Good morning!

To those who are reading any of my fics, my deepest apologies, everything is on hold until this little bit of obsessiveness is finished. The good news is that it shouldn't take too long, the whole thing is written, and I am basically just editing.

Disclaimer: I wish…

Chapter 1

Lover…

Tsuzuki smiled as the word echoed through his mind. Together they had been through heaven and hell, hurt and comfort. Together they had faced all the odds and the moment they had been waiting for had finally arrived.

Hisoka trusted him enough to be his lover.

They had passed through the grudging smiles, the admittance of mutual need, the whispered confessions and the first awkward touches. Being together had not been easy… At times it seemed that everything was against them, as if Murphy kept a special store of things to wrong, just for them. But through each tragedy they came out stronger. Each pain tempered them; each collapse brought them closer as they supported each other through the worst.

And now they had the best.

Tsuzuki had nearly fallen on his face when Hisoka had squeezed his hand as they were leaving work and leaned in close to whisper in his ear.

"Come over later."

There was no mistaking the look that the younger man had given him, open and direct, those bright green eyes had glittered with love and trust; and desire.

Hisoka wanted him…

And it had been all he could do not to follow the youth home in that moment, like a smitten puppy.

Not that it would have been the first time…

The only thing that stopped him from doing just that was the realization that this was a big step for Hisoka, and maybe he needed sometime for himself, to prepare.

'Oh boy, did he prepare!' Tsuzuki had thought as he stood in the doorway of Hisoka's little house.

Candles had glowed from every flat surface. A dinner for two sat waiting on Hisoka's small table, and music played softly in the background… And Hisoka himself had answered the door wearing a pale green yukata.

Tsuzuki had very nearly swallowed his tongue.

The evening had been perfect. The aftermath had blown perfect away, and now Tsuzuki was lying in bed, his body still tingling, with his arms wrapped around his lover.

Hisoka lay asleep in his embrace, long lashes resting against pale cheeks, and a slight smile turning up the corners of his mouth as Tsuzuki marvelled.

It wasn't until Tsuzuki began to doze off that he felt something change. The air in the room seemed to thicken and the warm bubbly feeling that he had been enjoying faded. Hisoka shifted in his sleep and Tsuzuki looked down to see that the smile had disappeared and anxiety had twisted the delicate features.

Hisoka shuddered and whimpered, his body tense in Tsuzuki's arms, and then he cried out. Tsuzuki watched in horror as the blood red lines of Muraki's curse seared the creamy flesh under his hands.

Hisoka was having a nightmare.

Tsuzuki stroked his hands over the lines of the curse in an attempt to sooth and calm, but Hisoka thrashed in his arms. Tracing over the marks as if he could brush them away, feeling helpless, Tsuzuki tried to call Hisoka back to the waking world.

Hisoka slept on, tears now streaming from behind closed lids.

Tsuzuki's hand brushed down the last line of the curse and Hisoka stiffened; his body taunt like a strung bow. Suddenly his eyes shot open and he rolled to the edge of the bed, and leaning over it, he vomited, blood mixing with bile on the carpet.