Hm, well, I wasn't sure how this chapter would turn out, but I think it went all right. I've never tried to write dream sequences before, so hopefully these are okay. Thanks to yuna for reviewing, and honestly I have no idea how this is going to turn out, so no spoilers for you!
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own the characters, but I love how we are supposed to put these at the beginning!
Hisoka heard the shower shut off but didn't get up or move. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with Tsuzuki right now. The door opened and Tsuzuki appeared wrapped in a towel with his hair still dripping wet. He made his way towards his sleeping bag but Hisoka made a noise.
"Uh uh. You sweated in that bed. I don't want to sleep there." Tsuzuki looked like he wanted to argue but instead moped over to his bed and got in it. "Dry off your hair a little bit. If you sleep like that you'll catch a cold." Hisoka picked up his dishes and began to wash them off.
He looked over to see Tsuzuki already asleep. Sometimes that man just infuriated him. It was like nothing he ever said made any difference. So why do you love him so much? Hisoka heard the little voice in the back of his head say. Ignoring this, he continued to clean up the food.
After only a few minutes, Hisoka heard Tsuzuki again. This time, he seemed to be sobbing. Hisoka rushed over and tried to wake him up.
"Tsuzuki! Tsuzuki wake up!" He felt Tsuzuki's forehead and realized he had a fever. Hisoka looked around for a rag and ran it under cold water before placing it on Tsuzuki's brow. Tsuzuki opened his eyes for a moment and, seeing Hisoka, calmed down a little bit. Hisoka stood up with the intention of finding some fever reducing medicine, but felt a hot hand grab his shirt.
"Please, stay here, Hisoka." Tsuzuki sighed his partner's name and closed his eyes again, falling back to sleep. Hisoka smiled and sat back down, taking one of his partner's big hands in his own. He felt Tsuzuki holding tight and laughed at how childlike he seemed. Then Tsuzuki started mumbling something again and Hisoka gasped at the images flowing into his mind.
Tsuzuki was crouching in a field, surrounded by a group of teenagers maybe a few years older than he was. They were laughing and occasionally darting in to give him a sharp kick. One of the more cruel ones began to close in on the young Tsuzuki, baring his teeth in excitement. He reached down and grabbed Tsuzuki's dark hair, lifting his tear streaked face up towards the stars.
"Now, little demon boy. Care to tell us what's wrong with you? Huh? You're not even human, you don't matter one bit." He threw Tsuzuki back on the ground and kicked him again.
This time, Tsuzuki stood up. He only reached the other boy's shoulders, but the look in his eyes was cold.
The other boy took a step back in surprise, but then taunted, "What are you going to do to me? I don't see anyone around here to help you out now." He mocked looking around and while he was distracted, Tsuzuki threw himself at him.
The unprepared boy was shoved to the ground, Tsuzuki sitting on his chest and punching him in the face. He felt the delicate nose break and felt warm red blood gush out and cover his hands, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. He hit again and again, even when the boy beneath him stopped fighting back and just lay there, a dead look in his eyes.
One of the other boys tried to pull him off, but before he could get a hold on him, Tsuzuki tripped his legs and kicked him in the side.
"How do you like how that feels? Huh?" he shouted, continuing to kick the unfortunate new victim. The others in the gang began to back away, but turned and ran when Tsuzuki glared at them. He looked down at the boy in front of him. He was no longer moving, not even making a sound.
Tsuzuki walked away, back to his house and let himself into the front door. He walked to the kitchen and saw his mother cooking something. When she spotted him, she dropped the bowl she was stirring and screamed.
"You- you monster! Give me Tsuzuki! Where did you take him? I want my real son back!" she ran out of the room, leaving Tsuzuki, still covered in blood, to clean himself up.
Hisoka pulled his hand away in surprise. Tsuzuki opened his eyes again at the sudden movement.
"What's wrong, Hisoka?" Hisoka began to cry. "I- I'm so sorry, Tsuzuki! I saw your dream and it's just so terrible!" He lunged in and hugged Tsuzuki, pulling him close against his chest. Tsuzuki's fever seemed to have disappeared and he smiled at his younger partner's display of affection.
"Do you want to know something, Hisoka? I've had that dream a lot recently, or dreams like it, but tonight, it felt different. It felt like someone was there with me, giving me support and love." Hisoka had stopped crying and let go of his partner.
Trying to save what remained of his frosty attitude, he said, "What, do you need someone to hold your hand while you sleep? Do you need someone to keep your bed warm for you?" He was only teasing, acting like Tsuzuki was a little kid, but his partner smiled up at him.
"Why, are you offering?" Tsuzuki moved over and patted the space next to him, and when Hisoka did nothing, grabbed his arm and pulled him in.
"There, that's better! See, the bed is plenty big for both of us." Hisoka nodded, carefully curling up on his side to avoid touching Tsuzuki. Being in bed together was almost too much. Hisoka could feel Tsuzuki's warm heat radiating against his back and felt that Tsuzuki was content.
After a few moments, Hisoka heard Tsuzuki's light snores start up again and started to relax. Honestly, that man didn't know how much he affected others. Hisoka felt his eyes get heavy and slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
When Hisoka woke up the next morning it took him a moment to remember where he was. His first thought was where am I? His second was whose arm is on top of me? He glanced over and saw his sleeping partner and lay there quietly, not wanting to disturb him. He looked peaceful and well rested for the first time in a while. Tsuzuki stirred for a moment, rolling over nearly on top of Hisoka, who jumped and fell out of the bed. Tsuzuki woke up and rubbed his eyes.
"What are you doing down there?" was his first question to Hisoka, who was sitting on the floor. Hisoka growled and stood up.
"Has anyone told you that you're a bed hog?" He turned away and went to take a shower.
After a very quick shower, Hisoka opened the door to the smell of something cooking. He realized the danger of this right away, because the only other person in the room was Tsuzuki, and, well, that man should never be let in a kitchen. Hisoka quickly pulled on his jeans and grabbed a shirt, running into the kitchen while trying to pull it over his still wet head.
"What are you doing?" Hisoka grabbed the pan from Tsuzuki and glared at him again. They weren't exactly getting off to a great start this morning. He spotted what looked like a bowl of raw eggs ready to go in the pan. He looked suspiciously at Tsuzuki.
"What's in these?" Tsuzuki pointed to a recipe he had written down on a piece of paper. It looked like tamagoyaki, but instead of one tablespoon of sugar, Tsuzuki had crossed that out and written four. "What am I supposed to do with this? You used all of the eggs so I can't tone it down. These eggs are not edible for anyone with taste buds!" Tsuzuki's head drooped. Hisoka sighed and decided to cook the eggs anyway, hoping Tsuzuki would eat all of it and they could get lunch later.
After a few moments of Tsuzuki looking over Hisoka's shoulder and saying things like, "Wow, I can never get mine to roll up like that! They always fall apart when I try to add a new layer!" Hisoka dished up a plate of sweet rolled omelet and handed it to Tsuzuki who happily devoured all of it. Hisoka was glad to see he was eating again. He looked much better this morning. Tsuzuki smiled up at his partner from the table, a bit of egg on the side of his mouth. Hisoka took the towel hanging over his shoulder and wiped Tsuzuki's face with it. Tsuzuki made a face but didn't try to get away. After a slightly awkward pause, Hisoka backed away and said, "Come on, let's check out the hospital." Tsuzuki nodded and stood up, following Hisoka and grabbing his coat on the way out the door.
The two of them wandered the streets for a while and after Tsuzuki asked directions from multiple people they finally wound up in front of a large square building with hospital printed in big letters on a sign out front. Hisoka walked right up to the front door and opened it, expecting Tsuzuki to follow, but when he looked back he saw his partner hanging back hesitantly.
"Come on, we should stay together, okay?" Hisoka held the door open and smiled at Tsuzuki encouragingly. He hadn't realized that being in a hospital might bring back bad memories for Tsuzuki. Tsuzuki nodded and walked through the glass doors, Hisoka following him. The waiting room was empty but Hisoka noticed a map in the corner. He walked up to it, Tsuzuki still following behind him, and tried to make sense of it.
"Okay, so it looks like there are two floors below us and five above us. It's pretty small, so it shouldn't take long to look through all of it." Hisoka leaned in closer to the map and traced a route to the nearest staircase. "What do you think, Tsuzuki?" Hisoka turned back to look at his partner, expecting him to be right behind him looking over his shoulder, but instead saw him gazing out of the window.
"Tsuzuki! Have you been listening to anything?" Tsuzuki looked up, startled. Hisoka motioned Tsuzuki over and looked up at him. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I can investigate on my own today." Tsuzuki didn't even think about it before shaking his head. "No, I'm fine. Let's go. We can actually do this faster if we split up. I'll go down and you go up." Hisoka shook his head. "Really? I can't leave you alone here, are you kidding me?" Tsuzuki frowned. "Come on, Hisoka. Would you stop babying me?" Hisoka turned away again. "Fine." he called over his shoulder. "Do what you want. I'll be upstairs." He exited through some double doors on the side and made his way up to the top floor.
I can't believe I did it again! I'm supposed to be looking out for him. Why does this always happen when we're together.Hisoka looked around and spotted a nurses station with a couple of people hanging around it drinking coffee. He walked over to them, pasting a happy smile on his face and saying, "Hello! I'm doing a project for school and I was wondering if I could ask you all a few questions." It had been Tsuzuki's idea to say he was still in school, but that didn't mean Hisoka liked it. It was just one other way he felt younger and less mature than his partner. The nurses nodded and smiled back at him. Hisoka started out with a few questions he thought were normal, asking about working conditions and hours then began to ask what he really wanted to know.
"So, just wondering, but are there any ghost stories involved with this hospital? I've heard some pretty good ones around town..." The nurses laughed and one of them pinched Hisoka's cheek saying, "Aw, are you scared? Don't worry, they're just stories." Hisoka had to resist the urge to slap her hand away, but knew she was just being friendly. Another started up. "Well, we do have the resident ghost! Almost every night you can hear people screaming or moaning, but no one can find where it's coming from. All of the patients are accounted for, so we just assumed it was a spirit or something." Hisoka thought this might be closer to what he wanted to find out, and looked at the young woman hopefully, waiting for more. One of the older ladies smirked and said, "Oh, you'll believe anything. But if it helps you get the guy, then..." The girl blushed and glanced at Hisoka who smiled politely but then carefully looked away. Just then the man standing in the back of the group spoke up.
"Stop teasing them. The boy's obviously not interested. He's in love with someone else. Anyway, son," he said, talking to Hisoka, "The sounds come from the basement so if you're going ghost hunting look down there first." The other nurses moaned when Hisoka turned to leave, but they all waved him off and started chatting with each other again. Hisoka heard the old lady ask the man about how he could tell if someone was in love, but Hisoka didn't hear the answer. He was rushing down the stairs to find Tsuzuki, realizing that he had sent his partner to the most dangerous part of the building.
Tsuzuki watched his younger partner storm away from him and frowned. He really liked the kid, but sometimes he just got on Tsuzuki's last nerve. Tsuzuki moped his way to the same stairwell Hisoka had just disappeared up, but instead went down. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be looking for, but decided to go all the way down and make his way back up.
After passing a couple floors, he started to shiver. It was really cold down there. He finally came to the last floor and turned down a brightly lit white hallway. This floor had a completely different feel from the rest of the building. Tsuzuki rubbed his hands together and peeked into one of the rooms. It looked like a typical hospital room, with a bed in the corner and a chair next to it. It was empty, so Tsuzuki moved on, ignoring the other rooms in the hallway that were identical.
He reached the end and pushed open two double doors leading into a cold sterile room with metal walls. Looking closer, he saw that the wall were storage units. Tsuzuki realized that he was in the morgue and started to turn away, knowing he wouldn't find anyone useful to talk to down here. But he noticed a light coming from an office in the back.
He walked over and tried to look in, but there was a screen on the window. He knocked on the door and and heard a vaguely familiar voice say, "Come in." Tsuzuki couldn't tell who the voice belonged to yet, but was starting to feel a little creeeped out.
He opened the door and saw Muraki sitting in a desk chair working on some papers in front of him. Muraki looked up after a few moments and smiled, clapping his hands together in glee.
"Ah, how wonderful! Mr. Tsuzuki, have you come to see me? I'm a very busy man, but for you I can make time." The doctor stayed seated but smiled up at Tsuzuki who was frozen in place.
Tsuzuki shook himself out of his trance and said,"What have you been doing this time? What torture are you putting these poor souls through?"
Muraki still hadn't moved, but he removed his glasses slowly and said, "Torture isn't always that bad, now is it?" He finally stood up, surprising Tsuzuki who backed away, but instead moved to the other side of the small office and opened another door. "Well, are you coming or not?"
Tsuzuki thought about running away then, but pictured Hisoka yelling at him, "Really? You had the chance to find out what he was doing and you ran away?" He slowly peeled himself off of the wall and followed the man in white into a clean room. It had an operating table in the middle and everything you would expect to find in an operating room, but nothing creepy or weird. He saw the shiny silver tools on a tray and made sure to stay very far away from them.
"This is where I do most of my experiments, but as you can see, it's nothing out of the ordinary. Just a curious doctor and his playthings." Muraki lovingly stroked one of the knifes on the tray but didn't pick it up. "Come here, my love. I have something fun for you." He motioned Tsuzuki forward with one long pale finger. Tsuzuki stayed rooted to the spot, unwilling to go anywhere near the other man. "What's wrong? Are you afraid? I promise it won't hurt too much." Muraki smiled and slowly began to walk toward Tsuzuki, continuing to talk in a soothing voice, keeping Tsuzuki pinned to the wall with his gaze. "You see love, I made this especially for you. I wanted to try out this new drug on you and see how your system reacts to it." Muraki took a syringe off of the tray and closed in on Tsuzuki. "Now if you'll just give me your wrist like a good boy, we can just try this out..." Tsuzuki tried to turn away but Muraki had reached him by then and forcefully grabbed his wrist, shoving the needle into his soft skin. Tsuzuki refused to cry out, instead biting his cheek, but he felt reality slowly closing him out. His sight became fuzzy and he stumbled into Muraki, his limbs betraying him.
Everything was cold and dark, he couldn't feel anything. Suddenly he felt something warm around him and realized it was someone's arms embracing him. He grabbed hold of the warmth, desperately pulling it closer. Anything was better than the dark cold blackness. He felt like the only thing keeping him from falling away was the heat from the man behind him. Tsuzuki heard a sound float above him, lazing in the air between them before sinking into Tsuzuki's mind as words.
"Now now, my love. No need to worry. I didn't give you very much for the first trial run. It should wear off in a few hours." The voice paused for a moment, then continued softly, "Amazing! He only lost consciousness for a few minutes." Tsuzuki ignored this because he wasn't sure what it meant. Suddenly another noise penetrated his head, making Tsuzuki jump at the loudness. His memory supplied the fact that it was a door slamming open. He tried to open his eyes but could only make out a hazy shape blocking the light above him.
"Tsuzuki!" Another voice called out, this one sounding farther away but somehow familiar. "What have you done to Tsuzuki?" The voice sounded closer this time, and Tsuzuki shied away from it, into the warmth surrounding him.
"Oh, nothing really. He's just a little sleepy right now. You may take him if you want." Tsuzuki felt the warm support begin to release him and whimpered, holding on with as much strength as he could. He couldn't let his only tether to humanity leave. He felt something trying to lift him away from the warmth and lashed out with his fist, feeling himself connect with something solid. He heard a groan and felt something hit the ground next to him. The warm arms tightened once again around Tsuzuki and he was pressed up against a tightly muscled chest and lifted off of the cold floor he hadn't realized he'd been laying on. As the lull of footsteps carried him deeper into the darkness, he closed his eyes again and peacefully drifted off to sleep.
Hisoka lay on the ground, his head pounding, watching his partner being carried out of the room by the man he hated most in the world. Hisoka had followed Muraki's voice to the back room and walked in to see Tsuzuki passed out in the doctor's arms. Both of them were on the floor and Muraki was speaking softly to Tsuzuki, running his hands through the heavy dark hair of the sleeping man. Hisoka had run over and tried to pull Tsuzuki away from Muraki, but his partner had slammed his fist into the side of Hisoka's head, knocking him down.
Hisoka stood up and looked around, trying to see which way Muraki had gone, but couldn't remember. He chose a door and walked down a hallway, becoming hopelessly lost in only a few moments and came upon a back stairwell. Tsuzuki was gone and Hisoka had no idea where he had been taken. He walked up and outside, the light burning his eyes. He teleported back to the judgement borough to find help.
Poor Tsuzuki. His breakfast didn't turn out so well. I can totally sympathize with him. My cooking skills are less than stellar. :(