Misao sat against the wall, her head tipped limply to one side and her arms dropped carelessly on the floor. Her face was flushed and her eyes twitched under her eyelids.

"She's hurt," Aoshi said softly. "I need your help."

Enishi rounded on the older boy. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing. You did it, if anybody. Now shut up and come with me." He turned his back on Enishi and scooped Misao up in his arms. He arranged her clothing so that she nobody could sneak a peak at anythng they shouldn't see, tipped her head against his cheast and held her tightly as he pushed the door open with his shoulder and started down the stairs. Enishi stood at the top of the stairwell in a moment of indesicion.

"I can't just leave school! I'm far enough behind as it is," Enishi called at Aoshi's back.

"I'll help you," was the grunted reply.

"What about the absence?"

"I already took care of it. You're excused for the rest of the day." The words echoed up to Enishi, the speaker already out of sight.

"What about my school things?" Enishi said, a little desperate for a reason not to go with Aoshi.

"I'll wait."

Cursing, Enishi returned to the room, gathered his things, appologized to the teacher and met up with Aoshi again by his car. Misao still hung limply in his arms.

"Open the door and get in," he said.

Enishi tried the door and found it locked. Aoshi directed Enishi to get the keys out of his pocket and unlock the car. When Enishi was settled in the back seat Aoshi handed Misao to him, then shut the door. Enishi gently arranged Misao on his lap so that her head rested on the side of the car. Aoshi got it, glanced at Enishi in the rearview mirror and said as he started the car, "That's not a good idea. She'll wake up with a headache in addition to the one she's already got and her neck and back with be sore."

"What do you suggest then, doctor?"

"Just lay her across your lap and don't let her head move around too much."

After several minutes of uncomfortable silence Enishi felt a jolt of muscles in Misao's arm under his hand. He glanced down, worried. Misao began to shake violently.

"Shi- Shinomori, uh... she's..."

Aoshi glanced in the mirror again and Enishi thought he heard him swear. "Seizures. We won't be able to get to her house in time."

"The hospital is in the other direction," Enishi pointed out as the sped past a sign proclaiming just that.

"We're going to my house," Aoshi said shortly, speeding up again.

A few minutes later Enishi was watching as Aoshi set up a bed on the couch. Misao lay still in his arms, her seizure having past not long before they reached Aoshi's apartment. She didn't seem to have another one coming on again soon, but both boys were still wary. Aoshi finished laying the soft quilts on the couch, dissappeared for a moment in the kitchen, then approached Enishi and Misao with a bottle and two glasses. He set them on the floor and held out his arms for Enishi to place the unconscious Misao in them.

"What are you going to do?" Enishi demanded, stepping back.

"Put her on the bed, calm down, then explain to you exactly what's going on," he said cooly.

Enishi glanced at the bottle. It was vodka. 'That's what he means when he says 'calm down'? Oh great...' He shot Aoshi a glance of apprehension, but saw more than he intended. His glasses must have slipped a little too low while he had held Misao, because the spirits were appearing again. A man very similer to Aoshi hovered behind him. He was older and wore a business suit and a ponytail, but he was very much the same person.

One lens of Enishi's glasses cut Aoshi's face in half. In the dark view of the lens Enishi saw the haughty, impassive boy that was his rival in love. Without the lens Enishi saw Shinomori Aoshi for who he really was.

Scared of losing the one thing in the world that still mattered to him; weak of heart with the losses of two lifetimes on his shoulders; saddened by Enishi's mistrust; desperate for somebody that understood and could help. His eyes pleaded with Enishi. He looked like a beaten dog or, even worse, a beaten man.

"Here, and pour me one too," Enishi said wearily. He let Aoshi take Misao out of his arms and took off his glasses to rub at his eyes. They felt like they were on fire. He glanced at the room and saw ghosts surrounding the boy and girl. Closest were a pair that looked like slightly older versions of the two; the man in the suit with the ponytail and a girl with long hair and an innocently worried expression.