Back to ze past

"Aww sad." Yuki sighed and moved forward, pulling the younger boy into his arms. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Kaoru shifted into his demon form
"arn't I clever!" he grinned happily

"You were a fox." Hotaru said, rolling her eyes. "But yes, your a very clever boy." She kissed his cheek and bent down, moving off to get the next load.

Kaoru trotted after her waving his tail happily
"Can i help?"

"Darling your a fox, and a lord at that." Hotaru looked back at him. "Wait, is there something wrong? Is it Sadaku?! She was acting a bit off, did something happen?! Is that why your here?!"

Kaoru shook his head
"Its alright, she's fine. They both are.
And I wanna help, watch!"

he shifted into his human form, dressed as a villager
"Can I please?" he gave her the puppy eyes

Hotaru rolled her eyes. "Fine, but don't stuff it up. This is my way of living."

"M'kay! Just tell me what to do!"

Sadaharu sighed and leaned against Yuki, closing his eyes. "I thought you were- I'm sorry, I just didn't-" He broke off again and shook his head with a small laugh. "I'm hopeless. How are you?" He asked, tilting his head to look up at Yuki.

Yuki gave a small laugh and rubbed the wet patch under Sadaharus eyes. "Pretty shit, but feeling more awake than ever. What about you kid, how are you?"

He shrugged slightly and looked away. "Fine. I'm so glad you're awake. I was starting to think that you were gone again."

"hey, look at me." Yuki said, holding onto the boys shoulders. he bent down to make sure they saw eye to eye. "I promised you I would never leave again didn't I, I'll always come back to you."

When Hikaru and Momiji returned to camp they saw that Kuroi and Takeo were packing up

Momiji ran to help

"we leave in 5 minutes, seems the village won't let Momiji's little visit drop"
explained Kuroi

the girl ducked her head and busied herself with packing her few possesions

"Its alright, we've stayed here too long anyway" said Hikaru picking up one of her knives
"I'm gonna go kick some villager arse and buy us some time kay?"

"How you can say that after everything that's happened, I don't understand" Sadaharu said. "What I will understand is if you go back on it."

"Now your being an idiot." Yuki lent forward and kissed Sadaharus forhead. he moved off to look about the kitchen. "What have we got to eat here?"

"Not much" Sadaharu said sheepishly. "I didn't like leaving... There's food at the main house, though there might be some dried fruit in there somewhere."

"Maybe I should just eat you then." Yuki smirked, walking over and placing a small kiss on the boys collar bone. He walked over to the bed and looked around it.

Sadaharu smiled and poked around in the small kitchen, managing to find the dried fruites and a few skiced of the bread Elizabeth made. "If you wanted something to eat; you've been on mash for... a long time." He tugged at a strand of his hair.

"Mash?" Yuki stuck his tongue out. "I hate Mash."

Sadaharu shrugged heplessly and grinned. "Steak wasn't an option." He pulled his way too long hair back (in his opinion: it reached his waist) and tied it into a ponytail. "God I missed you." He said with a small smile. Guilt was still raging inside his head, but for the moment he was able to ignore it.

Yuki grinned. "I hear I leave that effect with people. But hey, that steak sounds really good right now."

Smiling across the fire at her brother, Anei sighed softly, yes this was the face that killed her, the hands and the body. But the intent was gone...Zetsubou was back. Albeit quite muddled when it came to his memories, but it was him.

Glancing to her left she noticed that Kietsu was giving the panther a slightly bewildered glare, she could tell he wanted to hate the boy, but then again this boy had done nothing wrong. His emotions were mixed and he was so unsure of what to do.

Zetsubou himself was just staring bewilderedly at his companions, his sister, a bear, a human child, a talking ferret and a crazy cat demon. How the hell did he wind up in company like this!?

Glancing down to the meat cooking on the fire he sighed softly and as a spark of still warm ember broke off and drifted into the air a flash of red lights and large angry metal machines flashed on him, gone again in an instant.

Letting out a puff of air, Zetsubou didn't even bother chasing the memory, it was gone only the memory of the memory remained. They only seemed to come to him to remind him he had forgotten something and that most likely, it would always stay that way.

Unnerved slightly by the unwavering glare of the large bear Zetsubou cleared his throat and anounced to the other that he was going for a walk and after glancing at the anxious faces of Anei and the human quickly assured them that he would return soon.

Jackie remained on Zetsubous shoulder, his new favourite sleeping place.

"Sure" Sadaharu said with a rueful grin. "I'm glad to state that I'm now a better chef than Mori" Sadaharu said with a shake of his head as he walked once more into the kitchen. "And now I think of it..." He stood back up holding a container. "I cooked these this morning. Forgot." He said and set down the assortment of cooked meat. "If you were feeling picky, we could go hunt".

Yuki sat down and simply smiled to Sadaharu. "I feel like we're a married couple."