Rain

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By: Ryoko [Raiju]

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Lucky. That's all. He was lucky he was living. But he couldn't remember what he was living THROUGH.

He couldn't remember the car swerving, the church that the car had slammed into. He couldn't remember his friend's cries as he forcefully threw the teenager to the street as the car made contact. But he could see it now. There were people in white all around him, a male doctor hovering over his head as he was wheeled down the hospital corridors. He felt so weak, and in so much pain...everything around him was spinning. The oxygen mask on him was uncomfortable, and he wanted desperately to tear it off, for the oxygen tasted impure- almost like cotton- which sickened him.

He hated hospitals: they scared him. Hospitals were where the living died and the dead were brought back to life, and that saying creeped him out. The walls were too white, the lights were too bright, and the beds were too lonely and uncomfortable. Plus, if you had to stay there for an extended amount of time, you were bored out of your mind. Sure, he'd been in hospitals a NUMBER of times, but only three or four times as a patient. Today was worse though...because today, he couldn't even open his eyes to but mere slits.

The doctors rolled him into another annoyingly white room and began to tend to his wounds, wrapping him up tightly like he was being mummified. He tried to protest as much as he could as they neared the most painful part of him at the moment: his neck, but no sound was produced but a whimper. He waited patiently for them to leave after they'd injected him with sedatives, then began to silently cry. The pain hurt too much to bear, even with all of the painkillers that had been shoved down his throat, rubbed into his skin, and shot into him through needles. Even with all of the drugs, the pain was still enough to make him cry. His powerlessness was hurting him the most though.

The boy couldn't feel his legs...not at all. Anything from his waist, down, seemed gone, though it was really there. 'I hope Nagi is okay...I hope I didn't hurt him...!' he whimpered softly at the thought, the door suddenly opening, as if on cue.

A smaller, slender figure slipped into the bright room, closing the door once more and walking toward Omi's bed.

'He's alright...thank goodness...' the blonde smiled as Nagi's hand touched his face.

"You're alright. It's okay now, Omi. I'll be here when you wake up, I promise." The younger boy whispered as he watched the other's eyes grow heavy and close.

But Omi never woke. Nagi stayed in the room for hours, listening to the heart monitor run flat, in pure disbelief that his one and only friend was gone. All because they couldn't listen to simple orders.

This was all because they couldn't just LISTEN to Yohji when he'd said that there was too much water on the roads to drive, because it was slippery.

They'd taken Ran's car anyway, just to avoid the rain. They'd just driven around a little to calm down after the heated fight between the two boys and Ken and Ran. But they'd planned on coming back...really they did. Neither of them planned this.

"I'm sorry. I really am, my angel." He leaned forward and kissed the older assassin's lips gently, resting the boy's hand at his side. Ripping the heart monitor out of the wall and turning out the lights, he left the room.

Never would he see that friendly smile again, and never would he feel that warm, tender, embrace that he knew so well, and always looked forward to.

That was it. That's all. He was gone. He...was gone...forever.

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GAME OVER.