A/N: And I'm back with another FaiXOC fanfiction. It's slightly bigger than my previous ones. Hopefully you guys will like it :) The first chapter may seem a bit confusing but it'll be clearer in the later chapters. I wanted it to be a oneshot but couldn't manage. Hopefully I'll be able to write out the rest quickly :) enjoy.
Parking on the Castiel bridge was illegal. But in the early hours of the morning, no one noticed as a black jeep stopped in the shadow of a pillar and a lone figure stepped out of it. Illuminated in the pre-dawn glow of the sky and a streetlamp a few meters away, he shuffled precariously close to the edge of the bridge, looking down at the dark water flowing underneath.
The sun peeked out of the horizon in a few minutes, the light warm and gold as it shone off of Fai's blond hair. It hit the object on his palm, setting it off like a small star.
"Today." he smiled at nothing. "Today's the day."
"Hello."
". . . . . ."
"Hellooooo?"
". . . . . . "
"Sarah, how come you pick up the phone and then don't talk?"
"nnngh"
". . . . . You were asleep."
"mmmmmh"
"Let me guess. You fell asleep in the office. In the middle of working on the budget. On your desk."
". . . . Hmm"
"Again."
"ngh look who's talking grr"
"Ahh, she can talk. Wait. What? What do you mean by that?"
"Moron. You were also working. Why else would you be up at 5 in the morning?"
". . . Good observation."
"hehe"
"It was Yuui's fault! He makes me deal with all the paperwork!"
"Excuses, excuses."
". . . . . I'm coming to pick you up. Don't fall back asleep!"
"Aww You're so sweet."
"Love you."
"Love you too, Fai."
"Remind me again why I just carried you down fifteen set of stairs bridal style?"
"mmm, because I'm too sleepy to walk and you luuurve me? Hehe."
"Hmph. Stop giggling. What the hell do you eat? You look so slim but weight a ton."
"FAI DÈ VALÈ DID YOU JUST CALL ME FAT?"
"N-no! I was just admiring the fact that you seem to be all muscles and no excess fat 3"
"Good for you. Ooh you brought Livanya's jeep! Put me down on the back seat. It's comfy enough to sleep."
"That's why I brought it. . . ."
"Fai, why's there flower petals on the seats?"
". . . . . . ."
"Why're you getting down on your knees!?"
". . . Stop screeching and let me do this. I've waited too long."
". . Okay."
"Sarah Anne Marshal, would you marry me?"
"Yes. Oh God, yes. I will marry you."
". . . Great. That's . . That's great. I mean. . ."
"Breathe, Fai."
"Very funny. You know how nerve-wreking that was? I was ready to faint."
"I felt like fainting when you asked. . . I thought you'd never ask though. Hehe."
"Let's see if this fits you."
"I've never seen an aquamerin diamond. It's so pretty."
"I wanted to find the exact colour of your eyes."
". . . Oh. . ."
"Perfect fit. . ."
The cool morning breeze gushed through the open window at Fai's side and ruffled his hair across his face. The city was just waking up and the shortcut to his apartment was mostly deserted. He hummed quietly, so he won't wake up his lover asleep in the backseat. Sunlight was filtering through the canopy of trees lining the street. It warmed him up from inside out. Glancing at the rear view mirror, he caught the glint of her engagement ring as a stray beam of sunlight hit her still form. Almost simultaneously, he saw his own eyes flooding with happiness. This was what home felt like, he thought. It was the feeling of coming back to a home you never knew existed. He wondered if heaven felt this way.
His mind drifted off randomly. Sarah loves pancakes with maple syrup. Is there enough maple syrup left? He'd have to call up his brother and his wife to give the good news. Later, though. Livanya hated being woken up so early. Flowers. He'd have to get some flowers for Sarah. Maybe Subaru can get them.
Thought of Subaru made him frown. He was the gentler of the twin bodyguards who served Fai and Yuui. Kamui was under Yuui. And Subaru was under Fai. But Subaru hadn't shown up after dinner last night. When Fai called, his phone was unavailable. So was Kamui's. It made him worry. As the CEO's of Valè Corp., Fai and Yuui had many enemies and even though they were both very capable fighters, it was best to be cautious. Right now, having Sarah with him made Fai extremely vulnerable without his bodyguard.
They were close to his apartment building soon. Fai turned in his seat to quietly nudge Sarah awake. As such, he missed the small, inconspicuous seal placed in the middle of the street.
Several things happened all at once. Fai watched as Sarah's eyelids fluttered open and she gave him a sleepy smile. In the space of half a second, her eyes were widening with terror and focusing on a point behind him. Before he had time to turn around, the whole world went black.
Fai opened his eyes to chaos.
At first he could barely see anything except smoke and blood. Crippling pain hit him at the same time consciousness did. Every breath sent a spike of red hot pain down to his side. He clenched his teeth and tried to think. How did this happen?
It all came back to him at once. His head hurt with the sudden onslaught of recollections. Flowers, Subaru, the turquaise diamond ring. . .
Sarah.
Where was Sarah?
Why wasn't she with him? Why wasn't she yelling at him for being an idiot, looking away while driving? Where was she?
He could hear frantic voices yelling with panic and horror. Ignoring the protests of his injured body, he tried to get up. His wounds would heal soon anyway. His reputation for perfect healing magic didn't come from thin air. He had to find Sarah. He had to make sure she was okay.
Sitting up, he clutched his side to stifle the gushing flow of blood. Only then he noticed the hand besides him, the palm resting on his knee. On the ring finger sat the diamond ring he'd carried around in his pocket the last few weeks.
His eyes travelled up the hand, up to the elbow, to the shoulder, to the mess of brown curls cradling her pale face.
She looked so pale. Too pale. The slight smudge of soot on her chin standing out in contrast. But as his eyes ran over her body from head to toe, he didn't see any injuries save a few cuts and scratches. He sighed quietly. She was fine, he told himself. She was just unconscious.
He shoved the pile of junk aside to scoot close to her. He leaned in to hold her close. "Sarah. . . Darling, wake up." he tapped her cheek gently. "wake up." Wake up. Please wake up. Let me see you smile.
She wasn't moving. Was she even breathing? He shakily reached a hand under her chin, and moved the other hand to cup the back of her neck. "Sarah? Can you hear-"
He stilled. His hand had reached the back of her neck and encountered cold metal instead of flesh. He slowly pulled his hand back. It was sticky with blood. So was her hair. Her blood was no longer warm.
"No. . . " he breathed. "no, no, not you. . . Please. . . No. . . "
The pain slashed him like a physical blow, and he suddenly couldn't breath, couldn't see through the haze of tears. The gaping wound on his side didn't hurt anymore, his heart did. He sobbed, pulling her lifeless body on his lap. Why? Why now? He wailed. God. . . Why did you give me so much happiness just to take it away so soon?
All the way over at the other side of the town, Yuui woke with a gasp.
His pulse beat painfully loud in his ears, smoky wasps of the nightmare lurking around the boundary of his vision. Gulping in lungfuls of air, he threw one hand over his eyes and another over his chest, trying to ease the erratic beats. Details of his nightmare escaping as consciousness replaced them. It had something to do with blood, pain, and loss. Loss of someone precious. His heart jumped to his throat. Livanya, where's Livanya?
The noise of food processor coming from down the hall alerted him. Was she there? She'd been having peculiar cravings lately. He threw back the covers and gently padded over to the kitchen, only to find her smearing mayo over a generous slice of apple pie.
He leaned on the doorframe, quietly admiring his wife. His eyes ran from the top of her head adorned with fiery red curls falling past her waist, to her dainty slipper clad feet. She was alright. She was fine. The relief made him sigh in content.
Hearing him, she slowly turned around. Laughter bubbled in his throat. She had a spoon dangling from her lips and big, guilty eyes like those of a child caught with her hand in a cookie jar. As she stared at him, the spoon fell and hit the floor. That was his cue to start laughing full out.
Clutching his stomach, he tried to quiet down as she crossed her arms with an angry pout on her lips. She asked him what he was doing up so early. He shrugged it off. It'd do no good to needlessly worry her.
"your stomach was growling too loud. It woke me up."
It earned him a smack on the head with her spoon. He rubbed his head, looking at her mayo smeared apple pie. It looked rather tantalizing. What the hell?
". . . make me one of those while you're at it, 'kay?" he escaped to the living room before she could get smug.
Switching on one light after another, he reached the dark room, noticing the screen of his mobile phone was alight. He hopped on the couch. About five missed calls from various business associates. One message from his brother.
"On my way 2 Sarah's office. Gonna tell her :S"
Yuui cheered. "oh yeah! About time you idiot." Not noticing Livanya as she came into the room carrying her mayo-pie combo on a try. "which idiot?" she read the message over his shoulder and whooped.
"About goddamn time!"
"I know right?" he grinned with all his teeth, moving over to make space for her on the couch as they both ate the impossible food.
It was when Livanya whipped out a minipack of oreos and started to squabble over it with him, that the feeling hit Yuui.
Something. . . something was horribly wrong.
He plastered on a mask of laughter so as to not worry Livanya so early in the morning. In his head he crossed out all the facts.
Fai's text had arrived more than a couple hours earlier, but he still had to call and let them know the result. A lighter voice in his head suggested that the lovebirds were probably back to Fai's apartment to celebrate by themselves. Still, he couldn't shake off the sick feeling in his stomach that that wasn't it.
Moreover, Kamui and Subaru were still MIA. Yuui had known them since childhood. Livanya practically raised them. They weren't irresponsible. They were trained assassins, for heaven's sake. Something had to have happened for them to be vanished for more than twenty four hours.
And then. . . The meeting tomorrow with Xing Huo, the princess of Xing corp. She'd called the meeting, claiming to discuss the end of the generation-long feud between their companies. Fai was sceptical about the whole thing. Not like Yuui could blame him. That woman gave him the creeps.
All in all, his nerves were stretched taut in anticipation for something. . . Something sinister. Something. . .
So when all around him the lights went out without any warning, he wasn't suprised. His just knew, a recurring nightmare was finally about to come to life. He reached out to hold Livanya closer, and prayed on vein hope.
Crackle. Crackle. Splash. Gasp. Screech.
Not good. Not good. NOT GOOD.
Another jolt of electricity sliced through Subaru's system and he screamed. The space in between the links of his chain was crackling with the charge, leaving red hot scars on his neck. He bit back tears and a gasp of relief escaped as they turned off the current. It'd been going for hours. At first it was traditional beating, whipping, breaking fingers. Xing even had the nerve to take out pins from her hair and stick them under his nails . . . . Noting that the twin vampires were mostly unaffected, the electrical chair had been brought in about two hours ago. Already Subaru was starting to loose it. His body couldn't take it anymore.
His head hung forward, he glanced through his dark bangs towards where they were holding Kamui's head under water, his body convulsing with inhumane strength. Horror gripped Subaru's heart when he saw the water was becoming pink.
"KAMUI!"
He almost broke through the manacles binding him to the chair, when they finally let Kamui come up for air.
Kamui coughed out water mixed with thin streaks of red. His insides were on fire. Breathing hurt. He opened blood shot eyes hazy from oxygen deprivation. "Su. . . baru?"
"Tell them."
Kamui's head shot up and he looked at Subaru incredulously. Tell them?! Why? These bastards wouldn't let them live anyway. What was the point?
"Yes. . . Tell us, Kamui chan~", sneered Xing, grabbing a fistfull of Subaru's hair.
Subaru met his narrowed eyes with a silent plea in his own. "It's gone on for long enough." We bought Yuui enough time. He should've realised by now what our absence means.
Kamui closed his eyes in defeat. Stupid Subaru. He wasn't worried for his own life, but his twin's. Why not? A part of him agreed too. He just wanted all this to stop.
In a choked whisper, he gave her the password to Yuui's security system.
Vicious red lips curled upwards in glee, Xing sauntered towards Kamui, leaning in to whisper in his ear. "Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" She flicked her tongue over the shell of his ear, cackling as he shrunk away in disgust. Running a hand through her coiling black hair, she stepped away to look at both of the twins, looking almost sober.
"Thank you for your co-operation. Subaru. Kamui." her tone was sugary sweet. And in a blink, she'd taken the glock strapped to her thigh to shoot Kamui. Once. Twice. Thrice.
Subaru froze, disbelieving green eyes taking in the form of Kamui writhing in agony on the floor, blood pooling in all directions. His ears didn't register the background noise, Xing was giving directions to her thugs. He vaguely sensed one of take off the manacles binding him to the chair. He didn't move. All of them filed out of the room, only Xing remained. Subaru saw something metallic glinting in her hand. Their necklaces. She took their necklaces. Probably to show Yuui as proof of their death.
She walked close to the door and kicked a gun so that it slid to Subaru's feet.
"It still has a couple of shots left, Subaru-kun." she sneered. "Enough to put the two of you out of misery. Have fun~"
She left, slamming the heavy iron door shut behind her.
The loud bang echoed in the empty room, jarring Subaru out of his daze. He scrambled to his knees to pull Kamui close. The blood gushing out of his torso staining Subaru instantly. Under his palm, his twins heartbeat was slowing alarmingly. "KAMUI! No. . . Stay with me!"
Pain stricken violet eyes opened to lock with emerald ones, blood dripping from his lips as he smiled gently at his brother. He lifted a hand to Subaru's face.
"See you later, Subaru. . ."
The heart under Subaru's palm ceased to beat a second after Kamui's hand fell from his face, smearing a path of red from his temple to chin.
Sobs shook his frame as he gently pulled up Kamui to rest his head on his own shoulder. In death, Kamui's face relaxed into an almost childlike tranquility, being showered with Subaru's tears. He looked up at the gun that Xing had left, and suddenly, it became crystal clear what he'd have to do next.
TBC