His back was to them so she studied his body language as he talked. Tense, upset...she sighed softly.

"Yes, he called. What happened?"

There was a pause, then Hajime answered, "All right."

Hajime's fingers went through his hair, twice, and he glanced at the closed door that Owaru slept behind.

"No. That would be fine. Everything is all right here. Just...be careful, Brother."

He put the receiver down and went to stand in front of the window, his arms crossed against his chest and eyes narrowed.

"Amaru-kun, would you stir this?" Matsuri gave him the chop sticks and put the wok on the burner. "Don't let it burn, I'll be back in a minute."

Amaru nodded and winked at her, a very knowing expression on his face. She raised her eyebrows and frowned at him and he batted his eyes at her, suddenly all innocence, then set to work stirring with very exuberant motions. She smiled softly at his subtle tease. She had been so relieved that Amaru hadn't been upset with the relationship change between herself and Hajime. She didn't think Owaru had been either, but she couldn't be sure. Owaru had been in no shape to deal with much more than getting cleaned up and to his bed. And Tsuzuku would approve. She was sure of that. She went to Hajime and slid her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his back.

"What did he say?"

"That he was all right and going to stay for dinner, if we didn't need him for anything," Hajime's baritone rumbled under her ear.

She slid around him, ducked and wormed her way up through his crossed arms. His worried expression was replaced by a small smile as he pulled her in.

"And?" she prompted, wanting to let him know that he now had someone to share his worries with.

He sighed and his little worried frown came back. "You know Tsuzuku. He said he would explain when he got home."

"Then he will. Stop brooding about it, Hajime-san or I'll have to do something that will embarrass Amaru terribly to take your mind off it," she stood up on her tip-toes and gave him a quick kiss on the tip of his nose.

He actually blushed and she had to muffle her giggle against his chest.

"Matsuri-chan! I think it's done!" Amaru called from the kitchen.

"Coming, Amaru-kun!"

Hajime kept her gathered close as she tried to pull away.

"You'd better let me go, Hajime-san, or we'll have to eat our dinner burnt."

He did, very reluctantly, and gave her a firm pat on her rear as she hurried past him which startled a little squeak out of her. She responded with a playful glare over her shoulder and was pleased to see that he wore an open and honest smile. Mission accomplished! At least for an hour or so, if we're lucky...

Damn it! Why did he have to be so charming? So beautiful?

She wandered slowly back across the living room until she stood in front of the portrait of Their Dragon. She started to pick out all the little faults with it as tears threatened. She clenched both of her hands into fists, her nails digging painfully into her palms. Remy was so pleased that the Dragon had found them at long last. And anything that made Remy happy was good. She bit the inside of her cheek hard in frustration, drawing blood. The bitter tang of it filled her mouth. Blood...

Blood had loved this dragon with all her heart and it had brought her nothing but pain. She was terrified that it would happen again if she let herself fall under the spell of his love once more. The Gyushu ruled the Earth and the Heavens still and so far she and Remy had managed to keep themselves hidden. Like before. Hidden and safe until the Dragon came. Remy didn't understand. He thought Blood had been granted the same mercy Dust had when the Kings had been sent into exile. He didn't know that Blood had spent another ten years in the Gyushu court as a plaything until they had finally abused her enough that she had died. And he would never know. She scowled at the Dragon in the portrait and turned her back on it, telling herself once more that this flutter in her chest was caused by a memory of another time and belonged to a different person. She was not Blood. She wasn't!

Remy told him he had been born to an unwed mother who refused to speak of his father to her family. She had died bringing him into the world and he had been raised by his 'touched' Grandmother in New Orleans. She was the only one who would take him, the rest of the family having disowned his mother and 'the bastard' she carried. Tannis was also apparently an unwanted child. She had been adopted as a newborn into an upper-class Boston family and raised with all of the perks of money and prestige. She had never been able to find out about her birth parents. She had tried, but the lawyer who had arranged the adoption had been very tight-lipped about the whole subject. Finally she had threatened to take him to court and he told her that he had never met the people who had given her up. He had just been contacted by a third party who had a healthy baby who needed a good home with no questions asked.

They had moved into the living room then and ended up on the sofa, Tsuzuku between them as they showed him their photo album. There were a few of them as children, but most were from after the time they had met each other at fifteen. They had both been sent to a private boarding school in New Hampshire and Remy was obviously the 'odd man out' in a school full of Eastern blue-bloods in both of their recollections.

He smiled as he remembered Remy accusing her of being a terribly spoiled, stuck-up snob when he had first met her. She had stuck her tongue out at him and drawled back with a heavily inflected imitation of his accent which made her words almost unrecognizable, "Chere, at least I be speakin' a language the rest of the world understand, neh?"

Remy told him how he had seen a few of Tannis' watercolors hung in the art room to dry and nearly had a heart attack when the places and the boy he'd been dreaming about forever were there on those papers. Remy had sent Tannis to get them for him to see as he finished telling how he had tried repeatedly to talk to her and been rebuffed again and again. Finally he had just shoved his opened journal into her hands one day in study hall with a whispered, "I be dreamin' bout Tsuzuku too!"

The two of them had been inseparable since then, bound together by their dreams and something more...he could feel it. There was a deeper connection between the two of them. One that he was outside of, and one that he wanted very much to become a part of. The heat of them both pressing against him as they pointed out things and events in the album on his lap came back to him. He found himself wondering just how much into their lives he was going to be allowed. He was very glad for the darkness. He knew he was blushing again. A small cynical smile touched his mouth. He was acting just like a school girl in the presence of her first crush. He turned his head and looked out the side window at the city growing more shabbier as they started into the 'bad' side of town.

A first crush...he realized suddenly that was what he was experiencing. At least he thought it was what he was experiencing. Except he had two 'crushes' at the same time. Tannis he could understand, but Remy...why Remy? He had never been drawn to men, yet he was terribly attracted to this Cajun. He had been since that first time he saw him glowing pale in that spotlight. Tsuzuku swallowed hard as his mind echoed that swirling whirlwind of pleasure.

Gods, he had to stop thinking this way! He was going to end up working himself back into that 'state' that had made Remy had to...do what he did. He had no right to even expect anything more from either of them than the offer of friendship and acceptance that both of them had extended. He wondered if he would be as generous if he had been forced to experience their lives in his dreams. And as they had talked, he had discovered that they had 'experienced' his life. Their description of the first time he had Changed, the shared knowledge of how much it had...hurt...had tied his stomach into knots.

That thought brought him back to the question he had been trying to figure out how to ask without embarrassing himself and Remy too much. He wrestled with it few more seconds as his fingers tightened on the book, then just asked.

"Remy, how did you know what was wrong with me and how to remedy it?"

Remy caught his lower lip with his front teeth as he debated on how to answer that. His and Tannis' leading questions during the evening had shown that Their Dragon had retained no memories of the time when he had ruled the Go with his brothers. That he had no memories of them. Of what they had shared, how they had loved. Back then Their Dragon had been just that. A dragon without the cultural morays that Tsuzuku as a human being had been raised with. He knew that Tsuzuku was deeply embarrassed that it had been himself that had answered the demands of the dragons lust and not Tannis.

And he was afraid now that if Tsuzuku found out just how close Dust and the Dragon had been he would run from them. His heart jumped at that thought and the familiar pain tightened around his lungs without its usual headache throb of warning. It clamped down making him struggle for breath as the damned numbness tingled down his legs. He hid it, forced his face not to show his distress as he willed it to pass quickly, glad that the night hid his white knuckled grip on the steering wheel from Tsuzuku's sight.

"Remy-san?" Tsuzuku had his whole focus on him, a questioning look of concern on his handsome features.

Remy made himself smile, took in another small sip of air and used all his vocal training to force it to make his voice its normal, even self and winked.

"I been there before, Chere. First time I blew up my room. Scare all the black left right out of Grandmother's hair," ...not a lie, but not all of the truth, neither.

Tsuzuku's eyes widened slightly, then he lowered them.

"Sa." What else could he say? A simple and very obvious reason for Remy to know.

"Chere, you need to tell me how to go from here. Dreamin' strange in that you know places, but not necessarily how to be gettin' to them," Remy asked to distract Tsuzuku and give him the time he needed to get past this attack.

Another five minutes brought them to their destination, and thankfully, past his episode. This had been a short one, one that would heal on its own and not force him to dip into the power that slept in his soul to repair the damage it left in its wake. Remy guided the car to the curb and put it in park, then turned toward Tsuzuku.

"You sure you don' want to be comin' with me and Tannis tomorrow?"

Tsuzuku shook his head no again. Though he would like to, he had to work and the show was going to be a 'high class' affair that would have all kinds of well known people in attendance. He couldn't take the risk of being seen, of being recognized.

Remy kept his hands still on his lap, fighting his desire to reach out and touch. It would do nothing but freak Tsuzuku out.

"Well, you have our number an' know where we be, Chere."

Tsuzuku nodded, couldn't breathe for a moment as he froze, caught by the glow of the silver flecks in Remy's eyes. He wasn't sure what to do! He had come to the conclusion that Remy had been left with no choice but to offer him the relief he had so desperately needed. He had asked for nothing back and it wouldn't have happened if Tannis had been available. A part of him said to lean and take the kiss he wanted, or at least touch his hand while the rest of him just said 'get out before you embarrass yourself and him!'. That part won. He hurried to open the door and got out. Once he was on the sidewalk he felt a bit...safer and turned to lean back down.

"Tell Tannis again for me that I hope her show is a resounding success...and...," he straightened and offered a formal bow and another blush that he hoped was not too obvious in the weak light from the street lamp, "thank-you, Remy-san."

Remy gave him a gentle smile and bit back all of the possible responses that danced on the tip of his tongue. They were all laced with too much innuendo. He settled on, "Don't be a stranger, neh?"

Tsuzuku nodded as he stepped back and shut the door. He lifted his hand in response to Remy's parting wave and watched the car until it went around a corner, out of his sight. He took a deep breath and realized he was clutching Remy's journal against his chest as if it was the man himself. He shook his head and chided himself once more with a harsh mental laugh to stop this nonsense as he glanced up at the building where his brother waited for an explanation.

He still wasn't sure how much he was going to tell Hajime as he plodded slowly up the last flight of stairs. He still didn't know as he reached the door to their apartment. He tucked Remy's book under his arm, then let himself in.

Hajime was putting a bookmark into the book he had been reading as he opened the door. He could hear Matsuri moving around in the kitchen as he toed off his shoes.

"Tsuzuku-kun," Hajime greeted, his tone neutral but his eyes were full of concern and worry as he looked his second brother over.

"I'm all right, Elder Brother," Tsuzuku offered a reassuring smile as he went and settled across the table from his brother.

"What happened? Matsuri said that you were running a terrible fever," Hajime asked bluntly.

He watched as Tsuzuku shifted uneasily, one hand going to rest on the book he had brought and put on the table in front of him.

"I..." Tsuzuku hesitated as his eyes darted toward the kitchen, then to the closed door that his youngest brothers slept behind. "I'm not sure."

Hajime gave him 'that look' which meant he wasn't going to settle for glib half-explanations. He rubbed at the center of his forehead and closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts.

"It started at that concert I went to the other night. There were two people there that I found myself very attracted to. I...dreamt about them..." he twitched mentally as both of Hajime's eyebrows went up in surprise.

"It was a very erotic dream," his eyes went back to the kitchen entrance, checking, then he leaned over the table and said in a very soft but intense voice, "I was so aroused it made me sick, Hajime! Did you know that could happen?"

Hajime blinked back and shook his head, startled by that bit of information. His eyes went to the closed door and Tsuzuku knew what he was thinking. At least Amaru was too young and Owaru hadn't shown the slightest bit of interest in girls yet, so they shouldn't have to worry about a repeat of this for a while.

"These two people, who are they, Tsuzuku?"

Tsuzuku let out a mental breath of relief. He knew Hajime would have figured out what had happened and was grateful that his oldest brother had enough respect for his privacy not to pry for details.

"Lee Tannis and Lebeau Remy," Tsuzuku opened the book and prepared to drop the next bombshell on his brother, "they have been dreaming about me since they were children."

He slid the three pictures that he had asked Tannis if he could borrow across the table to his brother. Hajime's eyes narrowed as he picked up the first one. It was a line drawing in pencil of Tsuzuku at six, standing on his tip-toes and gazing over the edge of a bassinet with wide-eyed wonder at the tiny perfection of Amaru. The next was in pen and of a day Hajime remembered well. Tsuzuku had been thirteen and fallen out of the high branches of the big maple in the back yard and broken his arm. He had had to hold him still while their father set it. The picture was of their father carrying Tsuzuku back to the house in the strong cradle of his arms. The third one was in colored pencil. He knew it was his brother even though the figure was in a huddle on the floor, a pool of blood forming around him as tongues of flame closed in.

Matsuri peeked around the edge of the kitchen opening as Hajime studied the pictures and decided it was time to make her entrance. She wanted to see what was on those papers, what was creating that startled expression on Hajime's face.