Okay, here it is. The (somewhat) anticipated second part of You Are Who You Are. Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the first part. It's nice to know that I didn't completely butcher Beat's speech patterns. Anyways, this has surprisingly less yaoi than most yaoi stories, mostly because most of it is in the POV of someone outside the relationship. Hopefully, that isn't too disappointing.

Disclaimer: I do own The World Ends With You, but only as a copy of the game, not the rights to it. I don't own any of the characters in it, either. I do, however, own Yoko, although I really don't mind if anyone else wants to use her.

You Are Who You Are, Part 2

Yoko Sakuraba was expecting to be alone that night. Her son had told her a week in advance that he'd be eating at a friend's for dinner. Of course, she had thought it odd that he was planning to attend this dinner a whole week before it was to take place. She had also found it odd that he was going in some of his nicer clothes. Still, she decided not to question it. Just hearing Neku say the words "my friend" still gave her a spark of joy. Besides, being a mother and a woman, and seeing how much effort her son was putting into this dinner, she guessed that this was more of him impressing someone's family than a casual gathering, and that was fine with her. After all, Shiki was a really nice girl.

Between work and taking care of Neku, she had never gotten around to figuring out what to do with her free night, so she had been flipping through the TV channels to see if any good old movies were on when she heard the phone ring. She had actually been thankful, since channel surfing had become more work than it was worth. Since when had they had over 500 channels, anyways?

It had been a surprise when she heard Neku's voice over the phone, and even more so when she asked if a friend could spend the night. She was even more confused when the friend turned out to be that boy Beat. Wasn't Neku supposed to be at Shiki's home tonight? Still, she decided not to question it, and gave her permission. It wasn't as if she had been doing anything anyways.

As soon as she hung up the phone, she glanced at the clock on the coffee maker. Then she went into the kitchen and began heating up the stove. Neku had always run on a bit of a schedule, just like his father had, and it was too early for him to have eaten already.

"I'm home," Neku called out as he opened the door. Beat followed behind him and into the apartment. "Mom? You here?"

"I'm in the kitchen," a woman's voice answered, as a head leaned out into view from the doorway. "It's nice to see you again, Beat."

"Uh, same here, Mrs. Sakuraba." Beat was embarrassed with how shaky his voice sounded, but it was just so weird to see Neku and his mother in the same space. They both shared the same bright orange hair and crystal blue eyes, but that's where the similarities stopped. Where Neku's face was sharp and, despite all of his changes, still somewhat suspicious of the world around him, his mother's was soft and gentle, like those mothers in the TV ads that always fed their kids the "right" food.

Neku, of course, didn't see what was so off-putting about his mom, so he looked at Beat with one eyebrow raised. Yoko, however, just smiled. He really was a nice boy, even if he needed to work on his grammar a little. "Oh, Neku," she said as she turned back to her son, "Shiki called a little while ago, asking for you."

Both boys stiffened. Sure, Shiki knew how keep her mouth shut, but she did tend to get a little loose-lipped when she was worried. "What exactly did she say?" Neku tried to keep his voice normal, but his mother's surprised look told him he'd pretty much failed.

"She just asked if I had heard from you, and I told her that you had called and that you were coming home with a friend. I asked her if I could take a message for her, but she said that it was alright, and to just say that she called." Yoko narrowed her eyes at the boys. "Why?"

Neku had been in mid-sigh of relief when he heard the question, but he managed to recover from his initial panic reflex very well. "Oh, no reason," he said in a pretty normal voice. "Right, Beat?"

Beat didn't fare as well. "Huh? Oh, y-yeah, nuttin's wrong or anytin'." And to make it worse, he put on the most obviously forced grin that either Sakuraba had ever seen. Neku dropped his face into his palm, while his mother just raised an eyebrow.

She decided to let it drop, though. Shiki had sounded odd, too, like she was relived that Neku was going home. Still, Yoko thought it best not to pry. "…Alright then. I thought that you boys might be hungry, so I'm making some dinner. I'll call you when it's ready."

Both boys gave their thanks and scrambled up the stairs towards Neku's room. Just before Neku made it to the landing, though, he heard his mother's soft voice.

"Neku, sweetie?"

"Yeah, mom?"

"Is everything alright?"

"…No, not really."

"Do want to talk about it?"

"No, it'll work out. I can handle it."

Yoko smiled. "Okay, then." She went back to the stove to check on the food. At least Neku was honest with her. Besides, if it was something serious, than he would have been running around Shibuya trying to fix it, not coming home for dinner.

Neku continued down the hallways to his room with Beat in tow. He heard Beat snickering behind him. He turned around, a questioning look on his face. Beat just grinned, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Sweetie?" he asked mockingly.

Neku flushed in embarrassment. "Stuff it," he mumbled. "It's not like you haven't called me worse."

Meanwhile, Yoko focused on the stove again, only to be interrupted by yet another phone call. There sure seemed to be a lot more of those than usual tonight. She calmly walked over to the ringing phone and picked up the receiver. "Hello, Sakuraba residence."

"Um, hello, Mrs. Sakuraba? This is Rhyme, Neku's friend."

It took Yoko a few seconds to put a face to the name. "Oh, yes. Beat's little sister, right?"

"Yeah, that's me. By any chance is my brother there? Shiki told me he was going to Neku's."

"Yes, he's upstairs right now. Would you like me to put him on the phone?"

"That'd be—" Rhyme suddenly stopped, and Yoko could hear voices in the background. She couldn't make out any words, but whoever was talking to the girl, they definitely sounded angry. After about a minute of raised voices and Yoko saying 'Hello?' into the phone, a new voice came on the line.

"Daisukenojo, is that you?" The voice was definitely male, and sounded middle-aged. He also sounded very agitated. "Now you listen, young man. I want you home this minute, do you hear me?"

Yoko looked at the receiver, confused. "Daisukenojo? I'm sorry, but I don't know anyone by that name. Who is this?"

Neku and Beat spent their time waiting for dinner sitting in Neku's room, watching TV in companionable comfort. Of course, for them "companionable comfort" really meant curled up in each other's arms. Beat had his head resting in the middle of Neku's chest, while Neku draped his arms over the blonde boy's shoulders, both of them watching the TV. Normally, the two of them would periodically make-out when they could relax alone like this. Tonight had been rough for Beat, though, and although he was feeling much better now, he was still a little drained. Neku didn't mind too much. It was a rare event when Beat was this submissive, anyways. Normally, his macho pride made him want to be more of the "man" in the relationship. Neku felt it was kind of nice to take the role for a little while.

Still, both of them were hungry, since the…incident…with Beat's parents happened before they had gotten a chance to eat. So, when Neku's mother called them down for dinner, they both raced out of the room. Beat got downstairs and into the kitchen before Neku, and both sat at the table to their waiting food. Yoko hadn't made anything too fancy, just some rice and miso, but Beat still practically inhaled it. Neku chuckled as he watched the other boy eat. If his appetite and feverish energy were back, than Beat would probably be okay. Of course, he would eventually have to go home and face his parents, but that was a problem for tomorrow.

Neku turned to thank his mother for the food, but stopped when he looked at her. Normally, he would have expected her to be slightly…disturbed…at Beat's lack of table manners, but she didn't seem to notice as she ate her own food. She seemed a little distracted. Neku was curious, but seeing as he wasn't telling her his problems tonight, asking of hers seemed a little hypocritical. So, he just ate his food, stopping to kick Beat's leg under the table every now and then, hoping that he'd take the hint and slow down. He didn't.

The three of them ate in relative silence, not counting the thanks and compliments from both boys to the cook. Eventually, though, Yoko broke the silence. "So, Beat," she asked, "if you don't mind me asking, what's you're real name?"

Beat blushed as he tried to stammer out an answer. "It's…uhh…well…"

"It's Daisukenojo," Neku supplied. Even though he wasn't looking, he could imagine the comical glare that Beat was most definitely giving him. Teasing him about his name was one of his favorite past times. "Why, mom?"

"Because that's what his parents called him on the phone."

Neku froze with his chopsticks halfway to his mouth. Beat choked on his food. Both of them looked at Yoko, slight fear in all four of their eyes.

"You know," Neku said. It was a statement, not a question.

"So it's true, then? You two are, well…"

No one said anything for a few seconds. Finally, Neku decided that, since this was his mother, not Beat's, he should be the one to answer. "Yeah, we're dating."

"…For how long?"

"A couple months now. Only Shiki and Rhyme know. Or at least, they used to." Neku assumed that his mother had already heard about what had happened at the Bito family's home earlier.

"…Why?"

Neku didn't answer right away. "…I don't know, mom," he finally said. "It just sort of happened. Not like I planned it."

Beat, a little put off by the last question, decided to put his own two cents in. "Ya really need a reason ta date someone?"

Yoko just nodded slightly, then looked at her son. Neku had a look in his eyes. Yoko couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic. It was the same look that his father would get sometimes. It was a stubborn, obstinate look that just dared anyone to try and stop him whenever he had set out to do something. She looked over at his son's guest. His eyes were a little more nervous and fearful, which really didn't surprise her that much, considering the angry tone his father had had over the phone.

She looked at them both again, both of them looking at her, and she sighed. "Please don't look at me like that," she said. "I'd say that I'm taking this pretty well, seeing as I found out my only son is gay less than fifteen minutes ago."

"Mom, are you—"

"I can't really say that I'm okay with this yet, Neku," she interrupted. "It's, well, it's a shock. But, it's not like I can really change you, or anything. It isn't really my choice, I guess. Give me some time with this, and I'll try to get used to it, okay?"

Neku smiled slightly. "Yeah mom, okay."

"Good. Now then, Daisukenojo," she turned to the other boy at the table, who now had a sour look on his face.

"Please don' call me that," he moaned out.

"Fine, Beat then. I'm sorry about your parents, and you're more than welcome to stay the night. You can sleep in the guest room upstairs. Tomorrow, however, you're going to have to go home and talk to your parents. Neku and I can go with you if you want, but you can't stay here forever, alright?" The boy nodded. "Good." And with that, she went back to eating. Eventually, the boys fallowed suit after realizing that Mrs. Sakuraba was in fact not going to yell at them.

After all three finished eating, Neku and Beat ran upstairs again. Yoko called out to them, and they looked back down stairs from the top of the landing. Yoko was blushing and having trouble getting her words out. Finally Neku figured out why his mother had stopped them, but had suddenly turned bashful. "Don't worry mom," he said, "we aren't having sex, and even if we were, this wouldn't be the night." And with that he made towards his room, a now beet-red Beat following behind him.

"Alright, then," Yoko called after them, "but you two aren't sleeping in the same bed, got it?"

"Yes, mom."

Yoko went back into the kitchen to clean the dishes. Truthfully, she didn't know if she was okay with this or not. A big part of her wanted to try and talk her son out of this "gay" thing. Still, Neku had cut himself off from the world so severely until about a year ago, until that month that he had stayed in the hospital. Back then, he'd hardly say two words to her, and she had been deathly afraid that he would turn into a hikikomori. She had been so relieved when he had opened himself up again, she was afraid of losing her son again, especially over something like this.

Besides, if it was Beat, than it was probably okay. Yoko didn't know what had happened to Neku during that month in the hospital (actually, she couldn't remember a lot about that month for some reason), but what she did know was that Shiki, Beat, and his little sister Rhyme had something to do with it, and for that, she was eternally thankful to all three of them. So really, she couldn't find it in herself to be upset with Beat. She owed him that much.

After she finished with the dishes, Yoko walked upstairs to her bedroom. She felt like she should stay up and make sure that the boys really did sleep in separate beds, but she had had a trying last couple of hours, and she decided that she was too tired to stay up any longer. Besides, she had a feeling that, one way or another, she was going to be making a trip to Beat's home tomorrow, so she should probably be well rested.

As she passed her son's room, she peeked in on him. Neku and Beat had settled into the same position that they had held before dinner. Yoko could see that they were both beginning to nod off, but found that she didn't have the heart to force Beat to leave the room. So she just quietly walked away, and stepped her own room for some nice sound sleep.

A/N: There are a couple of things that I want to touch upon before here, which I think deserve some mention:

1. TWEWY posed a bit of a unique problem for me in terms of format. Normally, whenever different translations of a series or game have big enough differences (different names, the use of honorifics, etc.), I usually just go with the American published version. Here, however, I wasn't sure what to do, since the TWEWY has such a clear influence from Japanese pop culture, yet the translators used a very American translation. Eventually, I decided to just stick to my guns. I kind of liked how Beat sounded calling Yoko "Mrs. Sakuraba" rather than "Sakuraba-san."

2. Hikikomori is a term used to describe individuals that have actually completely withdrawn themselves from society, most not even leaving their rooms for over six months. Normally, this is seen as having more to do with an extreme fear or trauma involving social situations, but Neku's complete rejection of other people during the early stages of TWEWY seemed to fit with the definition. If you're at all interested in this, than I recommend looking up the series "Welcome to the NHK," which I think portrays hikikomori pretty well.

3. The month that Neku was in the hospital is in fact the month he spends in the Game. Yoko's memory has just been altered to think that he was in the hospital, and that she hadn't been allowed contact with him. I figured that the Game and it's ability to bring people back to life obviously can't become public knowledge, but at the same time having people be suddenly absent from their loved ones' lives for such a long period of time would be suspicious, especially in Neku's case, so this was the answer that I came up with.

Well, that's pretty much it. Please read and review, and once again, thanks for reading.