Disclaimer: I don't own Furuba.

Note: Co written with Bizarre Love Triangle.

The Answer's Still Water

Kana was gone. Well, she was still going, but she'd already been gone for a week and Hatori knew it. And it was fucking tearing him apart as he watched her walk off. He'd been fine since he'd erased her memories, and he managed to keep it together until he got back to his house, where he knew Shigure and Ayame were waiting. He hadn't meant to break down then either, but that's just how it worked out.

The other two thirds of the trio watched him unhappily. They'd suspected that something bad would happen from the moment Hatori brought Kana to meet them. Now she was gone and they were left to pick up the pieces of their friend. They'd do it gladly, but they weren't exactly how well they were doing at it.

Hatori just walked over to his couch wordlessly, once he got there, and buried his face in his hands, where it wouldn't be so obvious that he was crying. He wanted to be alone, but he knew that was too much to hope for with friends like he had.

Nope, they wouldn't be leaving. They'd be there for the dragon, and they assured him of that quietly  as they each took a post on either side of him.

Hatori didn't really have the energy to argue, at the moment. So he just let his hands fall between his sped legs and hung his head even further. This whole thing sucked!

Shigure didn't think it was particularly intelligent to say anything right now. But Ayame, who has never known how to hold his tongue, hugged the doctor carefully. Well at least he was being careful about something...

"It's for the best, Tori-san." He offered assuring. That was all he cared about anyways. Was Hatori's best interest. And that wasn't Kana.

"F-for the best?" Hatori echoed shakily, glancing at Ayame through his still freshly wounded eye. "How did you come to that conclusion?"

The dog silently agreed and willed Hatori to understand. He wasn't so naive as to think it would work though, and half wished Ayame had just kept their shared opinion quiet.

"It was no good." The snake told him, not a hint of flinching at his own harshness. "It's never good when it becomes your whole world." Only a little bitter about being pushed aside for that woman. "And now both of you have clean slates."

"Not quite." He muttered moodily. Kana had a clean slate, but still had to deal with everything and work through it like everyone else would.

Aaya eyed him critically. He was just being moody, and the snake would excuse it just this once because of the circumstances.

"Aaya just wants to reassure you, so you don't regret your choice." The dog finally reminded. As a way of saying: ignore what he's saying and take the feeling behind it.

"I can't regret it." He shrugged. "It wouldn't be right. I...didn't really have a choice..."

"I suppose no regret is one good thing that can be said about the entire situation." Shigure offered in his usual manner.

Hatori just shook his head unhappily and started crying harder. He couldn't imaging his life without her, anymore...He didn't want to loose that light! That...clean feeling of forgiveness.

His friend sighed and cast Ayame a pitiful gaze to just keep his mouth shut for a little while. Then the brunette pulled to dragon over at offered some NONVERBAL comfort.

Hatori took the opportunity to have a place to burry his face to make his crying once again less obvious, for the time being.

Eventually as the hour got later, Shigure and Ayame both suggested sleep to their... rather... ragged looking friend.

He didn't want to sleep without her...He didn't want to think about what might come to him in his sleep if he tried to do so alone. He didn't want to be alone right now, not right now.

"Don't go." He mumbled finally, a begrudging edge to his tone.

The other two smiled grimly and agreed to his request. That might have laughed at his tone if they were in a different situation.

Hatori just nodded, and, if anything, nuzzled closer to Shigure. Buried deeper into the dark of the other's body sealing out the light from the room.

Well, at least Ayame and Shigure felt like they were fulfilling their obligations as friends. It wasn't really an obligation... they  loved Hatori, they were happy to do it for him. Maybe happy isn't the word?

He didn't remember any of them moving into his room, or even falling asleep, but that was where Hatori woke the next morning when he did. He almost forgot that Kana was gone, for a moment, before he actually realized that it wasn't her heat next to him.

It was still dog boy and Ayame curled up carefully with their best friend. They were both rather grateful he'd asked them to say, since in all honesty, they didn't trust him on his own. Besides, they knew they wouldn't want to be alone if they'd gone through the same shit their beloved Haa-san had.

Hatori sighed softly, and carefully crawled out of bed, not wanting to wake them just yet as he headed for the kitchen. He needed coffee. He WANTED alcohol, but he was pretty sure he didn't have any in his house. So, coffee would do until he could get to a store and buy some liquor.

Hatori was awarded a whole hour to himself to drink his coffee. It was nice and quiet too. But magical best friend senses tingled a bit and one of his best friends was destined to come padding into the room he was currently residing in. He was just lucky it was Shigure rather than Ayame. If it had been Ayame all calmness for the rest of the day would be lost to his spastic, talkative, over protective ways.

Hatori just glanced up to see who it was, muttered an absent greeting, and went back to staring into his coffee between drinks.

The dog frowned inwardly, it was rare for him to show outward upset anyways. He just sat down slowly across from his friend.

"Sleep well enough, Haa-san?" He wondered, phrasing it carefully. 'Well enough' meant he'd slept, and woken up without much incident.:

"I slept." He shrugged non-committally. He knew that his missing for Kana would just get worse before it got better, so he figured he could try to hold off falling to pieces for a little while. "I'm going shopping later." He stated slowly. "I need to pick up a few things."

"Hmm, have fun when you go do that, then." His friend nodded. He and Aaya. Well, HE at least, was just here to be comforting to his friend. Not take over like a worried, over protective mother hen. He'd probably go out and get a few things as well though... just in case Hatori did something amazingly stupid like buy alcohol when he knows very well he's horrible with it.

He wasn't considering it stupid, he was considering it a temporary, yet effective escape method. He was quite aware of how bad his alcohol handling abilities were, but he really didn't care at the moment. What he cared about was finding a way to get five minutes peace without so much as thinking about Kana for the first time in months.

The two friends were allotted a small amount of time before their final third awoke and came bouncy out to glomp upon the both of them with enthusiastic offers of breakfast and other such things.

Hatori just shrugged and politely declined the offer for food, and stood to go shower and change so he could go do that shopping he'd wanted to. It would probably be best, he mused absently to himself, to drink that alcohol BEFORE he went home again, just in case Shigure and Ayame were still there and wished to abject.

The snake huffed a little, and to ease the poor things easily bruised feelings Shigure agreed to his offer. He also informed the younger man of their best friends plans to go out shopping without them. But he got the snake to agree that they needed to stock up on some things while Ha'ri was out too.

It's really not necessary to detail Hatori's various misadventures at the store, so we can safely skip ahead to Hatori coming home a few hours later, a little more than tipsy. He didn't really care, though. He'd purposely walked to and from the store for a reason, after all.

"Hmm... Gure-san how drunk do you think he is?" Ayame murmured quietly as they watched him.

"Scale of one to ten... I give this one a seven. For our own personal amusement we could probably stir him up until he vomits then tuck him in his bed." The dog replied with a half grin, and got a small smack from the snake. "But-" he finally added lowly. "I don't think he'd appreciate it. He'll probably smack us if we offer him coffee like he always does... So." Shigure shoved a little box to Ayame. Who proceeded to open it up and go about the task of offering the little... 'anti-hangover' pills to their friend. Aaya was less likely the be smacked for offering, and they needed to do something about Tori's obligatory hangover. He was nasty with a hangover.

Ali says:

Hatori chuckled darkly, and rested his forehead on Ayame's shoulder as he accepted Ayame and Shigure's little...gift.

The snake hugged his friend with a half smile. Good drunk Hatori...

He let out a small little moan, and half heartedly returned the hug. It had been a while since he'd been hugged for more than fifteen seconds...In fact, he was pretty sure that it was Ayame who'd done it that time too. Maybe it was Shigure...he couldn't really remember at the moment.

"Come sit down, Tori-san." The silver haired man purred carefully and maneuvered the dragon in the direction.

"Yes, yes. We'll keep your drunken self company until potentially you vomit and or fall asleep like you usually do." Shigure snorted, and Ayame glared at him to behave.

"That's an interesting offer." Hatori murmured, trying, even in his drunken state, to keep the slur out of his tone. It didn't work, but he tried.

"Isn't it though?" The dog leaned over to smirk openly at the doctor. "I usually prefer to give you more alcohol, see how many more it takes to MAKE you vomit. Just in case you care to know the answer is five... But this time I thought I'd sit and enjoy your presence for once." His drunken presence. Aaya rolled his eyes at Shigure.

"Gure-san you know as well as I do Tori-san never finishes that fifth drink." He corrected quietly and tersely.

"You two really aren't very nice." Drunk Hatori was a bit...blunter than he was when he was sober.

"We're sorry." They apologized automatically, grinning a little.

He just shrugged, and let his head slip into Ayame's lap. Maybe...they wouldn't manage to talk him into having sex with them today...like they had...every time they'd gotten him drunk when they were younger.

That had been the point of not giving him more booze. Their usually so reserved friend was just too tempting when he was completely inebriated. So right now they were opting to just take care of him. Ayame pet his hair gently and Shigure watched with a little bit softer smile.

And he fell asleep...eventually. There was a little babbling before hand, but he DID fall asleep! It was a pleasant alternative to vomiting...

Yes, the vomiting usually was Shigure and Ayame's fault. Anyways, between them they got their friend into his bed. They sat nearby and talked quietly about some other things they might potentially have to do for their heartsick dragon.

Well, they might want to come up with it soon. Predictably, things did get worse for Hatori. There was more than one episode with alcohol, but Hatori knew better than to push it to the point of addiction. Though, that might have had something to do with the last one taking place inside and actually in front of his two apparent house guests. So, that stopped. However, more, worse episodes followed.

"Tori-san?" Ayame requested meekly from one side of the closet door. "Tori-san... maybe you should come out."

"Aaya, just leave him be," Shigure whispered in his friends ear. "We can try in a little while, but you know him. He's a moody bastard and won't come out till he's damn well ready."

"Shut up," The snake glared and tried again softly at the door. It would be nice Hatori hadn't locked himself in the closet in a fit of depression...

There wasn't any reply from the dragon inside that closet. Though, there was a crashing thud that sounded suspiciously like an umbrella being thrown against the door.

"Aaya," The dog tugged on the man's sleeve a little. But the youngest of the trio just cringed and called the dragon's name again. Shigure was forced to roll his eyes.

"Haa-san, come on out like a good boy. We'll give you some hooch and a nice downer." He muttered sarcastically, but loud enough for the angsty doctor to hear. Ayame elbowed him hard in the stomach and commanded him to shut up again.

"No!" Was the sharp reply from inside. Hatori was enjoying the dark, and was currently eyeing his belt in the dim light leaking in from under the door, and seriously considering hanging himself right then when they wouldn't be able to stop him.

"Hnnn..." Shigure snorted and left. Ayame watched after him angrily. Just abandoning Tori-san... how rude... So he went back to pleading quietly with the doctor. That is, until the dog came back and pushed him gently out of the way.

"Gure-san, will you stop messing a-----" Oh? He's not messing around? He went and got one of Haa-sans thin, metal, pointy pieces of doctoring equipment and picking the jammed door knob open? Good dog...

Hatori growled and squinted against the light when Shigure got the door open, though he didn't drop the belt he'd taken off to use as a suicide device.

"Bad, Haa-san." Shigure admonished in an odd tone as he pocketed the pointy thing and set about stopping his friend from hanging himself in the closet.

"You suck." Hatori commented uncharacteristically, holding the belt a little closer and shrinking back amongst the clothing.

"Oh I know." The shorter brunette assured him. Ayame peaked his head in and watched worriedly from behind his other friend. "But if I let you stay in here, Aaya-chan will cry and we don't want that now do we." He raised an eyebrow and continued his slow advance the pry the belt out of the other's hands if he had to.

"You two can watch, if you want." He shrugged, as though this happened often, though there was a slightly nervous edge to his tone. He was perfectly willing to fight Shigure for the belt, if he had to.

"No, no. I have other plans. If I watch you die it's going to be with me ceremoniously lighting you on fire after forcing you to drink large amounts of alcohol and taking advantage of your inebriated state." He murmured darkly, this is one of those scary serious Shigure moments. "And yes, I am selfish and greedy enough to stop you from having your fun now so I can have mine later."

"Screw you." Hatori wasn't really feeling much like himself at the moment. He wasn't worried about being polite, and he didn't really care what came out of his mouth.

"I don't think now is the appropriate situation... But if you insist." He was being his usual smart-ass self, only minus the smile. The dog reached out his hand and began the taking away of the belt.

"That wasn't what I meant!" He pointed out, hitting the wall and quickly holding the belt behind his back. No, no, no! He was not going to loose this. Damnit! Why were all the piss off variations so suggestive?

"Hmm, fine keep it."

"Gure-san!" The snake protested but the dog just grabbed a good handful of Hatori's shirt and tugged him down to eye level.

"But how about we do Shigure a favor and get out of the closet?" He murmured darkly.

"But there aren't any good things to hang yourself from out there." He pointed out with a small frown. He was also feeling rather blunt at the moment...

"That, my dear, dear Haa-san. Is just too damn bad."

Hatori just stared at him evenly for a few minutes.

"I'll find a way, eventually." He promised softly.

"Fine. Fine." The air was getting a little bristly between them, but the mutt just shrugged it off and pulled the doctor out of the closet by the front of his shirt. "Eventually, later. Not now."

"You two can't be here all the time, you'll have to go home at some point."

"Exactly! You can do it then, Haa-san! Good idea!" His friend murmured, finally letting go of his shirt and snatching away the belt from the other idiot. "Just not now since, just letting you would destroy what very few morals I currently have."

"Like you REALLY care." He snapped tersely, scrambling to his feet and heading for the nearest door. He wanted air...

Shigure caught his wrist for just a moment.

"That one was just stupid, Haa-san." He told the other shortly, then released his wrist again immediately to allow him to leave. Ayame was actually managing to watch all this mutely. He came up behind Shigure and gripped nervously at the edge of his robes. He hadn't seen the two of them fight in any way shape or serious form in a long, long time.

Hatori snatched two things off his desk on the way out. They were both packs of cigarettes, but one was half empty. He intended on going through at least a whole pack before he came back in. He needed to calm down somehow...This was the only way he could think of, if Shigure wasn't going to let him die.

"Well, we've sufficiently annoyed him, eh, Aaya-chan?" Shigure turned and smiled at the snake before hugging the other carefully.

"Gure-san, what are we going to do?" The younger sighed relaxing a little.

"Don't worry. He'll smoke himself half to death, we'll leave him alone, and he'll feel a little better." The dog advised steering Ayame towards the kitchen. "Until then we shall enjoy some tea,  eh?" Ayame blinked at the dog's cheer but just nodded and decided that would be a good way to wait until Hatori calmed down.

The pack and a half of cigarettes took longer than he'd anticipated, Hatori reflected on several hours later, as the last one burned dangerously close to his lips. He had more...in a desk drawer...he'd get them out and put them somewhere easier to get to later.

Neither of his friends did much when he returned. Ayame greeted him quietly and watched him worriedly, but Shigure just stuck to his tea. He'd done his part for the day. He'd kept Hatori from killing himself. He was taking a break from the drama now.

Hatori returned Ayame's greeting in a soft, exhausted tone, as he dug through one of his desk drawers, looking for more cigarettes to place on top of it. He didn't say anything to Shigure. He wasn't ANGRY at him, perse. He could never be truly angry with either of his friends. (Though, he'd come pretty close when he learned that Shigure had been there the that time Akito had taken Kyo's beads and hadn't even SAID anything to try and stop him.) He was just upset, and so FUCKING TIRED of hurting all the time. That feeling of emptiness and guilt had gone away while he'd been with Kana, but now not only was it back, but there was a sense of LONELINESS on top of it. He honestly didn't have the energy to deal with it anymore.

Naps help everything. Shigure found himself thinking idly, and was rather tempted to do something childish like take the cigarettes out of his sleeve, throw them, and hit Hatori in the back of the head with them. But refrained, no matter how much that would have amused him, in any circumstance, not just this one, Ha'ri wouldn't appreciate it in the slightest.

Hatori had kept one habit up, through all this crap since he'd asked Akito for his permission to marry Kana. And he continued to do so. Once he was finished fiddling around with his desk, he moved with obviously stiff and reluctant movements to gather his shoes and bag (wordlessly) and go check on Akito. It ripped him apart to put out such an effort to keep his boy alive when he felt so dead inside, thanks to him...But only a very small fraction. The curse and knowledge of everything that came along with it kept the rest of his mind in line...for the most part.

Of course Akito was always happy to see his 'friend'. The complete obedience was something delicious, something he hadn't tasted since he first brought Kureno into his service. Akii especially enjoyed idly taunting the dragon. Little questions about his and his friends welfare...

"They're fine, Akito-san." Hatori would always answer automatically, in that same soft, tired tone that seemed almost default lately, when he was sobbing in anguish or screaming in fury.

The head thought idly about setting up cameras so he could catch every precious moment of Hatori's unhappiness... But he decided it was just as fun to see the after math effects on the doctor himself when he came to visit. So other than that he 'behaved' himself and allowed Tori to return to his mopey little home with his strung out little friends.

Hatori did that, and when he got there, he collapsed onto the couch and buried his face in his hands. He didn't really care where Ayame or Shigure were at the moment.

Ayame appeared and twittered over by him worriedly. Shigure had decided to take his own advice: naps solve everything.

"Hello, Ayame." He greeted quietly, though he didn't raise his face up from his hands.

"Tori-san..." The snake murmured sadly and sidled up next to him carefully.

"Hm?" He finally did look up now. He'd calmed down considerably since Shigure had stolen his belt earlier, despite his visit with Akito.

"Ah," Aaya frowned struggling to ask what he wanted to ask without saying 'are you alright?'

Hatori sighed tiredly. He could hear the unasked question in Ayame's tone.

"I'm not going to bite you." He pointed out.

"Well. I wanted to ask... if you were okay." The silver haired man confessed and rolled his eyes. "But that's a dumb question. I'm the first to admit... So how about... are you feeling better?"

Hatori as very still for a moment, before nodding.

"For the moment." He added moodily under his breath. He was frustrated with himself for falling apart like this, but he wasn't sure how to make it stop either.

Ayame hugged him in silent relief.

Hatori just sighed again, and let his head rest on Ayame's shoulder. He felt guilty now, for making him worry. Silently, he cursed Shigure's ability to pick locks. It would all be over if it weren't for that...

Aaya kissed his hair with a little frown. Then he forced up his smile and offered such pleasantries as lunch and tea.

He should eat. He knew he should eat. He wasn't hungry, but he really should eat...

"Sure." He agreed after a few minutes. His inner doctor refused to let him go out in such a way as starvation.

The snake squeaked happily and pulled him off towards the kitchen and table to allow his friend to be more comfortable while they waited.

"Where's...Shigure?" He asked after a few minutes. He felt the need to apologize for throwing a hissy fit on him earlier.

"He's asleep." Aaya told him with a small smile. "He said since the lot of us were behaving like pre-schoolers we should have a nap time to calm down." He sweat dropped a little as he recounted what his smart assed friend had said.

"That description is oddly accurate, I think..."

"Yes, Gure-san has that way with words." The snake laughed lightly in agreement.

"I'm sorry about earlier." He murmured softly.

Ayame paused his cooking and looked over his shoulder at the dragon.

"Don't worry about it, Tori-san." He answered after a moment of odd silent staring, then returned to the task at hand.

"I...don't like feeling like this." He stated after a few minutes. This was Ayame, he knew he could say what he needed to say to him. "I don't like feeling so...helpless about everything."

The younger man came over in a soft rustle of clothes and offered up lunch to his other third.

"You're not helpless." He answered, sitting down and sipping at a cup of tea.

Hatori gave him an small, unhappy look.

"It feels that way."

Ayame frowned in a rather uncharacteristic way.

"It's okay, Tori-san." He muttered. "I know you're unhappy now. But you're not helpless. Things were--" He forced himself to stop. "I think it will be okay, Tori-san..."

"It won't be okay." Hatori argued, shaking his head a little. "It won't be okay because it wasn't okay to begin with. Maybe there will be a day at some point where it won't be...fatal anymore, but it will NEVER be OKAY."

"Hmmm, I'm sorry then, Tori-san. You must be right." The snake murmured bitterly. He found himself wishing he'd gone with Shigure for that nap now...

"Sorry..." Hatori groaned, crossing his arms on the table and buried his face in them. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't be yelling at you..."

His younger friend frowned and came around the table to hug him again.

"Please, Tori-san, calm down..." He requested softly.

Hatori didn't move or say anything for a while.

"Maybe...helpless isn't a good word." He admitted quietly, when he did speak up again. "I think completely lacking in self-control, would be more accurate."

"It's, okay... I'm not going to get upset... I'm just worried about you..." He didn't want to loose his best friend.

"Worried?" He raised an eyebrow, lifting his face up to actually look at Ayame.

"Yes," his younger friend blinked. He hadn't stuck around Shigure and Hatori since childhood just to let it all end now.

"I'm sorry." Hatori repeated, moving a little to the side to burry his face into Ayame's shoulder. Damnit all...He was acting worse than a woman over this...

Poor Aaya sighed and hugged him tighter. He felt like crying a bit himself now. Stupid angsty Hatori.

"I'm sorry..." Hatori repeated, once more, his shoulders wracking slightly with silent sobs. "I...I didn't mean to worry you..." Though, in retrospect, that didn't really make any sense, considering his rather dramatic suicide attempt earlier.

"Shh, shh, Tori-san." The snake soothed him carefully. He wasn't even going to try saying 'it's okay'.

Which was a wise move. Because, as Hatori had said, it wasn't. And things got less okay as time went on, and so led to Hatori's second suicide attempt.

The first one wasn't pleasant. But the second one involved Shigure quite literally snarling as he held the dragon still and Ayame prying away the instrument of death.

"Goddamnit, Shigure!" Hatori shouted angrily, trying to pull away from him and hold onto the knife in his hands tightly at the same time. "Let...let GO of me!"

"Haa-san. Shut up." His friend answered tersely. "Aaya, if he won't let go of it just bite him." He murmured to the snake. Oh what dark humor you have Gure-san? Ayame looked at him oddly before continuing to pull Hatori's fingers apart.

"Stop it, Ayame!" He spat his silver haired cousin, before turning his attention back to Shigure. "Let go." He repeated with a fierce glare. "I am REALLY tired, and I will NOT deal with this anymore!"

Shigure returned the glare just fine.

"Too fucking bad." He answered irritably. "But you know, Haa-san. You are a doctor. I could just have Aaya find some chlorophyll. That would solve this problem."

"Or, you two could go home and butt out." Hatori suggested, trying again to pull away from him.

Another snarl escaped the dog and Ayame looked at him fearfully. He didn't want to upset Hatori by being involved in this, but he didn't want Hatori to die either. And he wasn't sure he wanted to risk Gure's current wrath either.

"Tori-san, please." He murmured, requesting the knife be handed over.

Hatori offered him a desperate and unhappy look. Ayame had NEVER denied him anything, why couldn't he just see how much he COULDN'T handle things?

That was when the youngest member of their trio felt a few tears trail down his cheeks. Shigure halted his angry stare and looked at the other. It was rare for Ayame to really be that sad.

"Nnn. Give me that, Haa-san." He snorted quickly and quite effectively took the thing from the doctor. He didn't care if he cut himself on it in the process. He didn't want Hatori dead and he didn't want Ayame crying. This was the most effective way to go about it.

"Damnit!" Hatori burst out again, squirming around in Shigure's grasp, to try and wrestle the knife back again.

Hatori was indeed bigger, so that would have worked. But the dog decided because of his size disadvantage in wrestling, he would just have to give the knife to Aaya. Who took in and hurried out of the room while Shigure still had their angsty friend pinned.

"We win." Shigure snorted once the door was shut, and finally got off his friend.

"You don't get it, do you?" Hatori asked him, panting a little, from the effort he'd put out over the past half an hour or so. He'd never been particularly athletic to begin with...

"I get it just fine!" The shorter brunette spit back. "But your request has been denied."

"I. Can't. Do. This. Shigure." He stated very slowly, carefully, gesturing vaguely around him. "I'm sick of hurting, I can't deal with it!"

"Allow me to speak bluntly like the horrible person I am:" Shigure bristled. "I don't care."

"Apparently, you do, or you would have let me end it two weeks ago, like I wanted to!"

"Well yes, I do care. About you, just not what you want." Shigure agreed.

"Why don't you care?" He asked from where he was still sitting on the floor. "Why have you made it your...mission to keep me alive when that's the last thing I want?"

Shigure frowned at him deeply.

"You have to ask?" He wanted to be certain. He was again on the brink of seething though.

Hatori glared at him, and thought about it for a minute. It occurred to him a few moments later, though, and he could have smacked himself for not thinking of it sooner.

"Shigure, I appreciate you two caring. Really, I do. But what we had together was a LONG time ago. And I am MISERABLE without her."

"Boo fucking hoo? Neither of us are just letting you die." Now get over it.

Hatori offered him one last pleading look, before giving up. There was a simple solution to this: Make Shigure think he'd won, and just don't get caught next time.

"I'm going to start keeping chlorophyll in my pockets." The dog warned before going to make sure Ayame was no longer crying.

"Sure, sure," He snorted darkly, not buying into the threat for a minute.

Hey, if Hatori didn't want to take his warning that was fine. Shigure had another unhappy friend to deal with. Luckily not crying, but the silver haired man did launch himself at the dog and begin mumbling rapidly about something. Gure just murmured right back and hugged him.

'What are we going to do, Gure-san? Why can't we help? It's not fair...'

'I don't know, but we'll keep trying anyways.'

Yes, and that third attempt came a few weeks later. But this time was different. This time, Hatori didn't intend to be stopped. He had the door locked, and the gun in his hands. Even though he knew Shigure could pick that lock, it would take him time. Enough time, and he'd already be dead.

"T-Tori-san! Please, come out?" Aaya whimpered from outside the door. He didn't know what the dragon had in there with him this time and he wished Shigure would get the door open faster.

"You two wouldn't just let me die." He breathed, though he knew it was loud enough for both of his friends to hear him. "So...this was the only way I could think to do it. Third time's the charm, right?"

"Or we could go with lucky thirteen, Haa-san." Their other third called snidely from where he was hurriedly picking at the lock. Ayame just about kicked him for that comment too.

"You two have about thirty seconds before I pull the trigger." Hatori told them idly, actually raising the gun up to his temple as he spoke. "Just in case you wanted to know."

Once again snarling, Shigure pushed open the door at last. He made quick work of his chlorophyll too. Take that you angsty bastard.

And effectively got himself smacked when Hatori woke up again. He apologized about it later, and really meant it, but at the moment he was fucking annoyed, and thought Shigure deserved it.

Ayame frowned when the smacking occurred, even if Hatori didn't mean it, it was too much. He stepped worriedly between them even though Shigure kept assuring him it was all right.

Hatori just stood up wordlessly, claimed his cigarettes, before heading outside. He'd calm down and do whatever needed to be done later.

Aaya continued to frown as he turned to inspect the dog's cheek. It was red but that was about it.

"Aaya, it's fine. Don't worry."

"He hit you. How is that fine, Gure-san?"

"He's not dead is he?"

"..." The snake was getting tired of this. He loved Hatori, but he expected them  to understand him when he didn't seem to understand where they were coming from.

Hatori didn't come back in that afternoon, or evening. He went through all the cigarettes he'd brought out, but couldn't bring himself to go back inside to get more, even though he wanted to. He was starting to feel guilty about hitting Shigure. Really guilty. He didn't want to face him again, just yet.

And oddly enough, the dog could have cared less. He just set about waiting for Hatori to return so they could continue to fulfill their duties as friends and keep the dragon from dying. But since Ha'ri decided to stay out there so long, it ended up as Shigure sitting on the couch and Ayame asleep with his head in his lap.

Hatori remained out there until nearly midnight. And only then because he realized how amazingly stupid it was to let Shigure guilt him out of his own house.

"Welcome back, Haa-san." The dog chirped quietly in amusement at him. "Be careful with the door, or you'll wake up Aaya-chan." He was petting the silver hair idly and motioned down vaguely at the head it belonged to.

Hatori shut the door quietly, casting an unreadable glance at his best friends in the world.

"I'm sorry..." He whispered finally. "Really, really sorry..."

"Eh, you can kiss it and make it all better." The dog murmured sarcastically.

"I'll be sure to do that." Hatori replied softly, ignoring the sarcastic tone, and simply. "But...that wasn't all I was talking about."

"Really Haa-san, just hush." Shigure murmured idly. He didn't want to get the control-less doctor worked up again.

"Uh--no." He shook his head. No, he'd thought about it and realized something. "This needs to be said. I've...come to a conclusion..."

His friend blinked up at him carefully. "Well, if you shain't be silenced, let's hear your conclusion."

"I realized...that it would be more effective to not die just yet." Yes, he'd been thinking about this all afternoon and evening and night. "I mean...dying doesn't prove anything, does it? Except that your challenge has beaten you...No, dying's easy. Living is what's hard and proves your point, I think..." He shot an appraising look at Shigure, trying to see if he could read his expression to see he agreed or not.

The other man was looking down currently, running his hands through Ayame's hair. That was a very interesting way to look at things.

"Hmm. Whatever you think, Haa-san."

"And...I know that wounds take time to heal," He continued to speak softly, eyes locking onto Ayame's sleeping form too. "But...I'm going to wait for that to happen..." He didn't really have a choice, anyway. "And, I wanted to apologize for being so difficult so far, and let you know that I intend to stop trying to run away."

"We appreciate that greatly. I don't think chlorophyll is good for your brain cells...."

"No," he agreed dryly. "It's not."

Shigure snorted. "I did warn you."

He murmured in his own defense, hoping to get the subject a bit less sober.

He nodded in agreement to that. Yes, Shigure had warned him.

"And, I owe you another apology too." He sighed, moving over to sit next to them. "Both of you." He added, nodding down to Aaya.

"He needs it more. You did make him cry after all." The dog smiled lightly.

"He...cried?" He honestly hadn't been paying much attention. "Another thing to apologize for." He added under his breath, before getting back on topic. "But, that wasn't what I was talking about, actually." He sighed, and ran his fingers through his hair tiredly. "I'm sorry...for just throwing away all those years without so much as an explanation..."

"Oh, that." Shigure blinked tiredly at him. "No explanation necessary." He shrugged.

"No, it wasn't right for me to just...abandon you two." He frowned a bit. He didn't even care how narcissistic it sounded. "And, so, I'm sorry about that. It won't happen again, I promise..."

Shigure snickered. "And here we thought you hadn't even noticed."

"It's impossible to not notice you two."

"I'll pretend that's a compliment." The dog murmured with some more quiet chuckling, he didn't want to wake Ayame up after all.

Hatori glanced down at their final third and nodded to himself a tiny bit.

"Go ahead and take him back to my room," He directed softly. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Hnn, yes master." Gure joked as he set about the task of picking up his rather light-weight friend and maneuvering him back into the dragon's room.

Hatori nodded and went into the kitchen, grabbing a glass and filling it with water as he mused to himself. This would work. He'd MAKE it work. It wouldn't be like it had been before he'd met Kana, but it didn't have to be in order to be good, right? He sighed and poured the remaining water back out of his glass, down the sink, and went into his room, unbuttoning the first few buttons of his shirt as he went, though not undressing, and joining the two people who cared most about him in the world in his bed.

Shigure had just relocated to the futon, but he was still sitting up brushing the snake's hair gently. He had some silent and controlled elation at Ha'ri's little conclusion that wasn't currently allowing him to be particularly tired.

"Thank you for putting up with me." Hatori breathed to him as he moved over and sat down next to him.:

"We put up with you for years. We weren't going to stop just because you got a bit more moody than usual." Shigure assured him with a half smile.

"That's very assuring." It was impossible to tell if he was being sarcastic or not...

The dog pat his head shortly. "That was the point of saying it. Besides, we can't very well have a trio without you. You're like a brother, which honestly just makes past experiences sound even more incestual than they already were... But that's a discussion for when Aaya is awake to be involved."

"What's a discussion for Ayame to be involved in?" Hatori raised an eyebrow at him curiously.

"Just how much incest we've committed, exactly." Shigure explained with a half smirk.

"I don't really think that's up for vote." The dragon commented in an amused tone, as he lay back. "Quite a bit, but none of it too severe. We're not THAT closely related..."

"At least, we don't think so." They weren't actually sure about that.

"Mmm...second cousins, I think." He mused idly. "Whatever, it all adds up about the same, after a certain point."

"Mmmhmmm," Shigure smiled fondly over tiredly at his cousin before returning his gaze to the already sleeping third. Maybe they should all just hush and sleep. They'd need their energy since Aaya would be so excited about Hatori's little conclusion...

Well, he didn't have to worry about Hatori sleeping, he was by the time Shigure looked back again.

The dog had to chuckle at that and then put forth a conscious effort to force himself into his own dreamy little place. It wasn't hard since cuddled between Aaya and Haa-san is a very comfortable place to be.