"Hey Yuli! Wher'd you want these?" Kento was balancing a milkcrate full of videos on his shoulder; another stuffed with well-loved paperbacks was propped on his hip.

Yuli poked his head out of the bathroom, where he was loosing a battle with a tropical fish-print shower curtain. "Set 'em by the TV!!"

"Gotcha." Kento plunked the crate down next to its siblings. Their contents varied from game cartridges to packets of instant ramen. The warrior straightened and shrugged a kink out of his shoulders, glancing around the cabin. It had definitely lost its sparse nature, indelibly Yuli's now. That wasn't what quirked the smile on his lips, though. He could find parts of himself and his friends in every part of the décor, mirroring the personality of his companion. Yuli had not mimicked them, but bits of their psyches had clung to him in his formation, like a conglomerate stone.

Like it or not, their influence was still a potent one. Which was why they had to be careful.

"Careful about what?" Yuli appeared and sprawled into a beanbag chair, chugging tapwater from a refilled Evian bottle.

Kento blinked, not realizing he had spoken his last thought aloud. In fact, he was sure he hadn't, but Yuli sometimes had flashes of intuition that bordered on telepathy.

"About not influencing you too much," Kento returned honestly, smiling.

Yuli chuckled, gesturing around the room, where most of his belongs were in various states of unpackedness. "Too late for that." His hand indicated the Telescope, video games, Bonsai tree with crystals at the base and a place for incense, enormous stuffed dolphin and the pair of Katana displayed proudly on the wall, right above his Kendo trophies. "Not that I mind, you know. By the way, thanks for helping me move."

"Hn.." Kento nodded. "Couldn't letcha do it alone." The others had all become mysteriously 'busy'. "No problem. Just don't forget your end of the bargain."

Yuli nodded with a smirk. "Grilled chicken fettuccini with pesto, I didn't forget." The dish was complicated and the one thing that Yuli could fix better than Sai.

"You're lucky I work for food." Kento eased himself onto the futon; the wooden frame wouldn't take flopping. "Rowen would have charged cash."

A curious expression crossed Yuli's features briefly. "Or something else."

Kento hesitated a moment. "Yuli... are you sure you should be doing- what you're doing?"

Yuli raised a dark eyebrow suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

"You know very well." Kento's expression was earnest, concerned. "I don't want you hurt."

Yuli looked away at nothing, one hand coming up subconsciously to play with a beaded braid. "I know what I'm doing," he muttered sulkily.

"I don't think you do." Kento leaned over to put a hand on Yuli's shoulder, giving a reassuring squeeze. "It's a dangerous game to love so much. Especially when you're young. You can break easily. It demands a lot from you."

"I'm willing to try. I've got to have something to regret when I'm old and sensible." Yuli flashed a smile that faded like a firecracker. Kento was just as attractive as his companions were, but his more masculine beauty was often washed out by four ethereal presences. It wasn't something Yuli noticed often, and his expression was sobering.

"I didn't say you'd ever regret it," Kento grinned, knowingly. "Just that you may feel emotionally drained after too much exposure." He ruffled Yuli's hair affectionately. "And don't give me those glossy blue eyes, Kid."

"Nani?" Yuli blinked, not sure what Kento meant by that. The warrior shrugged powerful shoulders and let the topic slide. "I'm not your dad, Yuli. Just looking out for you. Habit, you know." Yuli frowned. Kento's topics seemed to be jumping a bit; he wasn't sure now if they had been discussing the same thing. Kento often did that, things followed course in his mind but he sometimes forgot that not everybody was with him.

"How about dinner now, hm?"

" Have we gotten everything in? I don't want my stuff rained on." Yuli began digging through a crate, finding ingredients. The chicken was the only thing occupying his fridge at the moment.

"Those two were the last." Kento located the oregano Yuli was hunting. "You want some help?"

"Does that still count as your fee if you assist?"

Shrug. "Sure. It gets done faster."

The rain had come and gone by the time they had finished dinner, turning frozen outside and coating branches with ice, glazing the roads. Kento could have walked back to the house but it would have been an unpleasant hike, and he opted for sleeping in the main room floor instead. Yuli tried to talk him into taking the bed and letting him use the floor, he was more used to it, but Kento would have none of it. "It's your place," he had said, scrubbing at a mozzarella-sticky plate and running it under the faucet. "You get the bed."

And that had been that.

"I gotta think of a way to win arguments with these guys," Yuli said, sitting up in his bed and scowling at his boxes. Nothing in his bedroom was unpacked, so none of his comforting objects made him feel like he was home. From the main room came a faint snore, Kento had learned young to get sleep when you could, but it was a knack Yuli never had.

He missed Ryo.

"You're pathetic." He said aloud, resting his arms on his knees. "Ryou has Mia and Sage and Rowen and god knows who else, probably the bloody TIGER with my luck, I doubt he's up nights because he's not got a warm body to curl up next to."

(As a matter of fact, Ryou was at that moment up sulking because Mia had to give an exam the next day and Rowen had monopolized Sage and White Blaze had curled up next to Sai who was missing Kento.)

Yuli frowned. "Damnit."

His gaze flickered to the dark doorway of the living room. Surely Kento wouldn't mind? All he wanted was to cozy up to someone. He probably wouldn't even notice. Yuli crept out of bed and into the living room, to were Kento was a slowly breathing dark place in the floor. Yuli wrapped his comforter around his shoulders and settled down next to him, his back to the glowering embers of the fire they'd built both for cheer and to supplement the thermostat. Satisfied that Kento wasn't going to wake, he tucked his body against the warrior's broader frame, pressing his cold nose against soft orange t-shirt and smiling.

MUCH better.

He had actually started to doze off when he heard a resigned intake of breath, and Kento's voice following it.

"Is it my turn next, or something?"

Yuli blinked sleepily. "y'turn?"

"To be the next one on your list." Kento's tone wasn't angry, just curious.

"I dunno whatcher talkin' bout." Yuli mumbled, trying to re-mold his body to Kento's again after the Warrior had shifted. "Jus' couln' sleep 'lone." He started to drift off again, then sat up with a noise of indignation. "Hey waitaminute! Whaddya mean, LIST?"

Kento, still reclining on his side, regarded him with an unruffled expression. "You're being very systematic, and I was just wondering if it was planned. Or if it just sort of happened that way."

"Do you think I came in here to SEDUCE you?" Yuli wasn't sure if he should be offended or embarrassed.

Kento made an exasperated sound, one hand batting emphatically at a strand of beads. "Yuli, I'm

not an idiot. What was I SUPPOSED to think?"

Yuli opened his mouth to retort, then shut it again. Kento wasn't angry, he was just asking. "I... have I been doing something wrong?"

"Even if some might say yes, I won't. Considering that what you've done is nothing I haven't. I just want to know what you're expecting of me."

"I'm not.. Expecting anything... " Yuli started to doubt the motives that had seemed so simple a few weeks ago. He loved all of them, and wanted to be with them, what was wrong in that?

"Then maybe you should."

"Kento, you're confusing me to death, will you just say what you're going to say and let me go to sleep?"

Kento sighed, sat up, and took Yuli firmly by the shoulders. "Yuli, you are a symbol of everything I've ever loved in my friends, and I can't say I don't love them all, and like hell it's all platonic. Not being in love with you isn't even an option for me. If you're becoming a lover to every one of us because you love us and you couldn't choose, then that's a good reason. It might not work for everybody, but you're lucky you fell in love with five people who understand one another. For that I have no problems with you ever wanting to be with me." Kento's expression darkened. "But if this is a game, and if you aren't serious, and you're just collecting us like a set of action figures, then affection or no, I won't be a party to it, is that clear?"

Yuli couldn't speak for a long moment.

"Kento, For any of you to be.. beloved of me is more than I could ask. I would never presume more of any of you than friendship. Ryou has given more. So has Rowen and Sage. But it was never expected.. The only one of you I ever tried to seduce was Ryou, and that's only because he'd not have listened any other way. I don't think the seduction part of that worked very well anyway. I mostly yelled at him." Yuli dropped his eyes, frowning at his hand clenched in the coverlet. "Please don't be mad at me?"

Kento didn't answer at first, his arms encircling Yuli and holding him tightly. "I'm not. You're who I hoped you were, Yuli. I was afraid you might be like most of the shallow people in this world."

Yuli crushed his face against Kento, warm in the strength and safety of those arms that had never failed him. "How could I be?" he sniffled. "I've got to live up to YOU five."

Kento shook his head, laughing without being audible. "No, Kiddo, it's us that have to live up to what you expect of us. Let's go to sleep, huh? I'm sorry I brought it up now."

Yuli nodded, scrubbing at his eyes with the edge of the blanket. "It was time. And.. I should have been more clear about what I intended, I guess." Kento reclined on his side, waiting for Yuli to lay down next to him. Yuli started to and then stopped. "Wait.. don't go to sleep just yet." He fumbled with one of his braids, trying to get an orange bead off. His sleepy fingers got tangled, and he couldn't see in the dark.

"I'll get it." Kento's voice was warm with something. Strong hands freed the bead from its braid, tenderly smoothing back the unruly black hair when they were done. "But I thought I was only supposed to get this when we-"

Yuli shook his head, placing the bead in Kento's palm. "It's not for making love, Kento. It never was. It's for making an understanding." He folded Kento's fingers around the shining bit of glass, and found himself wrapped up in warm arms and lowered back down.

"Go to sleep, Yuli. We'll... talk more later."

The word 'talk' had an intriguing implication, accompanied by a brief tightening of the arms around him. Yuli, secure as a small animal curled in a protective hollow of rock, yawned in agreement. ".... Mmm... later... I'm not on a schedule or nuthin..."

Kento allowed himself only a soft kiss on the younger boy's temple, and the two fell asleep, twined in an embrace that spoke of affection and all the patience of stone.