90 SE, Morii Grove

An hour later, Jay was still regretting having agreed to come visit Izumi's family... more than he had regretted anything in a long, long time. Oddly enough, he hadn't been forced to tell his entire story... yet. More like he hadn't been asked to do any explaining at all. Instead, he had just been ushered back to the same kitchen where he had run into Tsutomu and had been left there as the three Moriis went to talk somewhere else.

This only served to make him feel even more uncomfortable, since he wasn't even getting the chance to make excuses. Tsutomu was surely telling Izumi about everything that had gone on between them. How Jay had left him suddenly, without warning, and had never come back. It was like all of Jay's worst nightmares (not counting the ones about Niki) were waiting for him just around the bend, and there was nothing he could do about it but wait for them to all come true. He didn't even dare go look for them so he could try to explain things, since Izumi's kitsune father had made it quite clear that he was to stay where he was until they were ready for him.

And that was why Jay was still sitting there waiting when that same kitsune came back to the room. Izumi and Tsutomu were nowhere to be seen; it was just him, a complete stranger. Jay wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one, though, and he couldn't help but feel nervous as the larger man stepped through the doorway.

"I'm sure you've realized that I would like to speak to you," he said. "Would you rather we spoke in English or Japanese? Tsutomu assures me that you speak Japanese fluently, but I'd rather not inconvenience you."

Jay shrugged. "Japanese is fine. After all, when in Rome..."

"Thank you." He smiled a little, but just for a moment. "I've heard much about you."

"From Izumi?"

"Yes, of course. But also from Tsutomu. We met shortly after you left him, and for quite a while you were the only thing on his mind. I once swore to myself that if I ever had the chance to meet the man who hurt my mate like that, I would make him regret it for the rest of his life."

"I..." Jay swallowed nervously. Unfortunately, he knew that he deserved whatever might happen to him.

"But anger fades with time." He smiled, his teeth flashing just a bit too much for Jay to feel completely comfortable. "And it seems my son is quite taken with you. I believe I shall put off my plans for you for the time being."

"That's a bit of a relief." Jay smiled, trying to make his smile look more comfortable than he actually was.

"And now I believe introductions are in store. After which we will retire to somewhere a bit more comfortable to... talk. My name is Kensuke Morii, and as I am sure you've noticed by now, I am Tsutomu's mate and Izumi's father."

"Jay," he said, though he knew it was more for ceremony than for anything else. Kensuke surely already knew his name... and much more.

"Just Jay? Have you no family?"

"My parents have been dead for a long, long time. And even before they left this world, I no longer deserved to use their name. If the family ever lives on, it will not be through me."

"Do you mean to become a Morii then?"

Jay laughed. "I like Izumi... a lot. But I don't know if I'm ready to marry into the family just yet. The longest I've stayed with one person in my life has been eight years. I have a hard enough time imagining doing that again, though I am trying. Besides, I hardly think Tsutomu would welcome me with open arms."

"As much as Tsutomu and I care for Izumi, he is an adult, and we trust him to choose his own path in life. If that path in life involves bringing you into the family, we will not protest."

"Tell that to Tsutomu." A wry smile crossed Jay's face.

"I plan on doing just that if Izumi chooses you." The look on Kensuke's face was a serious one. He had obviously made up his own mind about the situation, and he wasn't about to let Tsutomu interfere... even if that meant going against him.

"And now," Kensuke said, just as Jay was about to give him a slightly sarcastic thank you for his vote of confidence, "I would like to get something settled before we return to the others."

"What?"

"What are you?" It was the question Jay had been anticipating, and dreading, since the moment he had first spotted Tsutomu. Even so, he couldn't help but be surprised at how bluntly Kensuke had put it. "Obviously you can't be "just a normal human." Tsutomu is still young because he is my mate, but you don't have a bonded kitsune partner. Izumi and I would know if that were the case. So that leave two options. Either you are a mage of some sort - and a fairly powerful one at that - or you are not human. So, which is it?"

"Actually, there is one more possibility. Not a very common one, but still..."

"And you are this third possibility?"

Jay shook his head. "No, but I just wanted to get that straight." He was stalling. Kensuke would have to have been an idiot had he not noticed it, but Jay just couldn't help it. After several lifetimes of hiding it from everyone around him, it was beyond difficult to just come out and say it.

"Well then? I have my guess, but I would rather hear it from you."

Jay took a deep breath and swallowed reflexively.

"I can't just say I'm not really anything special and leave it at that?" he asked plaintively. He knew he was being childish and stubborn, but it really was that hard for him to say it.

Kensuke stared at him with the sort of look that he had seen countless times before... from his mother. It was just a little disconcerting coming from a very male kitsune who didn't look all that much older than he looked (never mind the fact that he was quite possibly younger than Jay, but at the same time old enough to have a fifty-year old son). But that didn't mean that it wasn't just as effective. After all, he already knew that he was being childish.

"I would appreciate it if you would tell me the truth," he said, and Jay grimaced.

"I supposed I should have known that already. But I had to try."

"Well then?"

"How many species do you know of that not only don't age, but can't be killed... and can't kill themselves?" It wasn't a straight answer, for sure, but as far as Jay knew, there was only one species out that that fit all those requirements. It was the inability to commit suicide that was the key point, of course. Hopefully, Kensuke knew enough to recognize what he was talking about.

"I know of one, though I spent many of my teenage years believing that that particular species was just too much to be real."

"This coming from a kitsune?"

"Our abilities are quite practically limited. If the species you are referring to is the same one I am thinking of, their powers are quite a bit less limited and quite a bit harder to believe, even for someone who talks to plants."

"True, that, but think of how much stranger that must be for someone who spent the first sixteen years of his life unaware that there were any people other than humans out there."

"And how long ago would those first sixteen years be?"

Jay smiled again. He was pretty sure that Kensuke knew everything that was going on, but that he wanted to hear Jay say it. And he probably wasn't going to drop the subject until everything came out, no matter how hard it was for Jay in the end.

"A long, long time. I'd say it's been so long I don't really remember, but I'm sure you'd realize that I was lying. Unfortunately, I'm the type of guy who remembers those sorts of things even if he doesn't want to."

"But you still wish to stay silent on the matter?"

"What does it matter how old I am? I'm old. Older than your mate. Way older than your son. And for all I know, I'm older than you. Isn't that enough?"

"I..." Kensuke started, but before he could continue, a soft beeping noise started coming from a hidden speaker to the right of where Jay stood. It was quiet, but of just the right pitch to cut through the conversation and get both men's attention almost immediately.

"Excuse me." Kensuke walked over to the source of the beeping noise and opened up a cleverly concealed panel in the wall. He pressed a button, and an impressive holographic image of Tsutomu projected itself just in front of the wall.

Jay grinned. It was yet another version of the same projector phone he had helped develop, though in this case it seemed to be connected to the household comm network. And really, it seemed like a bit much for that purpose. Usually you didn't need to be able to see the other end. So either the Morii household had a good reason for wanting to be able to see each other when communicating inside the house, or either Kensuke or Tsutomu had a bit too much fun with technology. Of course, knowing that the projectors had been quite expensive back when Tsutomu was young, Jay had a feeling that it was more of the latter than the former.

"He's here," Tsutomu said. "Any luck yet?"

"Yes, and no," Kensuke said. "We'll be out momentarily." With that, Kensuke pressed another button, and the image of Tsutomu disappeared. He then closed the panel back up and turned to Jay.

"What was that about?" Jay asked, before Kensuke could say whatever he was about to tell Jay. "You called someone?"

"As I'm sure you've noticed, Tsutomu is quite upset with your sudden appearance, especially given that you are here as Izumi's beloved. While I myself have no particular animosity toward you, I'm sure you understand why Tsutomu might have doubts about your good will toward our son. He insisted that we call an intermediary of sorts."

"What kind of intermediary?"

"I'll leave that to him to explain when you meet him. It really will be simpler that way."

"If you say so..." Jay grumbled, but he didn't protest when Kensuke turned toward the door and started walking. Instead, he followed silently behind the taller kitsune as he led him through the maze of hallways that was the Morii household.

When they reached the room where this "intermediary" waited, and hopefully Tsutomu and Izumi as well, Kensuke stopped. He indicated to Jay that he should go first, when he was ready, and then he stepped back, letting Jay move to the door. Jay walked up to the door and then paused, taking a deep breath and reaching for the doorknob.

It wasn't that he was really worried about whoever they had called. He had a few friends among the Blood... as the non-Japanese kitsune generally referred to themselves. If things got really bad, he could always call in a favor with one of them to vouch for him. The last time he had been involved with any part of Blood society, the kitsune and the Blood had been on good enough terms, though much like their human counterparts, sometimes it seemed like the kitsune lived in a completely different world from the Blood. Still, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to get himself in too much trouble.

Even so, it was just a litter nerve wracking. Despite all that, he slowly turned the doorknob (even as he suddenly realized that the Morii household was a very strange mixture of Japanese and Western styles... after being there for who knows how long). He gently pushed the door inward and stepped forward, his head down, since despite his confidence that it would all work out in the end, he was still a little scared of the path it would take to get there.

"Jay?!" His head shot up as he heard an oddly familiar voice call out his name, though.

The man seated on the sofa on the other side of the room didn't look to be much older than Jay did. Perhaps closer to twenty than sixteen, but still a bit too young for the air of confidence and authority mixed with just a hint of sexual heat that he gave off. Despite his short black hair, he was quite obviously not Japanese, and Jay could have sworn that the plain black-framed glasses that he wore were the exact same ones he had worn the last time he had seen him... many, many years ago.

Jay's jaw dropped. He recognized him, and it was clear from the tone of his voice that he had recognized Jay as well. This was completely understandable, though, since neither one of them had aged at all since the last time they had seen each other, even though that had been well over a hundred years in the past... well before at least one of the other men in the room were even born.

At this point, Jay honestly could not believe his eyes. He knew exactly who the man sitting on the couch was, but he had no clue why Tsutomu would call him in to be an intermediary. ...It was just a little too much, even for someone like Tsutomu. So he had to be imagining things. That was the only explanation.

"Would someone please tell me what the hell I did that was bad enough to deserve this?" Jay groaned. "I know you kitsune tend to go about things different than I'm used to, but last I checked, dumping someone wasn't enough to bring in the fucking Cellen!! Or have things changed down here on Earth since the last time I lived here?"

"I told you you were overreacting, Dad!" Izumi exclaimed. Jay had been too surprised by the intermediary they had brought in, and he hadn't even noticed Izumi and Tsutomu sitting on the sofa off to the right side of the room. "He's right, you know!"

"If it helps, Jay," the intermediary said, "I'm not here on official business."

"You can't be telling me that they called you out here "just because," are you?"

"Not quite. It's family business."

"Family?" Jay paused for a moment, thinking. "Oh yeah. Your mom's Blood, isn't she? But wasn't she American?"

"She is. This isn't her family I'm talking about."

"It's not? But then..."

Jay paused again, this time for quite a bit longer. He cast his mind back into the past, trying to figure out what in the world the other man, Arin Cellen, was talking about. Finally, when he was just about ready to give up and ask, he remembered the tail end of a bit of news that he had heard a few years after the last time he had seen Arin. At that point he had given up on trying to live among that particular society, and he had not really paid attention, but now the news came back to him, if vaguely.

He turned around to look at Kensuke, who was standing behind him, just outside of the room. Then he turned back to look at Izumi. Finally, he turned to Arin again. "I seem to recall a bit of an uproar about the younger sister of the Cellen deciding to marry a non-human. Don't tell me... he was a kitsune? Not that I'd be surprised, considering the way her talents leaned."

Arin nodded.

"And his name?"

"Ryousuke Morii." Jay groaned. Sure enough...

He turned back to Kensuke again. "So who is he to you? Your brother?"

Kensuke smiled, and then answered him, in perfect Midwestern American English. "Do I look that old to you? He's my father."

At that point, it was all Jay could do to keep from crumpling to the floor. Instead, he just groaned and staggered over to the third, unoccupied, sofa in the room. There he sank down into the cushions, holding his head to stave off the headache he knew would never come. He was just barely aware of Izumi moving across the room to sit with him.

"Please tell me that this is the last surprise from the past that you people have for me," he said, his head still buried in his hands. "No offense, Rin, but this was bad enough when it was just a coincidental reunion with Tsutomu."

"That should be Master Cellen to you!" Tsutomu exclaimed, and Jay couldn't help but notice that Tsutomu's English, while perfectly understandable, was quite a stark difference from his mate's and son's barely accented speech.

"Actually, Tsutomu," Arin said with an odd grin, "I should probably be the one calling him 'Master Jay.'"

"Except that that would be creepy beyond belief," Jay shot back. "So don't do it."

"But don't you remember what you told me when we first met? I believe it went, "I'm at least old enough to be your grandfather. I might even be able to swing great-grandfather, but that would be pushing it and assuming that everyone had kids at a younger age than you are right now." Or had you forgotten in your old age?" Jay caught the tail end of his brief smile as his head shot up in disbelief.

He scowled back at Arin. "You actually remembered that? I didn't think you had any sort of special memory..."

"I don't. It's just that people tend to remember things that change the whole way they look at the world."

Jay stared back at Arin, though he realized that he knew exactly how the other man felt. He had had that same sort of experience, though obviously not in quite the same way that Arin had. He had had Niki at his side... He couldn't quite remember the exact wording the woman, his paternal grandmother, had used, but he remembered the moment itself like it was yesterday. Before he knew it, he was nodding.

And then he felt a soft touch on his shoulder, from Izumi, who was still sitting next to him, watching things play out between him and Arin. "Jay..." he said, his voice soft and low.

"Lemme guess. Time to come clean?"

Izumi nodded. "It's not that I don't trust you."

"But you don't like finding out that you don't really know anything about me?"

Again, Izumi nodded.

"Would it help if I said the only thing I ever flat out lied about was my age?"

"And you just skipped over everything else?"

"Something like that."

"No, it doesn't really help."

"Didn't think so."

Jay sighed and looked at Izumi. Of course, he knew that Izumi was right. Completely right.

Arin looked over at the two of them and cleared his throat slightly. "I know you're not fond of telling everyone your secrets, Jay," he said. "And while I'm sure you'll be willing to tell Izumi, you don't really need the rest of us sitting here while you do that. The rest of us should probably leave."

"No," Jay said, even as Arin was starting to get up. "I at least owe Tsutomu this much for... the past. And if I'm gonna tell him too, I might as well tell everyone. It's not like it's anything too horrible. It's just not that easy to talk about."

"You really don't have to if you don't want to," Izumi said, laying his hand on Jay's shoulder.

A bitter smile crept onto Jay's face. "Have you ever had someone dear to you completely disappear from your life suddenly one day, without any warning?"

Izumi shook his head.

"I have. It hurts. A lot" Then he paused a little, casting a short glance in Tsutomu's direction. "And yeah, before you say it, I know. That doesn't make what I did right, and I'm sorry for that. I'm just saying that I know what it feels like, and I know why I need to tell you as well as Izumi."

"Don't think this is going to make me forgive you," Tsutomu spat.

Jay shrugged, and decided not to respond directly. Nothing he said was likely to change Tsutomu's mind, and all of the things he could think of to say were more likely to only enrage him further. Instead, he simply took a deep breath and got himself ready to begin what he could only think of as the most difficult thing he had done in quite a long time.

"Anyway..." he started, smiling weakly. He turned to face Izumi, knowing that he would only feel worse if he watched Tsutomu while he talked. Even so, out of the corner of his eye he could see Kensuke moving over to sit with Tsutomu. "Why don't you all just ask me what you want me to talk about?" Even as he finished that question, he could hear Izumi drawing in a breath to protest. "It's not that I want to hide things. It's just that if I start from the beginning, we'd literally be here all day."

"He does have a point," Arin said, his voice calm. Jay couldn't help but think that Arin had really grown up since he had last seen him, and that it suited him. He was clearly taking his role as "intermediary" seriously, even though things had almost certainly gone far awry compared to anything he could have imagined before Jay entered the room.

"I agree," Kensuke said. "And I would like to start off by asking, once again... what are you? You never did answer me before."

Jay inhaled sharply. He had known the question was coming. He would have had to be blind not to see it coming. Even so, it still hurt knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to brush the question aside this time. No answering the question with another question. No pleading the fifth. No smart ass answers. Not if he wanted to make things work with Izumi, since he knew that lying here would most likely ruin their relationship completely.

It was just... it had been far too long since the last time he had actually come out and said it. Far too long since the last time he had had to explain why it was that he was so different from all the others of his kind. And it almost made it even more difficult that he knew the Arin already knew, since he also knew that Arin would never step in and tell them all for him.

"Genie," he said, after a pause so long that he could tell Izumi was about to prod him. As he spoke, he fiddled the bracelet on his right wrist... the one that had been there so long that he had almost forgotten it was there. "With baggage."

"Genie?" Izumi stared at him as if he had grown a second head. "But I thought you told me you don't have any magic whatsoever."

"That would be the "with baggage" part. You ever heard what happens to a genie who disobeys a direct command from their master?"

He looked around the room. Everyone but Arin, who knew this part of the story already, was shaking his head. He wasn't surprised. Even now that magical studies had become quite a bit more popular for everybody, not just people who attended the special magically oriented schools, few students covered anything more than the absolute basics of each species, since there were just too many to learn about to do any more than that without specializing.

"If their master doesn't find out, nothing. But if their master finds out, they lose their magic. All of it gone, just like that. And it doesn't come back... not unless they go back to their master, apologize, and receive forgiveness."

He leaned back and threw his head up, staring at the ceiling rather than watching the understanding growing in all of their eyes. After all, with the understanding usually came pity, and he was tired of that. Instead, he carefully avoided looking at any of them as he continued to talk.

"Now, suppose you have a very young genie who hasn't been at this whole wish granting thing for too long. He actually has a pretty nice guy for a master, but he's still a little too unused to things to realize that in this case, and he chafes at the restrictions. And, well, he fucks up. Disobeys his master and gets caught. Only he's too damned proud to just go to his master and apologize, so he lets it go. And since his master really is a nice guy, he lets the fool go and do what he wants.

"Problem is, this genie's master happens to be a really old nice guy... and not in the greatest of health. While the genie is off doing whatever he wants to do, his master falls over dead one day. And, well... it's kinda hard to apologize to your master and receive forgiveness when your master's dead. But the magic doesn't really care about that. All it knows is that you fucked up and never apologized.

"So... no more magic for you. And as I said earlier, it doesn't come back. Ever."

He let out a sigh and looked over at Izumi. Sure enough, there was the pity. But at the same time, he could see something else mixed in with the pity. And he could have sworn that it almost looked like... not laughter, but maybe amusement.

"And that idiot was you?" Izumi asked.

"Yep."

"But if you don't have magic, shouldn't you grow old and die, just like a human?" Kensuke asked.

"Apparently that's now how it works. To be completely honest, I thought that was gonna happen myself, and so did everyone else. See, it looks like I'm the only genie to have ever gotten himself screwed like this before. Sure, others have lost their magic, but they've always caved in in the end and apologized. So we were all kinda surprised when the years went by, and I stayed young. And even more surprised to find out that apparently the whole "no killing" thing is a racial trait and not tied to the magic."

"It is?" Izumi sounded just as surprised as Jay had been when he first found out about it. He had assumed, like pretty much everyone else had, that not being able to kill was something that came with the genie magic, and that lack of the magic would mean lack of that particular restriction as well. Unfortunately, he had firsthand experience that that was not the case.

Jay nodded. "Not that I've actually gone out and tried to kill people... It's just, when you live long enough, eventually you get in the sort of situation where you're being attacked and need to kill for self defense. I mean, I knew about the whole "no killing" thing, but there's a world of difference between knowing it, and having to face the fact that there is something preventing you from doing it. It's quite possibly one of the most disconcerting feelings in the world."

Izumi frowned. "But if you had to kill someone to keep them from killing you..." He trailed off, but Jay knew exactly what he was getting at.

"Remember when we had the break in in the SCHOMA hanger and I ran ahead of you?" Izumi nodded. "Remember what I said when you told me not to get myself killed over work?"

"...Not exactly." Still, Jay could tell from the deepening frown that Izumi had an idea of where he was headed.

"If I remember correctly," Jay said, that same crooked smile that had graced his face at that time turning the corners of his mouth up yet again, "I said, "I won't get myself killed. They couldn't kill me if they tried." And it's true. That's why I volunteered to be the test pilot for the SCHOMA too. Even if things had gone incredibly wrong, I would have been just fine."

"How?" Kensuke asked.

Jay shrugged. "The same way I've been alive for the past two and a half centuries. Magic. Just not the kind that I have any control over. As far as I know, the only way to kill me is still to destroy my bottle... just like any other genie who hasn't been freed."

The room fell silent for a short while after that. Izumi had a thoughtful look on his face, as did Arin. Seeing that, Jay realized that some of the things he had just said were things that not even Arin had known. Meanwhile, Kensuke's face was quite noticeably blank, and Tsutomu had a growing look of anger spreading across his face.

"I've heard enough," Izumi said. "I'm sure there's a lot more for me to learn, but what fun would it be if I got everything without even trying?" He smiled at Jay, who grinned back, albeit weakly. Even though Izumi had said that, Jay realized that he was merely saying that he was going to wait until some other time to grill Jay about the rest of his past.

"I haven't," Tsutomu growled. "Who cares what you are or how old you are? You still haven't mentioned why you decided to just walk away and ruin my life."

Jay's entire body went stiff as he heard the angry words coming from Tsutomu's mouth. Not that he had forgotten about Tsutomu, but he had secretly hoped that he wouldn't have to explain himself when it came to that. Despite having hidden what he really was for the past century and a half, it was still easier to talk about that than it would be to try and explain to Tsutomu why he had done what he had done. Especially since after all this time, he still wasn't completely sure himself...

Izumi must have felt some of Jay's tension, since even as he searched for the right words to use to answer Tsutomu he felt Izumi take his hand and squeeze it, showing his support. And not just that... the moment he returned the pressure to his hand, Izumi snaked his arm around him and pulled him to his chest in a protective, yet highly possessive, hug.

"The simple answer is I was scared. You were starting to get curious about me... About my past. About why I still looked as young as I had when we first met, even though almost no guys look the same at twenty-four as they did at sixteen. And, well, I didn't think you'd believe me if I told you the truth, but I couldn't think of any other way to explain the things you wanted to know. So I ran."

"You didn't think I'd believe you?"

"Of course I didn't. You were human, and humans didn't know about magic and other species for the most part back then. That kind of stuff was crazy talk."

"I believed Ken when I met him just a few months later."

"And if you hadn't noticed, he has something to show you to prove that he is what he says he is. I don't have any magic that I can show you. I lost that a few months after getting it. I don't have any extra body parts to show you. What was I supposed to do? Jump off a cliff and hope that you believe me when I say the only reason I wasn't a pancake was because I'm not human? Point a gun at you and hope that you believe me when I say I tried to pull the trigger, but I couldn't because I'm not human? I know I wouldn't have believed something like that back when I was human."

"So instead you just dropped all the years we were together and ran? How very mature of you." Jay didn't need to look at Tsutomu to know that he was sneering. So he didn't. He knew that if he did, he would only feel worse about it. After all, if he had never been able to forgive himself about leaving Tsutomu, why should he ever expect Tsutomu to do so?

"You know, Dad, I think you're being a little too hard on him." Izumi said, though Jay immediately wished he hadn't said it. It wasn't that he wasn't glad that Izumi was standing up for him. But he knew that having his son take Jay's side was not exactly going to make Tsutomu think any better about him. It would just make him that much more angry.

"I don't really think you have any right to decide that for me, young man."

Jay shivered. Tsutomu's anger usually ran hot. Very, very hot. The fact that this time his anger was swinging to the "cold enough to lower the temperature in the room" end of the scale made Jay that much more sure that Izumi was only making matters worse... for both of them.

"Actually," Izumi said, pulling Jay closer to his side, possessive instincts in full swing, "I think I have every right. I brought him here, not you. He's mine now. And what's more... If you think about it, would you have ever met Tousan if Jay hadn't left you? Would I even be here? For that matter... would you? Yeah, he hurt you. From what I've heard so far, I think what he did was completely idiotic, and believe me, he'll be hearing about that from me later. But it's not like being dumped is the end of the world. You survived. You met Tousan. You had kits. And if you tried to tell me that you aren't happy right now, I would have to say you were lying. So why can't you just forgive and forget? 'Cause if I have anything to say about it, he's not going to be leaving any time soon."

"Izumi..." Jay squirmed to turn around in Izumi's tight embrace and look at him.

"You've made things bad enough, Jay," Izumi said firmly. "Unless you're planning on pulling another disappearing act, just shut up and let me deal with Dad."

"But..."

"You may have been his boyfriend way back when, but I'm his son. I've known him for my entire life. Do you honestly think you know how to deal with him better than I do?"

"I can hear you, you know," Tsutomu mumbled, though Jay noted that he continued to stick to Japanese only.

"I know," Izumi said. "But I wasn't lying. And I won't forgive you if you insist on holding a grudge against Jay over this. So would you just let it go already?"

Tsutomu stared at Izumi for a while, his face twisted with anger and frustration. Izumi just stared back defiantly, the perfect image of teenage rebellion, even though he was long past his teenage years. Finally, Tsutomu looked away, growling something incomprehensible. Then he stood up and stomped out of the room, tension filling his frame.

Everyone in the room stared at his retreating figure. Jay looked over at Izumi, who sent him back a pointed look, and then the two of them nodded. And they stayed right where they were. Kensuke had a thoughtful look on his face, but he didn't move. Arin, on the other hand, looked distressed.

"Shouldn't someone go after him?"

"No." All three of the other men answered him at the same time.

Then Jay laughed nervously. "It's good to know that some things never change, no matter how much time passes."

"That was actually a good sign," Kensuke explained to Arin. "He's not happy about it, for sure, but the fact that he was able to give it up for now means that he'll eventually forgive Izumi, and possibly even Jay." He smiled. "He just needs some time to think about things now. I'm sure this has all been quite a shock for him."

Jay snorted. "Not just for him." Izumi shot him a questioning look, and he smiled ruefully. "I honestly thought my heart was going to stop when I saw him standing there. Believe me, I was just as surprised to find out that he was still alive as he was about me."