People really are the worst.
They never ask why, they just hear a juicy gossip and can't wait to tell everyone. They don't care if it's true, they don't care if it's hurtful, they only care about getting attention. And when they make someone else look bad, they just reason it merely makes them look better. And when you look good, people will like you, when people like you, you become popular and that's what it's all about. Especially when you can laugh at the new kid's expense while you're at it. Being popular is the only thing that matters in high school apparently, although Daisuke never really seemed to get why. He'd asked once what was so important about being popular but people had just looked at him like he was a mental case and walked away.
And even though Daisuke had no clue as to why people found popularity such a precious thing, he had never thought that anyone could go this far just for the sake of being cool.
"You better run you freak!"
Daisuke wiped the tears out of his eyes on auto-pilot. Everything he was doing seemed to be on auto-pilot. His mind was a jumbled mess and his body was merely responding to his deep subconscious seeing as consciously there was no room left in Daisuke's mind to think of something as trivial as moving.
"You thought you could hide it you murderer!"
Those harsh words wouldn't leave his head. They kept resonating around in his skull, almost echoing, as though people were still yelling in the dark quiet room he was in now. There was no sound other than his own breathing, a constant beeping and some whirring from electronic machinery. Even the muffled voices from outside had left, leaving Daisuke alone with his thoughts which seemed to be getting louder with each passing moment.
"Shouldn't he be locked up?"
"His rich parents probably paid off the jury."
"What if he comes after us next?!"
"No one wants you and no one needs you, so get lost!"
Daisuke squeezed his eyes shut and let the tears fall. His fists were trembling and a strangled sob suddenly pierced the quiet as everything that had lead up to this played itself in his head.
Daisuke was walking out of the school building together with Miss Riku, his girlfriend. He was blushing as he kept staring at her go on and on about their new coach and noticed he wasn't hearing a word she was saying but was completely captivated by her lips.
Suddenly, when they went through the double doors and stepped out onto the schoolyard, those beautiful perfect lips stopped moving and sound returned.
Daisuke looked out and saw that a large group of people had formed a circle around one person in the middle of the school yard. Miss Riku gasped as angry and fearful shouts made their way over. Five people, three guys and two girls, seemed to be leading the assault while others had merely gathered around because something interesting was happening.
"You thought you could hide it you murderer!"
"Shouldn't he be locked up? What if he comes after us next?!"
"His rich parents probably paid off the jury."
Daisuke's eyes widened as he watched the horde of cruel and untrue statements bombard the person in the middle. Dark was visibly shaking and his eyes were wide and focused on a spot on the ground. Daisuke knew something was wrong when he looked at Dark's empty eyes, they seemed to be looking at something that wasn't there, as if he was stuck in a bad memory.
Daisuke immediately put two and two together and painfully noted that Dark's memories were worse than anything these people could hope to throw at him.
"Why are they being so cruel to him?"
Miss Riku's question was directed at him but Daisuke merely threw a quick 'I'll explain later' over his shoulder before he ran down the steps and into the mass of teenagers.
"You don't deserve to be walking free!"
"How did they let him into this school?"
"Stop! Please, just stop!"
Daisuke's pleas fell on deaf ears as he finally broke free of the students surrounding his brother and tried to stand between them and Dark. This was impossible seeing as there was a circle but Daisuke tried nonetheless.
"Are you defending him?!"
"Your brother's a murderer you sick creep. He killed his girlfriend in the last place you lived and now your whole family's trying to cover it up!"
Daisuke felt frustration and desperation seep in as his fears were confirmed. They were talking about her, the one girl his brother ever cared about and the one girl he couldn't save. Daisuke put his hands up as he tried to get anyone to listen to him.
"No, you've got it all wrong. You don't understand th-
"We understand plenty! I don't want this sicko in my town. Who's gotta die next for people to see who he really is?!"
This was getting way out of hand. Daisuke couldn't believe how people could just say stuff like this without first getting the whole story. Dark wasn't the most sociable of people and quite the player/bad boy when he wanted to be, but he would never hurt anyone. He was annoying, slightly perverted and a general pain in the ass but he was always there when you needed him the most. What everyone here was accusing him of was ridiculous!
"Aaaah, Where's he going!"
"You better run you freak!"
Daisuke turned around and saw that Dark was running towards the school gates. People were parting like the sea parted to Mozes, leaving him with a clear path off of school grounds.
"Dark, no wait!"
Daisuke started following his older brother but couldn't hope to catch up; he'd never been able to run like Dark.
"Dark stop PLEASE!"
But Dark didn't stop. Either he didn't want to or he just didn't hear him but he kept going.
"No one wants you and no one needs you, so get lost!"
Dark flinched at that and Daisuke suddenly knew that, no matter how deep in his memories Dark was, he could still hear everything that was being said. What Daisuke hadn't noticed, until then, was that Dark was in the middle of the road. His flinch had caused him to stumble and he was now on his hands and knees. Daisuke was almost at the school gates when life just stopped.
A car honk was heard and screeching tires came soon after. Daisuke could only watch with wide eyes and a horrified expression as a midnight blue pick-up truck slammed into his brother. The driver had yanked the wheel to the left causing Dark to go up and back only to slam into the passenger side door before rolling over the road and then laying eerily still.
The world was still as well as the car came to a halt and Daisuke felt nailed to the ground. His vision turned blurry, only showing a mix of purple, black and red splayed on the road. It wasn't until a murmur come from somewhere behind him that he lost it.
"What goes around, comes around."
"DARK!"
And now here he was, sitting in a dark, quiet hospital room in the middle of the night with only nightmares to accompany him. As he opened his eyes again and looked at the form laying in the hospital bed to his right the desperation came back again. Daisuke felt like a broken doll who had been sent to the repair shop but whose parts could no longer be ordered. Everything was just wrong and backwards and hadn't they been through enough!
It wasn't fair thinking that, but neither was hearing that your brother might not make it through the night. The doctors had tried to be gentle with the news but Emiko and Kosuke had still almost broken down. They had demanded to stay here for the night and were now asleep in the room next to Dark's seeing as the nurses had given them something to 'calm their nerves'. This meant that Daisuke was the only one awake and able to sit by Dark. He could probably ask the nurses for something to help him sleep but Daisuke didn't want to, he needed to be with Dark to help him through the night. The doctors had done all they could and said that it was all up to Dark now. Daisuke knew that his brother was the most stubborn and strong person he'd ever met, but somehow that didn't ease his worries.
Dark had been in a really bad place when that car had shown up and Daisuke was afraid that Dark's own guilt would take him down for good this time. Another tear rolled down his cheek. Crying wasn't something guys did but this time, as Daisuke was all alone, the fear of losing his brother seemed like a very valid reason.
Daisuke scooted his chair a little closer so that he could lay his head on his arms and on the bed. He was still looking at Darks face. The wounds and cuts had been cleaned up and two deep ones had been stitched. There was bruising around his left cheek and forehead and there was a mouth cap in place to help him breathe. Dark's hair was still red in certain places and had lost its usual shine and spunk. The strands of purple now lay lifelessly on the pillow and Darks face, a stark contrast to the whiteness of the room. The rest of Darks body was underneath a blanket, only his left arm had been placed on top of the covers so that a multitude of tubes and wires could be inserted.
Daisuke still remembered the last time his brother had looked like this. It had been a miracle that he'd woken up last time ... somehow Daisuke wasn't sure if miracles could happen twice. The last time, Dark had been out for a week and Daisuke had talked to him for hours on end, hoping Dark would hear him and wake up. But last time the doctors hadn't sound as grave as right now, last time they hadn't said he might not make it through the night.
Daisuke was not going to let that happen.
Making up his mind he took a deep breath, moved his head so that he was lying on his right arm, looking at Dark's face, and holding onto Dark's left hand with his own.
"For someone who doesn't like hospitals, you sure spend a lot of time in them."
It had been something their dad had told Dark less than two years ago. The purple haired boy had rolled his eyes and smirked and responded with a witty 'well I guess the cute nurses are a perk'. Daisuke now knew that one nurse in particular had fuelled that statement and when she had died no seven months after that, Dark had literally been torn apart.
Dark had a lot of 'unique' hobbies and she had wanted to see him in his natural element. She had been the one to pick skydiving and he had been the one who had checked their gear. Daisuke knew his brother and knew how meticulous Dark was when it came to someone else's safety. There was no way that Dark would have ever let her go if he hadn't been 100% sure the gear was safe.
Her parachute didn't open.
It had been over just like that and her parents had demanded a police investigation. Dark had cooperated to the point of scary and had told them again and again that it had been his fault. He was sure he had killed her, sure he had missed or overlooked something that had caused her death. But all the police saw was a grief stricken fifteen year old who felt guilty for his girlfriend's death.
It had been ruled an accident and the Niwa family had moved not long after to try and get a fresh start. Daisuke didn't know how the kids at school found out, or what idiot gave them wrong information, but the damage had been done. Dark had never stopped blaming himself and hearing it from other people merely confirmed it to himself.
And now Daisuke was this close to losing his big brother and all he could do was cry and hope for another miracle so that his entire life wouldn't fall apart.
"How can I help Dark? Please just tell me how."
His question was met with silence and the quiet was pressing in on him from all sides. Helplessness blossomed inside of him as did anger. How dare they do this! How dare they say all that and pretend to be good guys, they're the criminals! They knew nothing of what Dark had been through so how could they say any-
And that's when Daisuke knew, he knew how he could help.
He gripped Dark's hand with both of his and blinked a few times to get a sharp vision. If Dark had been awake he would have laughed at Daisuke for being so sentimental and for once Daisuke couldn't care less if he did. He fixed his eyes on his brother's face and squeezed his hand.
"You have to wake up Dark, you can't go. I know you said you couldn't always be there for me, that at one point I had to stand up for myself and we'd live our own lives. But we're not there yet, we're not there yet so you need to wake up."
Two more tears rolled down and his chest tightened.
"I still need you Dark. You have to wake up, because I still need you."
Daisuke buried his face in the blankets as he prayed with all he had that his brother had heard him. Eventually the red-head fell asleep and no nurse had the heart to wake him up. His hands never let go of Dark's as if to convey his message all night long by touch alone.
'I still need you Dark.'
Tell me what you think, please! I aim to have fun and improve.
P.S. I do not own DN Angel