Yeah, I'm back after a million years.
I'm linked by a debt of gratitude to those who took the time to review.
Disclaimer: violence and all that loveliness, and I am not one of the owners of Shaman King. Also has SPOILERS!!!! –ish.
Note: This... is a re-write of a chapter that used to exist, but fanfiction can no longer find. Yep! And also, like the first chapter, pay attention to transition dates. If you get careless, you may end up confused. I will also be adding Locations as well as dates soon!
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Chapter the Second
-= ?,2007 =-
It was as if someone had accidentally dropped hundreds of flawless diamonds into a bucket of indigo paint. The older boy looked up at the sky, holding the younger one delicately in his arms, lest he break.
"I would give one of them to you, a star, if I was still pure enough to touch one..." The older was surprised by the younger's comment.
"Shhh," He returned. "You're still an angel in my eyes."
"Even after the things I've done to you? To.. them?"
He felt like they had gone back to when they were small boys. "Even after the things you've done."
"If I was an angel, I'd have black wings and be the messenger of the devil." The younger grew uncomfortable with this realization.
"You're already are his messenger." How sad this was... The stars tried to droop in the sky, to lower themselves and provide celestial comfort.
The older felt himself starting to cry, or wanting to. He looked down, at his lover in his arms, and realized that the smaller was disappearing.
"I'll... I'll... I," The boy started to shudder even though he was being hugged. "I miss you."
"You're not gone yet."
"I will be... promise you'll remember like I was?"
"Nope." The older replied immediately. "I'll remember you as you are now, as I love you."
"I always wished you'd whisper those words to me under the stars. We've had- I have my happiest memories of you under the stars."
"You don't have to leave..."
The younger one almost grew angry. "Don't have to leave? I'm, he's killed me! My soul, black as it is, will be erased soon." He could even feel himself disintegrating.
"I wanted to save you..."
The younger one finally broke free of the embrace, and turned to meet his would-be lover. "You don't get it yet, do you? I would have forgotten how to love without you. Don't think for a moment that you haven't saved me."
The older one laughed a bit, and craned his neck so all that was in his vision was the nightscape. He didn't want to look at the younger anymore, it was too painful. The other was already oddly see-through, like a cloud.
The younger one came into view again, pushing the other into his back. The older one felt himself being kissed.
It was like a dream, it felt real, but he knew it wasn't. How long had he waited for this to happen... and now that it was, it wasn't true. The lips were barely there, he was barely being kissed, and the warmth was non-existent.
How sad...
"I love you too," the younger finally replied, and then was gone completely.
His tears felt like acid.
-= May, 2006 =-
A miracle, all I need is a miracle.
Yoh paced the floor, seeing the tiles that made it but not feeling them under his feet.
"Sit down," Ren said suddenly.
Yoh stammered, "I'm sorry I just-"
"Shut up." Ren commanded him for the second time that day.
Yoh sat down abruptly, in the plastic chair beside Ren's. "What the hell! I can't be quiet anymore... I need to scream Ren! Anna's in that operating room, DYING! And, moments before I find her bloody body, you appear in my office, after a decade of not seeing me, and lead me to Anna." Yoh didn't care if he made sense or not.
"Calm down," Ren answered half-heartedly, caring more about the ceiling than the conversation.
"Forget it."
Finally Ren swiveled his head to look at Yoh. "I'm just saying... Your fury, panic, confusion... whatever you feel won't help her." Ren indicated at the surgery room with his head. "I'm sorry, it's been... a while since I've talked with anybody emotional."
Yoh didn't care what the hell that was supposed to mean. "You could at least explain things," he said imploringly more than angrily.
Ren's look softened. "There's nothing to explain, just- sleep. Please."
Yoh offered an expression that said, "are you kidding?"
"You can use my shoulder, just calm down!" Ren scooted microscopically closer to Yoh, and made his offered shoulder available.
Yoh gave in and lay his head on Ren's very bony shoulder, not caring how it felt anyway. I wish I could be in there, helping her live, was all Yoh could think. Over and over... I wish I could help her.
Hours passed.
...:::===:::...
Yoh's eyes snapped open as his head was sloughed off of Ren's lap, where it had ended up. At first, through the mist of confusion in Yoh's mind, nothing made sense. He soon figured out that Ren had gotten up to talk to a doctor who had come out of Anna's room.
"The other doctors couldn't believe it," The man in the white coat said. "All six bullets were taken out of her body without difficulty, and though she's in critical condition, it appears she'll make it after all."
Yoh could have been another patient for the doctor, his heart was pounding so hard.
"I know this is good news for you gentlemen," the surgeon continued, "but she's been through a lot of trauma. I advise you to wait until you visit her... at least a day or two."
"Thank-you so much, doctor!" Yoh couldn't hide the grin that overtook his face.
"Yes, thank-you, sir." Ren added, oddly without expression.
"I'm glad that we could help her," the doctor nodded and walked down the hospital hall.
'Finish it,' came from somewhere in Ren's brain.
'Fuck you,' was all he replied.
Yoh was none the wiser.
...:::===:::...
After renting a hotel nearby, and not talking much at all the previous evening, Yoh ran up the hospital stairs with Ren trailing somewhere behind.
"Miss Anna Kyouyama, please!" Yoh bubbled at the secretary in charge of patient visitations.
After searching through files on a computer the young woman gave Yoh the directions to Anna's room. "Down this hall, take a right. Go all the way down that hallway, then take another right. She'll be on the left-hand side, in room 550."
"Thank-you!" Yoh replied as he was already halfway down the corridor. Of course, Ren followed.
The room was very plain, and very white. Anna looked even whiter. Despite how peaky the woman looked, Yoh was ecstatic beyond all measure. He wanted to jump onto the bed and shake her awake, have Anna tell Yoh herself that she was still alive, that her heart was beating.
Ren walked into the room, shut the door behind him, and sat down in a chair by the wall.
... Beep... Beep... Beep...
The heart monitor that was connected to Anna conveyed her steady pulse. Sure and steady... she was very much alive.
"Think I should wake her up?" Yoh wondered aloud.
"No," Ren replied immediately. Christ, don't wake her up! Ren thought desperately, and was all of a sudden very eager to go. He pulled out a small box from his pocket.
"I can't believe that she's alright, I want to stay here and wait for her to open her eyes..." Yoh gently held one of Anna's hands in his own.
"We don't have that much time, Yoh."
"We have plans?"
"No, but you shouldn't disturb her... She... She really needs rest, Yoh. We can come back tomorrow." Ren was getting agitated.
Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...
"Then I'll wait here until tomorrow, when I can wake her up."
Why the hell is he being so god damn childish? Ren screamed inwardly. He may have even twitched a little.
"No, we should go now. We've made sure she's alright, so let's go before she wakes up!" Ren reminded himself to keep his voice quiet.
Yoh was seemingly oblivious to the urgency in his friend's voice, consumed by the image of her lying so peacefully on the bed.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
For god's sake, let's go!!!
Beep... Beep... Beep...
Yoh?!
Beep... Beep... Beep...
Ren was getting desperate.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
DAMN IT!
Beep... Beep... Beep...
'Finish it,'
"Yoh, please. For her sake."
Finally, Yoh got up, and came over to Ren, as if the bottoms of his shoes were covered in gum. Yoh may as well have been wading through molasses.
Jesus, Ren thought, but sighed a bit with relief. If Anna woke...
Ren slipped a pill from the little box into his mouth.
Yoh waved a last good bye and headed out the door with a tragic look on his face.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
How much Ren wanted to kick that machine and quiet it.
He bent over, and laid a kiss on Anna's lips. There. Over.
As he was walking out the door, already he could hear it.
Beep.... Beep..... Beep......
'Well done.'
'Die.'
Beep........ Beep......... Beep...........
The voices in Ren's head could be so aggravating at times.
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...-==-...
A/N: Voila.