Title: Dark Christmas (1/?)
Author: Del March
Rating: PG-13
Genres: Angst, Friendship, tiny bit of background Romance
This story contains: see at the bottom of the page for a full, spoilery warning
Characters: Akihito, Asami, Yoh, Fei Long, Kirishima, Suoh
Pairings: AsamixAkihito, YohxFei
Spoilers: all of NT
Word count: 2695

Summary: Akihito is looking forward to some Christmas holidays with Asami, until they unexpectedly take off for Hong Kong, where some awful news await them.

A/N: Concrit welcome.

Disclaimer: I don't own Viewfinder nor its characters which all belong to Yamane Ayano, and I am making no money from writing this fic.

Dark Christmas - 1

Snow, sex and sun - not to mention Asami, of course: what more could anyone want for their Christmas holidays? Akihito's nose was so cold that he thought it would soon break off, and his entire body ached from the many falls he had taken during the day, but he could not remember having been this happy in quite some time. The only way things could have been even better would have been if Asami had agreed to bring Akihito's friends along, but the businessman had flatly refused. After what had happened in Seoul, Akihito could hardly blame him either... Come to think of it, his friends might not have agreed to any other holidays with the two of them anyway...

Blushing at the memories, Akihito watched enviously as Asami gracefully came to a stop next to him. "Is there anything you don't know how to do?" he asked a bit resentfully.

Asami smiled his infuriating, condescending little smile. "As the saying goes, that's for me to know and-"

"For me never to find out," cut in Akihito, "yeah, yeah, I know." He was still feeling jealous but he knew he would only attract even more amused glances from Asami if he did not change the topic. "I'm dead. I'm going back to the hotel." Will you come with me?" He did not quite say it but he knew the question was written all over his face as he looked back at his lover.

He smiled when Asami nodded.

xx

Another session of their usual wild, passionate sex was a sure way to aggravate the muscle cramps he would have in the morning, but Akihito did not care one bit. He had admitted to himself long ago that nothing in the entire world could stop him from eventually agreeing whenever Asami made a move on him; he might as well try to stop breathing. Not to mention that Asami still had not learned the meaning of the word "no", and probably never would, so why bother at all?

For now, Akihito was happily falling asleep in their warm bed with his head on Asami's shoulder. They had arrived at the remote resort late this morning, which had given them plenty of time to start exploring the local slopes in the afternoon. Tonight, they had enjoyed a simple but downright delicious dinner at the restaurant, and then... Akihito snuggled closer to Asami and smiled; life was good. A whole week of this was going to be Heaven on Earth...

xx

Akihito groaned when his pillow removed itself from under his head, and his heat source disappeared. With a pang of disappointment, he opened one bleary eye and watched as Asami pulled on a night robe and went to open the door. Even though it was only a murmur, Akihito recognised Kirishima's voice and sighed dejectedly; it was never good news when Asami's assistant bothered to wake him up at night. Wincing at the pain shooting through his exhausted muscles, Akihito pushed himself into a sitting position, wrapped the covers tight around him, and waited for Asami to come back.

As he had feared, Asami did not aim for the bed. Instead, he reached for his cigarettes and sat in a chair, facing Akihito with a somber expression on his face.

"Big problems?" Akihito knew that Asami would most probably not share any actual details, but he also knew that Asami sometimes appreciated the opportunity to use him as a sounding board.

When Asami just kept on fixing him with a troubled gaze while pulling on his smoke, Akihito grew worried. There were very few reasons why Asami would keep quiet like this, and none of them were good. Taking the blanket with him, Akihito rose from the bed and went to kneel at Asami's feet. He bundled himself into the cover with one hand and laid the other on Asami's knee while staring searchingly into the handsome face.

Asami smiled distantly and ran his free hand down Akihito's face - right before asking the most unexpected of questions.

"You know him better than I do, I think, so what would you offer Fei Long as a present?"

Akihito felt his jaw drop and his eyebrows crawl up his forehead. He then scowled when Asami smirked at his reaction. He tried to make his voice sound sharp when he retorted, "What? Wanna give Fei Long a Christmas present?" Granted, Christmas was only three days away, and Fei Long had left them well alone ever since that whole affair more than a year ago, but since last Akihito had heard, the Sun had not yet started revolving around the Earth, he was quite sure that Asami was not going to start offering presents to Fei Long any time soon, no matter the occasion.

Asami frowned; his lips twisted into a bitter smile. "Not quite. Still, what would you offer him?"

Akihito felt a great dread fill him. This was not good. Something was going on, something really bad, and something which involved Fei Long, which automatically made it even worse. He bit his lip and briefly looked away. He really, really did not want Asami and Fei Long to come into contact again; he still did not trust that neither one of them would try shooting the other if they did...

In the end, he sighed and shrugged his shoulders as he looked back up to Asami. "What do you give to someone who can afford anything he wants?" This was a problem Akihito was far too familiar with, after all.

"Anything he wants..." Asami repeated with a very pensive look while staring right through Akihito. When his gaze suddenly focused back and he stood up in this most decisive way of his, Akihito felt a shiver run down his back. What crazy idea had gone through Asami's mind this time?

His blood ran cold when Asami ordered him, over his shoulder and while striding into the bathroom, "Pack your clothes. Leave the snow stuff here. We're going to Hong Kong."

xx

The vibrations woke Akihito up when the plane touched the runway. He yawned, stretched his arms and rubbed his eyes before looking outside into the bright winter light. It was almost noon by now; he briefly had a disappointed thought for the glorious ski slopes he should be gliding down at this very instant. His muscles were rejoicing in relief, but he already missed the snow: this was Christmas time, darn it, there should be snow! He knew he would have no such luck in Hong Kong, though. For a fleeting moment, he felt weirdly inclined to pitying Fei Long for having grown up without white Christmases - until his rational mind sarcastically reminded him that Fei Long's father had been the previous head of Baishe. Chances were Fei Long had spent more time in ski resorts by the time he had been ten than Akihito had done in his entire life. Stupid mafia...

His grumpy mood did not improve as he followed Asami out of the plane and straight into a waiting car. Even the sight of Hong Kong's busy streets did not relieve him; he was probably not going to be allowed to go explore them at will anyway, so they might as well not exist. He felt his jaws clench and a feeling of gloom and doom envelop him when the car entered the private parking basement at the foot of the Baishe tower. He so did not want to be back here - and he wanted Asami to be here even less!

Praying desperately that he was not going to have to witness another ridiculous shoot-out, he followed Asami again into the elevator. He knew where they were going but he was still shocked at how familiar the place felt to him when the doors opened. Though... He frowned; something was wrong. The floor had always been quiet as a rule when he was living there, but today the silence seemed to be infused with an oppressing quality. The men chatting in whispers in corners all seemed wary, as if expecting some great disaster to unfold at any time. Fear clenched around Akihito's stomach and he shot a desperate glance in Asami's direction; what the Hell was going on?

He gasped and heard both Asami and Kirishima inhale sharply when their Baishe guide let them into Fei Long's private quarters.

"What on Earth happened here?" asked Suoh in an awed voice behind them all. That was very much the question on Akihito's mind; even Asami seemed at a loss for words as he inspected the disaster area around them.

The only concept which came to Akihito to describe the situation was "typhoon". The whole room looked as though a small but very angry typhoon had spun its way around it, wreaking violent havoc in every corner of it. There was broken glass and ceramic everywhere, splintered wood, torn fabric; most of the furniture had been upturned, even the cabinets whose contents had spilled carelessly all over the floor. Two of the windows were cracked, and there were several small and sharp depressions in the walls - and even a hole in one place.

And then there was the blood. There was not much of it as far as Akihito could tell, but it was seemingly everywhere. Several partial or complete bloody hand prints on the walls, the floor, the destroyed furniture - everywhere really - easily explained where the blood had come from, but not why. Akihito felt his heart fall as he looked around him; what kind of horrifying circumstances could lead anyone to such desperate measures?

Their Baishe guide weaved his way through the mess and very carefully went to open the door to Fei Long's bedroom and poke his head inside. A moment later, he was turning back to Asami and beckoning him to enter even while instructing them all to keep silent with a finger on his lips. Watching where he put his feet, Akihito followed Asami into the next room; behind him, he heard Kirishima and Suoh take their usual position by the main door. The relative darkness in the bedroom took him by surprise and he nearly bumped into Asami when his lover suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Intrigued, he stepped to Asami's side and searched the room.

His heart missed a beat.

A small lamp in a corner was the only source of light but it was enough to see the two occupants of the bed. The bed covers had not been pulled back, and the two men reclining on them were fully clothed. One of them was awake - though just barely from the look of him - and staring at Asami with exhausted eyes; his arm was tightly wrapped around the shoulders of the still-sleeping one, whose head was buried in his chest. What immediately drew Akihito's attention, however, were the heavy bandages around the sleeper's hands, their bright white gleaming starkly in the low, muted light.

As his gaze travelled up from the wounded hands, Akihito automatically took in the many dark smudges on the torn suit sleeves. Fei Long had certainly done a number on his own clothes, as well as on the other man's - Yoh? Yes, Yoh. Yoh's shirt, from what Akihito could see of it between Fei Long's arms and hair, seemed to be mostly covered with blood stains; one of his sleeves was nearly hanging off his shoulder. There was even a dark smudge on his cheek and what looked suspiciously like a big bruise on the opposite cheekbone.

With a sigh, Yoh carefully disentangled himself from under Fei Long. Reaching into a wardrobe, he pulled a blanket and covered his boss with it, before pushing the long hair away from the sleeper's face. He then ran the back of his fingers along Fei Long's cheek in a soft way which made Akihito realise that this was more than just a subordinate taking care of his boss, before heading for the door. Asami followed suit.

Yoh looked into the bedroom one last time before closing the door. His voice was low and toneless as he explained, "I managed to drug him. He won't wake up for a few hours." Acting for all the world as though this were normal, he then proceeded to pull the couch back into its normal position. Asami did not say anything, only went to help, soon imitated by Akihito as well as Suoh and Kirishima who left their guard by the door for the occasion. When two chairs and the couch had been restored to their proper places, Yoh sank into one of the armchairs and Asami instructed his assistants with one jerk of the head to leave and wait outside.

Akihito thought that it felt rather awkward to sit down on the couch next to Asami as though the rest of the room were not still completely upside-down. Things then became downright surreal in his opinion when their Baishe guide reappeared with a platter and served them two whiskeys and an orange juice. Overwhelmed, he took to sipping his juice quietly while waiting for one of the two other men to say something - hopefully something which would bring some sense to this insanity.

"How is he doing?" Asami's cool, neutral voice rose quietly; yet, Yoh winced as though it had hurt him.

"They still don't know. We have to wait."

Akihito frowned; what were they talking about? Fei Long seemed fine - a bit more deranged than usually, sure, but not in any imminent danger.

"Did you catch the one who did it?" Asami asked again.

"Yeah. Not that it will help anything, since we already knew who was behind it."

Behind what? Akihito listened in increasing confusion, his gaze searching each man's face in turn.

"What a time for such business, too..." Akihito stared; if he had not known any better, he could have sworn that Asami was trying to offer Yoh some kind of comfort...

Yoh's face grew hard. "They didn't tell you?" Asami's eyes narrowed. Yoh continued, "The guy was dressed as Santa Claus. And we received this here at about the same time it happened." He fished out a red and very crumpled envelope from inside his jacket, and handed it over to Asami. Akihito scooted closer to his lover, so he could read over his shoulder.

The card inside the envelope was clearly a Christmas one, with a picture on the front of a smiling child hugging a huge, friendly Santa. There was only a single gold-printed line inside it, which said, in English, "We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" The "you" had been crossed out with a black pen, and a word had been written right above it to replace it: "us".

"We wish us a Merry Christmas..." Akihito read in a whisper. This was sick; what kind of Christmas card was this?

Akihito only noticed the recipient's name when Asami slipped the card back into the envelope. It had not been addressed to Fei Long, as Akihito had thought, but to his, er, son-figure or whatever, Tao. Akihito scowled; he had a huge soft spot for the fiercely devoted little boy, and the idea that someone could play such a distasteful prank on him rattled him. "I hope Tao didn't actually see that?" he asked Yoh.

Yoh just stared at him with those dead eyes of his. Next to Akihito, Asami lighted a cigarette, handed it over to Yoh along with the envelope, and lighted another one for himself. Something awful crawled to life deep inside Akihito's guts; a terrible sense of foreboding pressed down on him as he forced himself to review the conversation the two other men had just had. His voice was wavering when he stared at Yoh again and asked, "What happened, exactly?"

It was Asami who answered from next to him. "Tao was shot." Akihito's head whipped around; horror crushed him as Asami continued calmly, "He's in ICU. They don't know if he will live."

xx To Be Continued xx

Full warning: off-screen violence against a child