Title: What is Real? Chapter 1: Silent Nights

Written for: Live Journal Community: 30kisses

Author/Artist: mellonemrys

Pairing: Narumi Ayumu and Eyes Rutherford
Fandom: Spiral Suiri no Kizuna
Theme: # 2: News; Letter

Words: 1,849
Disclaimer: Spiral does not belong to me…sadly enough…but the manga is licensed!

Thanks to: cocacat15 for beta-ing!

Notes/ Warning: This has spoilers for the very end of the anime…as well as some for the manga, but if you have only seen the anime (all of it) then you should be fine. This chapter is Eyes POV, the story takes place about eight years after the anime ends, everything else is explained, so please read and review!

re·al (rēl) adj. 1. Being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence. 2. True and actual; not illusory or fictitious. 3. Genuine and authentic; not artificial or spurious. 4. Philosophy. Existing in actually and objectively.

What is real? And what makes something real? Other than definition. To be real does it have to be tangible? Or a mutual feeling between two people who both agree that it exists? Why do we have to walk through life so blind, until it's too late to see? But when we close our eyes we can still see our mistakes, pain, and suffering. We walk alone and cold even though we are close. We scream and wonder why we are not heard. If life was simple we say. If, if what? If 'if' were real we wouldn't have stories. Now would we? Can anything in this world be understood without raising more questions though? No? Yes? The answers spiral out of control and into our destinies. The spiral will be real. But will everything else be once it is gone?

Watching the ocean pass beneath the plane Eyes thought silently of the past seven years. Seven years without Blade Children, hunters, or worries that could bring him back to that unhappy time. He had spent the past eight years with Ayumu, focusing on his music. They had left Japan and their other more disturbing lives seven years ago to live together in London. Ayumu had decided on working as a detective for Interpol. After finishing high school in London he had quickly risen in the ranks within Interpol and was now one of the top inspectors from the London office.

He would be seeing Ayumu in a few hours when his plane landed at Heathrow Airport. Ayumu had promised to cook a traditional Japanese meal once they were both back in London to celebrate their seventh year there. The day before they had both been in Berlin, Eyes finishing his sixth European Tour and Ayumu for an investigation. Their paths seemed to cross quite a bit when they were both away but they usually only had time to go out for lunch or coffee before one of them had to be somewhere else. In Berlin they had had lunch together, but otherwise had not seen each other for almost six weeks. During these times however their distance brought them closer together. On lonely nights Ayumu would call him from some undisclosed location and tell him as much as he was allowed about his current investigation. Eyes would then tell him which pieces in his performance the audience had responded to most, where he had made mistakes and how new pieces he was working on were shaping up. When he had a piano he would play, and sometimes Ayumu would join in the duet. Even oceans couldn't separate them emotionally.

Stepping off the plane Eyes quickly made his way to the luggage claim. Avoiding eye contact with anyone he hailed a cab and gave the driver directions. The fog was thick for this time of year but it didn't bother him. He enjoyed its mysterious qualities, and the sense of not knowing what lay ahead. The cab driver let him off in front of the flat where he and Ayumu now lived. He paid the driver and looked over at the park across the street. They had picked the flat because it was so close to this park. Looking up he saw the flat's windows were still dark. He wondered where Ayumu was; perhaps he wanted to surprise him. As he walked up the building's back stairs he lined up a set of possible reasons for him to not be home yet.

When he reached the flat and opened the door however it was as he had left it. He put his things away and found Hana hiding under the bed. He put on water for tea and went down stairs to ask the neighbors if they had seen Ayumu come home yet. He thanked the old woman for watching Hana while they had been gone then asked about Ayumu, but she hadn't seen anyone but the cat. The old woman then assured him that his plane must be stalled because of all of the fog, or perhaps the plane hadn't left on time. Eyes went back upstairs and Hana greeted him by wrapping around his leg. He absently picked up the yellow and brown tabby and poured the tea. Then he sat down by the piano and checked the mail that was neatly stacked there. It was mostly fan mail and bills. A late birthday card from Kousuke and Ryoko sat on top with an invitation to an International Pianist's completion that had been seeking his skills there for the past six years. He checked his cell phone and their landline for messages but there were none. Finally he lay down and decided that the old woman was right, Heathrow was a very busy airport, and the plane was most likely stalled. It had happened to both of them before.

He fell asleep, cell phone in hand, on the couch only to be woken up a few hours later by a beeping sound from the phone. He had a text message, but not from a number he was familiar with. It wasn't signed but read, "The spiral of your destiny has begun to spin again." He stared at the message wondering whom it could be from. But the stuffy room made his head hurt and he decided to take a walk to clear his mind. It was just getting dark and the fog was thickening when he passed the stone fountain in the centre of the park. Pausing for a moment, he smiled warmly, remembering the many times he and Ayumu had come to this fountain over the years. He walked all the way to the other side of the park and came back, lamps sputtering to life in the growing darkness. Walking across the street to the flat he noticed a police car parked outside. As he got closer two officers stepped out and beckoned him over to the car.

The first man was a tall Irish inspector; the second, a round Frenchman with a thick brown mustache. "Good evening sir, I am Inspector Wood of Scotland Yard, and this is Captain Chevallier of Interpol," the taller of the two said in his Irish accent as they both flashed their respective badges. Wood glanced up at the sky and then said, "We should go up I think, the weather looks as if it is going to turn foul."

Eyes nodded and led the way up the back stairs into the dark flat. He showed them to the kitchen and had them sit at the table as he put the kettle on. He was wondering what an officer of Scotland Yard would be doing with someone from Interpol waiting at the door of the flat for him. Unless it was something about Ayumu

The Frenchman was the first to speak up. "Monsieur Rutherford, Inspector Narumi was to come back this afternoon, is that not correct?" he asked with a heavy French accent.

It was just as Eyes had expected, something had happened to Ayumu. Something had gone wrong in his last assignment. The one he had been telling Eyes about the day before. "Yes, what's happened? What's happened to him?" asking a bit too hastily for the likes of the Captain.

"While he was in Berlin last night he disappeared," Wood explained, "His partner reported this morning to Interpol headquarters that he did not return from the night's assignment. And that there were no notes or messages from him anywhere," he finished after flipping through a small notebook for reference. "Did you have any contact with him yesterday? You were also in Berlin, am I right?"

"Yes, we had lunch before my last performance that night. He said he had an assignment and couldn't come though."

The Inspector made a few notes with raised eyebrows, and then looked to the Captain to continue with the questions. "Did he say anything strange? Act oddly?"

"No, everything was normal. He called and said that he was also in Berlin and that we should meet for lunch, which we did. That's all." Eyes was beginning to get annoyed with their questions. There was something they weren't telling him yet.

"Did he say anything of his assignment for Interpol to you?"

"No, and he rarely does. What do you really want to know and what are you not telling me? I would like to know."

The two officers looked at each other for a moment before Captain Chevallier reluctantly pulled out a fax. It had two photographs on it, and he pushed it across the table to Eyes. "Do you know the person in this photo?" He asked, pointing to the first photo of a man. "He was last seen with Inspector Narumi leaving from your performance in Berlin last night."

Eyes looked puzzled at him, then looked at the photos. From the first green cat like eyes peered up at him from under locks of brown hair, while the fake smile mocked him, reminding him of things he had long since tried to forget. The second was of Ayumu and this man, no doubt in the same concert hall he had performed at the night before. It looked as if Ayumu was being lead, or forced away by the other man but the crowd was thick and it was difficult to see anything in the picture very clearly. "This is Kanone Hilbert," he said flatly, indicating the first photo. "We used to be friends." They had been even more than that, but these two didn't need to know that.

"And Inspector Narumi?"

"They didn't exactly get along, but for a time, yes they knew each other," answering he remembered Kanone's plan to kill Ayumu. He stared at the second picture however, trying to make sense of why Ayumu and Kanone were there. The officers asked no further questions and left him silently staring at the photo with their teacups and contact information at the kitchen table. Ayumu had been with Kanone, but why. Why was he with someone who had disappeared over eight years ago after trying to kill their friends, as well as himself and sister-in-law. He had an idea now what the text message meant. Their pasts had been dug up from the deep graves they had been put in, whether they wanted them to be or not. And it would drag him and Ayumu to hell and back before destiny would be satisfied.

Why do those things that disappear never appear except for when they are not wanted? Things that are not needed are plentiful in the world. They always will be there to distract us form the truth. But is the truth always what is real, what is seems? Or is it just another illusion put there meant to trick us?