His body felt light, like a feather floating in the air, his mind hazy and slow as he digested his surroundings; everywhere he turned being blank like a continuous white page - with no ceiling and no floor, vaguely wondering what he was standing on when he started to blink, moister creeping it's way to the corner's of his face; the wide open space bright, the man finding it increasingly difficult to keep his eyes open, staining their focus as he tried to stay alert, his hairs sticking up on end as his ears caught a faint voice, echoing.

Swiftly turning on his heel - his whole body reeled, visibly recoiling as he saw a small boy standing but five feet away; absently watching him. The man biting his lip as he felt himself stammer back a step, easily recognising the child, for he had seen his picture a million times; his face so often dancing in his minds eye - almost mockingly so.

"Sawada, Tsunayoshi" he addressed, his obsidian orbs trailing from the puffy brown hair, to the innocent wide chocolate iris', and then onto his small body; that looked like it could break like a tooth pick if given even the slightest mistreatment. The man's face stiffened, oh how he wished he could find him, how he wished that he could close this case - that by now seemed never ending, with no finish line in sight.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts as the boy got his attention by outstretching his hand, pleadingly. He though, found himself unable to move, unable to take hold of those dainty fingers as his feet were seemingly stuck to the ground - fighting with himself as he tried to get closer.

"Mister" the boy called, the raven head realigning his vision from his shoes to the brunet, completely frustrated at his lack of control, and the last ounce of his cool head being lost because with one look he could tell how hard the eight year-old was trying to be strong "Mister, please, I want to be found" the voice gut wrenching as it trembled it's request.

The man found himself nodding instantly, instinctively trying to soothe the person in front of him, however unable to answer as his words got stuck in his throat, feeling almost suffocated as he started to choke, his back becoming hunched as he grasped at his neck, trying to remember how to breath as a burning pressure came to his lungs which where begging for oxygen, begging for release as the man's knee's buckled under the stress, barely remaining up right.

All pain pacifying when a warn ghost of a hand patted his back, rubbing circles into his suit - immediate results as he coughed and wheezed, finally able to fill his chest,. Looking up gratefully to his savoir, who smiled shakily at him "It's a promise then" he murmured, in understanding of what the man wanted to say, a slight bobbing of the boy's head, before everything became black.


Obsidian eyes snapped open, jolting up from his desk as he almost fall off of his office chair, the murmuring and startled shouts of concern going unnoticed as he gasped and panted, barely settling as his eyes travelled down to the wooden surface below - which only moments ago he had been using as a substitute bed; it being the seventh day he had failed to make it home as he contemplated his work, or had been looking over documents, however this time it seemed he had been using his main file as a pillow.

When his mind cleared he started on the task of berating himself for having fallen asleep, and making a mental note to drink more coffee before opening the sweaty folder; skimming over the content briefly before he met the picture again, the picture he had used as a constant reminder what he was doing, and who he was there for "Sawada, Tsunayoshi" he muttered, unable to move on from the photo of the happy little eight year-old. The boy being remembered so vividly in his memory, sighing to himself; it had happened again, another dream - never had he gotten so attached to a case as being able to depict them in his mind, in fact he tried not to bring his work home with him at all.

But this was different, this little boy was different; for if he was doing his job right this never would have happened.

Shaking his head out of his ponderings he looked around the office, noticing his assistant only three feet away, hovering over his shoulder as a mask of concern was etched onto his face, the man rolled his eyes grunting for him to approach and waving away the glances that were really questions of 'are you alright?' and answering them with a curt 'yes', while he was at it.

His lackey hesitantly walked up, frowning all the while as he understood the silent message being sent his way - that was really the only good thing about working in such a crammed working environment; you got to know the people you worked with "A-are you alright, Reborn?" he stuttered, nervously holding his hands in front of his chest "D-did you have that dream again?"

Said man paused before answering, weighing the pros and cons of telling the truth to lying through his teeth. Turning his chair around and abounding the papers he was just about ready to spread out, he gave the teen his full attention, for this, in both of their eyes was serious; his lackey worrying that his overactive imagination was going to give him a heart attack, and he, that it was giving him a headache "It seems so" he admitted, much to the others displeasure.

"I - don't you think you've done enough?" he grimaced, his senior giving him his best death glare - warning him that he was dangerously close to being hung out of the top floor window by his underwear if he continued his stupidity "T-the office is ready to throw the case out, your t-the only thing keeping it going so-so-so why don't you give it a rest?" he demanded weakly, although he was used to being bullied by the older man, and although neither of them would ever admit it - they had gotten close, friends even, so he didn't like seeing the normally unshakable detective in such a state.

"You know as well as I do why" the detective scowled, he shouldn't be having this conversation, because it never should have happened; they had been there, the so called protectors, and they had been as good as useless "This is the way I do things, if you've got a problem with that then get yourself transferred, I warned you some two years ago that I do my fucking job my way, Skull!" he shouted, using the other's name to drive his point home, and it did; in a matter of minutes the teen was white and twitchy, his earlier courage depleted while memories of their failure was bought up again.

The large busy room soon became stuffy and almost unbearably tense while the co-workers voices hushed, even those talking to claimants bit back their tone when hearing the booming yell "I-I know but-"

"If your so insistent then take it up with the head of the department, and if you manage to win the argument you can be the one to inform Sawada, Tsunayoshi's mother, and his friends that you couldn't take the pressure of working with the big boys" the raven head hissed, malice encompassing his being, making his subordinate take a step back.

"I-I understand" Skull said sombrely, all but giving up at trying to reason with the man at this point, after all he wanted to find the boy to, and throw the damn book at the kidnappers, but the investigation wasn't going anyway; leads were fading and suspects were being ruled out. The teen couldn't help but shudder - they had well gone over the golden forty-eight time limit so the changes of finding the Sawada kid alive was bleak and seeing his boss hyperventilating out of sleep did nothing to soothe him of his concerns.

"Good. And just so you know that that ridiculous hair dye of yours is fading" the teen bit back a retort in the knowledge that if his boss was making fun of him it meant that they had moved on from the earlier unpleasantness, and had forgiven him in his own way for his insubordination.

Just then, as if on cue a uniformed officer came running up to them, a brunet in his wake as he made his way to their table "D-detective" he exclaimed once he was near, obsidian eyes sharpening on their arrival.

"What is it?" he asked tentatively, mindful of the teen in the background, quickly guessing that he was either a witness or some kind of victim for him to be bought straight to him and in such a manner.

"H-he says he needs to talk to you about the kidnapping case your handling" the officer informed, hastily making a bee-line for the exit, wry of his superior as he bowed before he practically ran away and out the door.

Said boy stepped in front of them, jumpy in movement as he nodded his hello "Name?" Reborn questioned curtly, he didn't have time for false leads; he had lost count of how many people had come forward just to be useless and time wasting morons, though he did enjoy throwing the twits in the slammer for 'misleading an officer of the peace, and trying to tamper with the investigation'.

"Basilicum Alfin" he introduced himself, the two investigators raising an eyebrow at the weird form of speaking "thou art detectives, correct?" the couple nodded, both finding themselves dumfounded.

Clearing his throat, Reborn stood and without protest guided the boy into the sit next to his; trying to calm the kid's nerves, collapsing back into place seconds later, fits of tiredness coming in waves "Yes, I'm Detective Reborn" he clarified, before motioning to his lackey "-And this would be officer Skull, who was put under my charge"

Bobbing his head in understanding, the brunet tried to keep eye contact as he found himself wanting to look at his feet, his lips thinning as he prepared himself to talk, minutes passing without being able to say a thing, words trembling as they left their prison "Tis a terrible thing, but hadst it not been hardest to you?, yet I know that… and I can't help but still feel self pity"

The raven head's eye twitched in annoyance, yet tried to remain professional though his irritation "Please, you say you have information?" he asked through gritted teeth, and white knuckles.

"Apologises, sirs, I have discovered things hence why I came" taking in a sharp breath he cringed "What do thou know of dreams?"


'Basilicum Alfin' - 'Basilicum' being basil's full name, and I chose 'Alfin' as his surname, for that was the name of his box weapon - since I couldn't find his real one.


A/C-

And with this I finally learnt the meaning of 'AU' *sigh* I've got complete writers block and I'm afraid to say I wrote this through tired eyes, good lord, I don't think I've ever felt this exhausted before. Anyway I wrote RH while trying to complete my other projects, which btw I' am still trying to do, I've just been run dry of ideas, is all - sorry for the wait, I should have them done by the end of the week...hopefully.

Getting back to this distraction, did you know how much of a pain in the arse Basil is?, I feel like hitting something! *screams* I had this brilliant idea of using shapespeare for his speech since he uses an old form of speaking, right?, god I regret that now...but I hope it's at least semi-understandable, though I'm not holding my breath.

Right, moving on to the usual 'I don't know why I wrote this, but if I didn't write it, and had forced myself to finish those updates they would have been terrible and rushed, so I hope you understand', and with that I'm going to go take a well needed shower.


I Apologise if there are any mistakes in my spelling/ grammar, or if you find anything I have written offensive.


Thank you to everyone who added 'Returning Home' to their favorites/ alerts or who took the time to review, you also have my gratitude for reading.

OW