Three sets of eyes turned to Riyu, filled either with astonishment or curiosity. "With you? I thought you couldn't handle a roommate for personal reasons," the Judge frowned slightly.

"Oh that," Riyu babbled and tried to think of a good excuse. "It's just... he's new here and I thought maybe he'd be comfortable with someone that's at least a little familiar." Sweet Suzaku, what have I gotten myself into?

However, Machi didn't think too much about how suspicious the offer was and simply looked at Ryuuen. "Would you like to share a room with him?"

His brow furrowed momentarily, most likely due to Machi calling Riyu a 'he', but then he remembered her secret and a light went off in his head. "Oh yes, I would like that a lot," he nodded furiously, then grinned at Riyu. "We seem to get along really well, and have so much in common."

I've just adopted another brother--that's what.

Machi had no problem with it. Signing his name next to Riyu's she gave him a quick low-down on the events that take place within the Center and how he should visit Haon-sama just to meet the man. "Wonderful person, really. But seeing as how early in the morning it is, you two best get settled for a long nap and we'll have someone send your things to the room. I'll bet you need some rest, don't you Ryuuen?"

"Oh, you have no idea!" he sighed dramatically. "Just too much excitement for one day! To be a person of such astonishing importance is soooo draining."

Everyone laughed at his jesting, and soon enough the student Seishis bowed to Machi and left her company in good spirits. As the duo made it halfway to their room--that's right, it's ours now-Ryuuen unexpectedly grabbed her around the waist in a full-fledged bear hug, sending the wind flying out of her lungs.

"Whoa!" Riyu couldn't stop the gasp. "What's this for?"

"Thank you so much for taking care of me," he trilled happily. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Even Kohana was rubbing against her legs like a happy, way oversized cat.

Riyu had NO idea what to do now. It wasn't like people came up to just hug her on a regular basis or anything. It was a bit disconcerting. Guess I should return the favor, she decided quickly, awkwardly putting her own arms around his shoulders. "Listen, Ryuuen, it's not a big deal. I just--"

"I know you're just helping me, but no one's done this for me before," he said, his voice suddenly getting softer. "And no one understands me like you..." 'Joy... gratitude... worry... taking me in... and she didn't want anyone around...'

Shit, my empathy's running wild again! Riyu could feel the warmth of the character on her forehead like a living pulse. Oh gods don’t let him start to cry--aw hell, he's going to! But this time, however, she was prepared to take care of both problems.

"Ryuuen... hey, Ryuuen," Riyu gently brought her hand to his face and tilted his head up. Then, reaching for a skill she didn't think she had, she used every fiber of her talent to give him comfort, rather than just take in all the emotions. "I don't know what happened to you to make you so nervous around people, or to get you that upset when I say stuff, and right now... you don't have your family or anyone else but Kohana here to talk to about those things. So from now on, I'm going to be here for you. I'm not going to leave you or make fun of you--I'll kick the asses of anyone that does!" she managed to get a small chuckle from him. "I'll be here to support you through anything, I'll listen to you, and do whatever I can to make you feel better, OK?"

He sniffed and Riyu noticed his eyes had become a deep rose--the color of the sun rising over the midnight clouds. "Riyu... we're friends, right?"

The question nearly knocked her off her feet with the same power of Ryuuen's tackle. Wasn't Shi just saying something about that?... "Well, I think so. Seeing as how I nearly forced you to live with me, I guess we can call each other friends. If you'll have me, that is."

This time, the squeeze was so strong Riyu was certain a rib or two were going to snap. "Yes! Please! I've never had a really close friend before and I'd love to have you as one!"

Ouchouchouchouch... "I'll be your friend on one condition."

"What? What?"

"You're kind of hurting my chest. Can you loosen that grip of yours?"

Ryuuen quickly let go, an apologetic grin plastered on his face. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Guess I don't know my own strength."

Riyu was too busy relearning how to breathe and getting rid of the stars in her vision to say anything, but she nodded and tried to motion "I'm fine" as best she could. Well, at least my empathy died down, she winced. Too busy on my own pain to pay attention to Ryuuen's.

Once she stopped coughing and hacking, Riyu led him through the many, many halls of the inner Center and over to their room. She had no idea if her attempt at projection worked, but he didn't seem any worse for the wear and Riyu figured she shouldn't be questioning a good thing.

"Ready to see the unbelievable mess that is our room?" she teased as they finally reached their dorm.

He totally missed the joke, his face completely centered on the door as if trying with all his might to see through it. Riyu slid the door open and winced slightly at the disorder she had left the room in that morning. She walked in and lit a few of the lanterns with her sparking rods, then motioned for the Seishi pair to enter when she felt there was enough light and a sufficiently cleared path for them to walk.

This way they don't kill themselves tripping over my gear. Oh joy... that would really make my morning complete.

Ryuuen entered with an open mouth and simply stood in the center of the room, spinning in a slow circle and looking at every little thing. Kohana had, however, taken to the bed that was apparently not currently occupied by Riyu and plopped down on it. 'Nap-time...' she yawned, then followed up on her words and was out within minutes.

"So... do you like it?" Riyu asked hopefully. "Decent sized, can become relatively clean..."

"ILOVEIT!" the boy shrieked joyfully, making Riyu's eyes widen and Kohana's ears flick irritably. "Oh Suzaku... I never imagined coming here and finding a place to call home. And staying with someone who's just like me... a mirror of my own spirit..." he drifted off.

I have a funny feeling I need to keep my mouth shut... Riyu thought as Ryuuen stared at her with quiet eyes. She sat on her own bed and waited to see if he would open to her, knowing that the best thing she could do was listen to his words.

She was duly rewarded for her patience. Ryuuen went through a few moments of internal debate before saying, "I'm not a really talkative person when it comes to my own problems and things that upset me. I just... don't like talking about myself with people until I think I can trust them. Like, really trust them."

"I understand," she said sympathetically. "Kind of like me."

He smiled at her, a faint quirk of his lips. "We're really alike, you know. I mean... we're both Nuriko Seishi and our names sound the same. Even weirder--I'm a boy that looks like a girl and you're a girl that looks like a boy."

"Just luck," Riyu returned his smile. "And extremely odd taste."

But Ryuuen shook his head emphatically. "No, not just luck! I think it's something else! I think we're meant to know each other."

Raising an eyebrow, Riyu asked him why he thought that. The boy took a breath before sitting next to her, and she caught a faint outburst of 'complete trust' emanate from him before quelling all parts of her talent. Can't let myself drown in him this time.

"Remember how I said I had an older brother?" he asked softly. "Well... I also had a little sister..."

Whatever Riyu was expecting, that wasn't it. Had? Oh Suzaku no...

"Her name was Kourin, and she was a year younger than me," he told her as Riyu turned them so they were facing each other. His voice became uneven as he continued his story and suddenly she wasn't so sure she could handle whatever he was going to tell her. "When I was ten... we were running across a street and she was... she was..." the words were caught in his throat.

"Shhhh, it's OK," Riyu murmured, pressing their foreheads together and smoothing his bangs off his face in an attempt to comfort him. "You don't have to say anything, it's all right. It's OK, Ryuuen."

"She was hit by a cart and was killed! She died! And my parents told me to forget about her, but I couldn't!" the tears started running down his cheeks and raining onto their laps. "She was my sister and I loved her so much and I couldn't just make-believe she was never alive. So I took her clothes and I wore them- so no one would forget her, especially not me. I was Kourin, and Kourin was alive again!"

No more, oh please no more... Riyu prayed, wrapping her arms around Ryuuen's shoulders and stroking his hair to assuage his pain. His form shook and shivered but he didn't stop talking, and Riyu was grateful that her empathy was under her complete (if somewhat precarious) control now. If it weren't, I'd be just as broken as he is. Ryuuen, blessed Suzaku, I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry for everything...

"And for five years... that's who I was. Even when Kohana bonded with me, I was still Kourin and wouldn't change--even for her. It took a year and a half to convince me to be Ryuuen again; that even though Kourin was dead as long as I remembered her she was still with me. I didn't have to be a girl to hold her memory high, that the love I had and still have for her was all she would have wanted. And I believe it! I really do! I don't have to be Kourin to show that I love her!" he wept, clinging to Riyu as if she were a lifeline away from the anguish. "But when I tried to be myself, my family wouldn't look at me and the neighbors shunned me as if I was some disgusting creature that their children shouldn't talk to. I wanted to be me again, but no one would stop treating me like that broken little boy-girl I was before. So I had to leave them--I was dying instead of coming to life. And gods it hurts so much to be judged like that--I hate it! I hate it!"

"I hate it too," Riyu whispered to him, not trusting her voice to speak louder. "I hated it when I would beat up the neighborhood bullies picking on the little kids, and then get yelled at by the women of the village because it wasn't ladylike. I hated it when I would help someone during my travels and they would turn around and say cruel things to me because I didn't fit their image of a proper girl. And I hate having to lie to the people here, knowing that this secret I keep will always be a barrier between me and the rest of the Seishi I could get to know."

She refused to give into the painful memories welled up inside, refused to allow anything like weakness to overflow. "But I never stopped being me. Even when I was so tired of fighting the rest of the world that all I wanted to do was give up... I kept true to myself. I may have cut my hair, lowered my voice, and did everything I could to make sure I was as much of a boy as anyone else in this hall, but underneath it all I've always been Riyu," she found her strength and spoke with undeniable resolve. Riyu lifted her head and brought his up with her fingers so they could look into each other's eyes. "So if you want to be a boy again, then be yourself and the rest of the world be dammed! If no one else likes it, it doesn't matter because it's who you are. And never... never let anyone take that sense of self from you, Ryuuen. Not me, not Kohana, not anyone! Do you understand?"

Ryuuen's eyes may have been red and puffy from tears, but they shone bold and true as they looked at her and he said, "Yeah... I do."

And in a blaze of Suzaku-born glory, the twin symbols of yanagi the willow flared to life with all the passion of two kindred souls finding one another. This time when Ryuuen cried into Riyu's chest, they stemmed from his eternal relief at having put Kourin to a peaceful rest and at having his gut-wrenching fears taken away.

And the few tears Riyu allowed to come out...

For Ryuuen, that he can be the man I know he's going to be. And maybe... maybe a little for me too...

Sometime later, when both had dried their eyes and controlled their intense emotions, Ryuuen hiccuped and said, "Just luck, huh? You've got a funny sense of luck."

Riyu couldn't help it--she let loose a howl of laughter and felt Ryuuen happily join in with her. "Sweet Suzaku, Ryuuen, you are a character, you know that?"

"Takes one to know one!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

"Well take this, little boy!" Riyu tossed her pillow at him.

Ryuuen caught it easily and tackled her with it. "Gotcha!" he tried to pin her down. "Give up?"

"Never!"

"Oh you will, just wait and see!"

The duo wrestled and played around until they were out of breath and lying on the floor of their room, tangled up in blankets and extraneous robes. Riyu had one leg still on the bed and the other one pinning Ryuuen's waist to the floor, but his arms held her chest securely tied down. Crap, I forgot the boy's got that super-strength thing going for him... she thought amusedly. Oh well, live and learn. "Hey, Ryuuen..."

"Mm?"

"Thanks for trusting me the way you did."

"Thanks for understanding me and giving me your shoulder."

She tilted her head up to look at him. "Then thanks for understanding me."

He grinned, a broad smile of satisfaction. "You realize we could be passing 'thanks' back and forth all morning?"

"Hmmm... probably."

"Let's just say we're both eternally grateful for everything and leave it at that."

"I can do that."

"Cool. Me too."

Pushing herself into a sitting position (or as close to one as she could get) Riyu decided she needed some rest. Telling Ryuuen this, he agreed whole-heartedly. However, he did make an interesting request.

"Would you mind if I shared your bed? Kohana's kinda got mine and I just want to sleep..."

To anyone else, Riyu would have laughed and told him to sleep on the floor. To Ryuuen, she hesitated a second before thinking, oh for the--you moron, it's perfectly all right! He's a good boy, and you know what he's feeling and it's not that.

"Sure, OK, why not? Let someone come in and see us sleeping together," she sighed as Ryuuen whooped with glee and jumped into it. "You're such a nut."

"So I've been told."

Grabbing a pillow and the rumpled blankets, she tossed them on the bed and climbed up. "Hope you don't snore."

"Nah, just drool excessively. And talk in my sleep."

"You know, maybe I should make you sleep with your panda."

"She kicks."

"Too bad."

He stuck his tongue out at her and she turned on her left side, ignoring the taunt. "G'night... er, good morning, Ryuuen."

"Good morning, Ri-chan."

Ri-chan? Good gods, I may have to hurt him for that! The threat poised on her lips died away as she yawned widely. Ah, I'll threaten him when I wake up, she gave up, closing her eyes.

She was on the verge of dozing off when she felt Ryuuen's arm gently lay across her waist in a very brotherly way. Reaching out with her empathy, Riyu felt nothing but sleep and a few tendrils of security, trust, and love wrapped around his essence.

Smiling, she allowed herself to bask in his emotions before laying her own hand over his and falling asleep.