Seven Stitches

Day One

Summary: Shortly after death, Akise Aru encounters a friendly enigma called Nagisa Kaworu. The messengers rip away their precluding threads; Aru is taught to unfold his wings in seven days.

Cross-over: Mirai Nikki & Neon Genesis Evangelion

Rated: T

Disclaimer: Panic Abandon does not own Mirai Nikki or Neon Genesis Evangelion. If she did, our angels would have had a sweet encounter like this in their 'afterlives' (:

A/N: So, this one-I'm sorry, seven-shot idea came to mind while I was lurking an Ask Akise blog and a Ask Shinji and Kaworu blog on Tumblr. Yep yep, I be stalkin'. I am watching...:D I asked a question or two as well, so I hope I get a response .

TL; DR? Nope! Not taking a break from Redemption of Service. It will still be updated on Sunday like I said. I am going to continue doing this for seven days, posting a short entry for each day that Akise and Nagisa encounter each other as I continue to write ROS. This is just a fun random idea that came into my head while I was simultaneously stalking blogs and it turned into a short story (:

Life is meaningless without you

Love can be such beautiful torture

My heart breaks as I long for you

Love can be such lovely torture...

On the ninetieth day as the world collapsed, God's messenger was turned to the sea.

The glittering ocean lapped sanguine waves against the rocky shore, marring the golden sand with a pallor pigment of pink. Crashing in, receding, but pulling nothing away, it smoothed the surface of the lonely beach as it attempted to sooth the obstinate ears of one being left in the company of otherwise solitude.

Akise Aru poked at the wet sand with a washed up stick.

He couldn't be sure, but by his presumably useless, semi-conscious concept of time, at least thirty days had passed since he woke up in this unfamiliar place. His surroundings seemed to flow in leisurely time; every ripple in the sea expanded especially slower than his eyes expected to witness, and the remnants of the gravely familiar buildings that backed the infinite landscape behind him appeared to crumble at an especially deterred rate.

The detective watched the pieces falling around him with unimpeded wonder for what felt like a week, before he eventually grew bored and settled for scratching aimless lines in the sand with a twig that had washed up on the shore. Internal inquiries regarding his peculiar circumstances initially rattled his disoriented mind on the first three days, but the gravity of his surroundings soon consumed him, extracting his worries along with a few inconsequential memories and keeping them afloat like the sea tangle on the crimson surf; close enough to see, but never within his exact vicinity for him to grab and really look at.

In this sanctuary that was uncertainly some form of an afterlife, there were no such feelings as dejection or loneliness, but the fallen detective was starting to believe that he was beginning to experiencing something relatively close to them. Even during the artificial life he had lived before in the world he'd been permanently disconnected from, he did not believe he had ever felt depressed or even generally sad. There were times where things did not go his way and he became worried or frustrated, but the cause of those feelings no longer existed where he was now; effectively absolved from all purpose, Akise Aru wasn't sure what good he was left for.

He felt cold, and indescribably empty.

For all of the actions Akise had told himself, as well as his supposed creator were his own, he had given a serious thought to each and tried to bring himself to realize where it might have been untrue. It might have been true, he finally admitted after stewing over his recollected memories for as long as infinite time and this unmoving space would allow. Strangely, he found it didn't bother him so much to accept this. Even though a greater portion of his life might have been a complete lie, the detective was still convinced that his emotions belonged to no one but him and that in fact, he had experienced one that domineered above all.

All on his own, Akise Aru had fallen in love; with a foolish and incredibly naïve young boy, indeed.

Akise listlessly entertained that his attraction to Amano Yukiteru might have been brought about by the boy's innocent and vulnerable nature; if he were to assume that the theory that claimed he was some sort of ethereal being or an angel was true. He was used to trying to pin logic to things in the way that he believed most detectives did, but it never seemed to work out in any of his cases. What was even more startling to discover was that he himself was a mystery.

His true origins were disconcerting, but he had never allowed himself much time to figure out exactly what or who he was. Despite everything in existence insisting that he was artificial intelligence, and even being broken down into pieces in the hand of god himself, Akise felt a sense of irony in realizing he had never felt more alive and human ever before. His ability to care and feel compassion was a blissful error that had allowed him to experience the world with the most extraordinary feelings and that was something he would never trade a day for everything else for.

Akise sighed quietly and spread his fingers over his knees which were presently drawn into his chest as he leaned forward, wine-colored eyes consumed by and attuned to the imbrued sunset. Lifting his hand slowly, he traced the pad of the first digit gingerly across the seven crudely sewn threads that encircled his neck; recalling the last moments of his life flashing briefly before his eyes, it hadn't taken him long to figure out what their presence resembled. Allowing the rest of his fingers to ghost over his sun-warmed skin, he shifted his eyes back to the water and he smiled despite himself.

He was ironically blessed; he had enjoyed himself throughout his short but memorable life, and wherever else he was meant to be, Akise would go there with whatever precious memories this place would fail in taking from him and hold onto them forever.

I will climb the hills

Draw my sword and take down anyone who tries to stand in front of me

Please know I'll never run away without you in my arms...

Akise wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep, but found that he was smiling lightly when he woke up. Comfortably encompassed by the warmth of the sun and a mellifluous aria that softly touched his ears, he brought his hands to his face and tiredly rubbed at his eyes before opening them. The sea, as it usually did, shimmered beneath the never-setting day star and drifted languidly, seeming unaffected by the angelic voice sailing gently over the mild wind. There was no one on the beach as far as his bleary vision could see. Sitting up more and stretching his legs out in front of him, the detective reached his arms above his head and gave a small yawn before carefully getting to his feet. He narrowed his eyes as he squinted at the searing gold sunlight as he slid his hands into his pockets, pink orbs surveying the landscape in hope of finding the source of the attractive melody.

A brief glimpse of a lean, shadowed figure perched on a large, jagged rock and staring out at the tide abruptly caught in Akise's peripheral vision. The silveret stood there silently and keeping perfectly while listening to the song reach its conclusion, and then made to take a cautious step forward. In that precise moment, the young man tilted his head in the detective's direction with a smile conveying something between abashed and spirited. Akise stared back at him skeptically, fingers slightly curling inside his jeans pockets as he mulled over whether or not he should take the man's cordial demeanor as an incentive to advance.

Upon seeing the other boy's hesitation, the young man's smile waned into a considerably softer one. Then, he extended one hand and wordlessly beckoned the other closer with a curl of his index finger.

Akise followed accordingly and silently, the sound of the sand gently being crushed under his sneakered feet and the usual toss of the waves being the only sounds between him and the unknown other person. The young man's smile grew a little more again as Akise strolled up to him, his own silvery, unkempt hair fluttering in the breeze and his pale, carmine eyes glinting with flecks of golden sunlight. They seemed to study each other for a moment, exotic eyes searching one another and finding differences and similarities, those of which the detective took in with mild interest but kept his features schooled so as not to startle the rare presence into mutual suspicion.

Finally, the mysterious man's expression smoothed into another small smile and he settled back against his rock as if he meant to ignore the other. Akise almost felt a flicker of anxiety until the man folded his hands behind his head and tilted it toward the slighter boy; the starch white collar of his shirt slipped down in the process to reveal a line of stitches running around the curve of his neck. Senses suddenly sharpening, the detective snapped his head up to look the other in the eye.

Nagisa Kaworu smiled at him knowingly and then spoke.

"Have you been waiting long?" his voice was soft, with a casual air that made Akise easily slip out of his precedent discomfort. He considered for a moment, unsure of what the question was referring to. After a long pause, he decided, "I'm not really sure...I mean, I don't think so."

The silver-haired man tipped his head up toward the sky and his lips curled into small smirk. Then he gazed back at Akise warmly and nodded. "That's good..." he said quietly. "I am glad."

Waiting for anything in general wasn't something Akise was particularly fond of, so he supposed he could agree with the man's statement; whatever cryptic other meaning it held.

The detective watched the man turn his focus back to the expanse of ocean, calmly leaning back and further exposing the line of stitches etched across his throat. The silveret tilted his own head down, running his fingers absently along the back of his neck. No explanation would come to help him understand this distinctive similarity between them and so he simply dropped his hand back down at his side and turned to lean against the side of the large boulder.

The man sitting on the rocks had, unknown to the other boy, turned and curled up more so, drawing his legs up to his chest and slinging one arm across his knees as he looked down on Akise while chuckling softly. Lifting his head up to look at him, the detective's pink orbs widened in confusion, and then before he could even question what the other found so amusing, the messenger was gently speaking to him.

"We are the same, you see?" he said, his tone almost playful while tilting his head to expose the thread sewn into his skin. He pressed a finger carefully into the hollow of Akise's throat and then slowly traced it across. The detective boy frowned slightly at his casual advancement and delicately shivered at the strange, tickling sensation.

"I don't understand." He replied, reaching up to wrap his hand around the man's wrist and bringing it away from him. The silver-haired man didn't appear to be put off in the slightest by the boy's blunt dismissal, only deflecting it with a passive smile and returning his attention to the water again.

The detective blinked confusedly at the man's back and went quiet for a long moment. The smile remained on the other's face and then gradually dissolved into a concentrated look; Akise wondered what he could possibly be thinking. Many questions suddenly overwhelmed the foregoing emptiness in his mind; a mild inkling of excitement and curiosity overtook suspicion and before he could apprehend his jeopardized mentality, he was crouched down in the sand beside the mysterious other and was leaning against the lower half of the rock's jagged side.

"Who are you?" Akise prompted, finding a small stick in the sand and beginning to draw small circles with it. There was a juncture or silence that followed after the question. Eventually, Akise glanced up to find the other man staring down at him as if he'd been waiting for the boy to look at him the entire time. The detective stared up at him with wide, pink orbs as a warm shade of red dusted over his cheeks.

"Kaworu. Nagisa Kaworu." Kaworu replied with a small smirk, taking internal delight at the modest expression on the younger boy's face.

Blinking a couple more times and recovering himself, Akise nodded. "I see. I'm-"

"Akise Aru." Kaworu interjected softly, red orbs still focused on the smaller boy whose attention had drifted back to his sand scratches. Akise's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the sand, but he tilted his head back upward to find that Kaworu had turned back to the water. For a time, they watched the waves churn and the sea spray sparkle while the detective quietly cataloged the scenery and reorganized his thoughts. He had come to the conclusion that this was not an illusion, but he couldn't figure out why, after such a long period of time, this person had suddenly decided to appear before him. With a slight, downward curve of his lips, the detective pressed his fingers into a steeple and placed them beneath his chin, elbows propped up on his knees.

"What is this place? Why are we here?" Kaworu chuckled softly as the detective began to pelt him with questions, shoulders shaking a little while he covered a hand over his mouth to hide his amusement.

"...You are quite the detective, aren't you Aru-kun?" he asked as a matter of factually, casting a playful glance over his shoulder. Akise blinked at him expectantly and said nothing, waiting for both or at least one of his questions to be answered.

"Sure, I am." He replied simply after the other's laughter curbed into silence. "Are you going to answer my questions, Nagisa-san?"

Kaworu turned his body sideways so he could see the younger boy better, and then leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his cheek resting against his hand. He stared at Akise with a thoughtful expression that eventually dissolved into a chaste grin that lit up his entire face.

"Hm...nope."

"Oh?" Akise inquired, his tone bordering on even as he managed to withhold a hint of disappointment. "Why is that?"

Kaworu tapped an elegant finger mindfully against his chin as the detective's eyes narrowed simultaneously with the assumption that the other did not actually need to think about this particular question at all. Akise knew this game well; he would have otherwise been amused with the man's tactical procrastination, had he not been the one on the impatient end of his evasiveness. Despite all this, he managed a small smirk.

"Mmm...Maybe if you ask the right questions in the correct order, I could answer them..." Kaworu offered, nodding more to himself as if trying to confirm something. "It shouldn't be too hard for the great detective Aru-kun, right?" his tone was playful again, but there appeared to be something else more perplexing and obscure that lay beneath the surface of the entire seemingly innocent suggestion.

For a brief moment, Akise could have sworn that the other boy was mocking him. His brow furrowed, jaw set in a hard line as his head snapped up to fix Kaworu with a mildly annoyed frown. The offended expression transcended into a blank, livid stare when he saw the remorseful glint in the younger man's eyes and the gentle smile that slowly curled up on his lips. Kaworu tilted his head against his hand and beamed down on him.

"Let's get to know each other more before we have to part. What do you say?"

The detective's mouth fell open a little and his heart suddenly began to leap strangely in his chest.

"Well..." he mumbled, casting a wayward glance toward the sea. Bold streaks of crimson, orange and gold lanced through the feathery overcast clouds, stretching across the skyline in sooty tufts and depicting the entire scene as something Akise satirically related to a heavenly inferno.

With the detective still mulling over his thoughts, Kaworu hopped down from his respective perch and crossed the small distance between them to place a hand on the younger boy's shoulder. Akise resurfaced from his inward abstractions when he felt two fingers tilt up his chin and then travel over the contour of his jaw line.

Wide, coral orbs flitted up to meet garnet; one pair instinctively uncertain, the other passive and consoling.

Finally, Akise conceded with a nod, the last of his ambiguities laid away for soonest and further speculation. "Alright then."

Kaworu's smile expanded into a broad grin as the detective turned away, his index finger barely sweeping over a random line of thread etched into the other's fair skin. Akise wasn't sure where he was going or how far he would even get, but he knew that he suddenly needed some time to himself and to think. His shoes traced across the sand, impressing the patterns of the soles in an inconsistent trail along the beach as he slid his hands into his pockets and began to walk away. He got half-way beyond his original distance before he heard Kaworu's voice call out to him.

"Will we talk tomorrow, Aru-kun?"

Akise paused and glanced over his shoulder; a smile unseen in a very long time slowly traced up on the detective's lips and then he nodded.

"Of course," he agreed and then turned back to resume his solitary trek.

Satisfied, the seventeenth angel quietly leaned back against his rock, hand lifting almost hesitantly to trace his fingers over a slowly dissolving thread just as he watched the other boy touch a hand absently over the back of his tingling neck.

...And so the first stitch of seven disappeared.

One day lovers will dream of this undying kiss

Not of Romeo or Juliet

Stories told of our love will never die...

A/N: So, this is the prologue and the first day. Second day will be posted tomorrow (: Feedback is appreciated! Whether or not I receive some, I will continue regardless.

TBC