appearance and he stood, torn as his small hands clenched and unclenched.

“None of your business!” he snapped angrily, his eyes blurring again. Stupid tears, stupid betraying tears! Why must they show he hurt?? “I don't need you! I don't need you anymore….you weren't there! You weren't there when I needed you!”

Naisen bit his lip until he tasted blood, cursing himself some harsh words he only heard his father yell. He had revealed enough already! He just wanted to get away from the counselor and never see her again. Her eyes knew too much. She knew too much about him!

Yui shook her head and held the thin boy by his shoulders, kneeling before him to his level. “I can't just leave you this way. I am sorry I couldn't see you yesterday…” plans to visit Saito today vanished from her mind as she was resolved to help this reincarnated soul before her. “I am sorry I wasn't there. But I am now. And I promise, I will help you.”

`I promise I will help you.' Naisen's lip trembled as the kind words leaked through his mask and he fought valiantly through dry sniffs to keep his poise together. You can do this…. you don't need her still. You can be strong alone and you can be yourself alone.

Yui's eyes stared into his and into his soul. Naked trust and sorrow was in her gaze and Naisen cracked completely. His small hands clutched her arms.

“He makes them touch me!” he gasped, tears blinding his vision. Yui's face swam before him.

“Who? Who touches you?” she asked softly, knowing what he meant. She wouldn't let go of him now.

“My father! He takes me to them at his work. Make them stop, Hongo-san!” Naisen fell to his knees, breaking down utterly. His counselor's slender arms wound around his thin shoulders and held him close. Her hands stroked through his long hair, mindful of bruises in his scalp.

And Naisen cried tears for two lifetimes beneath a bright morning sky.

* * * *

Sumiyoshi conversed with Yui in dread serious tones outside of his office as Naisen sat, crest-fallen and tear-streaked, in the principal's large swivel chair. The boy's hands shakily clasped, not knowing what his future held. But he had decided to trust Hongo-sensei. She had promised to help him.

“This is very serious, Hongo-san,” Sumiyoshi murmured, his wide brow ceased with worry. “Very serious indeed! You realize if we go forward, the boy's parents could find cause to sue us?”

“Sumiyoshi-san!” Yui clutched his large arm. “I believe Naisen when he told me he's been…abused! We have to help him. It is my duty, my sworn…”

Sumiyoshi waved a hand. “You don't have to get into it, Hongo-san! We'll call the authorities….” He peeked into his office as Naisen anxiously spun the large chair in a wide circle.

“Thank you, Sumiyoshi-san,” Yui whispered and went to her own office to dial the police. She was upset Miaka wasn't there to help aide in the natural way she always knew how. But, she would help later, she knew she would.

Sumiyoshi joined Naisen in his office, and touched the boy's head, lowly telling him that help was on the way.

* * * *

Tasuki sat on his rear end in Suzaku's shrine, staring up almost insolently at the stern-eyed golden statue. His long booted legs lay before him spread on the tiled floor as he watched the statue, as if willing Suzaku-sama to appear and grant his wish.

For days his heart had burned as fiercely as the celestial mark on his right arm, and he was doomed to scorch within its emotions if he didn't do something about himself.

“I want to see Miaka. Suzaku has to grant me this boon, just once,” Tasuki had confessed to Chichiri. The kindly smiling monk only nodded in understanding.

“Then pray to Him, Tasuki. You can only reach His ears if you try,” Chichiri suggested brightly as was his way.

“Easy for you, Chiri, you hold His ear,” Tasuki mumbled, watching the statue resolutely. The statue watched back impassionately. Gradually, Suzaku's fifth seishi fell asleep in his constant `vigil'.

“Ow!” Tasuki mumbled, sitting up off the hard floor and rubbing the small of his strong back. “Damn, praying ain't never been my strong suit!” The warrior of fire patted his tessen's hilt, strapped to his waist this time, and stood, offering a belated bow to the Shrine.

“I guess I tried what I could… but even you couldn't fulfill my wish, Suzaku,” Tasuki mumbled, lowering his head to the shrine. He stood erect and turned to leave when the statue's eyes glowed a benevolent orange. Tasuki's celestial mark flared up, sensing the Beast God's presence and he whirled in panic.

“What the fu!…” Tasuki made out before his tall form was whirled away from Konan's Shrine to the Phoenix God. Chichiri checked on the room moments later and shrugged finding it empty, sure Tasuki had finished his attempts and had decided to go out for some food on the town alone.

“Chichiri-sama!” A young male attendant of his Highness walked up and bowed lowly at the waist. “Her Imminence has requested your presence for tea. Will Tasuki-sama be joining you?”

Chichiri smiled beatifically to the young servant. “Thank you….Shuntaka, was it? I will join her Highness, though I know not where my friend has gone to.”

Shuntaka clasped his hands behind his back and followed the revered celestial monk as he made his way to his Empress.

“Well I pray Tasuki-sama finds the time for tea with her Highness soon. Her Imminence enjoys her delegate's company.” Oh, yes, Shuntaka knew this well.

* * * *

Tasuki hovered weightlessly in time and space before the tall humanized form of Suzaku. He gawked and bowed as much as hanging suspended like so many marionettes on strings could. Suzaku rumbled a laugh as deep as thunder pealing in the heavens and Tasuki cringed, remembering his blasphemous act of falling asleep before his capital's shrine.

“I…I… pray, forgive me, Suzaku!” Tasuki uttered in terror. Suzaku raised one fine eyebrow in amusement and laughed once more. Well this was good. Apparently Tasuki wasn't going to be obliterated in the next two minutes.

“My seishi of fire, how could I show displeasure to a favorite warrior?” Suzaku boomed. Tasuki gaped and nodded his head rapidly, long red braid flying.

“I dun know! But I'm…not in trouble?” he stammered. Suzaku gestured Tasuki close and the man floated closer as if drawn forward by invisible strings. Tasuki was not lost on the ironic comparison once more, and kowtowed as much as he was able to his god.

“You are ever close to my heart, and far from trouble,” Suzaku entoned and Tasuki relaxed. “You indicated you had desired a wish from me.”

“You got that right!” Tasuki grinned, showing his fangs. “Ya see, I was wondering if I could see Miaka a moment….”

“Done,” Suzaku answered simply and Tasuki closed his eyes as fire blew at his face and transported him, unharmed, towards Tokyo.

Miaka turned in her small kitchen, hearing the neighbor's dog barking hysterically from the next yard over. “Really, I hope he hasn't gotten at that stray cat again!” she worried, peeking out of her sliding door into her garden to check.

The next-door dog's head was seen barely over the top of the fence as he yapped away seemingly at Miaka. Then a low moan sounded near her feet and she looked down to see a man from her past sprawled unconscious.

Knee-high boots encased powerful feet and legs, a red-silk tunic was tied over white pants. The red hair was longer, pulled back into a warrior's braid. The familiar tessen of fire was strapped to his left hip as he lay on his right side.

Miaka knew this man, no matter how he had grown.

“Tasuki!”

* * * *

Miaka was glad she was late heading to the school that morning, as her unexpected visitor lay in her arms. How wonderful to see Tasuki again, but so suddenly! She hoped he would stay long enough to meet her son and see Taka once more.

Tasuki groaned as his head was supported by a soft arm, a delicate hand touching his forehead and cheek, lightly slapping him.

“Dammit, Ma, stop hittin' me!” he groused, his eyes still knit closed. A voice as sweet as the heavens rang to his ears and Tasuki stiffened, sitting straight up in shock.

“Tasuki, it's me! Wake up!” Tasuki gaped as his priestess, looking quite at ease in a sleeveless house dress and sandals, knelt down at his side. Tasuki pushed to his knees, feeling he should be the one paying homage and made to bow but Miaka's hands on his face stopped him.

“Tasuki, you don't have to do that for me! It's just me, Odango Miaka,” she giggled, eyes sparkling in their past mischief. Tasuki gaped, his face reddened from her touch and stammered.

“Miaka! How ya been, you little baka?” he asked fondly, his soft awed tone lightening the term. Miaka's smile was as radiant as the sun and she brushed her hand over his brow, moving his long bangs aside with the gesture.

“I've been happy and well! It's been over eight years since I've seen you last,” the past Suzaku no Miko crooned, feeling for a fever. “Are you well, Tasuki? You're so hot!”

Why thank you, Tasuki's libido spoke arrogantly in his mind and the warrior flushed harder against her touch. “Wah, wah, come on, I'm just surprised, Miaka!” he stammered, flushing as red as his hair. It didn't help he chose to wear his new red tunic so he was sure he resembled the ripest tomato in the vegetable patch. The sounds of the neighborhood in the major city pressed in on his peripheral attention and he turned to gape at the tall buildings that seemed to tower over the Suzaku no Miko's home.

“Wah wah wah, this is where you live??” Tasuki demanded, wincing at the concrete and steel exposure. The dog in the next yard chose that moment to peek his head back over the top of the separating fences and growl a warning.

Miaka giggled as Tasuki's lips parted to reveal his fangs in a reciprocated snarl. “Yeah, bring it on, mutt-face!” he said, reached for his left hip. Miaka's hands closed over his arm and dragged him into her kitchen away form the hustle and bustle of the surrounding world.

“Just come inside, Tasuki! It may be too much out there for you right now,” she urged, dragging the taller man in easily as he went with her movements easily. He would follow her wherever she asked.

“Ah, you really live in this noise trap?? Swear you wouldn't be able to hear yourself think!” Tasuki announced, standing and staring at the modern marvels of a clean and efficient kitchen. “Anou, what's all that??”

After some brief introduction and explanation, Miaka had led her seishi to the living room to sit him down with a glass of tea. Tasuki stepped over Yui's suitcase curiously and shrugged, and sat, looking around at framed pictures guarding the inside of the home.

“Hey, is that Taka? Hey…he still around huh?” Tasuki asked lightly, though his heart panicked at the possible answer.

At Miaka's nod, he was resigned to accept second-place and listened to her stories of married life with the reincarnated soul of Tamahome for over eight years. He had noticed pictures of a small boy looking like Tama did, and Miaka gushed stories of a son she called Hiroshi, with the supreme pride only a mother could have.

Tasuki found this visit helped. His heart was surely fractured that she was still Taka's, yet happy, that she had a child that further endeared her to Taka's commitment. Kid must be a marvel, Tasuki found himself thinking. He wondered how Taka would take it, to see him here in their world on a seemingly normal visit. And what her child would think seeing him there, a figure of his parent's past.

“So what are you doing, Tasuki-chan?” Miaka asked brightly, her hands folded in her lap politely. Her eyes twinkled brightly at the fire seishi like they always did and his heart thudded once more and he coughed.

“Ya know, abit of this and that! I gave up robbin an stealin' though, and just go to the stronghold to visit Koji an' the boys. Hotohori's wife, I mean, the Empress Houki-sama granted me an Chiri government positions and we go travelin' a lot and talkin' to leaders. Gotta do with being celestial seishi, I guess! Chiri says we give the people hope still,” Tasuki mused, rubbing his strong jaw. Miaka's bright gaze traveled to those strong hands and she smiled.

“Well, it sounds just noble! Really, Tasuki, you made something out of yourself,” Miaka demurred, setting her teacup aside and placing a hand over Tasuki's. His hand felt flushed under hers and he looked down at their entwined fingers.

“Tasuki, are you okay? Don't tell me there's trouble, is that really why Suzaku would send you?…” Miaka began but Tasuki shook his firey head.

“Never. The world there is safe beyond belief and all four gods rub elbows if that can be believed,” Tasuki murmured and Miaka's eyes softened in relief. He laid his hand over Miaka's far softer digits… okay, down boy. He smiled at his priestess and bowed his head.

“I came because… I missed you. I also came…ah geez, Miaka,” Tasuki grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck with his free wrist. “What I did to ya….back when Tenkou was out and about, well…”

Miaka's eyes softened. “Tasuki…” Her seishi shook his head and frowned.

“Suzaku let me come all this way and I gotta get it out! Miaka, I came onto you, I was influenced and made to act on them, well, those feelings, and I'm sorry for that. I would never have taken ya to that inn room and forced ya to do anything if I hadn't had those feelings to corrupt…”

Through Tasuki's rant, his beautiful priestess held both of his hands softly in hers. “Tasuki….I know you were influenced by Tenkou's bad intentions…but what are you saying?”

Oh, shit, Tasuki's mind panicked. He had involuntarily all but confessed his love in his flimsy apology for that night years ago! What was he going to do? What could he say? But Suzaku had sent him here…. and he would regret it for years if he didn't at least get the chance to get it off his chest.

“Ah, I mean…ah shit, Miaka.,” Tasuki cursed. He stood, then knelt, holding one of Miaka's hands against his chest. “I…I fell in love wi' ya…but it wasn't your fault! I swear…”

Miaka touched his cheek with her palm, eyes glistening as she smiled. “How could this be anyone's fault, yours or mine? You can't fault your heart for feeling. Suzaku granted you to feel so you could know the sensation of truly being alive….”

Miaka always knew what to say, but damned if Tasuki felt cheated from something, and he wasn't sure what. “Miaka! I'm saying I'm in love wi' ya and you're not mad at me?”

“I love you too, Tasuki…. I love each and every one of you,” Miaka brightly soothed the distraught man. His wide shoulders slumped down. Of course she would say that. She meant the love from a priestess for her warriors, the cherished camaraderie between friends. She could never mean the love of a woman for a man, the passion and tender devotion meant for one only.

And her one was Taka. Tamahome. It was the same difference here. Tasuki laughed weakly. “Course, ya do, Miaka! I didn't doubt it..” he said lightly.

Miaka rubbed his cheek with her palm again and Tasuki found it hard to pretend mirth any longer. “Tasuki, you don't have to try so hard,” she suggested gently.

“Yer right…Miaka I can't. I love you in a different way, like the way you love Taka. You don't love me the same way,” he confessed in agony. His eyes looked away from her and down to the fuzzy floor tiles and her hands locked onto his jaw, turning his startled gaze back. Her eyes were filled with tears again.

“Miaka??” he gasped. Her slender fingers traced the sides of his face, his cheekbones, the sides of his noble slanted nose, the corners of his lips.

“I told you…you don't have to try so hard,” she whispered. Tasuki gaped at her, mouth parted, then met her lips with his own.

It was fire. Suzaku's fire enveloped him as Miaka's lips moved back against his. It was a sweet kiss between a priestess and her enamored warrior, of understanding and compromise. Then their mouths opened and Miaka made a soft keening whine in the back of her throat when Tasuki's tongue scraped against hers firmly.

It was too much. It was too big of a gift. But Miaka said Suzaku gave them the capacity to feel and to feel was to truly live. And so Miaka lost herself in a passionate embrace different from her husbands but not unwelcome to her needy body.

Tasuki was a being of flame and passion, and he had kept his heart locked away for so long. It truly was a gift from Suzaku that he could confess himself finally, and put his ghosts to rest. And he could not stop himself from grasping his priestess with sure and strong hands, pressing her close to him. His hands and lips promised protection the rest of her days. Devotion the rest of his, no matter where he was.

And Miaka welcomed this surge of love she had always felt for her beloved warrior and friend, taking him as a man of honor. She saw him for the first time in this way and reveled in it. Time and space moved beyond the long moment and they almost were taken away to Suzaku's realm of fire as they moved down onto the living room carpet.

Tasuki hovered on strong arms as slender smooth legs, showing bare from the tangles of a sun dress, moved around him. Passion ebbed hard and steady and breathless moans were uttered as heaven took them away for several timeless moments where nothing, fidelity, honor or duty were. Only love, passion and trust.

It was a weighty existence for two. Maybe they made love. Maybe they only held each other. But they had reached one space in their hearts at least for a moment, if the physical parts had not reached or not. When Miaka came to hours later on her living room floor, Tasuki was taken from her back to Konan.

But she felt oddly fulfilled.

In Konan, a half dressed celestial warrior staggered to the shrine of Suzaku and kowtowed in reverance. Had they made love? He could not even tell for his soul and heart were exhausted in a far more intimate joining.

“Thank you, Suzaku. I am at your service, as I ever am,” Tasuki whispered worshipfully, and passed out on the tiles.

The Phoenix statue's eyes glowed knowingly.

* * * *

The police arrived at noon to collect Naisen. Yui gathered her things and went with him at the boy's fearful expression. Her hand upon his shoulder was his anchor to remain strong in the face of unchartered waters.

The secretaries waved goodbye and Sumiyoshi had touched the top of his head again, saying he wished he could come back to school soon.

Why wouldn't he be at school again? Naisen had worried to himself but Yui's brave but sad smile told him everything would be all right.

Shindou Rebecca was greeted by policemen at her family's apartment door. They learned quickly she knew nothing, but she was taken into custody as well as a raging Tadaka. A small questioning was held for the parents and at Naisen's insistence, the truth was revealed.

It all happened all too fast in some way. Tadaka was put away for a number of years for child neglect and abuse. Rebecca wasn't all in the right mind to enjoy prison, but was placed in a psychiatric ward for troubled women. She was able to enjoy time to herself, all by herself, locked away from her husband and son for an unknown amount of time. Yui reflected it was a small payback in a way for her needs to be paid by Tadaka's personal trust fund and the look on that bastard's face was enough reward when he learned who would be paying for that.

Naisen and Yui sat side by side after the aftermath was finally over. Yui had neglected seeing Saito and his brother, but kept them updated through cell phone. Their cheery words inspired her further and she even let Naisen use her phone to dial Miaka's son and his small friends.

Her seishi was smiling small genuine smiles now. He was finally free.

There was still the matter of adoption or temporary custody for him. Naisen was nervous to where he would wind up. But he could grow to be a normal boy. Yui had promised him.

And hopefully he could still continue to go to his school where everyone he knew was.

Counselor and student touched hands and clasped fingers tightly, strong together.

* * * *

Saito answered the doorbell late one night and was astonished to see Yui there, tired but smiling. She held bags of carryout and she asked shyly if she could come in.

Saito hugged her with one arm and carried her off her feet into his apartment. Asakura was out and most of her testimonies with her student were almost over. She looked like she needed a break, `and I could use her near me.'

The food was eaten slowly and Saito rubbed Yui's hand with his as she told him of her day's events. Saito filled Yui's ears with amusing stories from work and what girl his brother was flirting with now in the wake of her absence.

Yui fell into Saito's arms sometime later that night and the two joined together so closely, they almost mated right there on the living room floor. But restraint, and Asakura's untimely return home, cooled them down, and the rest of the evening was spent in affectionate commiseration between the three friends.

Yui slept in Saito's arms in his bedroom that night, fully clothed. His body was flushed from being so near to her, without guilt of the elusive Tetsuya, or the past trials cropping up, but they had all the time in the world. She wasn't going anywhere.

Saito held his girlfriend close and finally fell asleep.

End for now

The middle scene was all KittyLynne's fault. Her and her Tasuki and Miaka fanfiction. I thought, well, this is a what-if scenerio. And did it happen? That's all up to Suzaku really.

Like it? Please review. There will be more.

Most sincerely penpaninu 11/04/05