Hello everyone, nice to see you! Yes, I'm back with a total crack pairing, seriously, I thought my other fics were bad, I've outdone myself this time. Still, I hope you enjoy.
I don't own K Project! If I did I probably wouldn't be writing Fanfiction about it.
Okay, I lie, I totally would.
Chapter 1: Dreams
Ryuho Kamo's whole body felt cold, his vision blacked around the edges and for a second he feared he might, for the first time in his life, pass right out.
"Missing?" His voice cracked on the word and he licked his lips, "missing how? Like you can't find her?"
Possibly the two stupidest questions he had ever asked in his life but right now he was so far from caring it wasn't even funny.
"Yes, she's missing Ryuho," his ex-wife's voice cracked.
Kamo felt dizzy, he thought he could deal with his fears, that he'd faced the worst of them, a potential Damocles Down like the one that had taken his parents, a full-on war with the Red Clan with innocent teenagers thrown in the way, his divorce, only seeing his daughter once every three months, the potential death of his King or the destruction of her Sword of Damocles, he'd faced every single one of these fears at some point in time, and many of them still loomed over him as an constant or vague threat in his life.
But this? He'd never considered this his worst nightmare; this was so far beyond his most horrifying thought that he'd never even thought it, his mind instinctively shying away from the possibility.
His five year old daughter Miki was missing.
His alarm beeped, Ryuho bolted upright, gasping, his body covered in a cold sweat, he automatically turned off his alarm before sitting up fully. It was just a dream, his daughter was fine and his ex-wife had never called him, Kamo picked up his phone and scrolled though his call history just to be sure but the last time she had called him was three weeks ago. He breathed a sigh of relief.
He straightened the picture of Miki he kept on his bedside table and hit the call button on his phone. It was quite early, 6 in the morning, but he knew his ex-wife Kasa would be getting up right about now anyway.
"Kasa? It's me, sorry for calling so early," he apologized, climbing out of bed, "no, no everything's fine," he assured her, "I just wanted to see how you and Miki were doing," no way was he telling her about the nightmare. "No," he assured her again, "everything's fine."
He hoped that was true, he had the feeling that this was going to be one of those days.
Yujiro Benzai glanced up from her work at the sound of her co-worker's voice; she bid him good morning politely and went back to her work.
She and Kamo were currently the only two in their workroom/office/paperwork-room-from-Hell (as Domyoji called it), Akiyama and Domyoji had both headed out early to meet with the Usagi concerning a joint investigation into jungle, why such a meeting had to occur at half past five in the morning Benzai wasn't sure but that was the Usagi for you. Enomoto and Fuse had three days off and were spending them together and Hidaka and Goto were both generally late getting in.
"How are you today?" Kamo asked, getting two cups of coffee and putting one down on her desk.
Benzai looked up, her usual serious expression morphed into a remarkably pretty smile, "thank you," she wrapped her hands around the Styrofoam cup and breathed in the steam, "I'm well thank you. How did you sleep?"
Ugh, why did she need to ask that question? To Hell with pleasantries.
"I've slept better," he admitted, "but it wasn't too bad." Well at least not until he started dreaming about his daughter being kidnapped. What bothered him wasn't just the dream itself -as if it wasn't bad enough- it was that he'd remembered it so clearly, he almost never remembered his dreams, did anyone? And even when he did it was never like this, they were always vague, distorted images that didn't make any sense. And he could barely remember the last time he'd had a proper nightmare.
He tuned back into the real world to see that Benzai's eyes were still on him, he met her pale brown gaze and then looked away, she did too.
"You've probably got people closer to you than me to open up to, but if you want to talk about it, I'm listening." Benzai offered unexpectedly. Of the members of the special squad she was probably the most serious and work-orientated, she generally didn't talk to anyone except Akiyama about non-work related issues.
"What makes you think I've got an 'it' to talk about?" He asked, rather than give a proper answer.
Yujiro smiled again, this morning was full of surprises. "There's an 'it,' I can see it on your face." She straightened some papers and set them to the side before asking, "a nightmare?"
Kamo stared at her for a second and Benzai picked up another half-finished mission report and began writing, "I'm sorry, I'm being nosy, I'll stop," she promised.
Kamo shook himself, "no, I was just surprised, was I that obvious?"
Benzai shook her head, "no, not at all, you just had this strange look on your face."
Kamo sat down at his own desk and pulled the papers he'd left unfinished last night towards him, "in that case, you made a very good guess. Yes, I had a nightmare."
He didn't tell her what it was about and she didn't ask. She spoke a few comforting words and the two worked in silence for a couple of minutes before first Goto and then Hidaka ambled through the door (six and nine minutes late respectively).
The next few days passed in relative peace, Scepter 4 did a lot of paperwork, drank a lot of coffee and responded to a Strain who was setting buildings on fire.
Fortunately the Strain was an arsonist, not a murderer, the buildings he was setting on fire were all abandoned, lots of property damage but no loss of life, which was the important thing.
A week or so later Kamo had a similar dream, but this time his daughter hadn't gone missing, she had fallen down the stairs and hadn't yet woken up. Again he woke up gasping.
This time he was not jolted out of his nightmare by his alarm clock and the nightmare ran its course but didn't startle him awake. He awoke gasping and rattled but without bolting upright and waking Akiyama.
Again he called his ex-wife the minute the clock hit 6:00 and again he was told absolutely nothing was wrong (not that he genuinely expected anything to be, he didn't put any stock in dreams).
He ended up telling Benzai that he'd had another nightmare, again he left out what it was about but mentioned the nightmare itself to her.
Yujiro frowned, "that's two in as many weeks, I wonder what's causing them?" It was a statement but it sounded like a question.
Kamo shrugged, "I have no idea. I've had nothing in my life to cause these nightmares all of a sudden and they have only happened twice, it's probably nothing."
"Probably," Benzai agreed, but she went through a mental list.
"Have you been snacking late at night?" She asked, Kamo shook his head, "never." Wait, snacking late at night could cause nightmares? He hadn't known that.
"Feeling stressed out?" Was her next checkpoint.
"More than usual? Hard to say," she gave him a sympathetic look. Their jobs had been fairly uneventful of late but ever since the death of the Red King and jungle beginning to actively show itself a tenseness had hung over the Blue Clan, things were starting, they all knew it, and there was nothing they could do to stop them.
"And I'm not taking any medication or other drugs and I don't suffer from depression, anxiety or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," yeah he'd done a tiny bit of research. He gave a light shrug, "they're just nightmares, uncalled for perhaps, but not outside the realm of possibility.
Benzai shrugged slightly and took a sip of her coffee, "well maybe it's all the coffee?"
"Maybe," Ryuho agreed, taking a sip of his own coffee.
Yes, they knew exactly how bad this looked, but they were members of Scepter 4. Scepter 4 would die before giving up its coffee. Or die because they gave up their coffee, one or the other.
The two of them had gone out for lunch, as Kamo had thought previously, Benzai usually only spent free time with Himori Akiyama but since their undercover mission Akiyama had been spending a lot of his time with Andreana 'Andy' Domyoji. The two of them probably didn't think anyone else had noticed it -not because they were keeping it a secret, simply because they were keeping it on the Down Low- but everyone else had eyes.
They knew the two were totally and obviously dating. Took them long enough. He'd obviously been sweet on her and in turn Domyoji had been mooning over Akiyama since the day they met and the only two people who hadn't noticed were Akiyama and Domyoji herself.
He smiled slightly, "what are you thinking about?" Yujiro enquired shyly, Kamo's smiles weren't as rare as her own but they were still uncommon.
"Akiyama and Domyoji," he said truthfully.
His smile widened as Benzai rolled her eyes, both the warmth and humour in them evident.
They finished their drinks and left, the two of them exchanged light-hearted comments, mostly on the weather, but most of their walk was silent, neither of them were much for talking.
They were a block away from Scepter 4 building when a small body slammed into Ryuho, making him stop, Benzai stopped also, glancing at him.
"Daddy!" The small blur which had attached itself to him was his five year old daughter, Miki.
Miki looked like a smaller version of her mother but she had inherited Ryuho's colouring, alabaster skin, jet black hair and light grey eyes.
Ryuho knelt to wrap his arms around her, "Miki? What are you doing here?"
"Miki!" Ryuho heard his ex-wife Kasa's voice and the clattering of her high heels, he wasn't really surprised.
Miki always darted off whenever something caught her attention; she'd probably seen her father and ran off without thinking, again. You couldn't take your eyes off of her for the amount of time it took to blink.
"It's alright Kasa," he called
Kasa ran towards them but stopped when she saw who her daughter had ran off to, "oh, Ryuho."
Kamo nodded at her and smiled in greeting. Their marriage hadn't worked out but it wasn't like they hated each other now. Though he wasn't going to lie and say he was happy with only being able to see his daughter once every three months. But that was mostly the court's fault.
Kasa gave a short; kind of awkward nod in greeting to Benzai who gave a slight bow in return, Ryuho addressed his daughter, "and what are you doing here sweetheart?" He asked, the smile he always wore around her creeping onto his face. It was hard not to smile when she was around.
She beamed back, she was always smiling, "Mummy and I are out buying new hats," she pulled off her wide-brimmed flower-covered yellow hat and showed it to him, Ryuho ruffled her hair, "did you pick that hat out yourself?"
Miki nodded proudly. "Yup, all by herself." Said Kasa, also smiling, their daughter was a buffer between Kasa and Ryuho, it was impossible for them to be awkward with her around.
"It's very pretty," Ryuho told his daughter.
"I think we're in the presence of a future fashion designer here," said Benzai smiling also,
Three heads turned to her and Miki's smile widened, any bigger and it would fall straight off her face, "thank you daddy's friend!" She chirped.
Benzai's smile widened also, "you're very welcome Miss Miki."
The sound of her voice reminded Kamo of their duties, their clan, "well we were just on lunch break, we should get going."
Reluctantly he hugged his daughter goodbye, "I'll talk to you later, I love you pumpkin."
She nodded, "bye bye daddy," she let go of him and took her mother's hand.
"Bye daddy's friend!" She said to Benzai.
"Goodbye Miss Miki," said Benzai, her smile twitching her lips.
Kasa and Ryuho bid said goodbye while Benzai simply bowed again and the two Clansmen set off.
Glancing at Benzai out of the corner of his eye Kamo saw she still had that tight smile on her face, as though she was fighting to keep her expression blank and failing miserably.
"Your daughter's very sweet," she said when she saw him watching her.
"Yes she is," he agreed, "she's a lot to handle though, Kasa's super-mum to deal with all her energy. I don't know where she gets it from.
"My sister was much the same, most of my teen years were spent running from place to place after her," like Ryuho knew he did with Miki, Yujiro adopted a fond tone when speaking of her sister. "Akiyama always said he was lucky he was an only child but I wouldn't have traded my sister for anything. She could be a lot to handle though, it could be frustrating one minute and scary the next but mostly it was fun."
Ryuho sighed and brushed a lock of his long hair away from his face, "I get that, my biggest fear is that one of these days Miki is going to run off and dart right in front of a car." Well, his biggest fear alongside the ones he had begun to see in his dreams lately.
Benzai grimaced sympathetically; it had been her parents' biggest fear when her sister was a small child, less so with Yujiro herself, she'd always been cautious, even when she was little.
But Kamo hadn't known that, "I wasn't aware you had a sister, how old is she?"
Benzai brushed back a lock of her own hair, but not because it was particularly in the way, it was simply habit, "she's sixteen now, there are nine years between us, her name's Hana."
"Hana, that's a nice name," he said, and Benzai nodded, "do you have any other siblings?"
She didn't it was just her and her sister, when she asked he told her that he had one brother who was older, he'd supported them both when Mr and Mrs. Kamo had been killed in the Kagatsu Crater when Ryuho was sixteen but Ryuho often felt as though he was the older of the two.
Then they reached Scepter 4 and got back to work, as he accepted a coffee from her later (more coffee!) that he might be gaining a genuine friend.
He had variations of that dream two more times over two weeks, the next time he had it Miki was hit by a car, like he'd told Benzai and the time after that Kasa told him she had a very serious illness but he'd woken before finding out what that was.
Sometimes he dreaded sleeping, but every time he did he'd give himself a fierce shake and remind himself that they were just dreams, they could upset him, interrupt his night, but they couldn't make anything actually happen to Miki and as long as his daughter was safe what were a few dreams? Kamo ignored them and got on with his life. Twenty-eight nights and four of them gave him trouble. He didn't think there was too much to worry about, unusual as it was.
"I called Kasa every morning after I have one but she's catching on," he told Benzai, she often inquired after his health and the nightmares and he'd told her what they were about shortly after the third one, "it's not unusual for me to call and ask how she and Miki are doing but it is unusual for me to call at 6am, I've thought about waiting but," he gave a slight shrug, he hadn't wanted to go about his day without making sure he was just being paranoid.
"It's completely understandable, and I'm sure if you told Kasa what this was about she could fully comfort you that there's nothing to worry about. Maybe that's all you need to hear and then they'll stop. At the very least, she could do a better job at reassuring you than I am." Benzai replied, sipping her iced tea. Taking up her suggestion that it might be the caffeine giving him these nightmares (he didn't really know what else it could be) Kamo had decided to cut down on overdosing on caffeine and Yujiro had decided to cut down with him. Not because it was bothering her in the slightest (it wasn't) but because it was highly unhealthy.
Ryuho smiled, "no, you do a fine job. I know I'm being silly, I'm sure it's nothing. I have no faith in my ability to predict the future through dreams."
Benzai smirked sarcastically, "yes, you have super speed, reflexes and strength and control blue fire. But magic dreams? That's silly."
She had a point.
"But I'm sure it's nothing," she assured him gently; hesitantly she reached out and rested her hand on his wrist, smoothing nerves he hadn't realized were frazzled.
Just then Ryuho's phone rang.
He pulled it out and glanced at the caller ID, "it's Kasa." He saw Benzai's smile freeze before she schooled her expression back into normalcy, he knew what was going through her mind, it was going through his mind too, they'd just been talking about how everything was probably fine with Kasa and Miki and then suddenly he got a call from Kasa during the middle of a work day when she usually wouldn't call. It would be just like the ill-humoured universe to prove them wrong.
And then they'd remembered the ridiculously small chances of that happening.
"Excuse me," he said to Benzai.
"Of course," she waved him off and he walked a few paces away to take the call, "Kasa?"
After his ex finished speaking Ryuho cursed mentally, "no, you were right to call me first, I think I know what's happening. I'll be there soon, goodbye." He hung up and went back to Benzai.
She saw the hard glint in his eye, "oh my God, what happened?"
Good question.
"It's probably nothing," he assured her, knowing he was saying virtually the same thing she had said to him, "or at least; it's probably not what I think it is, but Kasa just told me Miki has been moving things around the house. Without touching them."
Yujiro blinked, "oh."
Yeah, 'oh,' "Since we have the rest of the afternoon off I'm heading down there to check it out." On impulse he asked, "will you come with me?" What the Hell, there was no need for that. But he just wanted company in case he had to explain Strains, Kings and Clans to Kasa. That was going to be one heck of a conversation.
Benzai nodded, "of course."
They both grabbed their jackets and headed out the door.
Well, who saw that coming? Not me, I changed the plot at the last minute. Literally.
Hope you enjoyed guys, bye!
