Fandom: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars (anime)
Date Finished:
Classification: Romance, Humor, Angst
Pairing: Seiya/Yaten, references to past Fighter/Kakyuu, shades of Seiya/Usagi
Rating: NC-17

Give Unto Me
By Elsewhere
elsewherecw@shaw.ca

All other information in Part One.

Part Fourteen: Further Away

Glossary:
ano - um
e? - eh?/huh?
kuso - shit
mattaku - damn (roughly)
ne - sort of like ‘eh’ or ‘hey’…a word used to emphasize a point or get someone’s attention
ohayou - good morning
senshi - soldier; warrior

*****
We’re supposed to try to be real
We feel alone when we’re not together
And that is real
*****

By the time Seiya got out of the shower, Taiki had supper ready and set out on the table, and he was already sitting patiently waiting for his two companions to join him. Yaten had spent the entire time that Seiya was in the shower out on the veranda watching the sun set, slowly nursing a glass of lemon water. For a time, Taiki had sat and watched Yaten grinding the lemon slice between his teeth, worrying his own lower lip between his own teeth as his instinctive sense of Yaten’s mood troubled him. He had a feeling that this night could only get worse, and eventually he’d had to turn away from watching Yaten, for fear of biting through his lip.

"Yo! Dinner ready?" Seiya asked as he came into the dining area, rubbing idly at his raven-colored locks with a towel as he sniffed the air and offered a satisfied grin. Subtlety, Taiki noted with a slight smile, had never exactly been Seiya’s forte.

"Yeah. I’ll just get Yaten," Taiki said, placing his book aside and pulling off his reading glasses as he got up and pulled open the back door. "Yaten, dinner time."

"Mm…coming," Yaten murmured distractedly. A few moments passed before Yaten finally made it into the house, quietly sliding the door closed behind himself.

"E, what’s wrong? Still mad about earlier? Sorry," Seiya said with a smirk, waving his hand casually before biting down on a carrot and proceeding to speak with his mouth full. "But you know, if it pissed you off that much, you could have fought back; you didn’t have to let me have the last word. You’re always claiming you can kick both our asses to Kinmoku and back, after all."

"Hm?" Yaten murmured somewhat blankly, blinking cloudy lime-colored eyes which slowly cleared as he stared at Seiya. "Oh…yeah."

Taiki coughed quietly into the silence that followed, and the sound seemed to echo through the house. Taiki lifted his head, perking an ear, pretending to be curious about the acoustics of their residence from that point onwards.

"…Yeah?" Seiya echoed finally, a half-eaten bean sprout hanging out of the side of his mouth. "*Yeah*, you said? What’s with *that*?"

Yaten blinked at him blankly again, then seemed, finally, to regain some of his composure, sniffing softly and turning down to focus on his meal. Seiya watched, dumbfounded, as Yaten’s chopsticks made their way through the stir fry, as usual picking out Yaten’s least favorite bits first and saving his favorites for last.

"That’s…that," Yaten said simply, in a tone that implied that he was speaking to someone who possessed an intelligence level far less than his own.

"Ah, I see," Seiya said, nodding and turning back to his food.

Several moments passed in silence. Taiki had decided long since that he wasn’t hungry, and was back to reading his book of Italian sonnets.

"*What the hell do you mean by that!?*" Seiya shouted, so abruptly that Yaten jumped, nearly dropping his chopsticks. Bright green eyes flared with irritation and flew upwards to meet blazing, annoyed blue. A loud clap of thunder quickly accompanied a flash of lightning just as their eyes locked.

"That’s odd," Taiki said, lifting his head and frowning slightly as he looked towards the skylight, watching the first few drops of moisture hit it. "There was no storm warning in the paper this morning. Naturally, local weather casters can’t be trusted to be up to date with the most recent meteorological techniques, and yet…"

Naturally, his two companions completely ignored him, but luckily, he was used to speaking to himself by that point in his life.

"What the hell crawled up your ass and died?" Yaten snapped, carefully placing his chopsticks aside in case he might need his hands in the next few moments.

Taiki paused in the middle of his weather-related soliloquy---or rather, he choked in the middle of it.

"Mattaku, what kind of expression is *that*?" Seiya asked, as his annoyance crumbled away and he started to laugh.

"Yaten, how many times have I told you to avoid American broadcasting!?" Taiki sputtered, his face turning nearly as purple as his eyes.

"Heard it from Aino-san once," Yaten said with a casual shrug before his gaze again fixed on Seiya. "So?"

"So?" Seiya repeated, narrowing his own eyes, but now they were twinkling with interest. "I just want to know what’s wrong with you. You’re acting like you’re not all there, Yaten. Seems to me more likely that something crawled up *your*…"

"Don’t you *dare* finish that sentence," Yaten growled from between gritted teeth, and Seiya laughed, a low-pitched, delighted sound.

"Ah, so you do want to play. Much better. What was up with you a minute ago?"

"I was thinking. I’m not allowed to do that?"

"Not if ‘thinking’ requires you to become a total space cadet, Yaten…no," Seiya said, eyes narrowing again. "It just…"

"What? It worries you? Back off," Yaten said sharply, and Seiya blinked, sitting up suddenly, startled by Yaten’s tone and his words. "Just back off, Seiya. I can take care of myself."

By this time, both Seiya and Taiki were staring at Yaten, open shock displayed in their eyes.

"I…never suggested you couldn’t," Seiya said quietly, sounding confused and as though he was struggling with another powerful emotion, something familiar to Yaten. It almost felt like…

No. Yaten closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. He wouldn’t take the responsibility for hurting Seiya again.

"Never mind. Just focus on the task at hand," Yaten snapped, picking up his chopsticks and turning his attention forcefully back to his dinner, effectively cutting off the conversation.

For several long moments the only sound in the room was the click of Yaten’s chopsticks and the patter of the rain against the skylight and the windows. Then, finally, Taiki quietly cleared his throat.

"Seiya…this Thursday, I was hoping to be able to have an extra rehearsal. We lost a practice last week, and I don’t think we’ve polished the new song enough," Taiki said, his tone calm and matter-of-fact. There was a finality to his words that suggested that he knew exactly what was going to happen next, and he had no desire to delay it, but rather to simply get it over with. The way he glanced once towards Yaten before turning back to Seiya only seemed to confirm this, and Seiya winced once before closing his eyes.

"This Thursday? Right after school?" Seiya said, experiencing a slow sinking feeling in his gut. He didn’t need to look over to sense the way Yaten slowly lifted his head, listening carefully. "Taiki…I can’t. I’m sorry…but I can’t."

"What do you mean, you *can’t*?" Yaten said, his voice dangerously low as he lifted his eyes.

"I mean I can’t," Seiya said, letting out a soft breath as he turned to meet Yaten’s eyes. "Captain Kayama is out of town right now, so he left me to take care of the team while he’s away…I promised, Yaten. We have a practice at that time on Thursday. I have to be there."

Both Taiki and Seiya waited in silence during the few seconds it took for Yaten to build up to the peak of his explosion. When it came, however, it was quieter than they’d expected. Once again, Yaten placed his chopsticks aside, and this time he closed his eyes, seemingly trying to keep himself under control as he spoke.

"Seiya, which is more important to you…the sacred mission you carry as a senshi…or *football*?"

Yaten’s eyes snapped open when he heard Seiya sigh softly.

"Yaten…I *promised*," Seiya said gently, before he attempted a soft smile. "Look, skipping out on one practice with the band isn’t going to affect my ‘sacred mission’. ‘Polished’ or not, our song will reach her. Tell you what…I’ll make it there as fast as I possibly can, and you guys can fill me in on whatever I miss, ne? And I’ll practice extra hard at home when I have spare time."

Yaten stared at Seiya silently for a few seconds, struggling to find the words to respond, and Seiya waited for whatever was coming patiently.

"I can’t believe you," Yaten whispered finally, closing his eyes and shaking his head, his lip curling in disgust. "I can’t *believe* you."

"Yaten…wait!" Seiya called, starting to get up as Yaten’s chair scraped back and Yaten fled the room, cursing under his breath as he ran.

"Seiya," Taiki said, quickly taking hold of Seiya’s wrist to keep him from going after the older boy. Seiya turned back, meeting Taiki’s eyes as Taiki shook his head. "Let him go…give him time to cool off."

"But…" Seiya began, but Taiki shook his head again, and Seiya finally sighed and sank back into his chair, bringing up a hand to scrub at his face tiredly. "Gods…I can’t seem to do anything right. But, Taiki…I can’t break a promise…I can’t do that."

"I know," Taiki said simply, without looking up from his book, and though Seiya tried to get an impression of Taiki’s opinion of his behavior, he couldn’t. "What is right for you is not necessarily right for Yaten. Ironically enough, his biggest problem at the moment is that he’s realizing that the opposite might also be true…"

Taiki’s words had trailed off, becoming so soft that Seiya almost couldn’t hear them, and he certainly didn’t understanding them.

"E? What do you mean?" Seiya asked, blinking.

"Hm? Oh, no…nothing in particular," Taiki said quietly, eyes narrowing as though he was focusing on trying to translate a passage in his book, but Seiya wasn’t sure whether that was truly it or not. He was torn between begging Taiki to explain himself or leaving him be, and ended up deciding to let it go because he wasn’t used to asking Taiki to open up to him, especially about Yaten, of all things. But he wondered if he would regret it…sometimes he was sure that Taiki understood Yaten infinitely better than he did, and understanding the silver-haired Light would have been an undeniable advantage to Seiya at that particular moment.

*****

"Yaten…come on, Yaten, talk to me. Yaten, this is childish…come on, open the door."

Seiya had gone upstairs after dinner to find his pillow against the far wall of the upstairs hallway, as though it had been flung there. He’d left it in Yaten’s room that morning. When he’d found it, he’d merely sighed and taken it into his room, secluding himself in there to work on his homework, deciding to do as Taiki suggested and give Yaten some time to cool off. But when several hours passed with little sign of life from next door---Yaten didn’t even emerge to get a drink or go to the bathroom---Seiya finally became concerned and came out of his own room, deciding it was time to try to get the older Light’s attention.

"Yaten!! Open the damn door!" He pounded again on Yaten’s door, and again received no reply.

"It won’t do you any good," Taiki remarked from where he stood in his own doorway, leaning against the jam, the look on his face something between a smile of amusement and a grimace of dismay. "He’s determined not to talk to you, and that won’t change any time soon. You know that as well as I do."

Seiya growled, pounding his fist once more on the door before sighing and leaning his forehead against his now-still hand.

"Yeah, I know…but…"

"Even if by some chance he did decide to open the door and let you in, what would you say?" Taiki asked curiously, lifting an eyebrow even as a corner of his mouth curled upwards. "Unless you intend to change your mind about Thursday, Yaten will remain annoyed with you, as you well know."

"Kuso," Seiya swore quietly, turning to lean back against the door. "What the hell is so important about one little practice, anyway!? Does he honestly think we’re going to screw it up!?"

"I don’t think that’s the issue," Taiki said with a slight shake of his head. Some of his bangs had come loose from their carefully-gelled style during the time he’d spent studying since dinner, and now he let out a soft, annoyed breath as he reached up to push the long brown strands out of his eyes. Seiya watched the motion closely; somehow, it made Taiki seem closer to him, closer to his own simplistic problems and emotions.  

"Then what the hell *is* the issue?" Seiya said, sighing loudly with frustration as he raked his hands through his hair. He was aware that Yaten could probably hear their conversation well enough through the door, but far from caring, he actually wondered if it was a good thing.

Taiki lifted one shoulder, an eloquent gesture to take the place of a lie, and smirked a bit as he turned around.

"Taiki…if you know, tell me!" Seiya shouted, but Taiki merely waved a dismissive hand back towards him before closing his own door, leaving Seiya alone in the hallway.

"Kuso," Seiya muttered again as he turned around and eyed the door before him, trying to decide whether it was worth persisting or not when he knew Taiki’s words to be true. Yaten wasn’t going to let him in anytime soon, and even if he did, Seiya had nothing to say to him. Finally, shoulders slumped in defeat, Seiya turned and made his way to his own room, determined to finish his homework and then get an early sleep.

Inside his room, Yaten listened to Taiki and Seiya’s conversation curiously, holding Shiruku close to his chest and lazily stroking her head. The sound of her purr was oddly soothing, as was the softness of her fur when he would nuzzle his nose or his chin into it.

But that conversation…Yaten frowned. He almost wished that Taiki had told Seiya his own conclusions. Yaten was so confused about his own feelings, it might have been interesting to see what Taiki’s interpretation was. He supposed he could ask Taiki directly, but that seemed like it would be the oddest thing to ask… ‘Ne, Taiki, how am I feeling today?’

Besides, that was supposed to be his area of expertise, right? He was the empath, after all. Some empath, if he couldn’t even sort his own feelings out.

He sighed, lying back on his bed and letting Shiruku curl up on his chest as his eyes traced the patterns of the various glow-in-the-dark constellations Seiya had painted on the ceiling. He had done it in all three of the apartment’s bedrooms as soon as they’d moved in, calling it a ‘homely touch’ that they couldn’t do without. At first, Yaten had wanted to protest, to say that it was silly, costly and useless. But oddly enough, once Seiya had finished painting the familiar constellations of their home star system on Yaten’s ceiling, Yaten had no longer been able to complain, because it really did help him feel at home.

Seiya had always been like that…always thinking of the stupidest, most outlandish things to cheer people up, or make them forget their troubles and move on with their lives. Ever the joker…and that had always entirely pissed Yaten off, unless of course he needed cheering up, in which case he always knew Seiya would be able to help him more than anyone else.

Was that what this was? Yaten wondered. Some kind of extension of that old feeling? If ever Yaten had been depressed, now was the time…the worst depression of his life, as a matter of fact, and the truth was that he didn’t see a way out of it. Was that why he was latching onto Seiya now in a way that he never really had before? Was he seeking some way to get out of the darkness…trying to find that light that Seiya had always unfailingly carried with him?

"Chikusho, Seiya…" Yaten muttered, frowning deeply as he closed his eyes, trying not to picture Seiya’s grin. "How am I supposed to be angry with you when all I want is for you to hold me? Why is it…how do you seem to make it all go away…"

*****

Unlike either of his companions, Taiki had always been an extremely light sleeper---the type of person who would wake up at the slightest sound or change in the status of his environment. So, the moment Taiki’s door started to slowly open, even though the motion was completely silent, Taiki’s eyes snapped instantly open. He knew full well who it was and that he wasn’t in danger, but he couldn’t help the brief rush of adrenaline that moved through him nonetheless, and he almost rolled his eyes at his own overactive instincts.

He watched as the door finally swung all the way inwards and Yaten slid carefully into the room, closing the door silently behind himself before tiptoeing across the carpet. Yaten was fully halfway across the room before his own senses seemed to catch up with him and he caught his breath, freezing in his tracks and lifting his eyes to meet Taiki’s.

"You’re awake?" Yaten whispered through the dark, and Taiki smiled as he rolled onto his back.

"I am now," Taiki whispered back. "What is it?"

For a moment, Yaten opened and closed his mouth helplessly before finally he closed his eyes and turned away.

"Nothing. I’m sorry. I’ll go…"

"Yaten…" Taiki murmured, sitting up and reaching out to catch Yaten’s wrist. Yaten caught his breath, glancing down towards his friend, surprised by the compassion he saw in Taiki’s eyes.

"It’s all right," Taiki said softly, and then he tilted his head. "You can sleep here if you want. That is why you came, isn’t it?"

Even in the dark, Taiki could easily see the way Yaten started to blush.

"Don’t blush, just get in," Taiki said with a quiet chuckle as he threw back the covers and patted the bed. Yaten grumbled something under his breath but obeyed Taiki’s ‘offer’, crawling into bed next to Taiki and letting out a slow, almost relieved breath as Taiki tucked the covers up around him, then lay down next to him.

"Taiki, I…" Yaten began, only to cut off and inhale sharply when Taiki spooned up against him, wrapping an arm lightly around Yaten’s waist. The other arm was curled up on the pillow, and if Yaten moved his head back, he would be lying in the curl of Taiki’s elbow.

"You know, you used to go through phases like this quite often when you were younger, if you don’t remember," Taiki murmured softly into Yaten’s hair. "Sometimes you would ask to sleep with me, or with Kakyuu-hime, or most often with Fighter. It’s nothing to be embarrassed of."

"O…okay," Yaten agreed hesitantly, squirming slightly against Taiki, until Taiki loosened his grip somewhat. "Ano…Taiki, why did I do that when I was younger? You’re right…I don’t remember very well."

"You had horrible dreams," Taiki said in the same casual murmur. "Kakyuu-hime said perhaps they had to do with your developing empathy, and that they were nothing to be ashamed of, and of course you shouldn’t have to face them alone. Do you dream, Yaten?"

"…Sometimes," Yaten said finally, sounding a bit hesitant, shifting again in Taiki’s grip.

"Hm." Taiki sounded almost curious as he leaned back slightly, his grip loosening even further. "But that’s not why you’re here tonight, is it, Yaten?"

Yaten stiffened, catching his breath.

"You came here tonight to test a theory, and you were disappointed," Taiki said, carefully eyeing the stiff line of Yaten’s neck. "My arms feel nothing like Seiya’s, and being *in* my arms, you feel nothing like you do when you’re in his. Isn’t that it?"

One breath. One breath passed in still silence, and then Yaten scrambled to the side of the bed where he sat, hunched over, trying to catch his breath and seemingly struggling against nausea.

"I’m sorry," Taiki said softly, reaching out a gentle hand towards Yaten’s shoulder, but before he made contact, Yaten bolted. Within a second, the door had shut behind him, leaving behind no sign that he’d ever been there.  

Taiki sighed quietly as he let himself fall back against the bed, the hand he had reached out slowly clenching and unclenching.

"Well…that went well," he muttered, trying to resist the unusual Seiya-like urge to roll over and pound his pillow into submission. He knew it wouldn’t make him feel better, really.

He knew as well as anyone that there was no cure for guilt.

*****

The next day was just about the worst Seiya could ever remember spending on Earth. He had awakened to the shocking sight of Yaten, already awake, sitting across the table from Taiki, evidently doing his best to ignore everyone and everything around him…except his cat, that is. Shiruku, for her part, received the typical morning routine---as soon as Yaten had finished his breakfast and placed the dishes in the sink, he stooped down to coo something low-pitched and undoubtedly ridiculous in the kitten’s ear before he fetched her a bowl of cat food. Unlike most mornings, however, as Shiruku occupied herself with her breakfast, Yaten quickly washed his hands, grabbed his school bag, and left, banging the front door behind him, without a word to either of his companions.

"Ano…" Seiya had begun, only to silence himself quickly when Taiki had suddenly folded the newspaper and slapped it down onto the table, smacking his reading glasses down on top of it so harshly that Seiya cringed, sure that they must have broken. The look on Taiki’s face only served to confirm Seiya’s hunch that Taiki was in a bad mood too.

"Er…ohayou?" Seiya offered timidly as he got out some cereal and milk.

"Mm," Taiki had murmured noncommittally from behind his hand as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

So, Seiya had given up, deciding to focus for the moment on eating his breakfast.

Taiki had remained silent as Seiya had eaten, and even while the two of them had finished preparing to go to school and gone out to the car. Only while they’d been driving to school had the older boy finally decided to speak.

"Seiya…I wasn’t going to say anything, but…"

"E? What is it, Taiki?" Seiya had asked, curious.

"This game you’re playing…with Yaten," Taiki had said, his eyes narrowing slightly behind his sunglasses. He could easily just have been focusing on something on the road, but Seiya knew him better than that, and he caught his breath. "It’s becoming dangerous. Be careful."

Seiya hadn’t responded…he hadn’t known how to respond. His first instinct was to reply with anger…to yell at Taiki and tell him it wasn’t any of his business. He supposed he could have played dumb and said he had no idea what Taiki was talking about…Yaten might well have done that if he’d been put in the same situation, Seiya figured. In the end, Seiya opted for silence, because in truth…Taiki was right, and it only made Seiya feel worse to think that Taiki felt the same sense of danger as he did about this whole mess.

The school day dragged by at what felt to Seiya like a snail’s pace. He couldn’t focus on his work, with Taiki a couple of seats back and to the right, almost obsessively focusing on each task they were assigned, and Yaten…Yaten was just a few seats up ahead, next to Aino Minako, who seemed to have noticed his black mood and had been trying her damnedest all day to bring him out of it. By lunch-time, this only ended up getting her on his bad side as well. All things considered, Seiya didn’t even have the heart to tease Usagi, and he could see that she noticed: she kept glancing over her shoulder, sending him the oddest looks. She almost looked…concerned. Inwardly, he laughed at that thought. Yeah, right…Odango probably didn’t give a damn about him one way or another. All he was to her was a nuisance, just like he was to everyone else.

When classes ended, Seiya headed straight to football practice and managed to catch a glimpse of Yaten as he started his solitary walk home. It wasn’t unusual for Yaten to walk home alone---he was the only one of the three of them who didn’t participate in any club activities, after all---but after the way Yaten had stormed off alone that morning, Seiya felt his stomach clench, watching Yaten disappearing off into the distance, the small cluster of fans that had crowded around him when the bell had rung slowly dissipating the farther he got from the school.

Football practice ran late again, so when Taiki showed up at the usual time after his own computer club meeting had finished, Seiya told him to go ahead and go home. This time, however, Taiki said that he would wait for Seiya; that he might just as well finish up his homework here as at home. Seiya wondered if Taiki was truly reluctant to go home, or if he had imagined the hesitance he’d seen in Taiki’s eyes for a moment.

By the time they finally got home, having agreed that heating up leftovers from the previous evening would do for supper, the first thing they noticed once they got into the house was that it was unusually silent. Yaten wasn’t at his usual studying place at the dining table, and Shiruku was nowhere to be seen either. However, there was a light coming from under Yaten’s bedroom door, so Taiki and Seiya assumed Yaten must be in there and, while Taiki went about heating up dinner, Seiya went to work on his homework, occupying Yaten’s usual spot.

"It’s ready," Taiki said eventually, setting out three plates, and Seiya nodded his thanks as he cleared away his books.

"Yaten!! Time to eat!" Seiya yelled up the stairs, but he received no answer. "Yaten!!!"

"I suppose he doesn’t feel like eating," Taiki said with a quiet sigh, moving to clear away the third plate, but before he could do so, Seiya stalked over and grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"Don’t," Seiya said through gritted teeth, the look in his eyes determined. "I don’t care if he’s hungry or not. I’m taking him his dinner."

"Seiya…" Taiki began, rubbing his temple and wincing as though he had a bad headache, but Seiya shook his head, ignoring Taiki. He moved swiftly around the kitchen, grabbing a tray, a cup of the green tea Taiki had just prepared, Yaten’s dinner, and a set of chopsticks, and quickly fixing it all into a nice array. "Seiya, I really don’t think…"

"Never mind," Seiya said simply before he turned and made his way up the stairs, finally stopping and taking a deep breath before Yaten’s door. When he felt a bit more calm, he balanced the tray on one arm and reached up to pound on Yaten’s door. At first, of course, there was no response, but he kept pounding, telling himself that he wasn’t going to leave until either Yaten answered, or his own hand started to bleed.

Finally, when it felt like he’d been knocking for at least five minutes, he heard a muffled curse from inside the room, and then the door swung open and he was greeted by a sight that he hadn’t quite expected.

"What the hell is it!?" Yaten snapped perilously, eyes flashing dangerously as she used both hands to try to calm her sleep-mussed hair back into some semblance of normalcy. "I was sleeping, damn it!"

Seiya swallowed and recovered his equilibrium as quickly as possible, trying to stop staring at the way Yaten’s flimsy, silky little nightgown tightly hugged the curves of her body.

"It’s dinner time, that’s what," Seiya said, lifting the tray to demonstrate.

Yaten lifted an eyebrow, lip curling slightly in distaste, apparently not happy to have been awoken for such a matter.

"I’m not hungry," she said simply, and then she started to close the door, just like that.

Seiya frowned as he reached out a foot and kicked the door back open, listening to Yaten swear as she jumped back out of the way.

"I don’t care if you’re hungry or not," Seiya said firmly, still frowning as he moved past her and into the room, pushing aside some of the homework she had set out on her desk to put down the tray. "You look about as thin as a pencil these days, Yaten."

He turned around and folded his arms, intending not to leave until he’d seen her eat at least something.

"Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s rude to comment on a girl’s weight?" Yaten said in a low voice as she turned and casually threw herself on her bed, lying on her stomach and swinging her feet in the air. Shiruku shifted from where she’d been curled up near the pillow and moved over to lie closer to Yaten, and was immediately rewarded with a back scratch.

"Well, I never claimed to be much of a gentleman," Seiya said, and he couldn’t help a slight smile when he heard Yaten snort, and watched her roll her eyes. "Look, I’m not going to just go away, you know. Of course, I know you’re a pro at ignoring people, but since I know what you really want is for me to go away so you can go back to sleep, wouldn’t it be easier if you just told me what’s bothering you so much so I can do that? That way we both win, right?"

"Oh, that’s easy, then," Yaten said, rolling her head back to look him in the eye. "*You’re* bothering me. Now will you go away?"

Seiya threw his head back and laughed, then cut off the sound abruptly, dropping his head and narrowing an annoyed glanced at her.

"Very funny. Now, how about we get serious?"

"I was serious," Yaten said, turning back to look at Shiruku, who had her eyes wide open and was looking back and forth between Seiya and Yaten, evidently aware of the tension between the two.

Seiya was silent for a moment before he sighed and brought up a hand to tiredly rub his face.

"Yaten…please…all I want is to help you," he murmured as he dropped his hand, staring at the floor. "I feel…I feel like you need something, like all of this is really your way of asking for something…only I don’t know what it is. Ne…tell me. Please?"

Yaten remained silent for several minutes before she finally rolled over onto her back and folded her hands over her stomach.

"You can’t help me," she said, her voice quiet but firm. "Now please…go away."

"But…"

"No, Seiya. Go away," Yaten said, closing her eyes and letting out a tired sigh.

Seiya rubbed his eyes again, contemplating just how futile it would be to protest again. One glance at Yaten, lying there with her eyes closed and her mouth set in a firm line, told him that right now, it would be about as futile as futile could be, so he decided to retreat for the time being, giving up with a quiet sigh.

"Fine," he said softly. "But…if you change your mind…you know where to find me. And try to eat something, okay? You really are looking too thin lately."

Yaten didn’t reply, didn’t even open her eyes until after he’d closed the door, at which time she finally got up off the bed and made her way over to the tray he’d brought in. She mused over whether or not she might be able to manage the meal, but in the end decided that at the moment she could really only handle the tea. Her stomach just didn’t take food too well when she was worrying this strongly.

She returned to bed feeling warmed by the tea, and she silently---if grudgingly---thanked Seiya for that, at least. She sighed again as she settled herself back under the covers, and watched Shiruku nesting around to find a comfortable position.

"What should I do…?" Yaten murmured aloud, but Shiruku gave her no response except a slow blink of her bright green eyes, so Yaten gave up, closing her eyes and attempting to go back to sleep.

*****

"How did it go?" Taiki asked when Seiya finally made it back to the table.

Seiya shrugged, shaking his head.

"I’m not sure…she probably won’t eat it," Seiya said, sighing once more as he took his seat. "She was sleeping when I went up there…she’s probably been asleep since she got back from school."

"She?" Taiki repeated, one eyebrow lifting slightly.

"Yeah," Seiya said with a nod, now rubbing at his own temple in much the same way Taiki had been earlier.

"Really?" Taiki said, slowly sitting back in his chair and letting out a breath.

"What’ll we do, Taiki?" Seiya asked after a moment, lifting his eyes to meet Taiki’s. Taiki was surprised by the tinge of desperation he saw there, embedded deeply within the dark blue.

"Nothing," Taiki said, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "We shouldn’t do anything. This is evidently something Yaten has to work out for herself. Just…give it time."

Seiya took a breath, seeming like he was about to argue, but then he let out the breath, the fight going out of him along with it.

"Yeah…you’re probably right," he said, dropping his head to rest in his arms. "I’d just make it worse if I tried to help her, anyway."

Taiki tilted his head, frowning slightly, but didn’t question Seiya, deciding that there were only so many neuroses that he could handle worrying about at once. After all, he had plenty of his own to deal with…

*****

END PART FOURTEEN