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Love's Guardian, Chapter Nine: Darkness
"I can't believe this," whispered Riiko, breaking the few moments of stunned silence between them. Too many emotions to count were written all over her face. Her best friend had been taken from her. He might be hurt, and it could be worse if she didn't go to save him. Riiko would have fallen to her knees if not for Night's strong, fixed arm that had snuck its way around her waist.
It seemed like the world was out to get her.
"It's going to be fine, Riiko," Night said, his voice steady. How could he speak such words that he didn't know were true, that didn't have a one hundred percent guarantee? "Soushi is strong, and he has a lot of willpower. He's not going to give in to them that easily. He'll be okay."
"W-when do you think we should go?" Riiko felt lightheaded, the situation becoming almost to much to bear. Her apartment was close to slipping in and out of focus; she had to hang onto Night as if he were her anchor. "It doesn't say a specific time."
"We? I'm going to go. I can't have you hurt, Riiko, and I'm not willing to risk it by you meeting up with those creeps."
Riiko's mouth fell open. Who did he think he was? Daiki was most likely keeping Soushi so that he could aim for her, and she'd be damned if anything was going to stop her from getting to him. "I'm going to go whether you like it or not. I don't care what you say, but it would help if you weren't going all knight in shining armour on me."
Night frowned. "Riiko. You're staying here." He said it like it was a given, as if daring her to try and contradict him.
She glared at him and stepped away. "I'm going."
"No, you can't! I can't lose you." When he said this, something in his stony expression softened, making her heart melt a little bit a his words. He truly did care about her, but it was such a cliché moment. Girl wants to go somehwere, guy too concerned for her safety that he gets overly protective. Yeah. Except that in this case, it goes more like this: girl wants to go save her best guy friend from certain danger, and the boyfriend, who sort of died a while before but came back to life, is being cautious about their enemy and refuses to let her go.
How cliché, right?
"What about you, Night? You're mortal now too, without your super speed or your inhuman strength. I can't lose you, either," Riiko pointed out. Her temper was beginning to rise higher. "And Soushi's my friend. You can't keep me from him."
"Keep you from him?" Night repeated, looking aghast. "I'd never..."
"Okay then. If you're not going to keep me from him, let's go." Night looked like he was about to say something else, but thought better of it as he followed Riiko through the door.
-x-
Pictures flashed one after another in his inner mind's eye. Someone was hurt... A car ride... And now an empty, forgotten place. He felt pain, a headache, blood. Conversations repeated themselves in his thoughts. Nothing made sense.
Until someone said a name he recognized. The name of someone he cared about.
Riiko. Soushi tried to open his eyelids, but they were too heavy. 'The person who was injured is me,' he realized. He'd been injured by a group of guys, and then thrust into an unknown car. They'd stopped at a parking lot and gotten out. Now they just seemed to be... waiting. He vauguely tried to make sense of the talking around him.
"What did you do to him?!" someone shrieked. It was Riiko. She sounded far away, but close. Not close enough to touch, not close enough to feel her hand upon his face, brushing away any loose hairs on his forehead...
"Relax," another voice said. "He's fine. But he's not what we want." That was the person who had said Riiko's name before, one of his attackers.
"He doesn't look fine to me." Night. He was here too? Soushi wished that he could tell them to leave, but he was so tired he could hardly move an inch. "Give him back. Now."
"Yeah? You want him back that badly? Well, how about we make a trade? A proposal?"
"If it's got anything to do with Riiko, then you can cross it off the list right now," Night responded threateningly.
"No... I was think more along the lines of... you."
Silence followed. "You want me?"
"Yes, I think that-"
"No Night, you CAN'T!" Riiko interrupted. "I won't let you!"
"It's either Soushi or me," Night said suddenly.
"No," Riiko said in despair. It was just what Soushi had expected of her- she'd never pick between them. Not if the other one would die. But, of course, that wasn't counting when she'd chosen Night over himself in terms of lovers... "...can't choose." Soushi managed to catch her last sentence.
"You're going to have to," said the voice from before.
-x-
The scene was overwhelming. It looked like it was straight out of a horror mystery book. Daiki and his now silent groupies were there, and just behind them was a beaten up, slightly bleeding Soushi. He was leaning up against a chain link fence, unconscious. Riiko's only able ally was Night, and for some reason, he had suddenly turned on her, telling her to choose between Soushi and him. It was impossible.
"I-I want-" started Riiko, before she was interrupted.
By a cell phone.
Everyone (minus Soushi) looked around, breaking the thick tension. Daiki dove inside his deep pocket and flipped open his phone. "Talk to me," he said, eyes on Riiko. "What? Yes," he continued abruptly, switching his gaze to Night. "Yeah. Sorry. Okay." He closed the phone and started walking away, towards the fence. "Got to go, guys. Boss calls." At his words, all of Daiki's group followed him immidiately and jumped over the fence.
"Hey!" Night called, surprised by the turn of events. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
"Later! But this isn't the last you'll see of us," Daiki promised, talking over his shoulder as his pace quickened. A few moments later and they had disappeared into the dark.
Sparing no thought to be confused about what had just taken place, Riiko rushed over to Soushi. "Soushi," she murmured, holding his face gently. His eyes managed to flutter open, and he seemed to dimly recognize her. "Let's get him home, to the hospital, something," Riiko said to Night.
"There's no need for that." The voice wasn't Night's.
The figure of Gaku-san rustled out from the bushes, and he said, "Guys, yer goin' to have to come with me." His face was one hundred percent serious.
Author's Note: Wow! Longer chapter... I'm really sorry about the wait, I've got a ton of things going on now. And I know I'm being really horrible, one cliffy after another, gomen!! D: But please continue to support me, and I greatly appreciate all the reviews, alerts, everything!
Arigato, Sienna-shirou
