Chapter Two
One Week Later
"One Howling Hamburger with extra fries and one Bloody Vampire with extra fries, salad and onion."
"God, we have got to change the names on the menu" sighed Kise as he retrieved the order. "What table?"
"Table five."
"Thanks Doris" Kise winked.
"Any time beautiful" Doris winked back.
With one plate in each hand, Kise expertly made his way towards table five.
"Ok, I have one Howling Hamburger with extra fries" he relayed as he placed the order in front of a large man with a ginger beard. "And one Bloody Vampire with extra salad, fries and onion," he continued, placing the meal in front of another man of equally large girth with a brown beard and freckles. "Anything else I can get for you?"
Yeah, a piece of that fine arse of yours would be nice thought the man with the ginger beard. Kise chose to ignore it.
"No thankyou" said the brown bearded man.
"Ok," Kise smiled, "enjoy your meal." He bowed and walked away, heading for a table further down. When he approached, he pulled out his pad and said, "are you ready to order?"
The woman with red hair and huge angular earrings didn't look up from her menu as she told him their order. Kise was trying his best to concentrate on what she was saying but it was hard to ignore the thoughts permeating from the small bald man sat opposite her.
Why is she still pissed at me? I told her I was sorry. Isn't that enough? What the fuck have I got to do, to get a little bit of recognition? For the love of God woman, will you just get over it! If you don't like my opinion then don't fucking ask for it!
"And a large coke."
The snap of the menu shutting brought Kise back to the present. He raised his eyebrows and stared at the woman just long enough for her to wonder if he was incompetent at taking down orders. What is he retarded or something?
Kise shook that thought away and (like he always did in situations such as these), he smiled. According to Kasamatsu, it was that smile (along with a ridiculous amount of charm and character), that had gotten them out of trouble more than once growing up.
"So, two large Bellowing Banshees with curly fries on the side, one large lemonade and one large coke…is that everything?" With what Kasamatsu referred to as the 'Kise Charm' in full affect, the expression in the woman's eyes seemed to soften and a light dusting of pink appeared on her cheeks.
"Yes, that's everything" she blushed.
"Great! I hope you enjoy your meal!"
"Oh we will…" I'd rather enjoy you.
Kise grinned, slightly amused by the bemused look on the small bald man's face as he stared at this wife (?) incredulously. Is she actually flirting with him? I'm sitting right here!
Deciding that he'd done enough damage, Kise bowed before leaving the couple and heading towards the counter to place their order. After ripping the paper from his pad, sticking it to the metal hook along with all of the other orders waiting to be cooked, Kise closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.
He'd had the same headache for about a week now. Sometimes it would be bearable depending on how loud the voices were. Tonight they were out in storm and for some reason, he was finding it increasingly difficult to shut them out. It was as if someone had turned up the volume and broken the dial.
"Are you ok Ki-chan?"
Kise opened his eyes and found Momoi stood next to him, impaling one of her own orders onto the metal stick Kise had just punctured his onto. "You look a little pale."
"I'm fine" Kise smiled. "My head hurts that's all."
"Still? You've had this headache all week. Maybe you should go to the doctor? Take some time off?"
"Nah, I'm ok. I've had worse. Besides, I need the money."
Momoi scoffed, "tell me about it. Don't push yourself too hard ok?"
"Ok."
Momoi offered a reassuring hand on his shoulder before heading back into the sea of customers waiting for their orders to be taken and food to be delivered to them. Kise sighed.
He was actually starting to feel a little nauseous. He checked his watch. It hadn't been long since he had last taken his tablets. He should wait at least another hour before taking anymore. He knew that if he became too dependent on them, the effect would start to wear off.
So with that in mind, he closed his eyes once more and tried to focus his efforts on tuning the voices out. Usually, he had complete control over what he could hear and what he couldn't. And if things ever got too loud, there were ways to turn them down. Except none of that was working today. At best, all he could manage was to muffle the sound.
"I guess that will have to do" he said to himself.
"You say something sweetheart?" said Doris as she placed three plates of food waiting to be served in front of him.
"Nothing important" he replied.
"Ok. Table six."
"Table six" Kise repeated as he stacked the plates on his arms and carried them into the crowd.
Table six happened to be occupied by a young woman with two identical small children. Kise tried not to let his feelings show as he made his way over, but children were always the worst when his power was out of control. They were like open books, wearing their hearts on their sleeves with no control over their thoughts. Kise always pictured it looking like a lottery machine with all of the different balls inside, constantly spinning and churning out new thoughts at random.
The woman at the table looked almost as tired as he felt. She was somewhere in her mid-thirties and looked just about ready to offload her children on the next person who walked past. That person just happened to be Kise.
The closer he got to their table, the louder everything became. He tried not to outwardly wince as the multitude of thoughts belonging to two four year olds ping ponged around his skull. Amongst them, he could just about make out the tired drones of the exhausted looking mother.
I can't do this anymore. I just want to sleep. Why won't they sleep? Someone take just take them so I can have some peace and quiet, dear God.
"Err two Baby Alien meals and one Spicy Sage without the…spice."
Kise lowered the plates onto the table. "Enjoy your meal."
He bowed and walked away, just as the haggard looking mother attempted to usher one of her four year olds down from the window ledge and the other one up from off the floor, underneath the table.
At this point, Kise felt like his head was going to explode.
He stopped what he was doing, beyond caring who was watching at this point, and closed his eyes.
Why isn't she looking at me?
I really shouldn't be eating all of this.
I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my fucking job.
Silence.
Well not silence exactly, more like static. It was as if someone had attempted to pull the plug on the speakers, but hadn't quite managed to pull it out all the way. The sudden relief was over powering. It was the least amount of noise Kise had heard all week.
Kise didn't need to open his eyes to find out what had caused it. There was only one explanation. Only one thing he ever had any trouble reading. And considering the amount of static going on, it meant that more than one of them had just walked in.
"Look what the night dragged in" said Momoi, standing beside him with her arms folded.
Kise opened his eyes and looked towards the main doors.
"It's amazing" continued Momoi, "the whole place just changes when they're here."
And she was right. Although it wasn't completely obvious, the minute they had stepped into the restaurant, the atmosphere had changed. Everyone just seemed more…aware and a sort of calm had descended on the place. Although Kise wasn't that surprised. Their presence had that kind of effect on people. Especially humans.
Kise and Momoi watched as the three customers made their way to a free table tucked away in a corner and sat down.
Momoi sighed and held up her hand in a tight fist. Kise responded by raising his own.
Together they said, "rock, paper, scissors…"
"Ha" declared Momoi, triumphant over her scissors beating Kise's paper, "have fun." And with that she swivelled around and trotted happily away to the other side of the restaurant.
Kise sighed before pulling out his pad and heading towards the table tucked in the corner.
The closer he got, the quieter his mind became and for that he was extremely grateful.
The three sat around the table, Kise knew quite well. They frequented the restaurant quite a lot and their presence was generally accepted by the (human) customers rather than met with the fear and trepidation it originally received when they first turned up.
There was the quiet, yet polite Kuroko Tetsuya with light blue hair and equally bright blue eyes. Next to him was the black haired Nijimura Shuzo, someone who Kise actually got on really well with and whom he respected quite a bit.
On the other side of the table was the ever silent and ever stoic Aomine Daiki. He hardly ever said a word and it seemed that today wasn't going to be any different.
"Good evening Kise-kun" greeted Nijimura, "you're quite busy tonight."
Kise nodded in agreement, "there's some event going on in one of the hotels down the street. It's good for business I guess."
"Are you ok Kise-kun?" asked Kuroko, his expression blank and emotionless. "You look a little pale?"
Kise's eyes briefly met Aomine's before he returned them back to Kuroko and replied with, "it's been a long week. Is it the usual?"
Kuroko and Nijimura nodded, asking no further questions. They probably knew he was lying, but Kise didn't want to get into it at that moment. All he wanted was for the next hour to be over so he could pop another pill, finish work, go home and go to bed.
"Ok, I'll be right back" and with that Kise turned around and headed towards the bar behind the counter. He bent down and looked inside the fridge where they kept all of the bottled drinks. He sighed and slumped his shoulders when he realised that they were out of their usual order. As he stood up, his back ached (he'd been on his feet for nearly ten hours), and his head throbbed.
He walked over to Momoi who was busy rolling up someone's order at the till and said, "we're out of blood. I'm just going to nip downstairs to get some."
Momoi nodded in acknowledgement.
Kise made his way down into the basement where they stored all of their goods and alcohol. The air was musty and the smell, rustic (which Kise quite liked). He enjoyed being down there when it was busy (or if his powers were out of whack). It was quiet and isolated. At the moment, his powers weren't completely out of control that he could hear through walls (thank God) so it was a nice break from all of the voices ricocheting around his head.
He walked towards the back wall and stopped in front of a small chest freezer. He opened the lid and retrieved three identical bottles filled with a deep red liquid. Kise still couldn't quite believe how perfectly normal it felt for him to be retrieving bottles of blood from the basement of his restaurant.
Curiosity had gotten the better of him last year, and in a moment of total ignorance he had tried some of the bottled red stuff. Safe to say, he had no intentions of trying it ever again. It tasted rusty and metallic and left him with a weird taste in his mouth.
Kise paused for a moment at the top of the basement stairs, three bottles of blood in hand. He took a deep breath, relished in the silence for a few seconds more before opening the door and returning to the overbearing cacophony above ground.
Three hours later and Kise was the last person in the restaurant. Momoi and Doris had jumped ship about half an hour ago whilst Kise counted up the money and did the books. The owner of the diner was away on business and Kise had been left in charge (not that it made much difference, Kise pretty much ran the place on a day to day basis anyway).
He had finally managed to take his pill which had made the last two hours somewhat bearable. All he really needed was sleep. And lots of it.
He threw the rubbish into the skips out back before switching off all of the lights and locking up. Fortunately Kise's apartment wasn't far from work (about 20 minute walk) and the pill he had taken to ease his headache was still having some sort of effect as he wasn't subjected to every single thought from the people he passed by on the way home. Just the odd one here and there. He reached his apartment block, buzzed the lift and hit the button for the ninth floor.
Kise knew before he got out of the lift that there was someone waiting for him outside his apartment door. And it wasn't because he could hear their thoughts. It was because Kise just knew things. He wasn't sure how, he just did. And when he did know something, he was never wrong. Just like the night Aida Riko went missing. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened at the time but after waking up covered in sweat and a headache to rival the mother of all headaches; he just knew something bad had happened.
It had been a week since she had gone missing. There were missing person's posters up all over the city and her boyfriend was on the news almost every night pleading for her to come home. But Kise knew she wasn't coming home. Even though he could never explain how he knew, he was certain that if Aida Riko was to be found, it wouldn't be alive.
Kise also had a sneaky suspicion that, that would be happening sooner rather than later. It would certainly explain his headaches, lack of sleep, weird dreams and out of control mind reading that had been happening since she disappeared. And as awful as it sounded, if it meant that he could get a decent night's sleep, Kise hoped that he was right.
As the lift doors pinged open, he wasn't at all surprised to find the tall silhouette of the dark blue haired figure leaning against his front door. Kise sighed and headed towards him.
"You look like shit" Aomine declared.
Typical thought Kise, but he didn't have the energy to argue back. He just wanted to sleep.
"How are you feeling?" asked the bluenette.
Kise shrugged. "Like shit. It's been a rough week."
There was a moment's pause before anyone spoke.
"What are you doing here?" Kise asked.
It was Aomine's turn to shrug. "I just wanted to see you. Make sure you're ok."
"Well I'm fine. Can you let me into my apartment now?"
Aomine stepped aside, unblocking the door.
Kise reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his front door key. Blame it on the sleep deprivation, the constant migraine or his inability to find the off switch for his brain, Kise could not stop his hand from shaking as he tried to unlock the door.
Thankfully, Aomine had the common sense not to say anything but the moment Kise pinched his eyes together and gritted his teeth (his head felt like it was cracking open), he took the key from his shaking fingers and opened the door for him in one swift, effortless movement.
"Thankyou" Kise whispered.
"What's happened Kise?" Aomine asked.
"I don't know. I don't think anything's happened. Not yet anyway."
"But it will soon?"
Kise laughed a weak laugh. "Well, my head hurts and I keep having these…flashes when I sleep. That's what usually happens right?"
Aomine didn't answer.
Kise stepped into his apartment. For a moment he didn't say anything, just stood still with his back to the guy stood on his door step. Lesson 101, never turn your back on a vampire. Kise couldn't help but laugh at the irony.
He then sighed as he made up his mind. Leaving the front door wide open, Kise slipped off his shoes and headed inside. He didn't need to turn around to know that Aomine had followed him inside as the front door clicked softly closed behind them.
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Kise was woken up at approximately six am. He wasn't quite sure why, he just had this feeling. He sat up slowly and peered around the room. The sun was starting to peek in through the blinds.
Next to him, Aomine was still asleep.
Kise felt…strange. Almost tingly as if in a haze.
His head was surprisingly clear. That usually happened when Aomine was with him. There had been a number of occasions in the past when Kise was having trouble with his power that Aomine would come over purposefully just to help him sleep.
But today was different. Even though Aomine's presence had certainly contributed to him getting the first decent night's sleep in over a week, there was something else making him feel like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Without really knowing why (he just felt like he had to), Kise slowly climbed out of bed and walked towards the window. He pulled the cord and opened the blinds. The sun made him blink. The Sumida River glistened in the distance. For some reason, Kise was drawn to it. He felt himself drifting off, as if his mind was completely elsewhere.
He couldn't take his eyes off the river.
At the same time, approximately eight miles away, Takahashi Saburo was partaking in a spot of early morning fishing. He had set up camp early in his usual place on the riverbank. He had been there for about an hour, sitting on his white fold out chair, wrapped up with coat, scarf and hat with his fishing rod in one hand and a bucket of bate by his feet.
It had been a quiet morning and he had only managed to catch one fish and a beer bottle.
He sighed to himself, wondering if it was a lost cause when something large and heavy tugged on his fishing line. It took the fisherman that much by surprise that he knocked over his chair as he leaped to his feet with excitement.
He quickly began to reel in his catch, the excitement growing with every turn of the handle.
What happened next was something he wasn't expecting.
Takahashi Saburo's eyes went wide with shock and the colour vanished from his face. He let the line fall from his hands as he dropped to his knees and stared at the body bobbing up and down in the river in front of him.
At the same moment, Kise continued to stare out of the window at the Sumida River, a wave of intense understanding suddenly washing over him.
He was so focused on the river and the feeling in his gut, that he hadn't heard Aomine getting out of bed until he was standing behind him and saying,
"Kise? What's the matter?"
It took a couple of seconds before Kise could answer.
Realising his throat had gone dry, he swallowed before answering.
"They've found her. They've found Aida Riko."
A/N
Thankyou for reading!
RH
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